Insights for Working Virtually

Don't let your instructor-led or virtual training disappear because you weren't able to articulate it's value. Many a good idea or project has failed to be supported or adopted because the value wasn't clearly evident. That's a failure on the teller of the story. The challenge is that we've tried to show the financial value by calculating the ROI of our training. I don't know about you, but calculating the ROI of training has always seemed as if we were proving the existence of the mythical unicorn. There are so many variables in the training ROI equation that the product of this calculation is soft and intangible.

Humans are ingenious when there is a problem that needs to be solved. Finite fossil fuels gave rise to hybrid and electronic vehicles. A cordless environment brought by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Less invasive outpatient surgeries via laser technology. Reduced training budgets and global workforces giving rise to more face-to-face training and travel. What? One of these examples is not like the other.

It’s a common lament. “We’ve created training program after training program to support this new initiative and they still aren’t adopting the tools.” Sound familiar? Your organization has a new product, program, or corporate initiative to launch and as training professionals, we need to get employees engaged and trained. Our programs need to focus on these key business initiatives in our organizations. So, we track participant registrations in our learning management system (LMS), test them and analyze their scores, and make sure the training is mandatory. Even then, they still aren’t adopting what we are teaching.

One thing I know is that being a technical expert on a virtual learning platform will not make you a good virtual classroom facilitator. The key is listener engagement. But a recent experience made me question whether the technical platform is more critical than we think.

What is the Value of a Producer?