Although workers at some companies have the opportunity to occasionally go to work, the reality is that they continue working from home. This raises concerns over the loss of training opportunities for new-graduate and other young employees.
Survey results recently announced by Persol Research Institute stressed the important role that communication plays in the training and retention of young employees working from home.
(Source: Persol Research Institute “Onboarding fact-finding survey of new graduates (Coronavirus crisis impact edition)”
https://rc.persol-group.co.jp/news/202012230001.html These findings attest to the importance and effectiveness of the “Team” portion of the 3 Key Elements + Breathing Space.
Working together in the office enables such advantages as a detailed view of how things are done and opportunities to provide guidance, benefits that are not easily achieved when working from home. In addition to direct guidance, an office environment offers supplementary training opportunities in that younger employees can watch and emulate their more experienced colleagues and can chat with them during breaks and after meetings. In an online working environment, however, such opportunities are not possible without a conscious effort to create them.
According to the survey findings, among companies working from home, those that saw a positive impact on the acquisition and retention of abilities among new employees despite the pandemic were companies that increased opportunities for internal communication with management, senior employees in the division to which they were assigned, and their bosses.
In the case of new employees working from home, the survey also noted the need to listen to their personal stories and present the company’s vision and direction to them. Since remote work makes it difficult to intervene and provide detailed guidance on work processes, an approach that could be effective in addressing the situation is to create conditions that enable them to work to some degree on their own by highlighting the vision and direction. In addition, building a relationship that allows the sharing or personal stories could also prove beneficial to promoting retention and growth.
So, now might be the perfect time to try to consciously create opportunities to spend some time with young employees to share your team’s direction and personal stories with them.