I recently read, The Start-Up of You, by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. Hoffman, the cofounder and chairman of LinkedIn, suggests you think of yourself as "an entrepreneur of your career." The reason for the new way of thinking, he explains, is because there’s been a seismic shift in the job market: For the past 60 years, the job market worked like an escalator. After graduating from college, you landed a job at a firm such as IBM or GE and were groomed and mentored there. As you gained experience, you moved up in the organizational hierarchy, increasing your salary and job security until you stepped off of the escalator and coasted to an easy retirement, allowing those more junior than you to move up. That’s all changed. Reid and Casnocha’s philosophy for developing your career is through competitive advantage, or what you do better than anyone else. Your competitive advantage is comprised of the interplay between your assets, your aspirations and values, and market realities. Your assets include your knowledge, skills, professional connections, reputation, personal brand, and strengths (the things that come easy to you). Your aspirations include your deepest wishes, goals and vision for the future. The market is where you have the least amount of control, but ignoring it won’t make it go away. As Reid sums it up, "If you don’t find risk, it will find you." He suggests that professionals build career resilience by "introducing regular volatility into your career in order to make the inevitable surprises survivable." Entrepreneurs and freelancers are more familiar with the concept of volatility, however all professionals need to be able to absorb shocks in this increasingly VUCA (volatime, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. Reid recommends joining more groups, taking on side projects and saying "yes" to more opportunities. Here are more suggestions for career development from The Start-Up of You: This weekend, conduct a gap analysis of your current skills by assessing where you are and where you strive to be. Determine how you might close the gap through training, work experience or mentoring. Update your LinkedIn profile so that your summary statement articulates your competitive advantage.  "Because of my [skill/experience/strength], I can do [type of professional work] better than [specific types of other professionals in my industry]." Start a personal blog and begin developing a public reputation and portfolio of work that’s not tied to your employer. That way, you’ll have a professional identity that you can carry with you as you shift jobs. Schedule three lunch dates in the next few weeks: one with a person a few rungs ahead of you in your industry, one with an old friend you haven’t seen in a while; and one with a person from an adjacent industry whose career you admire. Review your aspirations and adjust your goals for next year accordingly. Identify other people with aspirations similar to yours and connect with them, either virtually by following them on LinkedIn or reading their blog, or by meeting in person.    

Pinterest has become popular for collecting fashion designs, recipes and craft ideas. Its clean interface and endless possibilities of items to pin make it an addicting social media platform. But what about its potential for Learning and Development? We scoured Pinterest and came up with the top seven boards for L&D inspiration. Most of the boards emphasize eLearning and technology and surprisingly, many of the pinners are outside of the U.S. Here they are, in no particular order: Amy Roche Roche, an instructional designer at Penn State University, has put together a comprehensive collection of pins related to instructional design. From learning styles posters to infographics about educational technology, Roche has compiled a useful collection of L&D resources. Tim Tyler Tyler, a self-described storyteller, training professional and INFP, has an L&D board that features the new ASTD T&D competency model, the Hermann Brain Dominance model and graphics illustrating Myers-Briggs types. SHIFT eLearning This eLearning tool company has a number of Pinterest boards dedicated to eLearning. There’s one that features infographics about eLearning, a general board of eLearning resources and one specifically on eLearning videos. Check out Amy Jo Kim’s presentation on game design. Tomasz Jankowski- Need a laugh? Jankowski, an eLearning designer from Poland, has a collection of eLearning humor to tickle your funny bone as well as salient examples of eLearning and a collection of eLearning infographics, including one that illustrates how the brain retains information. Nina Flippin Flippin, an eLearning developer from Athens, Greece, has a diverse eLearning board, including a TEDtalk on creativity by author Elizabeth Gilbert, an infographic on effective voice-overs and a chart illustrating depth of knowledge. Martin Couzins Couzins is the founder of UK-based LearnPatch, an L&D media start-up. His Pinterest board covers L&D and the workplace, including infographics on GenY, the psychology of music and gamification. Juan Antonio Ortiz Caturani Caturani, an eLearning consultant, has a large following on Pinterest, and a number of eLearning resources on his board, including infographics about MOOCs, implementing blended learning and educational data mining. Do you have any L&D related Pinterest boards to share? Tell us in comments.      

The recent announcement by Yahoo!’s CEO Marissa Mayer to curb teleworking has sparked a heated debate online about the pros and cons of telework. According to the TeleworkResearchNetwork.com, there were 3.1 million teleworkers in the U.S. in 2011, and by 2016, that number is expected to reach 4.9 million. Larger companies (Yahoo! notwithstanding) are more likely to allow telecommuting than smaller ones. Coincidentally, two studies were published in support of corporate telework programs. Staples Advantage released a survey a couple of weeks ago suggesting that teleworking benefits both employer and employees. Almost all of the employees surveyed (93%) agreed that telecommuting programs were beneficial and 75% of business decision makers noticed that employees appeared happier when allowed to telework. And on the opposite side of the desk, just over half (53%) of businesses in the survey reported being more productive with a telecommuting program in place. Last month, Stanford University researchers published a study of a Chinese travel agency with more than 12,000 employees that found that working remotely actually increases performance. The employees were divided into two groups: those who worked from the office and those who worked remotely. After a few weeks, the remote workers had taken more calls, logged more hours and were more productive overall than the office group. There are considerations that need to be taken into account before implementing a teleworking program. A company’s culture has to embrace the idea in order for teleworking to be successful. The biggest barriers for managers are trust and teamwork. Although 75% of managers say they trust their employees, a third confessed that they’d like to see them, just to be sure. And other managers, such as Mayer, believe that distance inhibits collaboration and working together to come up with new ideas. Telecommuters need to be self-directed and have a defined work space in their home. They need to understand that telecommuting in not a suitable replacement for daycare. The TeleworkResearchNetwork.com has compiled a substantial number of statistics on its website in favor of allowing employees to work from home. These figures illustrate the benefits to companies as well as to the U.S., and are based on the premise of 50 million potential telecommuters working from home half-time. Allowing Employees to Telework Half-time would: Save more than $13,000 per person. Increase productivity by more than $466 billion. Save $170 billion in real estate and related costs. Save $28 billion in absenteeism and turnover. Avoid the ‘brain drain’ effect of retiring Boomers by allowing them to work flexibly. Enable companies to recruit and retain the best people. Save 281 million barrels of oil a year—the equivalent of 46% of our Persian Gulf imports. Reduce greenhouse gases by 51 million tons/year—the equivalent of the entire New York state workforce off the roads. Reduce road travel by 91 billion miles/year thereby reducing the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure. Reduce road congestion and increase the productivity for non-telecommuters. Save 77,000 people from traffic-related injury or death. Reduce the offshoring of jobs and homeshore some that have already been lost. Source: TeleworkResearchNetwork.com, The State of Telework on the U.S.: How Individuals, Business and Government Benefit, Kate Lister and Tom Harnish, June 2011. The post 12 Reasons to Support Teleworking appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

When you need to learn something new or keep up with the latest trends, a video is a good way to access information. We were curious which YouTube channels had the most content for Learning and Development, so we did some research and came up with a list of seven. Not surprisingly, a majority of the channels are produced by educational technology companies. Here are our top picks: Cogentys eLearning TV Cogentys, a Hollywood-based educational technology company, has a YouTube channel focused on eLearning. Some of the topics covered include: "The Best Free eLearning Tools," "20,000 eLearning Courses Available through OpenSesame," and an interview with Mike Rustici about Tin Can API. You can also subscribe to the company’s eLearning TV blog to find out when something new has been uploaded to the channel. eLearner Engaged This custom eLearning developer has a comprehensive channel of 100 videos in topics such as: social media in education, distance education, online classroom training, elearning, instructional design, and increasing learner engagement. Blackboard Blackboard offers an Innovative Teaching Series playlist that offers insights on grading, increasing student engagement and setting up an online classroom for K-12 educators. The most popular video on the channel (at 33,623 views) is "The Voice of the Active Learner," explaining how digital natives prefer to learn. Adobe eLearning Adobe Systems has a popular channel for eLearning designers and developers. The Adobe eLearning channel has tutorials on Captivate 5, Captivate 6, Presenter8 and Presenter Video Creator. Some of the lessons offered include: "Voice to Text Automated Closed Captions in Adobe Presenter," and "Drag and Drop is Insanely Simple with Adobe Captivate." Kineo TV Kineo Learning has a number of videos of interest to instructional designers including, "10 Trends: A Summary of the Learning Insights Report,"" eLearning Design Principles," "Compliance eLearning," and "Health and Safety eLearning." Many of the videos are animations—a welcome change from talking head videos. Lively eLearning eLearning developer and blogger Cathy Moore has a YouTube channel where she shares her eLearning expertise. Some of the titles include: "Big Mistakes in eLearning," "Design, Not Technology," and "Prototyping for Better eLearning." TED-Education At 269,861 subscribers, the TED Education channel is the biggest YouTube channel for L&D. This channel is an interesting assortment of videos on topics as diverse as, "What is Verbal Irony," "The Hidden Power of Smiling," and "How Farming Planted Seeds for the Internet." Visiting this channel is a great way to pass a lunch hour. Any other channels you would like to add? Tell us in comments.       The post The 7 Best YouTube Channels for L&D appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

It goes without saying that there are a lot of blogs on the Internet—181 million according to a survey by NM Incite. So it wasn’t easy to narrow the best blogs targeted at Learning and Development professionals down to only 20. But we did. We took into account how relevant the content was to workplace learning and how frequently the blog was updated. We also excluded company blogs (to be featured in a future list). Here are our top 20 (listed alphabetically): Allison Rossett - Dr. Rossett is an Educational Technology professor at San Diego State University, author and consultant. She posts about topics such as, "Why We Need Instructional Design Now More Than Ever," and "Moving beyond the Classroom—Talk that Leads to Action." Bozarth Zone - Jane Bozarth, author of "Social Media for Trainers," writes about how to effectively use social media for learning and how to design inexpensive eLearning. Charles Jennings - A former CLO, Jennings’ substantive posts center on how to improve performance through learning innovation. Clark Quinn’s Learnlets - Quinn blogs frequently and passionately on L&D and topics that might at first glance seem unrelated, but on a closer look, do connect well to learning and development. Clive on Learning -Clive Shepherd hails from Brighton in the UK and writes about all things eLearning. His blog is set-up so that you can toggle between different layout formats. E-Clippings (Learning as Art) - Mark Oehlert is a Customer Success Director at Socialtext who blogs about Anthropology, large organization dynamics, how communities function and grow and how technology and culture come together. E-Learning 24/7 Blog -Craig Weiss is the brains behind the blog, eLearning 24/7. He writes about the "truth and realities of eLearning" and he reports that 90% of his predictions on eLearning have been accurate since his blog launched in 2009. E-Learning Acupuncture - Eric Tremblay is an Instructional Designer at the Royal Military College of Canada and writes from an Educational Technology perspective. Experiencing E-Learning - Christy Tucker is an online instructional designer who writes about corporate eLearning, instructional design, K-12 education, lifelong learning and technology. She posts interesting or useful links in her weekly bookmarks posts. Internet Time Blog - Blog owner Jay Cross says he was the first person to use the term eLearning on the web. He is a prolific poster and is never at a loss for an opinion. Kapp Notes - Karl Kapp, an Instructional Technology professor at Bloomsburg University, created his blog to discuss issues concerning learning and transferring knowledge from retiring Baby Boomers to game-loving Millennials. Learn Nuggets - Kevin Thorn is the self-described Chief NuggetHead for Learn Nuggets. His background is illustration and eLearning design, and he brings a visual perspective to L&D. Learning in the Social Workplace Blog - Jane Hart specializes in supporting learning, performance and collaboration in the social workplace. In addition to writing a wealth of interesting posts, Hart is also skilled curator. Learning Zealot- Mark Britz offers his take on organizational learning and performance improvement in Learning Zealot. Britz, a self-described pragmatic learning professional, writes about a number of topics, from innovation to connectivity. Life in Perpetual Beta- Harold Jarche has been blogging for ten years, publishing 2,350 posts that have garnered 6,500 comments.  He writes about sense-making for the connected workplace and claims he gets his best ideas while riding his bicycle. Misadventures in Learning - David Kelly is a curator extraordinaire with his link-filled backchannels from every L&D-related conference. If you’re not able to attend a conference in person, Kelly’s backchannels are the next best thing to being there. Phase(two)learning - Michelle Baker writes about onboarding new employees, how to market your learning and development programs and facilitation skills in a clean, easy-to-read format. Socializing Workplace Learning - Tom Spiglanin shares his thoughts about workplace learning, and more specifically, social learning. Spiglanin practices what he preaches by engaging in learn chats, attending learning conferences and sharing what he learns via his blog. The eLearning Coach - eLearning Designer Connie Malamed is the eLearning Coach. She writes about all things eLearning-related and also compiles an e-newsletter that is delivered twice a month. Usable Learning - Author Julie Dirksen shares her views on usable learning and designing for how people learn. Her thought-provoking posts are on topics such as, "You can’t solve problems you don’t know about," and "Virtual Chainsaws—when it’s not a knowledge problem." Download PDF The post The Top 20 L&D Blogs appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

eLearning is continuously evolving as technology becomes more accessible. Learning and development platforms now engage in a variety of methods that make it easier for individuals all over the world to learn at their own pace through enhanced systems. Mobile learning is now a viable option in which to receive training, study and learn while on-the-go. The culture of the 21st century is a "right now" platform, and companies who understand this notion have to consistently keep up with a changing global environment. It is important to understand how the level of engagement has changed. Gone are the days where learning used to involve a book and face-to-face directives from teachers who offered their own explanations for concepts that may or may not have been understood. Today’s learners are used to multi-level platforms, which include accessibility to teaching concepts and ideas from other instructors, the ability to have enhanced learning through online and in-person teaching scenarios and group directed project management where the teacher now becomes the facilitator and the students/trainees develop their own teaching strategies that are shaped through direction. How can companies implement a thorough and cohesive learning environment while maintaining the integrity of the learning platform? First, with effective project management. Monitoring the metrics of how individuals are learning what they want and need is key in developing and implementing programs that will not only make a difference, but will keep a continuous level of engagement wherever they are. Second, by offering a variety of learning methods for adaptability. Individuals migrate to platforms that will enhance their thoughts and provide opportunities to engage with others. YouTube, Lynda.com and other venues that offer free and paid learning tools have become front-runners in how learning platforms continue to evolve. Mobile responsive programs that will transform module into a working interface for any device are now a necessity rather than a luxury. eLearning has shifted from standard classroom practices into opportunities for radical teaching methods that work. Third, embrace the evolution of students that are emerging. Today’s student is collaborative, inventive, intuitive and decisive. Access to programs that enhance expanded learning will help improve options and choices for high achievement in the global learning environment. The Premier’s Technology Council issued a report which identified eLearning and technology as a driving force in addressing future skill shortages in the workforce, citing "blended learning" as an effective approach to enhancing education. What devices are needed to globally compete in a changing eLearning environment? The shift to mobile technology is moving at a rapid pace. Desktop computers are no longer the platform of choice, but operate as a backup in the event the mobile device is down. Smartphones, tablets and laptops are common and allow the presence of a learning environment anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection. The advancement of technology has also introduced wristwatches and other devices that are small but function as a smart computer device. Although the educational landscape is changing, there is still some concern when using eLearning methods due to the learning curve that may be present. When developing programs that work, there needs to be a concerted effort in making sure the programs are user friendly, engaging, responsive, clear in understanding, and have a high level of technical support to be effective. Training for these platforms must also be taken into account, with simple-to-process modules that are non-threatening and useful. By employing the methods of engagement that have taken precedence in the learning and development environment, eLearning will continue to expand in creating programs that support the convenience and enhancement of skills through the use evolving technology needed to move forward in the 21st century. The post eLearning in the 21st century appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

Business, Schools Partner to Improve Employee Competence Reading, writing, and arithmetic may have done it for our parents or even ourselves, but knowledge of those core subjects alone is no longer sufficient to prepare American high school and college graduates to work and compete in the global 21st century economy. Several major employers, including Cisco, Apple, and Intel, experienced such frustration with finding workers with the necessary knowledge and skills that they joined forces to close the gap. Enlisting the National Education Association as a partner, representatives from those major companies and others went directly to the U.S. Department of Education to voice their concerns. Then, they took action. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills was created in 2002 to work with state school systems and districts to align classroom environments with real-world environments. Founding corporate partners included the companies listed above plus AOL Time Warner, Dell, Microsoft, and SAP. "There was a strong sense of corporate responsibility [for addressing these gaps], as business truly is the beneficiary," says Steven Paine, Ed.D, president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, or P21. "Businesses have told us that we have a lot of work to do in the core subjects, but there is also a wide workplace skills gap that employers have been forced to fill. They must spend time and money to teach employees basic business skills even though they recruit and hire top candidates." "Companies were frustrated," agrees Helen Soule, executive director of P21. "Employees lacked the skills to make the knowledge work. They needed to be told what to do." Since its inception in 2002, P21 has more than quadrupled its membership, growing from eight founding organizations to 39 members representing America’s leading business, technology, and education organizations. The group works to improve education by incorporating 21st century readiness into state school systems; 19 have signed on thus far. Paine, P21 president since mid-January, was State Superintendent of Schools for West Virginia when he first heard of the organization at a Council of Chief State School Officers meeting. The P21 executive director at the time, along with a representative from Dell, presented the P21 framework to the assembled group. "I was spellbound," says Paine. "I saw it as exactly the right agenda for linking our school systems to the business world. We have an obligation to prepare kids for life after formal schooling. If schools don’t do it, who will?" With input from employers, researchers, and funders, P21 has developed an educational framework for learning in the 21st century. They have identified six key elements of a 21st century education: Core subjects: English, math, science, foreign language, civics, government, economics, arts, history, and geography 21st century content: global awareness; financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; health and wellness awareness; and environmental literacy Learning and thinking skills: critical thinking, problem solving, communication, creativity, innovation, collaboration, information and media literacy, and contextual learning Information and communications technology literacy Life skills: leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, productivity, responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility. The framework is represented graphically as a rainbow, with the core subjects (still referred to as the "three Rs") and the "four Cs"—critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation—as the center arc. P21 continues to assess the relevance of the framework by surveying stakeholders. The most recent study was conducted in 2010, in partnership with the American Management Association; 1,200 human resources managers across the country were surveyed. "The skills represented by the four Cs were overwhelmingly identified by those stakeholders as crucial," says Soule. Ten years old, P21 is entering its second phase. "We have been about advocacy and awareness. Our future lies in an implementation agenda," says Paine. How will the organization know whether its efforts have been successful? "We need partners in the research community to assess whether the kids who participate in the P21 learning program acquire those skills," Paine says. "The ultimate test is whether employers see improvement," agrees Soule. P21 is currently working on an Exemplar Project to identify and document information about best practices being developed in individual schools and districts. Its advocacy mission continues as well: The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a policy resolution in 2005 supporting a framework for 21st century readiness. On January 22, 2013, U.S. representatives Tom Petri (R-WI) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) reintroduced H.R. 347, the 21st Century Readiness Act. The Act asks for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act currently under consideration by Congress, and strengthens support for 21st century education efforts underway in many states and districts. "Employers I meet with continually emphasize that, in our 21st century economy, students need skills that go beyond the basics of reading, writing, and math," Petri has said. "States and schools should have the flexibility to use existing grant money to promote skills that will make their students successful in a foreign economy." Educators in other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore, are adopting and adapting the P21 model, Paine says. "There is a movement around the world as nations recognize that this is the right agenda for them." Other organizations, including the Learning Metrics Task Force of UNESCO and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, are working to increase awareness and improve access and outcomes for students in developing countries worldwide. Regardless of location, businesses and nonprofit organizations that take part in this crucial conversation can help shape the future of education and thus the knowledge and skills of generations of potential employees.   The post Are American Graduates Really Ready to Work? appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

We’re all doing more with less nowadays, and sometimes we forget to take care of our own professional development. A smarter strategy is to weave our professional development into our daily routines as much as possible. Here are some ideas on how to make personal learning a habit. Join Professional Associations Becoming an active member in a professional organization offers many advantages. It provides a great opportunity to network with colleagues, learn about trends, and expand your knowledge base. Some professional organizations that are specific to L&D include: the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), the Organizational Development (OD) Network, and the eLearning Guild. Attending the monthly meetings and regional gatherings is an excellent way to get an outside perspective on your daily challenges. Obtain Professional Certification With certification you’ll acquire additional knowledge, be able to incorporate new methodologies and technologies in your work, and gain credibility in a specific field or subject. Many schools and associations offer certification programs that help develop and refine professional skills. ASTD offers Certification as a Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP). It requires three years’ of industry-related work experience as a prerequisite and costs between $799 and $999. The certification process consists of a passing a knowledge exam and submitting work samples. Attend Conferences Conferences that are hosted by professional associations are a way to participate in seminars, meet other L&D professionals, and learn about hot industry topics. Some of the upcoming L&D conferences this year: ASTD International Conference and Expo in Dallas, May 19-22 mLearnCon in San Jose, June 18-20 CLO Symposium in Palm Springs, Sept. 30-Oct. 2 DevLearn in Las Vegas, Oct. 23-25 Attend Webinars If you’d rather not leave your office, you can still participate virtually by attending webinars—some of which are free. Here are some sources for L&D-related webinars: Training Magazine hosts complimentary webinars from L&D thought leaders. Chief Learning Officer also hosts regular webinars by industry leaders, and if you miss the live event, you can listen to the recording. Bersin by Deloitte offers free webinars on subjects such as "21st Century Content Authoring," and "Making Learning Stick." TrainingIndustry.com offers live and on-demand webinars on topics such as: "How to Use Social Media for Learning" and "Changing Behavior to Produce Results." Use Your Social Network LinkedIn has a number of groups that are specific to L&D, including: ASTD National, Chief Learning Officers Network, eLearning Global Network, and Instructional Design Professional Group. Once you join a group, you can post questions to other group members and participate in open discussions. It’s an effective way to get a quick answer—especially if you are a one-man or one-woman training department. On Twitter, there are recurring online chats about L&D. For example, #chat2learn occurs every other Thursday at noon EDT, and #clouduc8, a monthly discussion about learning in the cloud, happens on the first Wednesday of the month at noon EDT. For a list of L&D-related chats, visit a calendar created by Lisa Goldstein, Lesley Price, and JD Dillon. Reading blogs is an efficient way to keep up with the latest trends in educational technologies and insights from L&D thought leaders. You may already have some blogs bookmarked or have subscribed to RSS feeds of blogs, and it also doesn’t hurt to expand your horizons and discover some new blogs. Training Magazine has compiled a fairly comprehensive list of L&D blogs. The post Continuous Learning for L&D Professionals appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

How Savvy L&D Managers Get More Done The day started out like any other. Trina Trainer walked into her office, laptop bag on her shoulder, balancing her Venti Caramel Macchiato while texting on her smart phone. Five minutes later, the Vice President of Sales rushed into her office, having just returned from an Educational Technology conference.  "I know what I want for our New Hire Sales Training," he breathlessly exclaimed. "It needs more video examples and gamification. Gamification is really hot right now." Trina bit her lip. She knew she didn’t have any team members with experience in either gamification or video production. "And did I mention that we just hired 20 more reps who start at the end of the month?" he added.  With the current hiring freeze, she wondered how she would get the VP’s training needs met along with the all of the other high priority projects she and her understaffed department had to complete. And didn’t her most senior instructional designer just go out on maternity leave?  If only there was another way… The scenario in many companies is the same. Learning & Development managers are faced with mounting workloads, dwindling staff and shrinking budgets. However, some savvy managers are turning to project-based consultants as a way to supplement their internal staff and complete critical projects. Here are some of the reasons why: Flexibility. According to an American Management Asso­ciation survey, 95 percent of corporate managers say project-based consultants give them the flexibility to keep fully staffed during busy periods. Companies that embrace workforce flexibility fare better economically - in a study published in the journal Decision Science, researchers found that earnings, gross margins and stock returns improved after the increased use of consultants. Cost reduction. A study by Contingent Workforce Strategies found contingent workers save companies a significant amount of money—typically 17 percent of their total expense base. Consultants reduce the fixed and overhead costs associated with FTEs in the form of payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting and training. Access to specialized skills. Even in today’s tight job market, there is a shortage of workers with critical skill sets. A 2012 ManpowerGroup survey revealed half of U.S. employers have reported difficulty finding appropriately skilled candidates to fill open positions. And according to a 2012 McKinsey study, by 2020 the world may have a global shortfall of as many as 40 million skilled workers. In order to address this growing gap between labor supply and demand, organizations are adopting the use of contingent workers as a critical strategy to meet their needs. Infuse knowledge and ideas into their team. In a Bersin by Deloitte study, L&D managers reported they had received value from their contractors as a source of innovation. Because the contractors are professionals who have worked on many projects in various organizations, their perspectives broaden with each new assignment and their fresh insight can generate new ideas. Agility. Talent needs can change on a dime and new technology or new competitors can expose talent gaps in any organization. Employing a contingent talent strategy enables a company to access the right talent to meet specific skill or competitive challenges quickly, without incurring longer-term costs or disrupting the organization. For example, Clarity Consultants recently worked with a pharmaceutical company to help streamline its product launch process and improve its time to market. Clarity provided two instructional designers with graphics expertise to create training explaining the new processes. The consultants created an overview chart of the streamlined process, a detailed, instructor-led training program and a manager’s toolkit. The program was also designed to be easily converted to a Web-based training format for new employees who joined the company. This is just one instance of L&D managers turning to firms like Clarity to add more resources to a project. In summary, there are options for Trina Trainer and other L&D managers. Instead of saying no to projects, managers can call on L&D consulting  firms to bring in skilled L&D professionals to get the job done. A survey of L&D managers found 78 percent were satisfied with their decision to use contingent workers as well as their choice of L&D consulting firm. The flexibility to add resources during peak periods was the number one reason for hiring contingent professionals, with the access to specialized skills and the infusion of innovation as the second and third most cited reasons. The post A Training Manager’s Tale appeared first on Clarity Consultants.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 200 million members and growing. While you may use Facebook or Twitter for your personal life, LinkedIn is the "go-to" network for your professional life. To get the most out of networking with LinkedIn, take a moment to make sure that your profile is as complete as it can be. Studies show that you have a greater chance of networking success when you have a complete profile. Make a Good First Impression Your headline and your photo have the most visibility, so make sure your first impression is positive. If your profile doesn’t have a photo, upload one or have one taken. Profiles with photos are 40% more likely to be clicked on. Your photo should project a professional image and be a close-up image of you (not a vacation photo or you posing with your dog). If possible, have a photo taken by a professional. Your headline doesn’t have to the job title of your current position—it can be anything you want it to be that best explains what you do. Write your headline to your target audience and describe who you are and what you do. You have 120 characters to get your message across. Publicize Your Skills The summary section of your profile is where you explain what and how you do things differently from anyone else.  Tell a story about how your career evolved or highlight your accomplishments. The summary is an opportune place to use key words that will increase your visibility in search results. LinkedIn profiles have a separate Skills & Expertise section where you can inventory your skills (up to 80 skills). If you haven’t edited your profile in a while, you may need to update your profile in order to access this feature. These are the skills that your connections can easily endorse (although the jury’s still out on the effectiveness of LinkedIn endorsements). You can get a personalized url for your LinkedIn profile. Having a condensed url makes it easier to add to your business card and email signature. To do this, click "edit" next to your current url and click "customize your public profile url." Enter the new url and click "set custom url" to save your changes. Display Your Work LinkedIn has added a new feature where you can include media samples on your profile. This feature is being rolled out gradually to everyone, so you may not have it yet. This feature allows you to add files up to 100 MB in size to the Summary, Education and Experience sections of your profile. To see if you have the feature, edit your profile and scroll down to the Summary, Education or Experience sections. If you see a media icon (looks like a square with a plus sign), then you can hover your cursor over the icon and upload a file. If you do not see the icon, the feature is not yet available. In the interim, you can add links to your portfolio website under your contact information. The post Best Practices with LinkedIn Profiles appeared first on Clarity Consultants.