Initially corporate trainings were synonymous with never ending program schedules and celebrations. Induction programs meant going to beautiful locales, stationing new employees in high class hotels to attend seminars and work shops. This procedure used to fall heavy on logistics as well as expenditures. Then, economic slowdown, rising inflation and increasing need of talented human capital has led the corporate world to switch to modern technologies for more effective and cheaper means of communication.
Relief came for corporate trainers when a few years ago, a research done by Forrester Research on Computer and Web-based training revealed that use of digital communication media for web based training initiatives resulted in higher completion rate, trainees found it more acceptable and efficient as they could run these programmes at their own pace and compared to traditional training, this proved to be more cost effective.

Digital communication has long been acknowledged as a self paced, dependable and the only alternative to conventional instructor led training. As mentioned above Forrester Research revealed that computer and web based training reaped higher rates of completion because web has always been an intriguing media for everyone, it has not only helped the novice but also professional trainers in improving their own performances. The ‘self paced’ characteristic of digital communication helps employees in engaging in learning processes whenever they find time, without disrupting their work schedules. The third finding of the research revealed that companies found web based training more reliable in long run as it enabled them to get more work out of fewer efforts and lesser budgets.

The corporate world is constantly evolving and at this point of time the competition, technology and tools are rising up and amalgamating together to define what business education and training will look like on the World Wide Web.

Different ways of e- training

e-training today has been made more accessible and more interesting. The interactive nature and the use of multiple media have generated more interest amongst corporate trainees. e-learning is a confluence of myriad technologies that make it more exciting. Here are a few e-learning methods or trends that have already proved their efficiency in the arena of digital communications.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a computer based learning tool that has been there in the corporate world for quite some time now. This digital technique has helped the corporate world in diminishing boundaries. A video conferencing provides an effective platform to address audiences across the globe through a single instructor. Recent addition to this tool is that one no longer needs to be present live in the conference room while the video conference is on. Now the live audience can be extended to anyone with access to a web browser. Intelligent portals with strict security controls look after such video conferences and make sure that right information is provided to right users. The advent of technology has lead enterprises to leverage existing conference room assets into virtual class rooms that span across continents.

Audio Instructions

Research shows that some people are able to concentrate better on visual medium and some are more receptive to sound. For people who are more receptive to audio medium and for the ones who are visually challenged, digital communications have provided a wider horizon to impart knowledge and train corporate employees through sounds, voiceovers and music. A lot of people find it boring and difficult to read off the computer screen, for them voiceovers or sound effects not only make reading interesting but also help them concentrate better as sound is a personal medium that generates pictures in the mind. Voiceovers also aid in customizing the e-learning process according to the target audience’s language. For instance Enterprises in which training manuals are printed in regional languages generally combine their texts with a translation in English or any other regional language to connect with trainees from different cultural backgrounds.

Graphics or Comic Strips

Graphics or over simplified comic strips are being used effectively to leverage circumstantial role plays. Certain soft skills like negotiation skills, body language and objection handling skills can be best explained in situation only. A verbal or textual account cannot have as much impact as a visual account. Hence simplified comic strips, caricatures or video graphics are used to teach trainees how to handle certain situations and the role they are supposed to play in those situations.

Games

Games are no longer frivolous or a waste of time. They are being effectively used to give circumstantial exposures to corporate trainees and to test their skills. Most corporate trainers have a range of favorite games for which the results are tried and tested before hand. These games give a wider scope of exposure and interaction. The interactive nature of web has transformed gaming into a powerful gaming tool today. Games make the training process more fun and exciting. The army has been using games for training since 1980s and the corporate games market is small but it is growing at a fast pace. Such games make up for 15% of the serious or non entertainment category of the gaming industry.

Virtual Trainer

Why would a company pay for an entire team of trainees go to a particular job site or production site to learn the production techniques when the job site itself can reach the trainees on their desktops and PCs? Yes, the video technology has also transformed the digital learning process. Now it is possible for enterprises to take their new trainees on a virtual tour of their distant production sites with the help of video clips. Now with the help of Chroma Key technology, it is also possible to have a trainer in the video clip explaining the production module without the instructor having to be present at the location. This saves time and cost for the enterprise to set up an entire shoot at the production site. All that they need to do is get footage of the production site and rest everything can be digitally manipulated while editing sessions. The web now allows streaming such videos and uploading them so that any employee with web access can enlighten himself with such virtual training sessions.

Video

Much of training is about using a Show-and-Tell model to teach people. The limitation of the old WBT modules lay in their inability to show something in a dynamic way (video) and to actually talk about it (audio). Now, leveraging an Internet technology known as Flash Video, it is possible to deliver fast-loading, lightweight video content without gobbling up enormous Gigs of bandwidth. Moreover, the video can be programmed to start playing while the rest of the file continues to load at the backend — thus, the trainee does not have to wait for the whole file to load before he/she can view the video.

Conclusion

As tools and technology mature, an increasing number of choices will be available for business learning via the Web including off-the-shelf turnkey solutions for customers who desire shrink-wrapped solutions and powerful development tools for organizations willing and desiring to build more customized environments

They say matches for matrimony are made in heaven, but down here on earth, matches for jobs are made in placement consultancies. There are hundreds of placement consultancies today which are making right talents meet right organizations. Now if you have to develop content for one such placement consultancy, then how do you position it as an exclusive and distinctive agency when it is doing the same job as thousand other companies? Let me share my experience of developing content for a placement consultancy’s website.

I had no clue about the consultancy business when I was handed over the project. So the first task that I undertook was to do research and analyze. Having a clear view about the competitors and the company differentiators is the most important thing while you are straining your brains to come up with a brilliant idea that can place your client, a large HR consultancy in the league of leading companies rather than the routine ones.

In any kind of creative writing it is important to understand the business as well as the target audience. Placement consultancies are a bridge between job seekers and employers, so their target audience consists of both. So after understanding their business and industry nuances, I interacted with the client to know about the services that they offer for their clients and job seekers. Developing a content to address to different work groups where in the website would be scrolled by a company CEO who is probably an MBA from IIM to a college student who is looking for a temporary job, was tough job.

After doing all the preparations from research and understanding, I began to write the content. Now there are three key fundamentals that one needs to keep in mind while you are developing content for a placement consultancy-

Make it fresh and distinctive- HR consultancy is a flourishing business today, and there are more than 3000 placement consultancies that are registered on naukri.com itself, so then how do you expect readers to stop on your client’s website? This can be done by positioning your client as a company which has the competence to stand in line with the leaders. Bring out their efficiency and professional approach in the content. As content writer you are not paid to write, but to charm with your words. Address the pain areas of employers and job seekers and address them in away that convinces the reader that this firm understands their problems and has solutions for the same.

Build trust – HR solution companies are corporate match makers. Job seekers hand over their professional lives in their hands and organizations entrust their company integrity, hence it is important that the website content of any placement consultancy exudes dependability and confidence. The content needs to have an emotional quotient to connect with the audiences.

Use industry jargons- Don’t let the world know that the one who wrote the copy doesn’t belong to the industry. It is good to build an emotional connect but that doesn’t mean you get too verbal. Using professional language and industry jargon is necessary to bring out your client’s expertise in the field. The maximum business for placement agencies comes from employers and not job seekers who can easily register themselves on the various online job portals. Hence the language needs to be prove the credibility of your client’s experience and industry expertise.

Like every other child, even I used to dream about being an astronaut when I grow up. I used to fantasize about going in the space where earth seemed like a colorful crazy ball and stars looked like giant balls of fire. But like every kid around me, that dream was lost. Instead of choosing a profession that could help me go to space, I chose a profession that required signals to be transmitted, Media. I never thought that I could write, I always thought I was a boring writer who never got good marks in English essay writing and who always wrote clichéd stuff. But after sitting unemployed at home for 1 month, I tried my hand at content writing. Initially I was little hesitant but as I progressed, I realized even I could do it. I realized that content writing means far more than just writing. Here are a few aspects of content writing profession that I have explored during my 2 month long profession as a content writer. Most of these aspects are elusive to a majority of people.

• Content writing is not about making tricky sentences loaded with heavy vocabulary, but about building new relationships with the usual simple and colloquial words. This is because as every other media, content is also targeted at masses; hence it needs to have a language, a style that is comprehendible by all.

• Content writing doesn’t require just knowledge of language, but it requires you to be observant about everything that is happening across you. As a content writer one comes across myriad projects where you have to write for individuals as well as businesses from various industries. You are expected to speak your customer’s language; hence it is very important that you have a wide scope of knowledge about various industries and businesses.

• Content writing also requires research and analysis. I was a little surprised when my boss told me that every creative job requires a thorough research and analysis of the objectives of a project and now after having experienced it myself, I couldn’t have agreed more. I have come to realize that as a writer you would need to know the aims and the target audience for a particular project to articulate it successfully. An extensive research will be required to understand you client’s industry and the target audience’s psyche, only then you can match their pulse and grasp them through your content.

I never believed in this, but now I think everyone of us can write, the only pre requisite for it is to put your soul into each and every word that you write. I have enjoyed my last two months as a content writer and never felt exhausted after a day’s work, because as they say, if you love thy labour, you would never get tired of it.