Building Online Training Programs for Virtual Workplaces

Abstract

Companies that conduct their business either in an entirely online setting or in hybrid environments (i.e., online and face-to-face) are in a unique position in today’s global economy. They are poised to take advantage of the Internet’s flexibility both for assisting their clients and for hiring the best workers available regardless of geographical location. They also are in a unique position when it comes to training and preparing their workers to assist those clients. However, many such companies do not have principle-centered training materials that they can adapt to meet their own institutional needs. This chapter provides employers with such training principles, ones that have been substantiated by practice and research from various professional fields and that have been successfully used in an Internet-based business that employs hundreds of part- and full-time individuals. Specifically, this chapter provides readers with: (1) an educational and financial rationale for conducting online human adaptive training for virtual workplaces; (2) an understanding of training/professional development principles and strategies for online employees in virtual businesses via one-to-one and/or group human adaptive settings, and (3) an understanding of how to scale such training processes efficiently and with measurable results gleaned from qualitative and quantitative methods.