An offshore team training program is worth its weight in gold. For starters, it will provide an opportunity for your staff to keep their skills sharp as they move up the ladder. That might just be what motivates them to stick around for longer… who knows? But don’t start counting your chicks just yet — you need to develop a platform that actually adds value to your firm.
Get Everyone Involved
Today’s workforce is much more enlightened compared to decades past. The larger majority of your employees know how the landscape is shaping up, and how that’ll affect them in time to come. In other words, they have a good idea of the skills they’re going to need in future.
Needless to say, their input will provide a good basis for developing your training resources. But that’s not all there is — remember the people who keep an eye on employees as they go about their jobs. Whether it’s the supervisors or managers, their involvement is crucial.
Break it Down
Effective training requires consistency. Instead of packing training into a 3-day window, you’re better off breaking it into hourly sessions; these could then be held once a fortnight or so. This will not only minimize downtime for your firm, but also help employees get committed to ongoing learning.
Bridge the Gap
Organizing cross-department training can go a long way in cultivating a collaborative culture in your firm. As the name suggests, this would be an initiative that brings together two or more outfits. And it’s not as difficult as it sounds; the key is to look for departments that work towards shared goals (such as sales and marketing).
Cross-training will be particularly helpful if your organization has been affected by ‘silos’ in the past. Each outfit will acquire a better understanding of what the other does, which translates to less friction between them. On an individual scale, everyone will benefit from a broader skill set.
Provide Equal Opportunity
Sending employees to conferences can greatly help their professional growth. As can bringing other professionals to hold talks at your location. But these two can prove tricky, more so if your organization has remote workers.
As such, it behooves you to invest in an online learning platform. With it, you will be able to substitute in-person workshops with webinars. This’ll in turn eliminate the headaches of coordinating onsite and offshore team training.
Strive For Progress
Sounds obvious, but ongoing training is only as good as it brings about progress. You want to make sure your initiatives are actually fueling growth. Survey employees as part of training to assess how much they’ve learnt. Also consider making tests part of your annual performance evaluation program.
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