TalentLMS is a great platform for enterprises, businesses and organisations doing employee training, but it’s an equally capable eLearning weapon for those of you selling online courses. That’s not only because of its built-in ecommerce capabilities, but also because of its integration with external platforms such as Shopify and soon Salesforce (and hundreds more through Zapier). The new version of our TalentLMS WP plugin introduces another integration option that lots of our users have been asking for a while: WooCommerce. Those already familiar with WooCommerce are probably already getting excited and can skip directly to the "Integrating WooCommerce with TalentLMS" section. For the rest of you, WooCommerce is a popular open source plugin that sits upon the leading CMS/blogging platform WordPress and gives it full ecommerce capabilities. If you’re starting your eLearning website from scratch, or if you’re already using WordPress for your public web presence and are interested in expanding into ecommerce, the WordPress / WooCommerce combo is one of the most established and popular options. Especially now that you can hook it up to your TalentLMS installation and get even more mileage out of both. Integrating WooCommerce with TalentLMS As with most things TalentLMS, integrating WooCommerce is an easy process. No IT department required. 1. First, WooCommerce must be installed and be active in your WP site in order for the integration to take place. 2. Clicking the "Integrate" button [1] hooks up your TalentLMS content with WooCommerce. That’s it. There’s no step three. And even step one is kind of obvious (like telling you "your PC must be plugged-in in order to work"). Once you’ve clicked to integrate TalentLMS-WP plugin and WooCommerce, all your TalentLMS courses available for sale will populate you WooCommerce products list, with your TalentLMS course categories populating the WooCommerce product categories. There’s only a small caveat you have to keep in mind: because the TalentLMS-WP plugin caches your courses to achieve better performance, if you ever add any new TalentLMS courses after you’ve integrated with WooCommerce, you’ll need to to clear the TalentLMS-WP plugin cache and sync again. Sale away The newly added WooCommerce integration lets you sell your TalentLMS courses while using the hugely popular WordPress CMS as a front-end. If you already use WordPress for your website, it’s a no-brainer to add WooCommerce into the mix. But, even if you don’t, the WordPress/WooCommerce/TalentLMS package is a very powerful (and easy to use) combination. What other integration options would you like to see in future TalentLMS releases? Drop us a line and you just might get it. Until then, stay tuned to this blog for more announcements, news, tutorials and advice. The post Woo your customers with the new TalentLMS WooCommerce integration appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

I just read "The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World" by Pedro Domingos. Fair warning: it’s not for the faint-hearted. Domingos is a leading researcher in the area of machine learning and he’s a zealot for his subject. It’s pretty technical so the book is kind of heavy going. On the other hand it’s probably the state of the art, at least for a layman like me. But the book raises some interesting issues such as, when will we achieve the Singularity popularized by Ray Kurzweil - when will computers overtake humans in intelligence? What are the techniques we will use? How much are we already using them already in everyday life? With self-driving cars on the horizon it’s a timely question. I’ve already tackled one aspect of this issue in a previous post "Can Siri Become a Great Leader? - The Coming Out of Synthetic Psychology". My thesis was that there is no reason why you couldn’t create a synthetic leader based on the approach of reverse engineering leadership and personality assessments into a virtual agent. But on reflection I wasn’t thinking of the more difficult questions of leadership, just the garden-variety leadership issues that all leaders in the business and the military face. I wasn’t really thinking of political leaders though. With the next election inexorably drawing nearer the natural question is, could we replace a president by an AI - artificial intelligence - aka a Master Algorithm? Most people would regard this as being silly or even facile but here’s a question to some of them. Would many Democrats feel that GW Bush and previous conservative presidents did such a bad job that a machine could have done better? Probably I would guess. And if you asked the same question of Republicans about Obama, I would wager that most of them would say yes too. There you have it; it’s a question that’s at least worth considering. Let’s start off with the problem. Naturally most of the problems that politicians have to address are intrinsically insoluble. They all know that and so do we so we both play a game in which we pretend they are soluble and then we all dance round the subject which is why our levels of political discourse are so egregiously infantile. So it should be easy to replicate this low level of discourse. In principle all you have to do is to feed into the AI the main tropes used by each side and then the anti-tropes used to counter them. That’s certainly not difficult. So in general all you have to do to get an AI President is to match every situation to his side of the political spectrum and then pull up the appropriate trope. No problems there. How about making the politician look human? Well there are lots of politicians that have problems with authenticity starting with Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush so the bar isn’t too high. We have a history of competitions for the best AI program to win the Turing Test (in which a human judge must correctly judge which responses are from a computer or a human) and the state of the art is progressing steadily. Just layer on top of that a reverse-engineered narcissist - we are overwhelmed with that sort of knowledge - and you get a politician. Piece of cake. But a politician has to meet and greet people and kiss babies. How good would an AI be at recognizing faces and responding to them? Uh oh, this is bad news for the humanists out there. It’s now widely accepted that computers outperform humans at facial recognition. So an automated politician can recognize more people than you or me, and it never forgets a name. Once it knows the name it also knows more than you or me and can utter the correct pleasing but anodyne responses. That would make them better on the hustings than many a real person. So score another one for the Master Algorithm here. How about developing strategies to counter the sort of sticky situations that arise every day, like Syria, crossing gender lines, income inequality, government spending and personal email servers? Again all you have to do is pick the category, feed in the party line, add the trope and then the policy. Foreign, social, health, tax, redistribution etc. Policies and strategies can all be easily classified in this way. And guess what? The resulting policies and strategies might even beat the current ones and probably couldn’t get worse anyway. Even if your AI’s policies don’t work, that’s actually just what happens in real life so your AI will be right on the money! There’s a relatively trivial question of what machine learning techniques you use. Read Domingo’s book to crib up on that and hire some of the developers from IBM’s Watson and Deep Blue (winner of Jeopardy you might recall). Voila, you’ve actually got far more material than you need and certainly more knowledge than Donald Trump (OK I know that’s an unrealistically low bar)) or the other Presidential candidates. According to the third of Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Even 5 years ago, a self-driving car would have been firmly placed in the magic column. Three years ago, editing the human genome in real-time would have been viewed as playing God. Now they are already here; we’re whizzing past them so quickly that they are already disappearing in the rear-vision mirror of our Teslas and the high res photos of GoPro-equipped drones. Our politicians haven’t earned their keep. It looks like it’s a systemic issue. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, just like we are doing now. It’s time for a radical change. Maybe a Master Algorithm is a good place to start over.         Can politicians be automated?          Read More

My name is Simon and I’m the user researcher on the Digital Personal Independence Payment Claim. We’re developing the new service, researching and testing with users as we go.    I’m writing this blog to try to reach as many people as I can who may want to volunteer to test the digital service for us.   We want to give people the opportunity to test the digital service in their own time, on their own computer and in their own way. This way we can make sure that what we are building is going to really work for people.     We’ll send anyone who volunteers an email with the web address of the test digital service. You will not be able to use the test digital service to make a claim for PIP.    We’ll use the feedback you provide to make the service better.   The testing will be anonymous - we won’t ask you for any of your personal details. You’ll be able to save your claim as you go along, and you won’t have to do it all in one go. If you get stuck during the testing, we’ll be able to help you via telephone, text or email. It won’t impact any benefits you may claim in any way.   After completing the testing we’ll ask you to fill in a short survey about how you found using the digital service.   If you’d like to volunteer to take part in this research please email us at pip.onlineclaim@dwp.gsi.gov.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.    

Many business employees are great negotiators. However, even the best negotiators often hesitate to use their skills to get a raise. They fear asking for a raise will make them look like money-grubbers. If you fit into this category, your feelings are natural but you needn’t let fear cheat you out of an opportunity. If you have done your job well and haven’t had a salary increase in awhile, you are within your rights to ask for one and there are good ways to do so. Research First: Business experts recommend you understand benchmarking before negotiating a salary increase. In other words, you need to know if a company is willing to pay what you are worth. Research starting salaries at competing companies, as well as how long it usually takes for their employees to get raises. Compare and contrast this with average pay for people in your field with your experience or particular skill set. Additionally, compare and contrast local companies’ salaries with those of other companies in your area. If you can show that wages and increases are similar across the board, you’re more likely to get the raise. Don’t Bring Up Money First Thing: An old adage says the first person to bring up money loses, and that’s especially true in the business world. If you walk into a supervisor’s office and immediately ask to talk about money, he or she will be surprised, shocked, and worst-case scenario, irritated. Instead, make an appointment first. Begin with appropriate small talk, or mention something you’ve enjoyed doing this week. Then casually bring up your research or ask if your supervisor has time to negotiate now. Remember the Entire Package: Salary negotiations are not only about your paycheck. They may involve negotiations for sick leave, maternity leave, vacation time, or other compensations. Again, if comparable compensation does not match what you get at your workplace, bring it up as cordially as possible. If there is a particular perk or type of compensation you want, such as vacation time, ask about that first. Finally, if there is a pressing reason to ask about non-cash perks - for instance, you just found out you’re pregnant - don’t wait too long to mention it. Otherwise, negotiations might be harder to complete. Discuss, Don’t Demand: Since the economy is still sluggish, many people feel strongly about raises and paychecks. This is understandable, but don’t let your concerns or emotions turn negotiation into confrontation. Remember that most employers want their workers to succeed. Go in with a positive attitude - it will make a better impression.

Compromise is an essential element in any interaction. In business specifically, compromise is critical to ensuring the needs of all parties are met and that healthy and prosperous relationships are fostered and maintained. Leave the Emotions Out of It In some business situations, emotions can be helpful. Compromising is not one of these situations. When either side shows emotion, it can convey weakness, which the other party will use to their advantage. A compromise is when both parties come to a mutual agreement that is beneficial to everyone. To leave emotions out of the process, you must remain solution oriented. Address facts and problems, and work together to solve them. If you start to show anger towards the other party, it becomes personal. The desire to make a compromise will be squelched. Keep it rational, and ignore your personal differences. Be Honest Being honest with yourself and others is one of the most effective ways to reach a compromise. If you establish your goals up front, there’s no need to beat around the bush and waste time. Communicate with the other parties why these goals are important, and they will be more likely to understand and work with you. Likewise, be honest with yourself and your own responses. Identify the traits within yourself that may negatively affect your ability to compromise, and manage them before they become a problem. Explore All Your Options Prior to negotiating, come up with all possible outcomes and their alternatives. Carefully weigh the pros and cons of each for both sides. Addressing multiple solutions to a problem demonstrates your willingness to meet in the middle. If you communicate effectively and intelligently, it shows the other side that compromise works for everyone. You will end the negotiation on a positive note and leave them with a feeling that they’ve "won" something, too.  Above All, Stay Positive In all situations, a positive attitude greatly affects the outcome. Staying positive reflects confidence and a genuine regard for others. Others will be much more willing to compromise their needs and meet yours if you maintain a persistently positive attitude throughout the meeting. Think about it: why are successful salespeople good at their jobs? They’re warm and welcoming, and they make customers feel like their needs matter. It’s much easier to reach a compromise with a pleasant and genuine person, and it allows both sides to feel like they’ve come out on top.   Sources: https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Sites/Ombuds/files/NegotiationConflictStyles.pdf http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/jul/31/startups-negotiation-compromise-credibility http://blog.dalecarnegie.com/leadership/12-tips-for-negotiating-and-compromising-with-difficult-people/

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on TrainingIndustry.com and outlines three tips for developing more leaders within your organization.Organizations need more leaders and less bosses. What do we mean by that? Well an organization’s culture either creates more bosses or more leaders, and this choice has a huge impact on an organization’s bottom line. While bosses just want to get things done, leaders will constantly push themselves to improve. When confronted with an obstacle, a leader will explore avenues outside of the set process to solve the problem at hand.The question simply put is: How do we create more innovators and less followers?Three Ways to Build Employees into Leaders urges organizations to stop coaching and start challenging your employees. If you never challenge a team member, they will never have a reason to tap into their leadership potential.Are you holding your team accountable?"Increase the capability of your staff through more challenges as opposed to coaching. Being coached is easy to ignore. Striving to accomplish a new challenge is difficult. By encouraging people to think, you may be surprised at the solutions they come up with."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: Three Ways to Build Employees into Leaders appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Imagine if every person acted like a lady or gentleman….. Engagement Tip: Ladies and gentlemen are attentive when serving others.   The more you know about your customers, the better you’re able to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for them. Sometimes your customers disclose information about their preferences, but often your employees will have to listen for clues. Your employees should be especially attentive to your customers in order to best anticipate and meet their needs. At The Ritz-Carlton, we call this concept of attentiveness "radar on, antenna up." This means that our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—are very present, thoughtful and looking for ways to fulfill unexpressed wishes every time they interact with guests. An employee of The Ritz-Carlton may notice that a guest prefers a specific cookie served in the lobby. When the guest checks out, the employee could "surprise and delight" that guest by providing a few cookies to go along with the recipe for the cookies. Being attentive can also aid in effective, personalized service recovery. Perhaps customers are experiencing a long wait. Use that time to engage with your customers and learn something about them. Maybe you will learn that a customer is a fan of a particular sports team. When you follow up with that customer, you can integrate that information into a personalized note as in the following example: We sincerely appreciate your patience and look forward to working with you in the future. Wishing you a great day and a win for the Tigers this weekend. When you’re truly attentive to the people you’re serving, you can create genuine engagement, earn trust, provide anticipatory service and achieve brand loyalty. ∞ The motto of The Ritz-Carlton is "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen." This motto sets a tone of goodwill and grace for all. The Blog Post Etiquette & Engagement: Attentive appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Moving your human capital management to a cloud/SaaS such as SuccessFactors makes sense. The larger your operation is, the more sense it makes. However, an important issue that will become more difficult as your company or your implementation project starts expanding is the need to accommodate users with different language requirements and different cultural backgrounds. For example, an American company expanding into a European setting, a European company setting up a plant in a neighboring country, or a Middle Eastern company acquiring subsidiaries in the Far East will all have to decide to what degree to accommodate local languages and practices. You know I am going to say this eventually, so here goes: You can get just about everything you need with SuccessFactors. It is paramount, however, that you connect with someone with experience to help you get the best system to face your end users. Benefits Global companies will usually encourage or even mandate only one corporate language, but when you get out onto the factory floor, it will be Bahasa, Italian, or Polish that people will be speaking, not English. It’s also guaranteed that your end users eventually will become confused if the system uses decimal points where they expect decimal commas, or months/days where they expect to see days/months. Therefore, it makes the conversations and the processes much easier if the supporting system is set to the end user’s language and notation. The user can at will select a language option or one of several similar locales (e.g., traditional Chinese as used in Taiwan as opposed to the simplified version used in PRC), and the selection stays with that profile and is stored server-side along with the rest of the user’s data. When you implement the SuccessFactors language packs, you also get settings for decimal notation, date notations, etc. Then, supplement those language packs with sets of company translations. Once in place, you have a system that takes into account the individual user’s need to communicate in his/her own language and you benefit from a correct, company wide terminology. Of course, you do also have the option to import the default locale, and thus decide centrally what people should see. This is not something we recommend because you never truly know what language all of your employees are more comfortable with, right? Challenges and Pitfalls Historically, SuccessFactors is software created in the US and with US language and notations. We see that in lots of places, and we know how to work around it when we need to. Administrative handling of localization has been retrofitted in many of the older modules, and we see the translations are implemented in completely different ways. Most of this older editing is strictly ‘implementation consultant only’, but over the years, we are seeing that newer modules have a more logical and intuitive way to implement translations. We also see more and more options accessible to the local SuccessFactors administrator. It is important that local administrators are properly trained so that they are able to maintain all the translations they can because if they are not sure what they need to do, they can potentially create a lot of damage. It is also imperative to identify where to maintain the knowledge. If you have a technically inclined person in the correct position, that is great. In cases where there isn’t a dedicated resource, this can create a big challenge and is a reason why many customers come to us for advice and support. The need for localization of Human Capital Management efforts is growing. Are you prepared to expand global efforts within your organization?

Have you ever felt very satisfied with the completion of a workday or project just to realize you still need to document your time and/or items of work completed? Looking for more productivity from your team, but still requiring them to provide mandatory self-reported time/work sheets? Many back office operations, particularly in Health Plans, have an excessive amount of self-reporting.   Still using spreadsheets that are difficult to roll up to a group level and take a lot of time to insure individual inputs are correct is an amazing time killer.   Others use simple web based applications which rely on accuracy of the reporter,  while believe it or not some plans still use paper, pencil and stop watches. Self-Reporting is a root cause of several common operational deficiencies: Too many costly work hours spent completing forms and combining spreadsheets Consistency in the definitions of work across multiple groups and individuals lead to errors Accuracy of data is dependent on those inputting the information, again leading to errors or misrepresentation Without real-time data; managers cannot make decisions to impact inventory quickly Using automated capture and reporting of work streamlines operations and provides real-time data.   Take a look at WorkiQ as an example using desktop analytics.   While visiting our information take a swim through our Savings Calculator to see how much your operations might benefit from eliminating self-reporting. The post Getting away from Self-Reporting appeared first on WorkiQ Blog.

The team at Ammonite are committed to innovation in training and to customer service, so it’s humbling and extremely rewarding to get great feedback from our clients. This testimonial video, produced by Outer Path Films , is a snapshot of what our customers are saying about our product and backup service. Training, whether face to face, blended or online must be valid and engaging, but it must also be able to be done in a way that is extremely efficient. We are firm believers that all that can be automated should be automated. This then frees the teacher/trainer up so that they can focus on providing great support to their students. Our system automates: Importing units/courses from training.gov.au Allowing students to self-enrol, pay and to receive tax invoices instantly Collecting and collating continuous improvements Progression and marking Ensuring consistency among and between trainers Issuing of Statements of Attainment/Completion Gathering and submitting AVETMISS reports Providing and collating required student feedback And much more. Ammonite, confidence in online training