Virtual Tip – Why virtual training is good for managers
This is my first virtual tip post and I wanted to use it to emphasize why I believe virtual training is really suitable for managers. Prior to the pandemic which became very serious in the UK in 2020, I was planning to deliver some management training but all of it would have been face-to-face. The plan was to have all the participants come to a central location and they would have to attend for 1 or 2 days.
When the pandemic hit, all those plans were scuppered but then we decided to roll out some basic people management training that was needed covering topics such as:
- Managing capability
- Managing disciplinaries
- Managing absence
- Difficult conversations
- Managing remote teams
- Managing performance
- Managing wellbeing
We did actually manage to roll out all these training courses and it was all because of the flexibility of virtual training. Using virtual training we could not deliver long sessions so we designed sessions to be between 1.5 to 2.5 hours and managers embraced it.
There were two factors I believe that helped, the shorter length of the courses and the fact that managers did not need to travel to a central location to attend the training. Most of them could simply do it at their desks. A third factor was also the fact that they found virtual training much more engaging that just eLearning. Yes we have a lot of management eLearning but managers are fans of those.
Am I saying that virtual training is better than face-to-face training? No. Does shorter lengths of courses and no travelling mean that the training will more effective? No. But it deals with one factor which can be a major barrier to managers attending training and it is this, managers are busy. Yes, managers are busy and virtual training allows us to give them more flexible opportunities to do training.
So, if you are wondering how you can train your first-line managers, I will suggest you introduce virtual training to them. It will save both of you time and real costs too. Also, it can help you do away with the excuse of, we don’t have time and money to train our first-line managers.
LearnaBytes 