5 Simple Ways to Develop Talents Offshore
Talent development isn’t something that you would pick immediately if you were given options to do a task or a function. If it’s the first time you’ve encountered this corporate jargon, we get you, it sounds vague. However, it’s one of the most vital subjects in growing a team or a business. Talent development alone is not easy; doing it from different locations is way harder. But it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Let’s talk about some simple ways to develop talents offshore!
1. Identify Skills Gaps
Learning professionals usually default to buying the most accessible courses, e-learning and workshops if they are pressured by finance to spend their remaining training budget. Although not everyone from L&D practices this and not every program results in learners lamenting learning sessions, it still impacts the employees involved—because they need to allot time and attention to complete the course. This leads to bad post-training evaluation results if it feels forced and not necessary for the taker’s current and future profession. So look at their current capabilities then figure out where they want to head. That way you can start finding learning paths that fit your participants. Make sure to involve them in the process so they are accountable for whatever program they choose to commit to.
2. Curate Learning Experience
Once you buy thousands of courses and distribute them to your team, you cannot expect those to fly off the shelf. People learn in different ways. Reading modules and watching videos alone can be too boring, especially for young millennials and Gen Zs. Find ways to make it fun and engaging so that they can easily recall it once the application is needed. Do the application, immersion, simulation, case studies, and projects whilst they’re still learning it or right after learning it. This gives them a perspective of the topic’s practicality whilst it’s being applied in real-life situations.
3. Coaching and Mentoring
Learning is not a one-off thing. That’s why development requires constant action. Without continuous improvement, it’s just hard to reach a level of mastery that can be impactful to the employees’ careers. When they take on a challenge or a project, allow constant communication. Make them aware that they must keep a feedback loop to be agile. What has worked before may not work in the future so whilst you’re teaching them, be open that you may also learn something new. Not only will this be helpful for both parties but it will also make a bond between you and the coachee/mentee. This is why a lot of research from professors is published with their students.
4. When in Doubt, Consult an Expert
You can easily spot a talent developer on LinkedIn. The ones who are loud on that platform are either marketers or coaches. When you hire consultants or simply ask an expert advice, you are making shortcuts to develop teams faster. You may quickly resort to appointing a social butterfly to train your people. But the thing is there is science to learning and development and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel in making it effective. Just because someone is extraverted, doesn’t mean they are built to facilitate knowledge transfer.
5. Cultivate a Learning Culture
When your teams are bored, they may waste their time gossiping and talking shop. Although that is fine as no organisation is perfect; in the grand scheme of things this will not be beneficial for them and for your business. When you start rewarding top learners through gamification and encourage the sharing of takeaways, it makes the participants look forward to your activities. Nurturing this type of mindset makes a workplace not only fun but also thriving.
As Richard Branson famously said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” Developing talent is not simply upskilling and reskilling, it’s about building characters and a mindset that is forged for their future and your company. We believe in that and we always will. If you’d like to learn more about how we enable talent development for global remote teams, you may contact us through this page or book a call with an expert on this link.