Delivering learning to hybrid teams
If the past year has taught us anything it’s the importance of life-long learning, of being open-minded and embracing change. That’s the attitude we take towards delivering hybrid learning to our clients – we approach the opportunity with an inquisitive mind and curious nature.
When we refer to hybrid learning, we’re talking about learning programmes delivered to a dispersed workforce – where some participants are based at home, and others are working from a permanent office location. The person leading these sessions could be facilitating face-to-face with attendees in the room, or remotely, depending on preferences.
With the Work Trend Index Survey stating that 73% of employees want flexible, remote working options to stay, it’s important to reflect on how best to communicate learning objectives with a geographically distanced workforce.
Having amended how best we work with our clients throughout the last year, we, like many others are now delivering learning to hybrid teams, with participants both at home and in the office.
4 things to consider when delivering learning to dispersed teams
Whilst most of our sessions see the People Business facilitator delivering learnings virtually, we know face-to-face facilitation to hybrid teams is on the horizon. As a result, to ensure we offer the best, most engaging sessions to our clients, however we facilitate, here are some of the things we’re mindful of when delivering learnings to dispersed teams:
1. Make materials accessible – often learnings materials are shared with participants, from pre-work to presentation slides. It’s important that resources are easily accessible to all, whether they’re attending in person or virtually. Ensure all individuals receive the same quality when it comes to learning materials.
2. Maintain balance – watch your eye-contact and body language, make sure it’s balanced between those in the room and those on screen. Particularly if you’re facilitating in-person, you’ll be drawn to connecting with the people in the same room as you, unconsciously disconnecting with those virtually. Being aware of this at the outset means you can make an active effort to equally divide your attention between both audiences – making everyone feel part of the session.
3. Set realistic timeframes – solely virtual sessions are often much shorter (so as to reduce digital fatigue) than in-person workshops which can last full days. If you have a mixed audience group, set a timeframe that works for all. Why not offer shorter, more spaced out, facilitated sessions – not only would this allow virtual learners screen respite, it would also provide a selection of in-person dates. This flexibility gives participants the chance to ‘pick and choose’ sessions they attend remotely/ in-person. Don’t fret, making facilitated sessions shorter just means you can utilise other platforms such as e-learning/webinars etc to offer a blended learning offering.
4. Don’t forget breaks –we don’t mean “don’t forget to include breaks” – breaks are needed, that’s a given. What we mean is don’t forget to consider them. Often when in person, participants use breaks to clarify understanding of key points with the facilitator. If this happens, think of ways to capture those explanations, and share them with remote attendees, so they’re not missing out on anything by not being in the room.
We offer a host of learning workshops on topics such as mentoring, feedback, introduction to management, leadership development and much more – if you’d be interested in us running a session for your hybrid team, please contact us on 01932 874944 or email us at info@peoplebusiness.co.uk
