Virtual Instructor-Led Training Best Practices

Often times, delivering a “good” virtual presentation just doesn’t cut it. To really engage your team and allow them to retain information, your delivery and content need to be great. Start improving your sessions by implementing these virtual instructor-led training best practices. Soon, you’ll start to drive real results that will have a lasting impact on your employees.

HRDQ offers expert virtual corporate training, with over 80 virtual instructor-led course options available. View our classes today to get started!

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Track Your Results

If you want to determine how effective your training is, you need to track your results. Here’s how to measure the success of your training session:

• Attain a team baseline. Ask your employees to take an online assessment that will determine the exact areas they need to improve.
• Let your team put their training to use. After your training is complete, give your employees a few days to implement what they’ve learned.
• Ask your team to take retake the assessment once they’ve had time to practice their new skills. If their score improves, it shows your session was successful. If it does not, consider doing a follow-up training session with a focus on the weaknesses the results are indicating.

At HRDQ, we offer a library of online assessments that are designed to test your team’s soft skills. Not only are they easy to distribute, but you can easily track employee progress, receive instant test results, enjoy organized consolidation of data, and provide customized reports to your participants.

Explore the HRDQ Online Assessment Center

Customize Your Content

Your content is the core of your virtual training session. If it’s not relevant or compelling to your audience, they will not be able to connect with it, meaning they will be less likely to retain the information. That’s why creating custom content that’s pertinent to the team is key to making a virtual training program that works. Here are three easy ways to improve your content through customization:

• Create team goals & objectives. By creating team goals that relate to the company and including them in your presentation, you can show participants what your expectations are and exactly how you plan to help them succeed. Let them know why this training matters.
• Include interactive elements & visuals. This is one of the best ways to hold people’s attention. Transform bodies of text into short bullet points, images and GIFs, and games that test your participants’ knowledge of the content.
• Brand your materials. Branding makes your content feel less generic and more personable, which shows that the company is invested in employee growth.

If you are designing your own virtual training program, explore the HRDQ Reproducible Training Library. This soft skills library includes more than 300 hours of training programs that are fully customizable to meet your team’s needs.

Nail the Delivery

After curating relevant, meaningful content, you can then focus on delivering a fantastic presentation that captivates your audience. Here are some of the best practices for nailing the delivery of your virtual training program:

Don’t Read Off The Slides

This is presenting rule number one. Everybody tuning into the training session can read the slides for themselves. Instead, they need you to explain the information and why it matters, which leads to our next point.

Share Real-World Scenarios & Experiences

People remember what’s most striking to them. If you can relate facts to real scenarios, or even better, your personal experiences in the company, people will be much more inclined to listen. Feel free to make it casual, drop in a joke here and there, and let your personality shine through.

Adjust Your Tone

It’s important to plan your performance, but you don’t want it to sound scripted and monotone. Make sure your tone is energetic and that you enunciate your words. Tone is usually an indicator of a person’s enthusiasm, so if you can show you’re enthused about the content, your employees will be too.

Test Participant Attention

Don’t let your trainees sit idly by. You can test to make sure they’re paying attention a few different ways—ask them questions, set times for group discussions, direct them to complete pre-planned activities, and pause to see if they have questions of their own.

Get The Timing Right

Once you know the presentation like the back of your hand, it becomes easy to rush through the content. However, remember you’re teaching the content, not just telling it. Take it slow so participants can absorb the information.

As you work to nail the timing, put yourself in your trainee’s shoes—is your presentation so long that people may simply disengage? Giving a great presentation comes down to getting the timing exactly right, so consider doing a few test runs to make sure it’s the right length.

Run it by a Colleague

It’s always a good idea to get a second opinion on your virtual training program. Before implementing your training, deliver your presentation to a trusted colleague. Ask if they have any suggestions, if there is any other information that should be included, and what they think of the time length and your performance. After taking their feedback into consideration, you should be ready for your employees!

Get Started with HRDQ Today

Start creating effective training sessions with these virtual instructor-led training best practices.

• Training Program Content. If you’re designing your own training program, explore the HRDQ Reproducible Training Library for a full range of customizable soft skills training content.
• Virtual Training. If you’d prefer to work with an external instructor, consider Virtual Instructor-Led Courses from HRDQ. We have over 80 classes to choose from, so you’re sure to find the option that fits your team’s needs.

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