Transitioning to a hybrid workplace? Don’t forget the importance of staff training.

You may have built an IT strategy and invested in modern technology to support your hybrid environment. But if your employees don’t know how to take advantage of those tools, your plans may not succeed.

You can’t just drop technology on employees’ desktops and expect that they will be able to use it to its full capacity. A recent study from UK-based tech recruitment firm CWJobs found that, although companies invested millions in new technology in the past year, fewer than nine percent trained all relevant staff on these tools. At the same time, only 27 percent of IT decision-makers said they were satisfied with the employees’ ability to use the new technology. Their big investments in tech were not paying off.

Staff need to know how new technology works, what all the features are, how they can customize it to meet their own needs, and what your usage policies are. You should also help them to make the connections between changes to workplace policies and any new IT. Understanding why tools and technology are being made available will go a long way toward motivating people to use them to their fullest.

Customize your training.

Not everyone learns the same way, or at the same rate.

With today’s multigenerational workforce, you may find that some team members appreciate traditional, in-person training sessions, whereas others might be completely comfortable with online learning – and may even prefer it, so they can go at their own pace. According to a survey from LinkedIn Learning, for instance, 43 percent of Gen Z workers prefer “a fully self-directed and independent approach to learning.”

So, provide training options that can be accessed in a variety of ways – in person, virtually and on-demand – and meet a range of learning styles, from hands-on workshops to reading, listening and watching.

And make sure your training sessions aren’t just a one-time-only opportunity. Staff will likely have questions about features and how to use certain tools long after you’ve implemented them. An internal learning portal such as FSi’s Empower Learning Hub can help to provide ongoing continued education for your teams.

Training should also be focused on more than just tools and technology. A recent PWC study found that 64 percent of executives were planning to invest in training team leaders to manage a more virtual workforce – helping them to develop the skills needed to build trust and a strong corporate culture.

Keeping everyone up-to-date in their training – including technology, management and other workplace training – will ensure your teams are poised to maximize the opportunities that the hybrid workplace brings.

Find out more in our Hybrid Workplace ebook here.