Messages from The Will Call Door: The Advantages to Digital Training Post-Pandemic
Happy hunting Goodwill Nation!
I have had several students ask me lately if we will ever get back to normal (post-pandemic), the way things were prior to March 2020 (pre-pandemic). It’s a great question. Oftentimes, we look at life before a challenging time with fondness. But the truth is, we set a new normal quite frequently. It’s happened over and over throughout history in one fashion or another; things always change. Sometimes they are for the better. Sometimes they are not, but as the saying goes, “the only thing that stays the same is things change.” For instance, through this we have really understood the value of human interaction at the workplace and how seeing and reading body language as part of the communication process has a significant influence on how we perceive the engagement level of the other party. None more important than in the interview, hiring, and onboarding process.
Post-Pandemic “New Normal”
The new normal takes benefits from the stone age, February 2020, and the post-pandemic workforce and merges them into a functional process for recruiting and training that is both efficient and cost sensitive. In person or phone first interviews are being replaced with Zoom or Teams calls allowing the interviewer the same advantages of interviewing face to face with no risk, expense, or travel time to consider. So now the challenge is getting the workforce bought in the new era of digital foot printing through training and development of these skills moving forward.
I believe virtual meetings, in many cases simply for the cost savings, will be our new normal, but there are certainly other benefits. The “New normal” can be scary at first, but we always come around and adapt and that is what makes us such a wonderful species. Remember the power in helping others.
By Rick Mulroney, Central Oklahoma Goodwill Trainer