As difficult as the past year has been, it is worth recognising that any period of disruption presents opportunities as well as challenges – and virtual training is a great example of this.
For the Taranto team, Covid-19 of course removed the potential for our traditional face-to-face training sessions. However, we not only recognised that simply stopping training wouldn’t benefit our customers; we also wondered if there might be an opportunity to improve the overall experience for our clients.
Could we actually transform our offering to improve the availability, access and effectiveness of our service? That was the challenge we set ourselves, and over the past year it has proven a huge success, both for our team and of course the customers we support.
Additionally, we have refined our approach in response to feedback and our own increasing understanding of what works in a virtual world. Below are some of the measures we have implemented to improve this area further, enabling clients to maximise the benefit of their technology investment.
Introducing the Training Team
Before each virtual session starts, we take the time to introduce ourselves, outlining who the training team are, what we hope you will take away from the session and the learning methods that will be implemented.
This is a confidence-building introduction intended to set the tone for the delivery and make customers feel supported as a group, at ease with the training team, and comfortable to ask questions or voice any concerns.
Learning Refresher Slide Sets
To support the session learning we provide presentation slides summarising the functionality, with a manageable number of key takeaway points.
These slides then serve as a learning overview from the session, and are available for future use, for example to refresh the learning, or to use as a resource for any ad hoc internal training.
Interactive Breakouts
To encourage interactivity and greater depth of learning, we take advantage of the breakout rooms feature within Microsoft Teams. For example, in a room of six people, we might break customers into two smaller groups of three, each of which will collaborate closely, taking advantage of screen sharing functionality.
This enables our training team to closely assess the progress being made by all participants, and to step in and offer any extra support where required. This ensures all customers fully understand all aspects of the system, and that nobody is left behind.
This approach has the additional benefit of giving customers the opportunity to work closely with one another where it is easier to raise any individual concerns, and enhances their learning opportunity through networking.
Our virtual training sessions are available for any product and can be arranged around busy work schedules without needing to take a morning or afternoon out of office.
And by hosting these virtual sessions in groups the cost can be spread, whilst saving further time and money without the need to travel. You can therefore access the learning you need as cost-effectively as possible.
