The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to change the way they work, but, training for existing and new employees cannot stop. Learning and development (L&D) must continue so that employees are kept abreast of product, service and industry updates, even when working remotely.

Using digital learning strategies, you can provide employees with opportunities to focus on and expand their professional development. Continuous learning can prepare them for long-term growth in the organization — but how can you provide continuous learning to your employees when the majority of them are working from home?

Here are four learning strategies that help you engage your remote workforce:

1. Use Webinars and Virtual Classrooms

You can offer short five- to 10-minute webinars on a wide variety of topics, for both professional and personal development, to engage your employees. In this learning strategy, you can provide guidance and suggestions to your employees on working from home during COVID-19, including topics such as:

• • How they should start their workday.
  • How their productivity affects the company’s deadlines.
  • How to structure their day.
  • Common challenges encountered when working remotely and how to deal with them.
  • How to avoid distractions.
  • How to take care of their health and their family’s health.

Virtual classrooms help you transform your employees from passive viewers into active participants. You can conduct virtual training in a variety of ways, such as video conferencing, interactive whiteboards, collaborative code editors, online polls and surveys, live screen-sharing, and livestreaming.

Employees can learn some of the content in virtual classroom sessions without the need for an instructor. In these self-paced sessions, employees can take an online course, pass an assessment, and earn a certificate or a badge upon successful completion.

2. Use Microlearning to Provide Actionable Information

“Actionable information” refers to the essential information employees need to have immediately available to deal with challenges as they arise. With the rise of working from home, employees and teams need to be empowered with actionable information to make fast decisions that improve business operations.

Microlearning can provide actionable learning, information and insights that employees can access anywhere, at any time and on any device. The primary objective is to efficiently deliver the content that each learner needs to do his or her job well.

3. Choose an Effective Learning Management System

Organizations can provide training to their employees working remotely by choosing an effective learning management system (LMS). With the right LMS, they can personalize the learning process while providing access to learning resources to deliver just-in-time training.

With the help of an LMS, managers, in association with L&D managers, can identify skill gaps and determine individual training needs. Then, they can establish employee learning paths using mixed modes of training delivery, such as mobile learning, microlearning, video lessons, webinars and live interactive sessions.

4. Have Regular Meet-up Sessions

Teams should meet regularly for fun online learning sessions on an interesting topic. These meet-up sessions could be held anywhere from once per month to once every two weeks. In these sessions, employees gather via video conferencing or teleconferencing to take part in an activity that enhances their professional development. These sessions are a good time to train employees on communication and other soft skills. You can motivate your learners by using these meet-ups to give them the opportunity to speak up and express their thoughts.

The type of activities offered in these sessions include team-building activities, storytelling and story-building, quiz games, or leisure activities like virtual tea time or coffee breaks. Sessions can also focus on specific topics about your industry so that your employees are aware of its current events and trends.

Employee development is a continuous process that benefits the entire organization. These four virtual learning strategies can help your remote employees achieve the most value from their learning and enable you to track their progress. They will also help you engage your remote workforce more effectively.