Manage HR Magazine: How do you develop your leaders when everyone’s remote?

KellyConnect^® trains more than 200 team leads virtually every year

Original article published by Manage HR Magazine on Dec. 8, 2020

Remote work is here to stay – and it’s having a significant impact on how businesses recruit, onboard and develop their talent.

77% of human capital executives say the number of remote workers will increase as a result of the pandemic, and companies expect about 40% of their employees to work from home in the future, according to surveys from the Conference Board and the Boston Consulting Group.

KellyConnect implemented its work-from-home model more than 10 years ago. Today, we employ more than 6,000 remote contact center agents, supervised virtually by 421 team leads. Last year alone, KellyConnect trained 200 leaders remotely.

How do we do it?

Jennifer Sutherland, senior director of training and development, shares KellyConnect’s best practices in this Manage HR magazine article. The four core strategies include:

1. Establish a learning culture first and secure executive buy-in.
2. Pick vendors who share your values and instructors who excel virtually.
3. Deploy a hybrid training model that is 70% instructor-led and 30% self-guided.
4. Establish clear performance metrics and introduce touchpoints for continuous training.

“You can only manage the transition to a permanent work-from-home model well if you have a comprehensive virtual leadership development strategy,” Jennifer says. “The best tools only take you so far. Ultimately, it’s about your corporate culture.”

Read Jennifer’s Manage HR magazine article here.

Learn more about KellyConnect’s services here.