1. Re-imagining Staff Training
a white paper prepared by TRAIN | ACT | GROW
When employers hire the best talent, it is reasonable for the
new employee to expect an exceptional orientation
experience.
An exceptional orientation experience builds a solid
foundation for employee success that includes passion,
innovation trust, loyalty, and productivity.
There has been a cultural shift toward the importance of
relationships. This is true in marketing, sales and employee
relations. The digital orientation experience can help establish
a vital relationship with your new employees.
New employees want to connect with their senior leaders and
executives to validate their career decision and confirming
that they have joined the best team.
Employers want their employees to accept and integrate the
vision, values, policies and procedures of the Businesses and
Organizations.
The complexity of these challenges is multiplied by the
number of locations the Businesses or Organization
operates by a factor of geographical distance between
locations and/or the number of shifts operating within the
Businesses or Organization.
Fortunately there are a growing number of platforms and
technologies that can be used to deliver digital staff training.
Some of the most significant digital platforms and
technologies include: Video, Webinars, Video Conferencing,
and Virtual Classrooms.
Video
offers a wide range of production quality from web-cam
recordings to professionally edited broadcast quality.
Webinars
can be produced on a growing number of web-based services
and are scalable to the size of your Business or Organization.
Video-Conferencing
was once reserved for large Business and Organizations and
utilized dedicated equipment and data lines. With the
advances in mobile broadband video-conferencing is
becoming widely available on sites like Skype, Webex, or
Google Video Calls.
Virtual Classrooms
were once reserved for colleges and universities. The
Association for Talent Development has identified the need to
use the best practices of higher education in corporate
training.
Our approach offers significant savings when it comes to
Staff Productivity, Training Costs and Senior Staffing.
In the modern era, Businesses and Organizations were faced
with either/or choices. This would mean choosing one of the
described digital platforms and/or technologies.
In the current postmodern era, Businesses and
Organizations have the option to embrace a strategy of
both/and while deploying their digital training.
Our approach is based on a virtual classroom as the
foundation for digital training that is based on a transfer of
knowledge course design.
To maximize the employee experience we utilize both
asynchronous experiences that can be completed 24/7 by
individual employees and synchronous experiences that are
completed at a specific time with all of the employees
enrolled in the course.
The digital classroom offers a wide number of options in
delivering content including: video-based micro-lectures,
discussion forums, text-based chat, and self-grading quizzes.
This approach provides a consistent experience to new
employees and ensures that the same information has been
made available to all employees that have completed the
orientation experience.
Senior leaders and executives can use recorded video-
based content to introduce themselves and share their
vision for the Business or Organization.
TRAIN | ACT | GROW recommends using the both/and
approach to develop an integrated approach to staff training
starting with the Orientation experience. In addition to
orientation we recommend monthly training to introduce or
reinforce training in the areas of policies and procedures.
TRAIN | ACT | GROW provides hosting services for your
training though online learning communities that use
MOODLE, ZOOM, and Social Media Platforms.
Dr. Robert J. Duncan, Jr.
Founder
TRAIN | ACT | GROW
Retired President & Professor
Bacone College