Hydrocarbon Processing - December 2020 - 15

Workforce

P. MUNSON
T.A. Cook & Partner Consultants, Houston, Texas

Five lessons to get the most out of
remote training and tools
The past year has been a time of great challenges, and of great
opportunities, for people to adapt and overcome the current restrictions on in-person meetings. In a demanding and changing environment, training is key for developing new workforce
skills, as well as for enhancing and adapting existing strengths.
In the hydrocarbon processing industries, this training focuses
on concrete work processes and technical issues. This sort of
training has traditionally consisted of in-person group settings
that have now been significantly restricted due to COVID-19. In
this new reality, the industry must continue to develop skills, in
the most effective manner, for supervisors, operators and maintenance craftspersons, while keeping these employees healthy
and available to get back into the plant to apply these skills.
In-person group training may never look the same as it did
prior to the pandemic, but 2020 has shown that we can get
much more out of remote tools than we previously thought
possible. These tools provide excellent new options for flexible and engaging training that brings together expert trainers
and collaborative learners no matter where they are located.
Based on the author's experience conducting remote training
on maintenance and reliability during 2020, five key lessons
are presented for getting the most out of this online medium.
1. Start with 'why.' Now, more than ever, one must use a
critical eye when considering training. During this challenging
pandemic period, achieving goals has become much harder on
both an organizational level and an individual level. For this
reason, companies must focus their training efforts on key
skills that will enhance the organization's competitiveness.
Training should be explicitly linked to an organization's goals
and its plans for achieving them. Once this linkage has been
validated, it is essential to clearly communicate this value to
stakeholders, including to the leaders who will be resourcing
the training and to the supervisors who will be making their
employees available to attend it.
Companies must also communicate the training's value
proposition to the learners before, during and after the training, so that they understand why it is important for them to not
only attend but also to be present and engaged in the training.
The author's experience indicates that it can be harder to get
people to attend remote training than it is to herd people into a
classroom setting. Once they have logged in to an online training session, it is certainly harder to keep learners engaged and
free of distractions, and to ensure that they avoid multitasking
or simply losing focus during the training. We have all been on
remote calls. When attending remote sessions, it is easier to
drift off on other thoughts than when attending training ses-

sions in person. Consequently, to maintain a high level of engagement among participants, communicating the value proposition is a crucial first step. Engagement must be constantly
nurtured, as laid out in the points that follow.
2. Reinvent and invigorate remote training. We all know

what onsite training generally looks like. Participants show
up at a classroom, grab coffee and pastries, sit down and then
listen to the training session. If the trainer is good, there will
be plenty of opportunities for engagement, such as questionand-answer sessions, group discussions and activities. Trainers
will also read the room for non-verbal cues and will adjust their
delivery as needed. On breaks, side conversations will help participants make connections with the other learners and reset
their resolve to go into another session. Most of us do not want
to be known as " that person " who openly ignores the training
while thumbing through a mobile device, so we make a good
effort to appear to be engaged, which results in at least a moderate level of actual attentiveness.
Very few of these familiar social cues are at play during
remote training, however. Thus, trainers who take their preCOVID material and deliver it unaltered while seated at their
laptop are doomed to failure. This would also result in a costly
failure for the receiving organization. Not only would the training funding and the highly compensated time of employees be
wasted, but a poorly prepared trainer may also have created a
disastrous first impression for a key initiative that is tied to real
value for an organization.
Remote training must be designed and delivered in a manner that specifically addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of today's remote environment. Gaining and maintaining engagement are far more challenging remotely, and few
of the usual cues and encouragements are available. To compensate for this, training should be structured in shorter blocks
with more engagement opportunities, and with more frequent
breaks that will allow people to reset.
Finally, it is a best practice to use a technical facilitator for
remote training. This allows the lead trainer to focus on the
content and engagement, while the facilitator deals with the
technology (including the tools mentioned later in this article)
and monitors the session chat window and the video feed for
learners' questions and feedback.

3. Use structure and tools to create and maintain engagement. Long lecture approaches do not work in the re-

mote environment. Try to keep lecture-type presentations to
a minimum, and structure the delivery so that one cohesive
Hydrocarbon Processing | DECEMBER 2020 15

Hydrocarbon Processing - December 2020

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