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"Can be" isn't the same as "will be"
What a difference a word makes! Before you go rushing out to put your staff onto virtual training, then tell me it wasn't as good as face-to-face, it's important to remember that not all training courses are created equal. Creating effective virtual training isn't simple as taking a standard course, dumping it into Zoom™, then delivering it from your kitchen table. There are certainly people who think that is the case, but many of these people learn the hard way very quickly. No - but virtual training can be better than face-to-face when it's done well.
What do you buy when you invest in training?
Before we consider why virtual can be better than face-to-face, let's consider what people buy when they invest in training.
I'd like a three-day training course about sales, please. With lunch.
- a training customer near you, right now
For many organisations, the mindset is that they already know exactly what they want, and if it the provider can't deliver something close to their vision, then they'll go to someone who can. But with the sums people invest in training, this is a mindset that has to change. What people ought to be investing in, is change. Changed behaviours, changed processes, changed skill-sets.
And it's when organisations go to training providers with the right intentions in mind, that virtual really comes into its own.
The problem with face-to-face training
Face-to-face training courses have many, many advantages - the ability to get in a room together, shared experiences, body language, fewer distrations... the list goes on. But unfortunately, they also have a huge disadvantage: logistics. Because in most cases, the location of the training in relation to the participants and the trainer, means that training courses are a minimum of 1 day in length. And many are 2 days, 3 days, or more.
But after 2 days in a training room covering a variety of skills and techniques for their jobs, how much do you think participants will remember a week later? Some respected research suggests it's just 23%. So that means, if you invest £2,000 in a typical training course, you're getting £460 worth of improvement. Pretty poor value for money.
The advantage of virtual
But with virtual training, those logistical challenges are gone. Participants can be in a 2-hour training course, then in a meeting 5 minutes later. And trainers can be in Bristol in the morning, London in the afternoon, and New York in the evening. Suddenly, training courses can cover just 1 topic, before participants are sent off to try out their new skills for a week-or-so before coming back for the next topic. A 2-day course might last 2 months, but the participants now use most of their new skills, rather than some of them. The ROI on your training programme has gone through the roof.
It still needs to be done well
As already stated, effective virtual training isn't as simple as dumping your PowerPoint™ into Zoom™ and hoping for the best. For the training to have this enhanced impact, it needs to be designed differently, with exercises which work from a distance, and with a trainer who is absolutely engaging online. But if you can get that magic combination, then you have a training course which is much more likely to meet your needs - real change.
To learn more about virtual training, take a look at our blog post: How To Make Virtual Training Work For You and learn what you as a training customer can do to ensure your employees get the maximum value from their virtual training course.
