Putting your remote workers’ training in one place – Vestd blog

Classrooms are stuffy places that evoke memories of copying from the board, endless revision, and looming exams. Why would you want to put the people working at your company through such agony again?

One of the many perks of being a remote worker is the massive decrease in likelihood you’ll get sent to a classroom for training again. Yet, training and upskilling opportunities are key to keeping a team engaged.

We’ve already gone through some of the key principles behind training remote workers. Once you’ve understood what’s needed, it’s time to explore where to keep all your training resources – hint, it’s not in a shared folder called “training”.

Here we’re going to explore the relatively new industry of elearning tools; learning management systems (LMS) and learning experience platforms (LEP). We’ll take a look at:

• What an LMS is
• How an LEP differs
• Some growing British companies in the sector

To give you an idea of what systems will suit your company and your remote workers, and what direction the industry is moving in.

Learning Management Systems

If you’re lucky, you’ve got a great trainer on your HR team who can create great content and is pretty nifty with a spreadsheet to track everyone’s progress through your in-house learning. As you prepare to scale up and bring more people on board, your resident educator might not be enough.

An LMS is a platform that will keep your training modules all in one place and make them easily accessible to your remote team. There’s no need to ensure your presentation works on Windows and macOS, no worries about download times on big file transfers.

Along with allowing easy access to your already created training, an LMS provides:

• Documentation and internal certification for completed training
• Administrative tools so you know when updates and retraining needs to be scheduled
• Tracking of results for individuals and across the business
• Reporting so that you can present data to the C-suite effectively
• Delivery of the training and follow-up monitoring

Making an LMS is ideal when you know what your team needs to be learning and you’ve got the time and the skills to make your courses. It’s very targeted too, you have full control over what your team is learning because you manage the courses.

Learning Experience Platforms

Wanting to dig deeper and engage your remote workers during and outside of work? An LEP is a more rounded option. As well as having similar functions to a learning management system, where you can add your own content and track who’s completed which test or module, there’s a whole library of external learning resources.

An LEP provides different training tools that will help your team to choose their path or development. They could choose to start to learn a new skill entirely or deep dive into the things they need to make it to the next rung on the career path. On offer are usually:

• Webinars
• Podcasts
• eBooks
• Quizzes
• Tutorials

The system is designed to engage your team and give them tools to develop in their own space, using the training and development time you allocate into their schedules. It offers a more rounded experience than a learning management system which is more about producing data.

With remote workers generally feeling like they’re missing out on office perks, offering a system that puts them in control of their development through a range of media can be empowering.

Who’s offering these systems

A leading software company specialising in offering Learning Management Systems in the UK is In2itive. The company designs and integrates their software into a company, giving on-site and remote workers access to the training you want to offer.

Account Manager Jake Humber explains: “Over the years, we’ve handled all kinds of projects from enterprises looking to train a couple of hundred employees for auditing and on-boarding purposes, all the way up to commercial training providers selling content to hundreds of thousands of users. No matter how big or small the project, we’ll take you through the process from where you are right now to having your very own LMS.”

The essence of remote teams is that they operate at peak performance, not just at set hours. You’ve probably already got output and results being tracked and fed back to your colleagues regularly. An LMS is going to allow you the same level of data about the internal training being completed across the team.

Offering a suite of training solutions, as well as the chance to include your own courses is Thinqi, based in Wales. The tech company’s Head of Sales Nick Davies wrote: “Thanks to technology, there are now more options than ever for the learner to take control of their own learning. But how can we satisfy the needs of the learner in the modern workplace? …People are now increasingly looking to [bridge skills gaps] on their own as they aren’t getting what they want from their employers.”

This is particularly true of remote workers. There’s been a boom in independent online education through companies like Masterclasses and Udemy. By having a Learning Experience Platform you can make sure you’re giving credit to your team for the learning they want to do anyway.

The take home

Engagement is key for your remote workers. Whether it’s recognising them with some perks, rewarding them with shares and ownership of the company, or allowing them to grow into their role, you need to make sure you facilitate what they need.

Bringing your training packages together into an online space will not only make access easier for a location independent team, but will allow you to monitor their progress through data monitoring and reporting.

Whether you choose to create your own training and encase it in a Learning Management System, or want to broaden everyone’s horizons with a Learning Experience Platform, it’s important to offer new skills and monitor output for your remote team.