Checking in on your remote team with an LMS

How a learning management system and other e-learning tools can help you to stay in touch with your remote team.

There’s no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work forever. Here at Synergy Learning, after discussions with our team, we’ve adopted a remote-first approach, which means most of our team are working from home most of the time.

We know we’re not alone in this change, so plenty of organisations are now adapting to new ways of working and communicating. While we’re all well accustomed to Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack and other popular communication tools, we’ve also found that some of the e-learning tools we work with on a daily basis have excelled in the new remote-working landscape.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

 

Sharing knowledge

Informal spreading of knowledge is definitely one area in which organisations have the potential to lose out due to remote working. An absence of open-plan office eavesdropping and water cooler chat stops information and know-how flowing around your team as freely as it once did.

While Slack channels and team video calls address some of this, we’d also suggest the peer-to-peer learning offered by Totara Engage as a valuable tool in this regard. Each of your team can curate and share learning playlists of valuable videos, podcasts, articles and blogs to share with colleagues.

 

Collaborating with your remote team

Another Totara Engage tool, and this time it’s the collaboration workspaces within the platform. Similarly to our point about sharing knowledge, this is about increasing interactions between your team members. Informal peer-to-peer interactions are thought to account for around 70% of workplace learning, so it’s vital to replicate them for remote workers.

Collaboration workspaces are a great option for getting heads together on a particular topic or project. And with Totara Engage boasting Teams and Slack integration, it sits comfortably alongside other communication channels.

 

Performance monitoring your remote team

Remote working increases the likelihood of performance issues being overlooked. Not seeing someone face-to-face every day makes it that bit harder to keep track of what they’re working on and makes it more likely that performance reviews will be allowed to slide.

Totara Perform provides intuitive performance monitoring, which makes it easy to check which team members are in need of extra support. It also offers a customised performance review workflow builder and automated scheduling of regular check-ins with team members.

 

Boosting morale

Maintaining team morale is a key aspect of remote working. There are limitless options when it comes to team-building activities. For something that boosts morale while also increasing performance and productivity, the gamification elements in platforms such as Totara Engage, Totara Learn and Moodle LMS are well worth considering. Introduce a bit of friendly competition around the award of achievement badges, perks or prizes to keep your team engaged.

 

Talk to us about using an LMS to manage your remote team

Just fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch to discuss how the tools mentioned in this article would work for your organisation.

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