In normal times, people prefer live classroom training over virtual live. In these pandemic times, however, it seems people have warmed up to live virtual learning, and as a courseware developer, instructor and assessor, I am warming up to it as well.
I recently completed a 3-day Certified Total Rewards Professional (CTRP) certification workshop for a client’s HR/C&B staff located in 11 cities across 7 countries, using Zoom. We spread the class over 5 weeks, running sessions from 2:00 to 5:30 pm weekly, in three groups of about 17 people each. This size works well, as it gives participants a peer group large enough to pick up a range of ideas from one another, but small enough for shy people to get to know one another and share freely. We ran the exam on the 6th week. We had nearly perfect attendance.
The advantages of virtual learning with Zoom, include:
- gallery view, so everyone can see everyone, critical on day 1 so give people a human to human experience
- breakout rooms for small group (3 to 6 people normally)
- chat was used to capture notes from breakouts or other discussions such as personal learning objectives shared during introductions
- private chat can be used to discreetly answer specific questions someone may have
- recordings which benefit those who had to miss anything, including the review session prior to the exam
- edited recordings can be provided to the client for future use by new staff doing C&B work
- breaks can be a little shorter – we did 10 minute tea breaks in the morning and afternoons
Last week, I completed another virtual CTRP workshop with my fantastic event partner, HRD-Future over 4-6 August. They registered 18 people from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand. Except for the person in Thailand, we were all in the same time zone, so running the event in three consecutive days was no issue. Had this been a physical class, it would not have happened since the numbers would be too small to justify the use of a hotel or for my travel costs. We were able to provide a discounted fee to participants due to these savings. But the quality was just as good, when you weight the advantages above against the disadvantages of not being able to see each other face to face.
We’ve certified 66 people in the last few weeks. Globally we now have 280 people holding either CTRS, CTRP or CTRF certifications. If you do a search in LinkedIn on CTRS or CTRP, you will see a growing list of people proudly showing their credentials in total rewards.
We have virtual certification workshops scheduled for Bangladesh (starting 28 August in half-day sessions) and in the Philippines, which will run August 31 to September 2, in three consecutive full days.
Spread the news, we’re as busy as ever.
For information on upcoming certification events, use the emails as below. Pricing and scheduling is up to my partners who understand the needs of their local customers best.
Philippines – HRMBSi – Freddi Marquez – freddmrq@aol.com
South Asia – WARD – Rupak Zaidi – rmnzaidi@gmail.com
Thailand – CSR Consulting – Easra Disorntetiwat – easra@csrgroup.co.th
Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, or other locations – HRD-Future – marketing@hrd-future.com
ASEAN Total Rewards Institute™ 