Learning and development is typically done in face-to-face settings. But with more and more teams physically apart, it’s crucial to know how to optimise employees’ upskilling for the virtual space.

When employees begin at fully remote software development platform GitLab, they don’t meet their team or manager in the conventional sense. Workplace culture isn’t absorbed through snippets of overheard conversations, or acquired via a tap on a colleague’s shoulder. Instead, new starters are given a comprehensive onboarding ‘issue’.

“It’s a huge to-do list,” says Jessica Reeder, Senior Strategy and Operations Manager at GitLab. “But compared to face-to-face settings, it’s inclusive of different learning modalities and styles. Over two weeks, people can find their way through different media, ask questions and do further reading all around a schedule that suits them.”

The checklist covers everything from password set-up to a breakdown of GitLab’s cultural values. Remote onboarding is the natural first step on a long, fully remote journey, one that includes learning and development (L&D) opportunities provided by the San Francisco-headquartered company, all delivered virtually and often asynchronously across time zones. 

“Our L&D is self-directed, scalable and continuously updated,” says Reeder. “As opposed to being assigned a course by your employer and thinking you’ll get to it one day, individuals at GitLab are encouraged to build their own learning pathway.”

GitLab aims to keep its L&D courses motivating by adding in fun, interactive elements such as a digital scavenger hunt for employees to complete within an hour. Learners are guided to set up their profile, enrol in a course, join a discussion and give feedback on the learning platform. 

For those completing at least 70 per cent of tasks, gift cards are raffled off as a reward.

“It’s about incorporating goal-driven elements, posting regular updates and making it part of a team environment,” says Reeder. “It’s one thing receiving a certificate you can post on LinkedIn, it’s another when there are in-built rewards and incentives.”

Conventional thinking is that we learn new information best in face-to-face settings. After all, humans are inherently social beings; we have a natural drive to meet and share ideas in person.

It’s why employers traditionally rely on new starters learning through osmosis in office-based environments – a slow, passive process typically involving being sat at the desk and observing colleagues’ interactions. 

In fact, the in-person learning process has been put forward as an argument against remote working. Some say it’s harder to onboard, train and teach staff. 

 “A big mistake we see [employers] make is delivering learning sessions that are presentations, without interaction. It’s less effective and engaging for participants.” – Gemma Corke, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company

However, a growing number of organisations now have either a fully remote or hybrid-working set-up. With on-the-job training less available than before the pandemic, employers have to optimise virtual L&D opportunities in the changing world of work.

A company looking to deliver virtual L&D courses can’t just copy and paste old practices, says David James, Chief Learning Officer for 360Learning, based in London.

In virtual settings, practitioners too often rely on the technology to do the work for them.

“L&D has struggled to maintain sustained engagement in terms of learning tech for decades. Too often, technology has been sought to make an L&D team’s life easier without understanding the end-user enough – the idea is to make their life easier.”

The end result is that virtual learning sessions become uninspiring digital lectures.

“Adults learn best by doing – and it’s the same for in-person and remote learning,” says Gemma Corke, an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company’s Melbourne office. “A big mistake we see [employers] make is delivering learning sessions that are presentations, without interaction. It’s less effective and engaging for participants.”

Avoid the sea of blank screens

Daniel McPhail, Director of Learning and Development at Go1 in Melbourne, agrees that lifting and shifting PowerPoint slides to a Zoom meeting won’t make the grade in remote-learning sessions. 

This can lead to the ‘cameras off’ phenomenon where an L&D coach finds themself talking to a grid of blank screens. 

With employees’ faces hidden, a major limitation to remote learning often surfaces: a lack of feedback.

“In face-to-face learning you have immediate feedback. You can see whether something is landing in the moment,” says Reeder. “If you don’t understand how people are performing and engaging with virtual learning, you can miss major things.”

Other virtual L&D challenges come with the nature of remote-work schedules.

“People’s attention being swept away by emails, having to pick up the kids, and the choice to ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’ of an L&D session – these are features here to stay,” says McPhail. “It’s about forcing practitioners to think differently about how we convince learners to give us their precious time.”   

James believes that a blend of live and asynchronous learning, such as in GitLab’s case, can pay educational dividends. Rather than huge investments into new collaborative tech to facilitate L&D, organisations can turn to apps they’re already using, he says. Often it’s not the technology that’s important, but how it’s used.

“Empowering team members to learn in their own time as well as in a live group environment, such as through a video conferencing platform and groups in messaging apps – in which peers can support one another – will help employees solve problems together, discuss challenges and suggest ways forward.”

Reeder says feedback is a crucial part of GitLab’s virtual learning process.

“If a company switches to remote or hybrid learning, then it often shines a light on what works and what doesn’t,” she says. “You have to track results, collect data and allow employees to provide anonymous feedback so you can utilise their insights.”

“We can’t think of learning design simply as a set of outcomes that we’re looking to impart on learners anymore. Learning has to be something people want to be a part of now. If they don’t, they won’t.” – Daniel McPhail, Director of Learning and Development, Go1

Ultimately, the best type of remote L&D is moving from a topic-centric approach to a user-focused one, says McPhail. The employee should be at the centre of the learning experience.

“We can’t think of learning design simply as a set of outcomes that we’re looking to impart on learners anymore. Learning has to be something people want to be a part of now. If they don’t, they won’t.”

James agrees: “A collaborative learning approach can help by offering ways to build closer connections between remote teams. Remote digital learning can support real-life, real-time work that workers face every day.”

Don’t forget the ‘soft skills’

While virtual L&D settings naturally lend themselves to teaching technical skills, soft skills can be acquired as well, especially through an experiential approach.

“It’s important to remember that skills were never exclusively developed in live learning environments,” says James. “More often than not, skills are developed while working, by role-modelling observed behaviour, facing real-life experiences and challenges, and trying things out.”

If employers get their virtual L&D sessions right, they may be even able to surpass face-to-face settings. After all, relying on workers to pick up skills and knowledge from off-the-cuff conversations in the workplace, or the occasional visiting speaker, has its downsides too.

“Virtual learning is often cross-media and asynchronous,” says Reeder. “There’s a flexibility to it that means employees can learn when they feel receptive. They can take a break when they need to, rather than attend a two-hour workshop and leave feeling brain-dead.”

There are benefits in terms of accessibility too. GitLab’s monthly live speaker series often sees more than 60 team members join from around the world. By meeting remotely, employees connect in an educational space that further benefits L&D. They can learn from each other’s diverse experiences in a peer-to-peer setting.

All of this is to say that it’s time for HR, leaders and managers to rethink how they approach L&D in the new world of work – and that’s an exciting opportunity. As James says, “Now we have a legitimate opportunity in L&D to pivot from ‘providing learning’ to ‘enhancing performance.’”

A longer version of this article first appeared in the October 2022 edition of HRM Magazine.