In an increasingly dispersed work landscape, working remotely is becoming more and more commonplace, and with it, remote training. However, there are some aspects of learning and development, particularly in soft skills, that will almost always benefit from being held in person.
In our latest blog, we speak with learning and development consultant Liam Moran of Liam Moran & Associates Ltd. about the unique benefits of in-person training and how to incorporate them into your training programmes.
How in-person training can elevate your next training session
1. Boosts engagement and collaboration
Even in an engaged session with cameras on, sitting behind a computer for hours at a time can be challenging for the attention span. In addition, despite advances in tools for creating virtual breakout rooms, whiteboards, and spaces for collaboration, these aren’t always the best options for dynamic, responsive collaboration between attendees.
In-person training is not only better for retaining attention, but it also makes it easy for you as a training provider to identify when your attendees need a break, allowing you to adapt to their needs. Plus, any collaborative work is made simple when all attendees are in the room together, and with many fewer technical issues, too.
Liam goes into this in more detail, stating, “You need to be able to physically connect with the people in the room. You can have a conversation with your audience, which is much easier in person, and engage them in a coaching way. They can practise, and they get feedback from you as a trainer. That’s really important for strong relationships and team building.
“We’re seeing, hearing, touching, tactile: all those things are coming together.”
2. Provides real-time feedback for effective training
Having a schedule for your event is generally a good idea, both for in-person and virtual training sessions; however, in a virtual space, it’s difficult to spot when your attendees need a break or a change of pace to remain engaged.
Liam speaks further, “In-person events provide you with an understanding of people through facial expressions and body language. You can say, “Is everybody okay with that?” And people are nodding – but you think to yourself, that person isn’t really. I’ll go and have a little chat with them, make sure they’re okay. That’s something you don’t get with virtual events.”
In-person training sessions give you a direct line of communication with each attendee at all times, allowing you to gauge their comprehension and engagement at all times. This also gives you the freedom to devote more time to attendees who need it, while giving others space to work independently, which is more challenging to achieve in virtual training.
3. Stronger engagement for better outcomes
Few things derail a productive learning session quite like, “Sorry, you’re muted,” or, “I can’t quite hear you – let me leave and rejoin.”
As Liam says, “You’ve got technical limitations on the virtual side of things. Maybe you might get delayed responses or a potential lack of clarity from written communication, something that goes in a chat box, that kind of thing. With an in-person training session, there’s less chance of that.”
In a virtual training environment, you must compete with the constant influx of notifications each of us receives daily.
Liam elaborates, “There’s that temptation to look to the bottom right or where your e-mail is, or something happening, and you will zone out even if the training’s engaging.” Worse still, once that focus is gone, it can take a long time to regain it, which has an impact on the effectiveness of the training.
In an in-person environment, you can deliver your training distraction-free, improving your attendees’ outcomes.
Find distraction-free training spaces and encourage collaboration at The Form Rooms.
4. Ideal for soft skills and leadership training
For a lecture-style or slide-based training session, virtual training could be as good as in-person – or almost as good, when you take into consideration the engagement benefits of in-person training. For training around digital tools, like Excel or PowerPoint, it could even be the superior choice.
However, for training centred around soft skills (skills that contribute to how you engage with others day to day, increasingly important in today’s working world), in-person training is invaluable.
Liam states, “The soft skills: you’re trying to build, to persuade and influence people. You’re trying to encourage people to become more comfortable in terms of sharing and being more confident about what they want to say and how they want to engage. That’s much more powerful in the room.”
Experience the difference – visit The Form Rooms today
While there are moments where virtual training is necessary, whether it be due to the subject matter being discussed or a dispersed team, there can be little doubt that in-person events provide a more engaging experience for attendees and, therefore a better learning outcome.
Being able to adapt your training to the needs of each attendee in real time and encourage collaboration and connection while avoiding any miscommunications is a benefit to in-person training that, so far, virtual meetings are unable to replicate.
If you’re looking for the ideal space to host your next training session, elevate your learners’ outcomes by booking space at The Form Rooms.
