Month: October 2020

Five Steps to Successfully Transition to Long Term Remote Work

Remote work has become the new reality for many workers around the world. Now that workers are entering their ninth month of telecommuting, what started as something they had to reckon with for just a few weeks is turning into a more long-term arrangement, forcing enterprises to shift their entire working culture to figure out what works (and what doesn’t) as they go along. Now that companies are expecting to extend telecommuting through 2021, they are faced with effectively transitioning employees into working from home for the long term. If your company has decided to turn its remote situation into a more permanent solution, there are steps you can take to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

Encourage Employees to Create a Dedicated Workspace

If your team is used to commuting to an office, it can be difficult to trick the mind into focusing elsewhere. The best way to compensate for this is by encouraging your team members to put together a dedicated space in their home and try to emulate a working environment as much as possible. Even if it’s just a computer monitor on the dining room table or a desk in their room, having a space to walk away from at the end of the day can help facilitate healthy mental transitions between work and personal time. And speaking of which…

Set Boundaries Between Work Time and Personal Time

One of the most common complaints about remote work from employees revolves around an inability to demarcate between their job and their home life. And now, since work is at home, that line is becoming even more blurred which can lead to a litany of issues like employee burnout, lost productivity, and general worker unhappiness.  In fact, “a global study conducted by Qualtrics, SAP and Mind Share Partners found that over 40% of respondents said their mental health has declined since the outbreak of COVID-19, with more workers reporting high levels of anxiety and stress.”

Do your best to create firm working hours for your team and encourage all team members to stick to them (that means in their own interactions as well). Nine times out of ten, that after-hours Slack message or work email can wait until the morning. It will be okay. 

Power Up Productivity With Out-of-the-Box Communication Tactics

If you’re anything like some of the companies we talk to, your inbox has been overflowing and overwhelming since the beginning of the pandemic. You’re probably also suffering from some severe “Zoom burnout” as well since businesses are increasingly using video conferencing solutions to conduct meetings. And while both of these are convenient ways to communicate, they both exacerbate the daily stressors your employees are already contending with. That’s why some of the most forward-thinking leaders are reimagining what the corporate communication and training structure should look like in order to better suit the needs of their workers and the demands of the current climate. And many are finding video is the solution they need for the moment. 

Not only does recording a quick video do a good job of capturing essential information quickly, but it also gives your workers a point of reference to refer back to at a later time in case they forget something. The best part is that you don’t just need to use video to capture one-off communications. It can also be used for:

  • All-hands, team, or department meetings: Employees are usually spread out across many different time zones and have other commitments so it can be difficult to get everyone together at the same time, in the same way. Video enables you to share key company communications with your employees and guarantee they are able to access the information at a time that works for them, whether it’s while multitasking at work, exercising at the gym, or just doing chores around the house.
  • Policy updates
  • Providing a central repository for company communications, announcements, and onboarding modules
  • Amplifying executive-employee communications
  • Encourage on-the-job training and continuous learning
  • Tips the department can use
  • A use case they are working on and how they solved the problem
  • Product updates
  • Fun content that shows their office or workspace
  • How they are spending their day

The numbers don’t lie: “According to a recent study, 76 percent of companies who used video found improved communications among remote employees, while 58 percent of companies found “increased alignment with company and organizational goals.”

Overcommunicate

It might seem antithetical to the point we laid out above but it’s really not. The fact is, overcommunication is critical for teams working remotely, as there are significant nuance and nonverbal cues that are removed when teams go virtual. This is particularly troublesome when tones are misread or something is assumed..but it’s just another reason to consider capturing communications on video. Not only does this extra layer of personability become essential to maintaining bonds between team members, but it can also help you continue to cultivate a positive company culture, even when you can’t be in the same room. 

Implement the Proper Communication Tools

Of course, creating these great communications really is only half the battle: you also need a place to store them and create a tech infrastructure that works. For video to become a seamless part of your company’s communication and training efforts, you should implement an enterprise video management platform that seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack. These features are especially important:

  • Enterprise-grade security: You’ll likely be sharing sensitive information, so your platform needs to incorporate the latest security protocols to keep communication from getting leaked. 
  • Access controls: The capability to restrict viewing to specific groups, teams, and individuals should be available. 
  • Mobile-friendly: Information should be readily available, allowing your employees to access the most up-to-date information at any time, from anywhere, regardless of if they have wifi access or not.
  • Analytics: Communication managers should have access to an extensive analytics suite that gives them insight into who is watching content, what they are watching, and when. Utilizing these data points can help you create a data-informed strategy that can help your company drive better ROI, even if you’re in the middle of a pandemic. 

By putting the proper tools and protocols in place, you can set your employees up for a long-term remote work experience that is productive and contributes to the overall well-being of team members and company alike. 

If you’d like to learn more about how CircleHD’s Enterprise Video Management platform can help you communicate better at your enterprise, we’d love to chat. 

7 Must-Have Features Your Corporate Training System Needs

When it comes to implementing a corporate training solution at your company, the conversation will inevitably turn to features. Yet, if your company is tied into a cumbersome Learning Management System, you’ll understand why only 39% of users rank their LMS features highly. So what is everyone else looking for that these systems aren’t providing?

In order to gain a better understanding of why organizations are abandoning these legacy systems in droves, you need to get a better picture of the user experience causing the inevitable exodus. If you’re evaluating a new corporate training solution for your company, these ones are what you should be looking for. 

Ease of Use

The number one reason why companies shift from an existing LMS or content management system is because of the poor user and administrative experiences that typically accompany these platforms. 

Once upon a time, it was par for the course to spend a week in an intense onboarding session or get wrapped up in a lengthy training manual, but we can all agree that is no longer the best use of your team’s time. Choose a corporate training solution that is flexible, intuitive, and easy to learn, with a familiar interface your employees already know so the platform becomes as useful as possible, quickly. 

Content Management Tools

Whether you always have training content available, or you’re looking to fill in some gaps, it’s essential your training system also functions as an effective content management tool. 

Every day, your employees are spending more time than they should be looking for product sheets, referring back to training modules or all-hands meetings, scouring for team notes, other company assets, and more. Sadly, many organizations turn to solutions like Google Drive, Dropbox, or some other file repository to house their content. But this is a big mistake, since it not only makes finding the right documentation next to impossible, it’s time your workers are spending on tasks that don’t yield any ROI and instead cause lots of lost productivity.

But there’s a better way: look for a training solution that not only allows you to sort your content into channels and playlists, but offers the ability to tag and annotate content with contextual documentation so people know what they are looking at, what it’s used for, why it’s relevant, and what changes its undergone. 

Security

Of course, having great content management tools is only half the battle: you also need to make sure whatever system you’re using to manage it is secure. In today’s ever-changing digital landscape, it’s important to protect your most sensitive information from attacks and would-be hackers. It’s been reported that “63 percent of companies said their data was potentially compromised within the last twelve months due to hardware- or silicon-level security breach”, which underscores just how essential it is to make sure your solution can protect your most sensitive information. 

Of course, there are also other reasons you want to make sure your learning solution is up-to-date on the latest security protocols, from smaller needs like restricting certain content to particular teams or users, to employing the use of end-to-end encryption, SSO, and custom access controls to ensure information is only shared with the personnel you grant permission to.

Integration 

Flexibility is absolutely essential to whichever corporate training solution you choose. You’ll not only want the ability to custom brand your portal so it feels like a natural extension of your company, but you’ll want to make sure that your training system integrates with a wide range of best-in-class programs for a frictionless experience.

Support for Mobile Learning

To get the most mileage possible out of your corporate training content, it needs to be as easily accessed as possible. We’ve become such a mobile-first world that you’re doing your enterprise a complete disservice if you’re using a platform that doesn’t allow your employees to have the most convenient experient possible. 

Not only does mobile learning result in a 72 percent increase in engagement, but it also results in massive cost savings and higher revenue for companies that implement it. So whether your team is in the office, on the road, or working from home, they’re able to access key company news, training and announcements, at a time that is most convenient for them, from anywhere in the world, even if there’s no wifi connection. 

Testing and Assessment 

Integrating tests and quizzes into team training materials isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that’s increasingly gaining traction and it’s essential to gauge your team’s understanding of materials and concepts. 

But implementing quizzes doesn’t just help you, as a leader, evaluate understanding, it’s also a powerful motivational tool: 83% of those who receive gamified training feel motivated, while “61% of those who receive non-gamified training feel bored and unproductive” (Yikes!). 

If you’re not sold on the value of gamification, consider this: when training is engaging for the end-user, they have more of a reason to stick with it. Studies have shown that there is a huge correlation between gamification and training: when elements are added to modules, motivation climbs and boredom drops to just 10%. Those are stats you just cannot ignore.

Reporting

You can’t improve what you don’t know which is why it’s critical to look for a solution that will go beyond basic data points and give you a holistic view of things like:

  • Which training is being watched 
  • Who is watching it and; 
  • How long they engaged with the content
  • Where they might be getting stuck
  • What topics you may need to create more content around

Your corporate training tool should also give you the option to generate custom reports based on data points like channels, data range, department, users, and uploaded media.  All of these will give you a better look at the impact your program is having and what the ROI is.

In order for you to get the most mileage out of your corporate training system as possible, it’s time to get serious about the way you enterprise implements, distributes, and handles learning. By making an investment in a good system, you give your workers the tools they need to succeed while improving engagement and growing your company’s bottom line.