A banker friend told me recently that he asked his administrative assistant to sit in on a new client take on meeting which was held on line. My friend related that he became irritated when the assistant hadn’t turned on his camera. The banker friend thought it important for his new client to get to see who he would be dealing with on a day to day basis. Eventually the banker friend interrupted the meeting to ask the assistant to switch on his camera.
Of course it turned out that the assistant had not dressed for work, as he was working at home, and was looking somewhat disheveled. Not quite the corporate professional look that the banker friend was hoping to project to his new high nett worth client.
It’s no secret that companies have sent their workforces to work from home. Huge office blocks remain empty or partially occupied and big corporates are learning to come to terms with measuring worker performance based on output instead of time.
As businesses get back into the swing of things, some companies are battling with the reality of induction training for new staff when these staff members are often working remotely. Some new staff members report feeling a little alienated when starting new jobs as they don’t get to ask colleagues about office politics and get a sense for corporate culture.
In addition, the induction process is often cut short, shadowing is minimised and learning the ropes takes quite a bit of effort. Reading a manual isn’t quite the same.
Supervisors are discovering that new recruits are not getting the corporate culture. They are not always prepared for all the challenges of remote work and sometimes the basics are being ignored or left out.
Online learning systems are an easy solution to many of these challenges. A systematic and structured indiction program that deals with the corporate do’s and don’ts, communications and marketing themes, resource allocation and other things that are normally taken for granted can all be incorporated into an online learning management system. Internal systems do not have the formality of external systems and content production is easy.
Companies have the benefit of recording online training sessions which can be uploaded to their internal online training platform. With a small amount of effort one can also build in mini assessments to test if the information has been imparted correctly and the training sessions are always available for staff members to refer back to.
Of course for those businesses who formalise standard operating procedures, these can also be part of the system. Forming if you like a large internal wikipedia, a knowledge base of sorts. Of course we all learn differently so for those that prefer reading, transcripts to the video training can be made, and presented side by side on the platform.
The benefit of the online platform is that the new recruits and for that natter older hands can refer to this online knowledge base at times that suit their energy levels and availability.
Flexibility is key.
So if you prefer your admin assistants to at least comb their hair and put on a shirt before joining a meeting you are hosting, then teach them the rules with your own internal learning management system.
