Coronavirus has impacted all sectors of the economy. Companies as big as Virgin Atlantic, Marriott, J.C. Penney, and Disney World have furloughed many of their employees as travel, shopping, and entertainment has ground to a halt. A typical furlough means employees are put on a temporary leave due to special needs of a company or employer. The current furlough situation is more complex due to uncertainty about when the coronavirus crisis will end.
Turn furlough into opportunity
For organizations furloughing employees, ensuring their workforce stays engaged and productive during this time presents a challenge. This could be a good opportunity to train your workforces so they return after the furlough stronger and smarter. For example, a major retailer recently furloughed its retail store personnel but continues to pay them. In addition, they are offering online training courses for their furloughed employees to facilitate professional development. It can be difficult for employees to find the time for developmental training on top of their usual responsibilities, but being on a paid furlough creates a unique opportunity for professional development.
Furthermore, when businesses transition back to more normal operations, it will be a busy time gearing up. As a result, there will be even less time to do either professional development or required training. With that forward-looking perspective, your organization may want to leverage this work from home time to squeeze in employee training so your training plans don’t get off-track. Get ahead now on your training programs so your organization can hit the ground running when we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
How OpenSesame can help
eLearning can provide a critical and efficient path to train, prepare and engage employees who have been impacted. While on furlough, your workforce can hone their skills and complete training to return to work more prepared and skilled.
OpenSesame has curated lists of courses specifically for furloughed workers, free of charge through 15 June, with lists designed for:
-
- Customer facing employees: Designed to improve customer service skills, deal with difficult customers, and how to be resilient in the face of stressful situations.
- Office employees: Develop valuable skills like effective communication, workplace ethics and conflict resolution.
- Operations personnel: Courses on safety, problem solving and emergency preparedness.
Sign up for these courses at go.opensesame.com/wfh-offer.
Please use these courses to help your employees work and manage remotely, stay productive while on furlough and return to the workforce with new and improved skills. Professional development is always of utmost importance and these courses can help your workforce polish their skills and be ready to return to work sharper than ever.
Returning to the new normal
With travel bans widening and instructor-led training no longer an option, we are ready to support your organization to curate the best courses to meet your other training needs and quickly deploy them to your employees.
For more information on how we can help you save time, money, and curate the right courses for your training program, contact us today at info@opensesame.com.