People Development

Virtual training has become the new favorite tool, while it is an easy way to reach out to people, we should not overlook that fact that it can also make things a bit more boring. In fact, have you ever evaluated the success rate of your online training? What percentage of people who enroll in your courses successfully complete them? How do you encourage people's engagement in your training? 

Even the best technology does not replace human connections. Without the interaction that a physical encounter allows, it is sometimes difficult to keep your employees motivated and involved. Why go slide after slide, when you could integrate different elements to increase engagement in your online training and create a digital environment that attracts participation. 

Fortunately, there are several ways to keep your employees' engagement during the process of creating a virtual course. It is all about knowing the learning process and making sure your virtual training programs touch different learning perspectives.

Here are our 20 top virtual training tips to keep your participants engaged in your online training!

What's in this article

• While creating your training content
• During the creation of your online training sessions
• While your employees are participating in your training

While creating your training content

Even in the early stages of your project, as a virtual trainer, you can start thinking about motivational strategies.  Cohort-based learning is a thing to keep in mind while creating your training content. Creating a virtual online learning environment that is engaging and adapted to your target audience must start in the early stage. Not all audiences react to the same elements. You have to think about your crowd and what are the things that they find engaging. Creating a virtual environment comes with different ways to engage with people, like using a virtual whiteboard, using different chat features. When creating your training content, keep the following ideas in mind. They will help you prepare documents and videos that engage registrants in your virtual training sessions.

1. Have a dynamic introduction. At the beginning of your training, use a video to tell a fun-fact, a fiction, or a shocking statistic. This will grab the attention of your employees from the start. You can also ask a question to engage employees from the start. If you are constrained by larger classes, open the virtual chat and encourage interaction. Interactive classes are a good step to increase engagement levels and deeper level virtual learning. 

2. Explain the purpose of the training. Why should your employees complete this course? How can your content serve them? Answer these questions to convince them of the real benefits and get them interested in going all the way.

3. Alternate types of content. Slides of content are not enough. Visual Content is important, but it needs to be diversified to reach a good level of engagement. Although we recommend videos for their more human aspect, use different types of lessons to energize the experience. Choose, for example, audio files, illustrations, graphics, etc.

4. Stay relevant. Consider the level of knowledge of your participants to avoid content that has no added value. For those who need it, suggest glossaries or optional lessons to recall certain concepts.

5. Give concrete examples. Virtual Online Learning comes down to plan case studies with guests to show how the concepts learned are applicable in the field. If you do not have a guest, choose a fictional character who can evolve in the same learning environment. Class sessions need to go beyond presentation slides and reach student engagement or employee engagement by relating the information to their reality. 

6. Divide the content. Do you know the 10:2 method? It consists of giving 10 minutes of teaching and then allowing participants 2 minutes to absorb the information. Encourage this process by avoiding overly long lessons and ending them with a question period.

During the creation of your online training sessions

Once your training materials have been prepared, you need to integrate it into your online training platform. If you use the Workleap LMS platform, you have several options to boost the class experience of your users before they are even registered.

7. Organize the content. In your lesson plan, make sure to create a clear structure that is pleasant to consult. Use titles that make navigation easier, and divide the lessons into modules to group the training topic together.

8. Create a sense of accomplishment. At the start of a module, identify 1 or 2 easily achievable learning objectives to motivate your employees. At the end of the module, add videos or images to congratulate them with positive feedback and highlight their progress.

9. Offer alternative learning techniques. We know that some people are more auditory and others are visual. To accommodate your various participants, offer a downloadable text version of the recorded content, or by sharing video of the online classes and vice versa.

10. Break the monotony. Thanks to a quiz, a puzzle, a film extract, or a challenge to give your employees a mental break. Take advantage of these interactive elements of surprise to validate the knowledge acquired in a more entertaining context. This creates opportunities for active participation and enhances employees' learning experience by integrating learning content through fun activity. 

11. Invite collaborators. Change the tone of your lessons by inviting other experts to contribute to your training. In addition to adding value to your content, they will bring a different energy to yours, which will revive your audience by encouraging social interactions.

12. Organize live sessions. If your content allows it, you can integrate virtual classroom training or webinars into your course plan. These real-time tools will help you create opportunities for discussion and interaction with your participants.

13. Allow time for practice. Help your employees develop their skills through field exercises and by giving them practical tasks. Request a photo upload that shows their progress, or turn on drip content to space the time between lessons.

While your employees are participating in your training

It is a mistake to think that with online training, the only effort to make is at the time of its creation. Actually, the best way to boost the commitment of your participants requires regular work. Indeed, your personalized interactions are those that create a human relationship between you and your learners.

14. Personalize the experience. Do you know the personal or professional objectives of your users? If so, use this data to individualize the learning path and set more specific objectives with them. 

15. Send feedback. When a quiz is submitted by one of your employees, contact those who have performed well to congratulate them. Communicate with others to encourage them and, if necessary, offer your support in private.

16. Stimulate exploration. At the end of a module, suggest to your participants new avenues for personal reflection or external resources. By demonstrating your own passion for the subject, you will inspire them to go above and beyond the lesson plan. Dynamic presentations start with the trainers. Adopting a learning style that stimulates exploration is one of many opportunities for participation. 

17. Give rewards with positive reinforcement. Set up incentives with a credit system. For internal training, this may be possible compensation. For sale, offer discounts on complementary products or services, for example.

18. Stay in touch. Often remind your users that they can easily get in touch with you if needed, either through your email address or using a chat feed or other different platform. Let them know that they are not alone in their process and that they have access to your support. This presence, even from a distance, is highly valued to create an online environment.

19. Create an online community. Collaborative learning is key. If you want to allow exchanges between your employees, a closed group is a way to generate new ideas and increase interaction between employees. It’s an option that requires more management, but it allows a feeling of belonging to rise among the members. 

20. Request feedback. Show your willingness to improve by asking for feedback. You can do it directly in your Workleap LMS platform by creating a quiz with a passing grade of 0 and correction is manual.

Do you want to start putting these ideas into practice today? Create your online training platform for free and explore all the functions that allow you to motivate your participants.

The more your employees are engaged, the more they will become allies in promoting your training content!

Now that you know how to make virtual training more engaging

Remember that remote learning doesn't have to be boring. There are multiple ways to create an engaging experience for your employees or your trainees. Today, there are many online learning platforms and different online tools that can be used to create interactive training sessions: Video tool, interactive activity, virtual event and more. Digital learning is full of opportunities, all you have to do is to be creative and think outside the box.

Do you have any idea of the time that elapses between a new course idea and its publication?

In most cases, the answer is: too long. But why is it taking so long?

Here are some popular reasons:

• “I'm running out of time to complete my project.”
• “I don't know where to start.”
• “I want everything to be perfect.”

All of the above are excuses to remain inactive. We take comfort in procrastinating under the cover of perfectionism when it is not the real problem.

The reason behind your delay is that you have not yet found the right technique for project management. That's all!

By adopting more agile strategies, you would see the results of your efforts faster. You would be constantly in action, which would decrease the time between your first idea and the publication of your course.

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What's in this article

• Prepare your project management
• What is the agile method?
• Agile project management in an online course context
• Take action!

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I invited Geneviève Dicaire, founder and professional coach at Unique coaching, to share with us her vision of the agile method:

So? Do you have a project you would like to upload soon?

Let me show you how you could publish your online course faster with agile project management! 

Prepare your project management

The first thing to do with your course idea is to transform it into a project proposal. 

Why? Because it helps you to better define your concept and to make it something more concrete.

In your project proposal, you should include:

• The theme of your training
• The overall objective and the specific objectives
• The audience targeted by your course

Some key concepts that should be included in your course outline

Geneviève Dicaire adds that to go even further in the use of the agile methodology, the vision should be included. This means responding to: 

• At the end of the training, what do I want the participant to have learned?
• How would I like him/her to feel?

Having these elements well defined, it will be much easier to start your agile project management plan.

What is the agile method?

As the name suggests, agile project management is in constant motion. It is not linear and continuously evolves to better adapt to the needs of the end-user.

This approach is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases and the frequent reassessments and adaptations of plans. These phases of development are commonly called sprints.

In other words, the route and destination can change along the way!

The big advantage of this method is that you don't have to do everything all at once. You can divide your project to achieve tangible results faster, then measure and analyze.

As you progress through the following phases, your previous phases are already published and used! With this data, you can make improvements as you go rather than waiting for the end of the project. 

Agile project management in an online course context

The theory is all well and good, but how does it apply in practice?

First, we must stop seeing a training project as a big block of stages dependent on each other. It's a false belief to think that everything must be done before publishing your course - on the contrary!

There are several ways to split your project into sprints and thus get faster to a tangible result. Here are some examples:

• Document your training preparation and share your progress with your subscribers. This allows you to create a pool of potential customers upstream and promote your content. At the end of your research and analysis process, you will already be able to validate the interest of your target market!
• Test your content in public. Before moving on to recording your sessions, you can organize one or a few virtual classes to practice. Although the formula is not the same, it will allow you to become comfortable in front of the camera. You'll also have real-time feedback on what to improve!

• Build a group of testers with your potential customers. Rather than asking your parents or friends to rate your content, invite your customers to do so. Find a few people to give VIP access to your course in beta. If you involve them in your project, they will even become its ambassadors!

According to Geneviève Dicaire, this technique is of the utmost importance:

• Don't worry about creating content. Start by working with what you have to publish your course faster. Focus on the quality of your content rather than the format. A PDF lesson can become a text lesson and even a video lesson over time!
• Offer a la carte micro-courses. If you plan on offering a course with multiple modules, you could start by creating smaller courses temporarily. By posting your content faster, you will collect feedback and be able to adjust the focus.

Of course, these are just a few ideas. Depending on your project and your goals, you can choose the best sprints to work on.

Take action!

Agile management, beyond the fact that it has become a buzzword, it's much simpler than you think. 

We have found that you can easily speed up the time between ideation and publication of your course. You have no more excuses to postpone the start of your project!

For Geneviève Dicaire, “there is nothing better than action to motivate yourself”! This is why she reminds us to apply the following methodology: 

1. Determine the vision
2. Determine the first step and the deliverables included
3. Test everything
4. Adapt and continue!

So, what are you waiting for to launch your first online training? 

Are you tired of starting over every time a new employee needs to be trained? Or even worse, whenever an employee leaves and takes their knowledge along, and not just their personal belongings?

Very often, this leads to time and productivity loss, and in the long run, it is quite unpleasant.

Setting up a system that allows you to preserve knowledge and make it accessible to others can help avoid all this trouble and facilitate the overall functioning of your business. 

Sound knowledge management helps improve a company’s performance. In fact, it is an essential process that not only improves productivity and efficiency in the workplace, but also reduces costs, when well implemented.

Ok, so what does it mean, exactly?

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What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management is the process of collecting, storing, sharing and using knowledge within an organization. Organizational memory is crucial for a business, as it allows staff to have access to the right information at the right time, making everyone’s job easier.

6 benefits of knowledge management for businesses

It goes without saying that human capital is the most important asset of a business, and that is why it is essential to invest in its development and well-being.  

Setting up a knowledge management system for your business can yield several competitive advantages. Obviously, knowledge management includes knowledge sharing as much as knowledge loss prevention.

Here are some of the main benefits of knowledge sharing in business :

1. Improved communication and collaboration

Knowledge management can lead to improved communication and collaboration within your organization, as it allows your employees to share their knowledge and ideas more easily.

2. Improved productivity

Allowing employees an easier access to the information and resources needed in their daily work leads to improved productivity.

3. Increased creativity and innovation

One way of making your business more innovative is teaching employees the skills they need and letting them explore new ideas.

4. Improved decision-making

Knowledge management can help improve decision-making by allowing employees to access the information they need in order to make informed decisions.

5. Cost reduction

By sharing knowledge, employees can work more efficiently, which reduces training costs and increases your company value.

6. Improved customer service

By having access to information relevant for their work, your employees can provide better customer service. Through shared knowledge, they can solve customer problems more effectively and efficiently.

Setting up a knowledge management system in 6 easy steps

Now that you are aware of the advantages of knowledge management, you might wonder how to implement it in your business. Here is how!

Step 1 : Identify the type of knowledge your business needs to manage

The first step is identifying the type of knowledge that your business needs to manage.

It is important to understand the differences between the three main types of knowledge:

• Explicit knowledge, which can easily be codified and shared through documents and databases;
• Implicit knowledge pertaining to know-how, acquired skills and experience. These are harder to formalize, since they are personal.
• Organizational knowledge, or the collective knowledge of an organization: its positioning, values, expertise, etc.

Does your company have any key employees you would like to ‘clone’? This reflection could help you identify the essential knowledge and skills of your organization!

Step 2 : Create a knowledge management strategy

The second step is creating a knowledge management strategy, which will help you determine how to gather, store, share and use this knowledge.

Your strategy should include :

• the type of knowledge to be managed;
• the objectives that knowledge management will help achieve;
• the ways in which the knowledge will be preserved and stored;
• the methods you will use to collect and share knowledge;
• the people in charge of knowledge management.

Step 3 : Gather the information

The next step is gathering the relevant information. This can be done through interviews, focus groups, surveys and other means. Once you have gathered the pertinent information, you need to organize and store it in a central place.

You will benefit from getting your employees as involved as possible in this process! You could even turn them into internal procedure champions and delegate expertise documentation to them.

Step 4 : Create a knowledge storing and sharing system

Knowledge storing and sharing is one of the pillars of the knowledge management process. It will help you use the knowledge within your organization.

However, in order to be productive, this system must be designed in a way that is easy to use and accessible to all employees. It must also allow for different access levels, so that only authorized users can view or edit information.

There are many types of knowledge management systems, including :

• Learning management systems;
• Online training systems;
• Databases;
• Document management systems;
• Content management systems.

Step 5 : Determine who will be responsible for knowledge management

The fifth step is determining who will be responsible for knowledge management. It could be a single person or a team of people. Once you have identified who is responsible, you must train them in knowledge management.

Step 6 : Evaluate the results

The last step is evaluating whether your knowledge management process is effective. This will help determine what has worked well or not so well, and which areas of your knowledge management system need improvement.

How can an LMS help set up a knowledge management system?

A learning management system (LMS) helps make business knowledge management more efficient, which leads to a more informed and productive workforce. 

Since it is the focal point of a company’s training and development, an LMS provides a structure and a platform for the overall knowledge management strategy.

An LMS can also provide features that allow employee progress and performance tracking, making it a precious tool for identifying knowledge gaps and correcting them.

Workleap LMS was designed with the ultimate goal of making knowledge management and sharing easy and efficient. Request your demo now!

Working in the human resources department in Quebec in 2020 is a real challenge. With an unemployment rate at its lowest since 1976, the workload can only increase. One of the direct consequences of this situation is the difficulty in recruiting and retaining employees.

Circumstances generate higher and higher turnover rates, and therefore a greater workload. Without a good strategy to deal with it, it is a context that can become very costly for an organization.

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How does continuous training prevent the disadvantages linked to the shortage of manpower?

Having an HR strategy that includes optimized management of training has several advantages for each company. In circumstances of high turnover, here are the main reasons to invest in the development of your staff:

• Facilitate internal recruitment with learning paths.
• Increase employee productivity and skills.
• Better standardize processes and protocols.
• Attract new talent and propel its employer brand.

However, training management requires time, a good work structure and a lot of follow-ups. It can be complex if you have access to few resources, hence the importance of automating it.

Why automate training management?

In the era of digital transformation, better use of available resources is essential. Several solutions are available so companies can achieve that, and human resources are no exception.

In training management, we consider tools that allow the creation, dissemination, and measurement of courses. Thanks to this kind of service, both Workleap LMS and Folks offer very interesting benefits for organizations.

Let's take a look at some of these benefits.

Budget savings

Creating online training modules is an investment that quickly pays off for the company. Indeed, automating the distribution of content to the employee allows major savings on certain sources of expense, such as:

• The salary of experienced employees required for training.
• The fees of an external trainer.
• The costs that are related to room rental.

Time optimization

Automation encourages less manual management and therefore an increase in productivity. The tools for monitoring registrations and calculating training budgets are good examples. In just a few clicks, you can easily find out who completed which training and how much it cost!

Centralization of data

Training management involves the manipulation of several pieces of information for each employee, such as:

• The certifications required for their position.
• The courses to follow.
• The courses completed.
• The time allocated to each training.
• The cost of completed training.

If you still use several files to monitor and manage those, you will understand that this is a real headache! This is why you need a solution that allows the consultation and organization of this information effectively.

Management of Bill 90

In the province of Quebec, investment in continuous training is controlled under Bill 90, or the famous 1% Law. To comply, companies must submit supporting documents for all eligible expenses. 

Once information is centralized, it is much easier to manage costs and the necessary vouchers. The reporting and data entry tools of Workleap LMS and Folks precisely allow this automation. Monitoring for declarations is therefore done in one place and very easily.

How to automate training management?

You probably already offer internal training and want to automate its management. To facilitate this process, we suggest a few key steps that will help you understand how to get there.

First, let me introduce the 2 tools that we mentioned above.

Folks is a Human Resources Management System (HRMS), or an application that assists HR in recruiting, managing personnel and organizing information.

Workleap LMS is a Learning Management System (LMS), or an application that helps to administer, document, measure and disseminate educational content and skills development programs.

Here are the 5 main steps in the management of automated training.

1. Analysis of internal training needs

The training needs of your staff can vary greatly from one employee to another. These needs arise at the time of onboarding, when upgrading knowledge or for continuous improvement. Keeping track of which training should be followed per each employee requires diligent management to make sure nothing goes by.

In your HRMS, you can note and find all this information quickly. In addition to knowing what training should be taken, the required deadlines and certifications are also added. This makes it faster to know who to register for which course.

2. Creation of training content

Hiring external trainers is very costly and requires organization since several employees have to be brought together at the same time. On the other hand, peer training can cause productivity losses. When your best talents are busy training new staff, they don't make money for the company.

With Workleap LMS, your company can set up its online training platform. You can create content using internal documentation and support from external trainers and employees. The advantage is that everything is in the same place and that each employee can progress at their own pace!

3. Management of training registrations

Once you know the training needs and your modules are created, all you have to do is register your staff. Directly on your Workleap LMS platform, you can manage these registrations in several ways.

If you want to add many people to a course, you can do so quickly by creating a group. For example, you could make a group for a department, a management level, a branch, etc. However, if you want to register each employee manually, it is also possible. 

If you want to offer additional training, you can display it and allow employees to participate voluntarily. Thus, they become responsible for their professional development under your encouragement.

4. Follow-up of completed training courses

Of course, it is useless to train your staff without doing a follow-up afterward. Although you can directly consult the progress of the students in Workleap LMS, you can also download a completion report.

With this report, you can import the information directly into your HRMS. In just a few clicks, your employee profiles will be up to date with the training completed! If necessary, you can even attach the completion certificate that is generated in Workleap LMS.

5. Budget management

With all the information gathered in one place, it becomes very easy to assess the costs. Directly in your HRMS, you can calculate the employee's salary and other costs related to his training. You can even attach supporting documents to centralize information in the event of an inspection. 

Managing Bill 90 (or the 1% Law) has never been easier!

Which of these tools interests you most? Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like more information about our LMS solution! If you have any questions for Folks, it will be our pleasure to put you in touch.

Try Workleap LMS for free!

Source: Institut de la statistique du Québec : État du marché du travail au Québec – Bilan de l’année 2019

Let's say it once and for all: being a good trainer does not make you a web expert or a professional asynchronous trainer. 

To create an online course, you need to know how to switch from face-to-face to digital format!

Sharing your PowerPoint in a videoconference is a formula that works for synchronous teaching, but that has its limits. This is because information retention and content lifespan are lower during a live session.

Moreover, the quality of virtual synchronous training can be affected by technical issues and physical distance. Each being at home, it is more difficult to keep students motivated and engaged.

This is why pre-recorded content is so popular right now.

Besides, it's not as complicated as you think! It’s a method that is inexpensive, simple, and accessible to all.

Do you already have a PowerPoint ready for your live lessons? If so, I suggest you follow these 3 steps to transform it into asynchronous training!

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What's in this article

• 1. Switch from long presentations to short lessons
• 2. Record your video lessons
• 3. Create your asynchronous training
• Your move

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1. Switch from long presentations to short lessons

In the classroom, it’s easy to switch from one topic to another continuously. In an online formula, it becomes a big mistake!

Think about it: do you prefer to watch 8 to 15-minute capsules, or a 2-hour video?

The short format promotes concentration and allows you to take notes before moving on to the next topic. It even gives your participants time to take a break!

So you want to find a logical and natural way to divide your content into subsections.

Aim to break up your speech into lessons of no more than 15 minutes, covering only one topic per lesson. The more complex the topic, the more important it is to segment the content.

You also want to remove group exercises, question periods, etc. from your PowerPoint. You have to purify and simplify your pages as much as possible. 

Remember that your PowerPoint will not be projected on a giant screen! Rather, it will be viewed on a computer, tablet, or even a phone. 

For charts, tables, action lists, etc, consider creating a PDF that you can attach to your lesson.

Everything is not optimal in video format!

It's important to know when to use what type of content to maximize the impact of your online training.

2. Record your video lessons

Your goal is to deliver your PowerPoint in a format that is pleasant to view for your future students. Forget about screen recording with a monotonous voice in the background. 

You can do so much better, even if you don't have filming equipment! 

Some apps like Loom or Camtasia allow you to record your screen and webcam at the same time. In just one take, you have both your visual support and your face accompanied by your voice.

Why also film your face? To generate engagement!

By looking at your camera occasionally, you can make eye contact with your audience, even from a distance. It also helps break up the monotony and add a more dynamic element to your video.

If you want to have something a little more complete, you can also shoot yourself from another angle. Although this involves more editing, it brings another dimension to your video!

Whether it is with your webcam, your cell phone, or your camera, be careful however to respect the basic rules for filming. 

Learn about the essential concepts to optimize the sound and the light of your video. These key elements have the power to drastically improve the quality of your video and thus make viewing more enjoyable.

It doesn't have to be complicated for it to be beautiful!

To have the least amount of editing to do, I suggest that you film each lesson one by one. You will then only have to cut a few seconds in the beginning and at the end of your video to have a professional result.

If you make relatively long capsules, I also invite you to compress your videos. It will speed up the upload when you’re ready to do so!

3. Create your asynchronous training

Now, all you have to do is integrate your content on an online training platform.

Already? Yes!

On your platform, you can upload your videos and your attachments in lessons. To make the syllabus more understandable, group your lessons into modules. 

In your syllabus, you can also add other types of content to generate engagement. Don't forget that it's important to keep your students motivated, even from a distance!

I recommend that you add quizzes, reading suggestions, and even live sessions to your training. Above all, do personalized follow-ups with your students as they progress through the course to encourage them.

Once you've finished setting up your training, it's ready to promote!

Not so complicated after all, eh?

Your move

Now that you know how to transform your PowerPoint into asynchronous training, you have no excuse. 

Stop procrastinating and take action!

Evaluating the perceived workload of your training

Interesting our users in our trainings is relatively simple. Nevertheless, it is an art in itself.

There are a multitude of factors that must be considered to hook and engage your users in your courses.

Among these factors, we find one which is devious and which, more than anything, is a two-edged sword to play with.

What if I told you that  an exhaustive training can negatively affect your enrollments and the overall performance of your project?

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What's in this article

• Let me explain.
• Optimize the segmentation of your content
• Eliminate limiting factors to user's autonomy
• Build rapport
• The learning approach
• In short

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The subjective workload of a course is one of those abstract and free-to-interpret terms that can be both a selling argument or a dissuasive piece of information for your users.

As we all have a different level of interest towards a subject and a basic understanding of words that is unique to us, it is important to be clear in our training proposal and the involvement required to consult all the content we have to offer. The duration or the perceived workload that comes from a training can quickly influence a potential user to have a preconceived idea of your course before even consulting it.

For your students, an online course with a heavy workload can create a certain stress while for others, this demonstrates the seriousness and quality of your content.It must be understood that your ideal students surely all have the same opinion on the matter, yet it must be considered ahead of time to turn the odds in your favour.It is therefore important to understand the consumer psychology of your target audience.

Let me explain.

Their perceptions on the amount of work involved in and following a course, whether sporadic or on a regular basis, influence students' decisions about the training they will take next.

To ensure the success of your training project, you need to offer the best user experience possible to encourage your participants to come back and see more content.
Courses that are too long will be perceived as painful and will sabotage the momentum you are trying to build.

Here is the key question that aims to change your perspective on your creative approach:
What causes your students to think that the workload of your training is heavy or light?

Optimize the segmentation of your content

As expected, the content is directly related to the workload that results from training.

In most cases, the amount of overall content or the variety of subjects covered are the two main factors why people will build an opinion on the anticipated workload of a course. For example, the content of beginner level training is usually not so complex.

However, as the learning curve is steeper, students may be under the impression that they are subject to a course with a heavy workload.

It may also be that the course covers a specific topic that students find difficult to understand, which gives them once again the impression of being faced with heavier training.

Eliminate limiting factors to user's autonomy

Forced relationships and interactions among participants in courses are also factors that influence the perception of workload.

For example, if you ask teamwork to your users or require interaction another participants, this type of imposed relationship feeds the impression of a heavy workload. The use of exams that require manual corrections from trainers may be key in a training process, but must be used strategically.

The creation of unnecessary delays undermines the interest and momentum that users will tries to maintain during their learning period. It is therefore wise to use this approach on a final exam only, or on optional tests that will not restrict access to subsequent content while corrections are pending.

Build rapport

Teacher-student relations also play a role in the assessment of the workload.
As you have probably noticed during your academic studies, students are more likely to invest long hours in the training and work required by teachers they "like", paying little attention to the amount of effort they spend or need to put in.

It is therefore important to put tools and strategies in place to develop a relationship with each of your participants. This solidifies the loyalty of your users while allowing them to have better information retention.

The learning approach

The learning approach you use is the last major factor that impacts workload perception.
Students who feel they are attending a content-heavy course will tend to learn information on the surface. They will memorize the facts and focus on the details, often at the expense of understanding the underlying concepts.

On the flip side, students who try to learn in depth do not generally perceive the workload of the course as heavy. To help your users focus on understanding, not memorizing details, they need to have recurrent self-validation tools in place.

If the tests are frequent, but the questions are about recalling details, students will rightly opt for surface memorization approaches. However, if your tests are rather based on logical questions that force a reflection, your participants will develop the reflex to read more deeply and understand the information, rather than memorize it.

In short

Workload assessment is nothing but an outside perception challenge. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that your training is easy to consume and to break any negative perceptions of "overflow of content".

Ask feedbacks from your participants following the training, collect testimonials and work on the social validation of each of your training to win the trust of your future participants.

Being an expert means knowing a lot of things. This should not, however, intimidate your potential customers and students. It's up to you to make it a sales pitch and one of your differentiators.

At the top of the list of HR hot topics these days sits the whole concept of Industry 4.0, which represents a major transformation in the way companies approach their business practices. This fourth industrial revolution has already reduced the need for a human resources department within many companies through automation and process optimization. Although the needs are constantly changing, the relevance of valuing the human beings within a company is not becoming any less important.

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What are industry 4.0 human resources?

The idea behind HR 4.0 is similar to the idea behind Industry 4.0, which is known as the fourth industrial revolution. This revolution doesn’t only affect the manufacturing sector, it also changes the methods used in offices. As Industry 4.0 represents an important change in the way companies operate, it is also true to say that it has changed human resources requirements, especially through automating tasks.

Much of the technology needed for HR-related tasks is already in use today. As a result, human resources become more automated, concentrating their activities on strategic matters and not on manual, bureaucratic and repetitive tasks. With the rise of social media, we've seen the emergence of new technologies such as eSocial, which has forced companies to change their ways of doing business. Human resources management plays an important role in industry 4.0, but the impact of industry 4.0 is undeniable.

Traditional HR vs HR 4.0

Unlike traditional Human Resources which focused mainly on paying employees' wages and controlling their working hours, HR role in industry 4.0 is focusing on frontiers such as attracting qualified talent, improving organizational climate, and other ways that directly contribute to the organization's strategic goals.

HR Industry 4.0 is permeated by technology and fits into new labor market situations - with special influence from the Millennials who reach leadership positions in organizations, and the others that follow them. For professionals in industry 4.0 who want to be successful, it is essential to keep up with technological advances so that they remain competitive.

With the traditional personnel departments leaning towards strategic human resource management, companies have already realized that their main asset is humans. They also understand that the technologies they develop themselves, or buy from third-party vendors for reasonable prices, allow automatizing bureaucratic processes.

The new reality of HR industry 4.0 is an opportunity to improve our quality of life as HR experts.

Often working with the odds against us, the digital transformation might turn out to be a much-needed disruptor in the sector. While managers are increasingly alert to the impending business decisions that need to be made in the coming years, much of the technology is already available to optimize all current human resources activities.

The impacts of industry 4.0 on human resource management

Nobody can know for sure what will happen when companies will need fewer human resources to function. However, we are confident that the work of human operator experts will be radically different and that our practices will need to be modernized. Since we can't stop the inevitable, let's see how you, as an HR expert, can leverage technology to make it a strategic lever for your practice. Here are some examples of the effects of Industry 4.0 on many business models.

HR is about getting the best performance out of people

At its simplest, the digital transformation is not about eliminating employees, but about maximizing their importance in a company's production chain and the retention of jobs. Fewer people with more value and greater purpose is the new challenge of human resource management. While it is true that labor scarcity is a limiting factor in the growth of current businesses, the digital transformation can be perceived right now as one of the many strategic approaches for long-term business projects and growth strategies.

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Learn how to measure your employee productivity.

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Will industry 4.0 cause job losses?

Let's be honest and address the elephant in the room. Yes, some employees will find that their knowledge, skills and abilities will no longer be required. Although this may seem to be a negative thing, the big picture is much more positive when we keep in mind that we are in a context of full employment. There is literally no better time than now for these workers to change careers. Meanwhile, people who remain employable will have changing expectations regarding their terms of employment and working conditions.

Will the employer's role change in the organization?

HR industry 4.0 will also come in the form of development opportunities and managerial challenges, to remain up to date on the new trends and realities of any sector. Developing key soft skills such as leadership will become essential for a successful change management.

The changes resulting from this transition will require the employer to play a vital role towards continuous education of its workforce and provide tools, along with a solid learning structure, to facilitate lifelong learning for all employees. To remain competitive while maximizing every dollar invested in training, the onboarding training program must be accessible and easily kept up to date by human resources management.

Will human resources remain an important factor in the industry 4.0 business environment?

This new automation culture, just like the progressive implementation of new technologies, is changing the needs of organizations. Business owners and executives will need to quickly re-evaluate their business model and review the organizational roles in future studies to identify strategic roles in industry 4.0 requiring human involvement. As a result, it will be imperative to adjust their recruitment practices. In other words, as you face the challenge of reinventing the human resources role within an organization, you will also need to deal with employers, employees and partners who are also experiencing major changes in their professional lives themselves.

By keeping a strong focus on the needs of employees rather than sticking to the rigid processes in place, industry 4.0 HR will play a critical role in reaffirming the relevance of HR position in this time of change.

The human resources recruitment challenges in industry 4.0

The transition to Industry 4.0 requires the active participation of all within a business. As this transformation calls for a reset within your HR department, your recruitment processes are no different from the rest and will need to be rethought.

HR departments must adjust to industry 4.0, and fast

If internal HR teams and agencies fail to adapt to the new processes of industry 4.0, they will lose their competitive advantage. To continue to find the best talent for the jobs available, you will have to accept and learn to deal with this evolution. The access to new data may help recruiters better understand what makes a company attractive to certain candidates.

As a result, HR managers will be able to put into action different measures to nurture and control the outside perception of your business culture and corporate values. As you become more proficient with applications to find suitable candidates, you can help reduce recruitment costs and job opening delays. The adoption of the RH 4.0 methods gives you the opportunity to create employment opportunities with sustainable potential for you and your company.

HR management still relies on collaboration and collective knowledge

Traditionally, every HR task within an organization was performed by an internal team, or subcontracted to external agencies. To help various departments coordinate their activities, HR professionals will now need to become familiar with new technologies and use them to work more effectively. This involves the use of collaborative tools, communication, as well as the preservation of digital archives and protocols.

The HR expert role in organizations is not limited to finding and hiring good talent.

Human resources’ role goes beyond the recruitment process: it also involves other tasks such as integration and training. For starters, you can:

• Automate and personalize the onboarding experience of new employees.
• Improve your employer's brand while significantly reducing the learning curve for a new employee.
• Develop in-house training programs and continuous skills' development using new technologies.

For example, a tactic such as creating learning content using your veterans (collective knowledge) can motivate workers to maintain a high level of skill, while valuing their jobs. It also generates engagement and pride for any employee involved in the process. Many enterprise learning management systems, such as Workleap LMS, allow workers to study and learn new skills according to their own schedule, using their mobile device.

How can human resources stay relevant in industry 4.0?

Adopt the HR industry 4.0 mindset and framework

It is important to help HR professionals embrace the digital transformation by creating an environment where they feel comfortable experimenting and innovating. If they don't, they might become resistant to change and refuse to adopt the new practices in industry 4.0.

First, show them the new trends in your industry; if necessary, give them suggestions to implement these trends. Then, understand their current leanings, so they can help you create an effective plan.

Get employees on board

The most important thing for HR will be to communicate clearly to both staff members and management alike about the changes that automation and digitalization will have on their jobs, and to ensure that they're aware of these changes. If people are open to the idea of automation and digitization, then it will be easier for the HR to introduce them into the workplace.

Prepare contingency plans

We have often thought about how HR should be a strategic business ally to organizations. But beyond being a strategic business ally, HR must also become a contingent champion. That means that the HR policies, practices and procedures will have to be more agile, adaptive and flexible to prepare for whatever contingencies employees and the organization might face both inside and outside the workplace. From shifting from physical to remote working arrangements, to retraining employees to operate machinery in a virtual environment - it's essential to be ready. HR needs to build resilience and flexibility to thrive in an environment where things constantly change.

Invest in training and new human resource management practices

One of the most important aspects of human resource management is ensuring that staff receives adequate skill development and continuous learning. To achieve this, HR should ensure that they invest in both short term and longer-term learning activities, including providing access to relevant information through online courses and seminars. They can also work closely with educational institutions to offer flexible study options, such as distance learning, eLearning, blended learning, and face-to-face learning. In addition, HR should consider investing in professional development and creating an environment where staff feel comfortable asking questions about how best to utilize new developments.

Does human resources still have their place in industry 4.0? Absolutely

The digital transformation is already at the root of many changes in the business world, and many changes are still underway. As an HR professional, it is your job to anticipate, research, and propose new technologies and techniques that will help you work more efficiently and intelligently. 

Part of your job will be to discover and meet the changing needs and expectations of your clients and recruits. In addition, you can expect the new industrial revolution to open up new opportunities for performance management and continuous training, which will help you stay relevant to the employers and employees you serve every day. In a world where we must constantly reaffirm our value within a company, your position as human resources professionals will be solidified by focusing on the development of your employees' skills, on the optimization of human roles with added-value and by proving the multiple gains in efficiency, established with your financial director. 

Workleap LMS is the perfect tool for your HR

Essentially, your job is to cultivate happy people, in an environment where everyone understands the importance of their individual contribution, to the benefit of collective success. Workleap LMS believes that working with the right tools can make a huge difference in the transition towards industry 4.0, both for your employees and your HR department. We are proud to offer SMBs the onboarding and training platform and resources they need to succeed!

Flexible, collaborative and results-oriented.

These 3 qualifiers sum up the very essence behind the Agile Management philosophy.The Agile trend is nothing new and continues to be implemented in business more and more in North America. This management model, fashionable among top decision-makers, generates very interesting opportunities to advance and adopt different projects stemming from human resources.

Agile-thinking teams work proactively rather than reactively. They no longer desire to spend the majority of their time extinguishing fires that are all too often lit from inactions of the past. The lean and agile approach comes as the perfect way to take on an LMS implementation project for many reasons.

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What's in this article

• 1- Course creation under Agile procedures
• 2- The omnipresence of corporate training
• 3- From standard classroom training to event-like.
• 4- The new role of the corporate trainer
• 5- Towards a paradigm shift: the employee now co-responsible for his development
• 6- Loop sprints
• The takeaway

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1- Course creation under Agile procedures

The course design approach must be both industrial and agile, meaning that it must be simple, fast and predetermined by a clear and actionable process.
One of the major obstacles to implementing a learning management system (LMS) is the misconception of the workload that comes with creating content. This false perception is generated by a combination of ignorance about what to do and skepticism about the real benefits of this digital transformation.

The creation of internal training content intended for web distribution should not be approached in the same way as the creation of classroom training.

While the creation of classroom training requires a lot of preparation, reflection, analysis, and strategies to capture and sustain participants' attention for long periods, online training focuses on rather short, simple and concise pieces of content.

First, it is important to list up all the skills and knowledge to be taught within our company. This step is mandatory and independent of the educational approach.
The gains in efficiency are quickly felt when you take an online approach since the goal is no longer to create a long training session covering 10, 20 or even 30 specific objectives, but rather to make a single piece of specific content by objective.

By using your internal resources to identify weaknesses and learning opportunities, it becomes easy for a company to create small crash courses that can make a huge difference in the company's production capacity.

By involving your employees in active ways in this type of project, you increase the commitment, engagement, ownership, and mobilization of your resources while making major changes in internal culture.

2- The omnipresence of corporate training

The training opportunities should now be found in the workplace in an omnipresent way and no longer seen as a sequence of one-off events.

One of the many paradigm shifts involved in online training is the double-life content notion.As you student will go through your courses for the first time, the intent is only to teach them new information and improve their actionable skills.This approach, therefore, has the same purpose as any classroom training.Traditionally speaking, the quality of an "In real life (IRL)" training was always limited to the quality of the notes taken by your participants during the presentation and the interventions of the few curious who dare to interact with the trainer.

The double life of your online training content comes to life when you add the notion that they can always go back and revisit any training, on-demand. This optimization is directly in line with the Lean Management ideology.

There may be substantial delays between your training and the opportunity for your employees to put into practice new skills. To support this reality, it is now easy for an employee to re-visit the training content and refresh the information he/she remembers seeing in the past.

Taking notes should be encouraged so that each employee no longer see the online course as a simple training, but realize the potential of using your LMS to build their guide. Improving the ease of access to content allows you to increase each employee's autonomy while limiting the need for assistance and distractions that can reduce the productivity of your teams.

The goal is never to eliminate interactions between your employees, a vital component of your employees' engagement, but rather to ensure that interactions are value-added.

By centralizing your content under a single system, you also educate your employees and help them take responsibility for their personal development. The time for brochure and paper documentation is scattered all over your workplace is over.

3- From standard classroom training to event-like.

In the context of Agile management, we must change the perception of classroom training to now promote them as event-like training courses.

These courses will aim at teaching more technical concepts, but also to act as mobilization and motivation events for your employees.You probably all know the saying "this meeting could have been an email"?In comparison, classroom training should no longer leave your employees with the impression that "this training could have been a simple video".

Peer-to-peer training is very expensive for companies as they require taking your production line hostage for several hours. It is therefore important to be able to justify the importance of bringing all your resources together in one place, at the same time.
Of course, nothing is as effective as learning by acting. To learn how to swim, you will inevitably have to jump into the water. However, it is a mistake to think that this educational strategy should be the default approach.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to better assess the need for classroom training:

• Does this training require physical manipulations of a tool or an accessory?
• Does this training require role plays?
• Is this training dependent on a geographical constraint?
• Does this training require to learn by trial and error?

4- The new role of the corporate trainer

In the same way that Industry 4.0 has forced HR professionals to reconsider their roles within companies, the role of the trainer is at a crossroads and needs to be reviewed.
Whereas the traditional role of the trainer was to create educational content to be presented several times during a year, the digital transformation and the adoption of Agile practices led the trainer to now abandon these responsibilities. The trainer now sees himself as a content creator and refocuses its role towards strategic and pedagogical support.

The training platform of a company now acting as a training content distribution channel, the trainer can free up time to his schedule to focus on the creation of new content. The trainer will also be responsible for providing personalized follow-ups to employees with learning difficulties.

This new approach allows us to put our employees back into operation more quickly, and to ensure that our trainers' interventions are value-added and meet the specific needs of resources with additional questions.

While 80% of your resources will understand what is being presented to them in the first presentation, it is normal for some to require a different learning approach to fully understand all the information. The trainer is therefore responsible for developing new teaching strategies to meet their needs.

A major benefit of this change is that each new strategy can then be updated to online training, which can improve and accelerate the learning processes over the years, exponentially.

5- Towards a paradigm shift: the employee now co-responsible for his development

For the past 20 years, it has been on the employer's shoulder to be responsible for providing training to employees, according to the specific needs to be addressed within the organization. This approach quickly resulted in groups of non-mobilized employees, all gathered in a room, with little to no understanding of why they are imposed certain training.

The digital transformation of companies is leading to a paradigm shift with the arrival of new opportunities for management and skills development.

Under an Agile model, with the help of an adapted training platform, the company can now develop a training directory covering the different needs of its business and, in a personalized way, assign different training courses to specific employees. This more flexible approach allows employees to be assigned training tailored to their development path. In addition to this approach, the training repertoire can also be accessible to employees to develop a self-training culture.

Students are then no longer just passive consumers, but active in the development of their skills, interests, and career. The implementation of an active in-house training culture increases the engagement of your brand and the level of interest of your employees during each learning activity. As they are now co-responsible for creating their development paths, they are also responsible for their progress opportunities within your organization.

Not only does this strategy reduce your administrative burden, but it also allows you to target your best employees and future key players in each of your departments.

6- Loop sprints

The most significant benefit of using the agile method in the implementation of a learning management system project is found in the content creation stage.

Rather than aiming to develop and launch with a high volume of courses covering a wide range of objectives, this method encourages you to focus on creating short, simple and objective-based content, one at a time. This more granular strategy allows you to quickly realize your online training projects by following a very simple process:

• Identify the objective for your course
• Establish short-term deadlines
• Research of raw expertise
• Create your content
• Run a pilot to gather comments and suggestions for improvements
• Correct your pilot
• Launch your course online
• Plan a success report to evaluate the return on investment
• Repeat

The collaborative aspect of this technique, involving different internal resources of your organization, ensures you to have a project that has been validated and field-tested before even making the official launch. The agile approach to content creation allows you to anticipate and correct weaknesses rather than endure them through this feedback loop.

The takeaway

The biggest obstacle to any online training project is the illusion that everything must be done in one fell swoop. By adopting the Agile approach to your project management, it becomes much simpler to plan and implement Workleap LMS within your business.
Focusing on several small key actions and short deadlines will lead to actions taken place in an organic and structured way. This will also allow you to better understand and anticipate steps to take while optimizing your processes as you go.It is important to have a good overall vision of the project, but it is even more important to target what are the minimal viable elements to facilitate the adoption of such a project.

Leadership is an admired and respected quality. It can be defined in many ways, but most people agree that it encompasses qualities such as intelligence, charisma, integrity and empathy. 

However, leadership is much more than these qualities!

It is an approach, a vision and a value set that guide others in their actions and interactions. 

Leadership is a key element of your company’s success. It involves everyone, managers to team members alike.

So, how can you develop leaders in your team?

What is leadership?

Leadership in the workplace is about developing the qualities in our employees that enable them to effectively motivate and guide others. Good leaders are essential in your organization because they help create a common vision and purpose that employees can rally around.

However, it is wrong to believe that only managers and bosses can be leaders.

Leadership is present at all levels of an organization, and employee leadership is very important. Fostering and encouraging intrapreneurship in your company by valuing employee leadership and initiative is a huge step forward.

In order to develop employee leadership, it is important to offer them learning and development opportunities.

Transformational leadership is “in”

What is transformational leadership?

Unlike transactional leadership, transformational leadership is based more on one’s positive influence. 

In order to achieve their goals, a transformational leader will:

• Encourage others to go beyond their limits, by caring about them;
• Maintain a pleasant and positive work atmosphere;
• Share an inspiring vision;
• Acknowledge the importance of everyone’s contribution in the company. 

Rather than being based on a transactional approach between the company and its employees, this approach aims to:

• Encourage the development of employee autonomy;
• Foster professional and personal development for all company members;
• Acknowledge the importance of everyone’s daily tasks.

Therefore, transformational leadership is about believing that happy, fulfilled employees are far more productive and engaged than employees who work under the constant pressure of having to perform.

What are the qualities of a real leader?

It’s no news that a leader is not necessarily someone in a position of authority. True leaders are found both among your employees and your managers. 

Their leadership is simply being expressed differently.

Obviously, a leader’s qualities can vary depending on the situation. Nevertheless, a leader must demonstrate certain key qualities in order to inspire and guide others, such as:

• Intelligence;
• The ability to take decisions;
• Being organized;
• Courage;
• Charisma;
• Integrity;
• Communication skills;
• Empathy.

Why are good leaders so important?

Good leaders are important because they share clear direction, they motivate and inspire others.

They help employees feel connected to a common goal and create a feeling of belonging to a community within an organization. Furthermore, good leaders know how to delegate tasks and give employees the autonomy they need in order to be efficient in their work. 

Finally, leaders play an important role in developing their employees’ talent. Through learning and development opportunities, leaders help their employees reach their potential and grow professionally. 

Any organization in which people feel involved, respected and valued is bound to have more productive and successful employees.

Good leaders are essential to create this type of environment.

How to develop your employees’ leadership skills?

Here are some tips that would allow you to develop leadership within your team:

1. Encourage your employees to take on new challenges 

Giving employees the chance to take on new projects will help them develop their accountability and leadership skills. 

2. Listen to your employees

Encouraging employees to share their ideas and suggestions will allow you to get to know them better and understand how they think.

3. Set up a mentoring program

Mentoring programs are a great way to develop employee leadership skills. 

By pairing experienced employees with junior employees, mentees can learn from their mentors’ successes and mistakes. Such programs also foster a sense of belonging while valuing mentors.

4. Set up a learning and training program

One of the most effective ways to develop your employees’ leadership is to offer them learning and development opportunities. 

And that’s where a Learning Management System (LMS) comes in.

How can an LMS help cultivate leadership?

An LMS that caters to your needs is a valuable tool for developing leadership skills in the workplace. 

By offering employees access to online courses, quizzes and other learning material, you allow them to develop the skills they need to become good leaders. 

This type of training is particularly efficient because it allows employees to learn at their own pace and immediately get to apply what they have learnt. 

An LMS can also track employee progress and provide feedback to help them improve their leadership skills. By giving employees access to leadership development resources and tracking their progress, you will be helping them become tomorrow’s leaders. 

Leaders are important to any organization!

They can motivate employees to reach specific goals. In order to develop good leaders in the long run, one must take the time to offer managers and employees access to leadership training opportunities. 

It’s a win-win, for employees and your company!

Workleap LMS was created with the ultimate goal of making talent development easy and accessible. Request your demo now!

Third part of our article series on how to create an online training course in 6 easy steps, this time, we will be talking about defining your objectives and training structure.

First of all, you will need to define your training objectives. It doesn’t matter if your training is about knowledge, savoir-faire (know-how) or even interpersonal skills, defining one or more objectives is key! In order to help you, ask yourself the following question: what elements will be learned in my training course? Need a little help? No problem, you can find the answer by finishing this sentence (our official cheat-sheet):

Do you want to know how to get a good objective? We know the secret. Truthfully, you only need to follow a few simple rules to get a SMART objective:

1. Specific (clear)
2. Measurable (thanks to indicators)
3. Attainable (in line with your global vision)
4. Relevant (accessible)
5. Time Based (time to reach a goal)

To gear your objective(s) in the right direction, feel free to use action verbs such as: define / distinguish / acquire / identify / remind / recognise / interpret / differentiate / file / express / produce / modify / evaluate.

In order to help you with this process, here is a concrete example. Do you remember Mrs. Sylvestre from step 2? Let’s see what her learning objectives would be.

At the end of her training session, Mrs. Sylvestre would like her students to be able to:

1. Name the eight essential ingredients to make dough (knowledge)
2. Explain the four steps needed to make icing (savoir-faire/know-how)
3. Follow the steps of the recipe with delight and meticulousness (interpersonal skills).

Once you have identified your training objectives, let’s move on to the second part of this step, the training structure. We had glanced over this topic on our first article, but a friendly reminder never hurts, especially when it comes to a topic as important as this one.

To maximize the retention of information and help your students, split your content into sections, subdivide them into units and once more into lessons.

Make sure to balance the level of difficulty in each part in order to rank the content. In doing so, you will avoid making the rookie mistake of putting the most difficult content at the very beginning of your course. Take it slow and don’t forget to follow and reach your overall objectives.

You have officially mastered step 3!

If you have chosen to put your training online, it’s probably because you have analyzed the needs of your students. They can be far away (geographically), busy because of personal or professional obligations and therefore, unable to attend a traditional classroom setting. The answer is quite obvious, your training will be on an online platform and available 24/7. This is where we will talk about an asynchronous training, in other words, a training where the teacher and the student do not need to be connected at the same time.

But now, how are you going to organize your content? How can you guide your students to reach the educational objectives in your asynchronous online training setting?

Specialists talk about scenarios, granularization and modular structure. You will also get to play around different concepts to transform your knowledge and expertise into organized learning content within an interesting training.

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What's in this article

• Step 1
• Step 2
• Step 3

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Step 1

First of all, as previously mentioned in our article Defining your objectives and training structure, define and write your main educational objective. Put all of the material you may deem important (texts, images, videos, PowerPoint presentations, links, etc.) into a folder on your computer. Are you sure you have everything? I know you must have something interesting hidden in one of your old briefcases or in a folder at the bottom of your drawer. Take this time to scan any documents you only have on paper (you will thank me later). This first step will help you think about the necessary educational resources you will need to write and/or acquire later on.

Step 2

At this point, you will need to organize your folder into units. A first layout of your training should appear quickly in your head (your training should be in four, twelve or twenty distinctive parts). Yes, but you are not certain about the number of units and it’s completely normal at this time. The final number of units can still change, so let’s see how we can improve your structure.

It’s here that the specific educational objectives you are going to write for each unit will apply. Let’s take a Home Fire Safety training and its “Electric Risks” unit as an example. The educational objective could be: “At the end of this unit, the student will be able to locate the electrical panel at home and activate or deactivate the fuses.”

Step 3

You see that your previous structure has changed and grown, some units have probably disappeared and some were replaced by new ones. It’s a good sign! Your structure will be quite solid. Now you can create it on the platform that will host your training.

This three-step program will allow you to find and express your main educational objective, to collect all the documents you needed and to structure your training into units with clear and specific goals. Congratulations! You now have your scenario and you are finally ready to work on the content of your units, but let’s keep that under wraps until our next article. So stay tuned!

A lunch and learn event is a great way to strengthen company culture by giving employees the time to learn from each other and exchange ideas. However, organizing a lunch and learn event can be complicated when employees are working remotely from different locations and time zones. A virtual lunch and learn offers remote employees the chance to participate in team-building activities, develop personally and professionally, and become better acquainted with one another. Keep reading to discover topic ideas and tips to host a successful virtual event.

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What is a virtual lunch and learn?

A virtual lunch and learn is an online lunch experience that allows employees of a company to converse and learn about diverse topics. A lunch and learn session is the perfect moment to encourage the personal and professional development of employees. 

6 tips to host a successful virtual lunch and learn

1. Choose a topic

One of the first things to consider if you want to organize a successful lunch and learn is the topic. It’s important to choose a topic that’s relevant to both the company and its employees. To achieve this, you must identify what lunch and learn topics will best attract the attention of attendees. A virtual lunch and learn session shouldn’t be too knowledge-dense, as that will take away from its casual nature. 

Relevant topics can be found in all areas of a business, from customer feedback to important changes in company policy. You can find good lunch and learn ideas by asking your employees what they want to talk about. Ideas for a virtual lunch and learn can revolve around an upcoming company event. For example, a customer service team will greatly benefit from a lunch and learn where a new product is explained to them by those who developed it. 

Our guide to implement a Lunch & Learn session will help you get to know more about your employees' interests and strengths. By using this template in your one-on-one meetings, you will encourage knowledge sharing and thus be able to develop team building activities with your staff!

2. Pick someone to be the host

It is hard to plan a typical lunch with remote employees. To maintain an engaging conversational flow, you should appoint a charismatic individual to be the host. Public speaking is not for everyone. If the host can’t keep the virtual session interesting, employees will just zone off. 

If the purpose behind your lunch and learn is product training, then you should have a product manager who is excited about the product launch be the host of the event. Employees can be handed out invitations to speak about topics they are passionate about. Those who have a particular skill may be eager to share it with their peers during a lunch and learn. For instance, if you want people to discuss common client queries, a customer service manager with ample experience interacting with people might make a great host.

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Hard skills vs. soft skills: Why your employees need both

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3. Organize lunch and learn activities

Organization is key to a successful virtual lunch meeting. A lunch and learn shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes including questions, and it is important to use this time well. You should design virtual sessions that compel the staff to engage voluntarily while also covering as much ground as possible. 

A good virtual lunch and learn may be structured in the following way:

• Give everyone some time to settle in. Don’t expect people to be ready to pay attention for the first 5 minutes of a virtual lunch and learn. After all, this is the time for everyone to log in, get their food, and say hello to one another. During this time, it is best to keep the conversation simple and casual.
• Holding the main event. The presentation is the main course of your lunch and learn. The host should present the session agenda and proceed to start with the virtual meeting. Depending on how much information must be relayed, this part of the virtual event should go on for 10-15 minutes. 
• Don’t forget the Q&A session. It is good to leave some time for employees to ask questions and clear their doubts. After wrapping up, the last moments of the virtual lunch and learn can be dedicated to further the interaction between the attendees and the presenter. 

4. Let everyone know about your virtual lunch meeting

You can’t talk to your remote team face-to-face, so you should communicate the event details to them using the channels you are already familiar with. If you don’t communicate the event logistics early, you run the risk of employees having an unpleasant last-minute surprise. 

You should email the topic, agenda, date, and time to all potential attendees in advance. You can facilitate the communication and organization of your lunch and learn with an Enterprise LMS. It is used widely by businesses to create, distribute, and manage digital courseware to learners. In addition to providing a central location for storing and distributing course materials, an LMS provides you with tools for tracking participation, performance assessment, reporting, and other functions.

5. Plan a remote lunch

Naturally, people will attend a lunch and learn with the intention to eat. Planning a virtual lunch differs from a typical lunch break because managing food ideas and catering becomes more complicated due to the distance. While it may be impossible to bring everyone to the office and order takeout, that doesn’t mean you can’t deliver food to your employees. In fact, you can allow them the leeway to choose what they want to eat. You can give your employee’s a certain allowance to order the food and beverages they wish from their favorite national chains or local restaurants. 

6. Gauge the success of your virtual lunch

You should record and monitor the success of your lunch and learn, especially if you wish to conduct more of them in the future. By recording your learning sessions, you can make them available to team members who were unable to attend the live event. Additionally, you can run a post-session survey to collect feedback on what your attendees liked, what they learned, and their opinions on how the experience could be improved. 

Holding regular lunch and learns is a great way to strengthen company culture. By having an active community of employees, you can streamline communication, engage with clients more effectively, and increase workplace morale. You should always encourage your employees to converse and learn from one another.

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Good communication in the workplace is key to your team’s success

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Amazing topic ideas for virtual lunch and learns

“Ask me anything” sessions

Made popular by the online discussion site Reddit, an Ask Me Anything is an online question-and-answer session where an expert can spend an hour of their time engaging with people who are interested in different aspects of their life. When taken into the professional sphere, this type of session is a great way for employees to learn more about their superiors.

People can ask questions about a wide variety of topics, ranging from strategies for personal development to tips on how to dress for success. This approach lends itself to better collaboration than typical Q&A sessions. Presenters can choose to focus on the most popular questions to base the session on what the majority of attendees wish to know.

Team-building nerd talks

Similar to TED-style presentations, nerd talks are virtual sessions that include interactive elements such as remote bingo to enhance audience engagement and participation. This virtual lunch idea is great for offering attendees the chance to relax and freely talk about topics other than work, from zombies and aliens to extraordinary facts and lesser-known tidbits of history. 

Comedy workshops

Instead of focusing on work themes, lunch and learns can also be about the favorite skills and hobbies of attendees. A comedy workshop is a crash course in standup where an experienced comedian can share their secrets with attendees. Attendants to a comedy workshop can improve their wit by practicing joke delivery and how to craft effective one-liners. Comedy helps people enhance their soft skills and can inspire feelings of camaraderie between remote teams. 

Online book clubs

Book clubs are typically held in person, but they can also work as good virtual lunch and learn activities. By incentivizing talking and thinking about deep themes, these activities offer attendees a very educational experience. To hold a successful virtual book club session, it is important to settle on a book a month or so before the event. While books meant to be read for pleasure are common in book clubs, career development-focused books are also valid. Physical or digital copies can be provided to guests in order to boost participation. Discussion questions should be considered in advance to facilitate conversational themes.

Storytelling workshops

These virtual events take around two hours and consist of a presenter guiding employees through a writing masterclass. Storytelling workshops are ideal for remote work employees who can spare more than an hour in a lunch and learn. Besides learning composition hacks and presentation hints, participants can also share tips on how to make their stories more engaging. 

At the end of a virtual storytelling workshop, attendees can compose and share their own original short stories. Other attendants can then praise their efforts while also providing some constructive criticism. The lessons learned during these sessions can help guide marketers, salespeople, HR professionals, and managers to be more confident when expressing their ideas and dealing with people.

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Developing employee skills: a how-to guide

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The bottom line is that virtual lunch and learns have become a powerful and flexible tool for bringing people together, building knowledge and fostering a strong community within an organization.

With a clear understanding of what a virtual lunch and learn is, applying our six essential tips, and exploring the range of amazing topic ideas we provided, you should be fully equipped to host successful and engaging events.