Great teams can accomplish great things.

For many leaders, managers and team members, this is the holy grail of teamwork. It’s what we all hope our workday is like, and why we spend time, money and effort in search of making ourselves and our teams better.

But with so many factors that could contribute to a team’s success, where should you start?

One ingredient that will always be important is SKILLS. For many people who were thrust into working from home and are looking for ways to stay productive, now is a great time to invest in building your team’s skills -- especially the ones that help your people work smarter and more efficiently.

Data analysis is one of those rare skills that can have a huge and immediate impact to efficiency. It's also constantly evolving, which makes keeping those analytics skills up to date an ongoing challenge.

In late March, one of our clients turned to us to help his team stay productive during their “work from home” adjustment. Below, we’ll share his insights on the benefits of upskilling during the shift to remote work, and explore some unexpected benefits as well (which in some ways actually outweigh the skills improvement).

At Maven Analytics, we love teaching business intelligence and seeing the real-world positive impact. We just had to share!

Why? Upskilling is a win-win

As a company leader or manager, upskilling your team benefits both the business and the individuals on the team.

• For the business: The company benefits from a team with improved skills because the team is more productive and efficient, and can drive a greater impact to your business.

• For the team: Individuals benefit by getting stronger at what they do and feeling valued by their company. In a time where uncertainty surrounds us, working towards a goal and feeling valued will speak volumes of who you are as a company and a leader, and can help to create a powerful bond with your team.

Why now? People are looking for ways to stay productive from home and break the monotony of the day-to-day

Working remotely is now a widespread reality of almost every company’s work environment in some way, shape or form.

Time is on your side. Businesses are faced with something that they are not used to having: employees with unallocated or available time. With minimal commuting time and a reduced workload due to slowing demand or shortened work schedules, available time is abundant for many employees. Online training is a great way to focus that extra time.

Purpose is comforting. People are inherently drawn towards purpose. Giving your team a learning objective that they can successfully accomplish from home gives them a clear sense of purpose.

Accomplishment feels good. Setting and achieving goals feels great, builds momentum, and inspires confidence.

Meet Jason Parry

Jason Parry is the Corporate Director of Outreach and Admissions and Career Transition Services at Adams and Associates, Inc, which supports 13 teams of admissions and career support specialists across 13 states.

These teams serve as an integral part of Job Corps, the largest nationwide residential career training program in the country which has been operating for more than 50 years. The program helps eligible young people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, trains them for meaningful careers, and assists them with obtaining employment.

Parry’s teams are focused on recruiting new students into the Job Corp programs and then placing graduates into new jobs. We're thrilled to have them as a Maven Analytics client, and believe that what they are doing is truly important and impactful work. In the last 12 months Parry’s team helped over 7,000 people start Job Corps programs, and almost 5,000 find employment.

Here are some insights from Jason (JP) on the benefits of investing in his newly remote workforce with online training.

QUESTION #1: What were you hoping to provide your team via online training?

JP: I initially reached out to Maven Analytics shortly after the stay-at-home orders were issued. I wanted to offer some professional development and remote learning opportunities to my team on Microsoft Excel to help ensure that we were all working with a similar knowledge base as more and more information would need to be shared electronically in the work from home environment.

Sound familiar? Jason's team was thrust into a work from home situation and had to adjust quickly. Managers and team members were in the process of finding a “new normal” when it came to working remotely.

This challenge is universal, and it's the great leaders who see this “uncertain time” as an opportunity to help teams improve their skills and work towards common goals.

We whole-heartedly agree with Jason and feel that leveraging online training at this time presents an opportunity for teams to shift into “thrive” mode rather than just continue to "survive".

QUESTION #2: How did the training program benefit you and your team?

JP: The learning objective we set was to become more proficient in Excel, and working with data in general. The value that Maven was able to offer far exceeded my expectations, and I was able to not only offer the classes I was initially interested in but so much more. The functionality to recommend and assign courses to team members while tracking their progress is a huge plus, and allowed me as the manager to ultimately keep the team accountable to the goals we set.

It means a lot to hear that we helped Jason exceed his goals, but that’s not the only reason we're sharing this story.

Perhaps the bigger impact is how Jason’s team members felt to have this type of training offered to them during the stay at home timeframe.

Here are a few quotes from his Job Corps team:

Receiving access to additional training made me think that my company thinks about my professional growth and really stands with me that I’m appreciated as an employee. (Desiree B.)

I'm excited, and looking forward to continuing to grow professionally and apply what I’ve learned to improve systems within my work. (Daniella W.)

I was thankful for the opportunity to do this while working remotely. It allowed me to study and complete the training at my own pace and when it was convenient for me. When working in an office environment, there are constant interruptions and you can lose focus quickly. Being able to start and stop when I wanted to was valuable. (Diane F.)

That’s what it’s all about. It’s no surprise that online training is a great way to build skills and meet your learning objectives, but forging a bond with your staff and demonstrating that you're in their corner through tough times is the type of impact that gets us truly excited about what we do at Maven Analytics.

QUESTION #3: How will this impact your approach to training moving forward?

JP: We will leverage online training again. The previous time we did any structured training was before COVID and we flew a small, select group of people to our corporate office just outside of Baltimore for 3 days of focused training. With the sudden shift to remote working, we had to figure out something different to engage people and deliver value. I do hope that face to face work is possible again, but online training will be a way for us to help people be better at their job and invest in them as a team and individuals.

We couldn’t agree more, and we're proud to be the training partner that Adams and Associates and their Job Corps team turned to for their data analysis training.

Constant learning with structured objectives is a proven ingredient in successful teams and successful people. We believe that online training is an important tool for building great teams, as well as fostering growth when budgets are limited or timeframes are tight.

To summarize:

• Now more than ever, online training delivers huge value

• Employees appreciate when leaders and companies invest in their skills

• Teams are purpose-driven, and online training is a purpose-driven tool

To learn more about training and upskilling your team with Maven Analytics, visit our Team Training page.

Interested in learning more about Job Corps, or employment opportunities with Adams and Associates? Check out these links to learn more:

• https://www.jobcorps.gov

• https://www.adamsaai.com