Face-to-face interaction is no longer required for a businesses to succeed in this day and age.  In fact, more and more businesses are moving away from the traditional office setting and outsourcing their work to remote workers in other cities, states and countries.

Telecommuting is one of the most cost effective ways to grow a business; and despite many misnomers, telecommuting doesn’t disconnect a worker from the office.  Many businesses are using helpful communication methods to keep track of their remote workers progress.

Webinars

Training an employee in person requires the availability of space and time. Traditional training sessions are usually given on a one-on-one or group setting in the office or a rented space. However, some of the most successful brands in the world are anything but traditional and have started to reach out in ways that in the past would have been thought impossible.

When hiring employees from remote locations you have to make sure that they understand your company’s policies and their job role.  This requires training.  So how do you train an employee 300 miles away from your location?  Webinars.  

Webinars are becoming the most effective way to train remote employees (telecommuters) and in-house employees. Webinars are usually hosted from a web site, which is accessible to the telecommuters by password.  Once logged in, the worker can hear the speaker, see training materials and submit questions related to any information that’s given.  The host also has the ability to use screen casting tools that show the participants exactly what's on the presenter's computer. This helps demonstrate how data bases are accessed, how a software program works, etc.  

Interactive Audio and Web Conferencing

Some policy changes or new services simply cannot be introduced through e-mail alone.  Having a meeting is the only way to ensure that your employees understand the information that was given to them and it provides them the opportunity to give feedback or ask questions about the information. Using interactive web conferencing tools are particularly helpful in this.  

Several businesses are already using this as a way to communicate with in-house employees, especially if the boss is away on business or otherwise unavailable.  Web conferencing allows you to communicate with staff anywhere at any time.  Much of the same information that could be presented in a face to face meeting can be presented over the web (i.e diagrams, pie charts and flow charts).  Web conferencing also allows the option for sharing files that are relevant to the conference.  If an employee has equipment that is incompatible with video media, they have the option of listening to the conference and participating by audio.

Want to learn more about best practices for managing teleworkers? Download this free whitepaper from Frost and Sullivan.