Many businesses have switched to remote work and meetings, but unfortunately there are some situations that may still require in-person business meetings. In-person training is still often the best way to get all of your employees on the same page. With COVID-19 still spreading, though, it’s also not as easy to conduct as it once was. If you’re looking to have in-person training during the era of COVID-19, you’ll want to focus on the following steps. Think about your essential personnel, train in smaller groups with less crossover, pay attention to your office seating, and keep training short and to the point. By following these basic tips, you can keep your business and employees safe.
Think about essential Personnel.
The first step in ensuring that your trainings are as safe as possible involves thinking about who is going to be attending. The fewer people involved, the better. Try to limit the number of people in the training area as much as possible and reduce the presence of those personnel who are not absolutely vital to the process by as much as you can. This will reduce the number of transmission vectors while still allowing all who need to be there to attend the training. Put your employees first.
Smaller groups, less crossover.
If at all possible, make sure that you’re keeping your training sessions to smaller groups and train one at a time. This maximizes the amount of space that you’ll have available while still allowing you to directly impart information. You may decide on having multiple in-person trainings in different spaces, but make sure that the groups don’t cross over any more than necessary. When you limit in-person interactions, you make everyone a bit safer.
Pay attention to office seating.
Most health professionals recommend that individuals stay six feet apart to minimize the potential of infection. It may be wise to create a seating chart that allows you to determine how many people you can fit in a training space while still maintaining those boundaries. If your current space doesn’t allow for distancing, you’ll need to either consider moving to a bigger space or running training sessions that allow for fewer people to be present at once. You may also need to get more office seating options.
Keep it short and to the point.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that your training sessions only cover those topics that are absolutely vital to in-person attendance. Don’t bring people together just because you feel like being able to see them face-to-face is important; instead, try to figure out exactly what needs to be said during the training so you can minimize the time that employees spend being potentially exposed. If you can streamline your training process, you can shorten your sessions and reduce your liabilities.
In-person training is difficult but not impossible. Pay attention to seating and numbers, while reducing unnecessary attendance and presentations. If you can keep things functioning efficiently, you’ll create a better and safer training process for all involved.
