In this period, when almost all global activity is disrupted due to coronavirus, remote work is becoming the new normal. With the upsurge of the virtual workforce, nurturing a virtual work setting has become a necessity. A virtual workforce may include remote employees, digital nomads, freelancers, or contractual employees. In this blog, we ruminate over the need for a learning work environment in a remote work set-up.
The Need to Up-skill the Remote Team
As your employees work in a remote setup without any real-time one-on-one interaction with the colleagues, the learning goes downhill. In such situations, most of the employees can only work on their deliverables and the learning takes a backseat. Hence, to level up your team members' skills with the current standards, fostering a culture of learning and development is a must for the growth of the company as a whole.
Focussing on High-Performance Teams
Due to the current pandemic, most of the enterprises have experienced an economic impediment. However, slowly and steadily, there are visible green shoots of recovery in some sectors. As the world economy has been hit hard by the massive pandemic blow, making your workforce your prime strength on your journey to revival is the most reliable way to come out with flying colors. Ensure your employees are honing their skills so that your organization is at the forefront with the latest technological advancements in the market.
Related: Managing Remote Teams - The Best Practices
Companies can focus on educating the workforce through:
Skill Development Sessions Online
Many companies have joined hands with online learning platforms like Coursera, Udemy, OPENedx, Khan Academy, etc. to keep their employees informed and updated with the latest learning and knowledge readily available in the market.
This knowledge does not need to be limited to their professional skills, but can also include life skills to build a happy and satisfied workforce.Internal Company Webinars/Podcasts
Arranging knowledge sharing concourses where the associates from different departments can share their knowledge is one of the conducive approaches to boost your employees' learnings. This can be done on webinars/webcasts/podcasts, etc.
Low-down from the Management
Interactive sessions with the C-suite managers can assist the employees in honing their professional and life skills. Companies can conduct meetings where there can be live interaction of the department or company heads with the employees. In such sessions, the employees can freely ask questions to the business heads to increase their learnings.
Related: Back to office- Embracing the new normal
Fostering Good Interpersonal Relations
We, Humans - Home Sapiens, are social animals. Hence, we all need interaction for the right functioning. Having a pleasant work environment with cheering and encouraging co-workers can boost the work productivity of your employees. In a virtual work setting, it is impossible to have real-time interactions with a physical presence. Due to this, managing relations among employees remotely is more taxing than in a physical work setting where you can easily walk up to your colleagues and discuss problems/issues. Ergo, the companies must emphasize the need for excellent interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills in their workforce. Therefore, today, in addition to the right professional qualifications, the right set of interpersonal skills is the need for the hour.
The Bottom Line:
As most of the companies have adopted a remote set-up due to COVID 19 outbreak, the transition from an on-premise to a remote work setting has been quite challenging. However, if your employees are keeping themselves engaged in learning the new developments and skills, you are on the right track. Make your workforce and their expertise your strength and come out with bright colors!
