Why You Should Promote a Learning Culture for Remote Teams

Leading a remote team goes beyond simply assigning tasks and monitoring performance. 

Successful managers concern themselves with ensuring their team members are actively learning the necessary skills to advance their careers, no matter where they work. 

Before the pandemic, companies provided various avenues for professional development; now, with the emergence of telecommuting, the situation is trickier.

What Are the Dynamics of Remote Learning?

Traditional concepts of learning procedures and interaction dynamics in the workplace are changing. 

Where before managers could designate a specific period for training and team-building activities, it’s now incredibly challenging to replicate the same process when team members work across different time zones.

Organizations have tried to use telecommuting innovations to promote continuous upskilling. 

However, mandated Zoom presentations and unsolicited online training workshops do little to encourage employees to keep learning and growing.

That’s why promoting a remote learning culture is about building a passion-driven system where team members can learn what they want when they want.

As a manager, your role is to ensure these training sessions are relevant to your organization’s success. You must also provide workers with resources that they can utilize to enhance their proficiencies and acquire new skills.

Why Foster a Learning Culture in a Remote Workplace?

Many companies may balk at spending time and energy supporting remote and hybrid employees’ participation in continued learning. 

After all, you’re already investing in workers who can work independently and bring their competencies to the table — and your budget is tight enough as it is.

However, promoting a remote learning culture is essential if your business is to remain competitive and productive in today’s marketplace. 

With remote employees expected to make up 22% of the labor pool by 2025, it’s only a matter of time until every company has at least a partially remote workforce. 

The earlier you have a system in place to accommodate these workers, the better.

Fostering a culture of learning for your work-from-home teams can provide the following benefits.

1. More Adaptable Workforce

When you commit to continuous improvement and professional growth, you help your remote team acquire valuable skills to adapt quickly to changing needs. 

From mastering new digital tools to adjusting to updated cybersecurity requirements, employees working outside the office must continuously adopt new workflows. 

Promoting a culture of learning encourages them to embrace this change, fostering resilience within the team.

2. Better Problem Solvers

Remote workers who are open to expanding their skills and sharing new ideas solve problems more effectively. 

Being seeped in a learning environment motivates them to experiment with different approaches and develop an outside-the-box mindset. 

With the proper support, your team members will feel empowered to expand their knowledge and take on new challenges.

3. Decreased Staff Turnovers

High turnover is a drain most businesses cannot afford right now. 

From the onboarding stage, team leaders must create an environment where employees both in-office and remote can thrive. 

One of the best ways to do that is to offer them chances for development at all times. Recent statistics show 94% of workers would stay on longer if the employer provided learning and development opportunities.

4. More Engaged Workers

Offering your remote workers valuable learning opportunities for personal development greatly increases their level of engagement and productivity. 

Generally, people are more motivated to put in their best efforts when they see a clear career path within an organization. 

As a bonus, a conducive learning environment also gives you a competitive advantage in the broader job market, allowing you to attract the best, most engaged talent.

5. Reduced L&D Bottlenecks

Empowering remote team members to take responsibility for their development frees you to focus on the bigger L&D picture. 

In a survey involving 1,500 managers from across 50 organizations, 75% of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their company’s L&D function. 

By delegating the day-to-day learning to remote employees, you can direct your efforts toward addressing whatever bottlenecks may be causing discontent.

7 Ways to Promote a Remote Learning Culture

These tips can help you cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and growth in your remote or hybrid workplace.

1. Make Learning Accessible to All

It’s possible that not every employee can make the best use of one-sizes-fits-all training materials. 

For example, if someone in your graphics department is a visual learner, making them sit through a 30-minute workshop is less likely to help them meet learning objectives than a visuals-based presentation.

You also need to account for the fact that with remote teams, schedule availability is a vital consideration. 

Say you want to organize a group training session and have invited an industry expert to deliver a presentation on the most recent search algorithm parameters.

The problem is the meeting is scheduled via video conferencing on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. 

The following team members have blocked off that period:

• Jane, who’s going to the dentist
• Charles, who’s attending a parent-teacher conference at his son’s school
• Mira, who’s taking off time for personal reasons

To make the learning equally accessible to them, you could ask everyone to share their questions for the expert before the training date. 

Even those who can’t make it on the day still participate without being on the call. 

Then, record the session to view later and highlight the most important sections so auditory learners can easily digest the lessons. You could also transcribe the key points of the lecture for visual learners.

Diversifying the elements of the presentation makes learning more inclusive and accessible for remote team members with varying schedule availability and learning styles.

2. Demonstrate How Learning Drives Success

Remote teams need to understand how their commitment to learning impacts business outcomes. 

Employees are more likely to actively seek out skill expansion opportunities when they understand how essential it is to organizational success.

You can demonstrate the importance of learning simply by leading by example. 

For instance, you can sign up for training courses alongside fellow employees and actively participate in learning company-sponsored initiatives. 

This makes it clear to team members that learning at work is accepted and encouraged, and that it’s something everyone should do.

3. Anticipate Future Learning Requirements

Given that 65% of full-time employees already want to wholly transition to working remotely, the future will see an increasing number of telecommuting opportunities requiring unique competencies.

Team leaders must regularly monitor industry trends to identify knowledge gaps in their teams. 

This research is integral to expanding the organization’s learning curriculum to include skills that will be essential in the coming years.

4. Support Self-Directed Learning

40% of Gen Z and millennial employees say they want self-directed learning in the workplace. This is unsurprising; empowering remote workers to take ownership of their learning can help boost motivation. 

By encouraging team members to autonomously pursue areas they wish to develop and making a wide variety of resources easily accessible, you can get employees more excited about establishing their own learning journeys.

5. Integrate Microlearning

Short, focused training modules that can fit seamlessly into work schedules can make learning more accessible and manageable for your remote team members. 

Remote work is all about efficiency and flexibility, so where possible, try to provide bite-sized learning opportunities rather than hours-long training sessions.

This approach also improves engagement and retention, ensuring employees genuinely benefit from learning opportunities and aren't attending just to pass the time.

6. Promote Virtual Mentorship

Virtual mentoring programs inspire authentic relationships, which is a hugely important aspect of a successful learning experience. 

They promote active participation and allow remote workers to benefit from personalized feedback for skill development. 

Implementing virtual mentorship within your team dynamics can be as easy as pairing new hires with experienced workers during the onboarding process.

Promoting virtual mentorship also impacts your business’s bottom line. Companies with structured mentoring programs recorded 18% higher profits than companies without. 

Similarly, these programs can increase diversity at the managerial level, empowering underrepresented remote employees with relevant one-on-one guidance to succeed in management roles.

7. Incentivize Learning

Finally, providing rewards is an effective way to encourage remote teams to participate in learning programs. 

Sharing the theoretical benefits of learning is great, but employees also appreciate prizes, both tangible and intangible.

These incentives can range from cash awards and gift cards to public recognition of a job well done during team huddles. 

These rewards provide an increased sense of accomplishment and a stronger sense of being treated as true professionals, which promotes a sustainable learning culture. 

Plus, it’s always a nice bonus to receive a gift card to your favorite restaurant.

Make Continuous Learning a Priority in Remote Workplaces

With limited face-to-face interactions, cultivating a learning culture in remote teams is difficult — but it’s also paramount for business success.

The benefits are undeniable. Remote teams with a learning culture are never stagnant; they are flexible and can always find something to be excited about. 

Continuous improvement prepares your employees for evolving challenges because they learn from the past, savor the present and look forward to the future.