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Although many cities across the United States are opening back up as stay-at-home orders are being lifted, only 28 percent of workers have actually returned to the office. Many employees are wary about returning to the office as remote work has offered them unparalleled flexibility. This past April, 4 million people left their jobs in search of more flexible employment options, and many in the working force also left their jobs over concerns with COVID-19. In efforts to retain employees, companies need to ensure they are updating their policies, and that remote workers are provided with updated procedural documentation and training materials. In doing so, they can help increase employee confidence in their company.

With many working professionals making career shifts and taking on new roles, training can be quite difficult when done remotely. As a result, companies must enhance and accommodate training methods. It is also necessary to have company materials to ensure that employees can learn their roles remotely just as easily as at work. Policy and procedures regarding employees returning to the office must also be updated to foster confidence.

Many employees are justifiably concerned over COVID-19 precautions. Moreover, companies will have to adjust their policies to create a safe work environment to ease employee anxieties. It is important to review pre-COVID-19 documentation of training materials, policies, and procedures in order to determine what elements of them need to be updated or changed. Furthermore, organizations will need to replace some documentation in order to adapt to remote work and safety protocols. Technical writers have vast experience in creating this type of documentation to facilitate successful remote training.  

Training in the Covid Era

With 1 in 4 Americans working remotely in 2021 and more than 36 million are predicted to continue working remotely through 2025, companies will have to provide training materials that promote productive remote work. Among the difficulties remote employees have faced is the lack of effective communication of information. Inadequate training materials can force remote employees to spend more time trying to reach out to colleagues for assistance. This issue not only affects new hires but also current employees as they may have to focus some of their time on filling in the gaps left by insufficient training. Whether training new employees or current employees, communication of information is key to creating a more knowledgeable workforce. 

Updating company training materials for a remote setting may be quite time-consuming for companies. Similarly, employees that have to assist new hires can potentially be wasting company time. 

There are a number of dynamic and effective training materials that can help bridge the aforementioned lack of communication. For instance, workbooks, how-to guides, and digital instructional content can prove to be valuable assets to assist in the training of new and current employees. Well-developed training materials not only boost productivity but also help increase employees’ confidence in their company. Experienced technical writers can help to improve training materials for companies that have found it difficult to adapt to a remote work model. 

Updating Policy and Procedure Documentation 

With the country opening back up, companies must reevaluate their policies, whether they decide to continue work-from-home models or adopt hybrid models (a mix of work-from-home and in-the-office). In particular, companies will have to reevaluate their policies to determine what work may be done at home and what work can only be done in person. Additionally, these updated policies will need to address concerns including:

  • Employee communication and check-in frequency
  • Technical support and supplying equipment and/or software to remote workers
  • Protection of company data and setting up VPNs and cybersecurity software 
  • What work schedules will look like and what kind of flexibility employees will have in determining their schedules  
  • How and what systems will be used to submit work 
  • Virtual availability expectations 
  • How to track working hours 

A company needs to update policies to address new concerns that come with remote work models or hybrid models.

Additionally, if companies are seeking to implement a mixture of remote work and in-office work, they must update policy and procedural documentation to ensure the safety of employees in the office. Employees have expressed their concerns over returning to work as COVID-19 continues to be a threat. Employees want to see how their companies will deal with safety protocols. To ease the transition to in-office work, companies must update policy and procedural documentation. This documentation must outline expectations on employee behavior in the office to ensure the health and safety of those employees.

Remote workers need to be updated on policy and procedural documentation in order to boost employee retention, especially if employees will be expected to work some days in the office. Technical writers can also help update procedural documentation. 

How EDC Can Help You

Written by Diana Guerra

EDC’s technical writers have the necessary writing skill and experience in developing such technical documents as training materials and policy and procedural documentation. They have produced such documentation for software companies, multinational conglomerates, and financial services companies. Our tech writers have created successful training materials including user guides, instruction manuals, procedural documentation, and various other reference materials. Their decades of experience will ensure quality documentation that will assist in the successful training of remote workers. EDC can develop policy and procedural documentation that will aid in promoting employee confidence and as a result employee retention.

Whether you need a team of consultants to produce a complete line of documentation or a single technical writer for a brief project, Essential Data’s Engagement Manager will lead the project from start to finish. At Essential Data Corporation, we guarantee the quality of our work. Contact us today to get started at (800) 221-0093 or sales@edc.us

Written by Diana Guerra