The first tip about making complaints is perhaps an obvious one, but a difficult one to follow all the same: Don’t get angry. But there are some other easy guidelines to follow to help you to both stay calm and still get what you want. A good tip is to sit down and prepare your complaint in advance of any phone call or face-to-face conversation. Make sure you have all your receipts and documentation. This will help you stay on track and prevent a customer service representative or a clerk from pushing you around. Know your rights: Do a quick search to find out what organizations can help you find out your consumer rights. A company’s contract may have fine print, but fine print can be confusing, or sometimes even downright dishonest. So even if a company says that you can or can’t do certain things, it doesn’t mean that this is legal. There are many government-sponsored organizations that can help you. Know what you want: If you purchase goods or services that are dissatisfactory and you would like to make a complaint, you should know beforehand what you expect in return. Do you want some type of monetary compensation? Maybe you would settle for a voucher? Or maybe you just want to let an organization know that you had a problem. It is also important to make sure that you are complaining to the right person. While a waiter at a restaurant can inform the chef of your complaints, the waiter is not necessarily responsible for the condition of the restaurant bathroom, or whether the food is too salty. In this case, it might be appropriate to ask to speak to a restaurant manager. Likewise, if you purchase a product from a store, it is probably not the floor clerk that will help you get what you want. Ask to speak to customer service. Probably the best tip is to write your complaints down. Keep a complaint diary. Write everything down that has happened both with the faulty product or service, and your treatment during the complaint process. Make a note of the names of all the people with whom you speak. Specific dates and times of problems or complaints are particularly helpful when arguing your case. Also, if you send a complaint letter, make sure that your letter is well-structured and to the point. Include only copies of documents (keep the originals for yourself) and attach your complaint record. And remember: If you don’t get anywhere the first time you make a complaint, try and try again. After all, the customer is always right - or at least, almost always.

This month, Speexx had a brilliant day at the 13th China Learning and Development Annual Conference, organized by HREC. This year’s conference focused on the learning and development topics, especially the combination of global corporate learning & development strategy and corporate strategy, and how to promote learning and development project to accomplish or to reach a better result by using multiple tools. At the exhibition, the Speexx team had some really interesting and in-depth conversations with corporate HR representatives about the competitive advantages that language learning can bring for companies in the global market. During these talks it became clear that both sides have a very similar ideas: The most obvious advantage of effective communication is that you can reach much better cross-border cooperation. In addition, it can help to save costs and offer global customers better service. Furthermore, the event’s guest speakers gave some powerful speeches on multi-level themes from different points of view, offering  participants some brand-new and thought-provoking perspectives. About HREC HR Excellence Center is one of the biggest and the most influential membership organization, facing all the professionals in China.  

We’re delighted to feature a new guest post by Gunilla Huddleston of Language Connect! The more globalised businesses become, the more challenges they face. One is ensuring that training and development programmes are consistent, effective and streamlined across the globe. We look at how technology and a forward-thinking approach can ensure success. The industry has changed rapidly in recent years, causing companies to continuously alter their approach and find new ways of improving their performance and creating a more up to date working environment for their staff. Thanks to advances in online technology, it is now easier for companies to have staff from separate countries collaborating on the same task at the same time. However, such a transformation demands careful consideration and preparation. As a business leader, you will need to get your team tuned into the benefits of organising training across a number of different offices. If you only provide training to certain countries, you could risk causing disharmony and a drop in employee engagement. The primary obstacle for international training co-ordinators to consider is the language barrier. While Google Translate is a very useful tool, adapting content to suit another country is far more complex and requires an expert knowledge of the source and target languages, the culture of the company and a deep understanding of effective e-learning support mechanisms, such as visual content, audio and video. Therefore, you need to make sure you adapt your training to suit all of the different countries and cultures that operate in your company. The growth of e-learning E-learning has emerged as one of the best ways for businesses to train their workforce across different countries without sacrificing any quality. The market will grow at a CAGR of 18.86 per cent between 2014 and 2019, according to a study from Research and Markets. The report found that many businesses are branching out their activities to other regions across the globe, meaning there is more need for companies to manage communication and collaboration among workers and customers. Massive open online courses (mooc) are a big trend in e-learning at the moment, with a number of leading universities introducing this technology to allow people to learn effectively without being in the same room as other students. Challenges of e-learning across different countries When introducing e-learning across different languages and cultures, companies need to address the numerous challenges that come with offering teaching in different areas of the world. A good example is a study by the University of Huddersfield which looked at how e-learning in higher education differs between the UK and Libya, identifying technological barriers, cultural differences and other hurdles linked to management attitudes. "Libya has demonstrated resistance to change and faces the disadvantage of lack of experience of use of the internet amongst many of its students. Therefore, the Libyan ICT policy must consider the UK’s attempts at using ICT in teaching, and evaluate how e-learning impacts on education," the paper read, referring to the fact that distance learning and e-learning courses are not considered valid modes of education and thus not acknowledged by the educational authorities. Furthermore, the report identified a "digital gap", of poor connectivity and outdated equipment, which prevents many prospective students from accessing relevant resources via the internet. From a business perspective, it is essential to consider the physical and technical parameters of the e-learning environment, as well as the receptiveness of the staff across multiple cultures. How to adapt learning for different cultures? While many businesses are aware of the challenges that come with inter-cultural learning, addressing them is not always easy. Cisco’s study Cultural Considerations for Global e-learning listed a number of implications for policy and practice, including recognition of the need for cultural adaptation, while local insight is important in helping to make resources culturally relevant by adapting global e-learning resources to the target markets. With these factors in mind, it is key that companies plan their international learning plans in advance and address the barriers that affect all of the countries they provide e-learning to. For any international training project, it is vital that companies have a deep understanding of how each country they work in learns. For example, a standard verbatim translation may not work effectively, as there are many other barriers that need to be considered, including how the style of writing will transfer between countries and how idioms are not easily translated.  Furthermore, consideration of cultural perceptions of imagery, colour and tone of voice can have a tremendous impact on how the content is received and ultimately processed by the staff. By researching markets properly and gathering regular feedback, companies can benefit from improved learning that can boost the intelligence and resourcefulness of employees. Read more at Language Connect.

We’ve just published our latest white paper "Making the case for blended learning" Go check it out on our website! Blended learning has gained tremendous momentum in corporate training in recent years. At the same time, the availability of learning management systems, tools and digital resources has skyrocketed. Did you know that 98% of organizations plan to increase or maintain their e-learning spending within the next two years and in 2014, almost 30% of all learning content was delivered in blended scenarios across companies of all sizes? This white paper explores how to get the perfect blend for your organization, how blended learning drives efficiency while saving costs, and what you need to do to start your blended project and get management buy-in. Download now   Based on the Speexx Exchange 2014-15 Survey and a number of in-depth industry reports, this paper showcases they key drivers for successful blended learning projects and offers practical approaches for embedding blended learning into your organization on a global level. You will learn: How blended learning drives ROI and student motivation Which crucial factors make blended learning a true success 7 steps for kick-starting your blended learning project Don’t have time to read the whole paper? Get the fast facts about kick-starting your blended learning project in our infographic!

Our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world requires organisations to be agile and responsive to the fast changing, and uncertain, business world they operate in. For L&D leaders, this means creating a learning team fit for the future, which can respond to change fast. Our research into the strategies of over 600 L&D professionals, Modernising Learning: Delivering Results showed us how organisations are adapting their strategy in this VUCA business environment; exploring what they are doing, what’s working and what needs to change. We learned that a successful strategy is one that focuses on outputs and business alignment, remaining in tune with its organisation’s overall strategy. This alignment boosts performance, productivity, time to competency, reduces attrition and much more. These are the results that both L&D teams and the business wants to see. This is what we call a ‘modernised learning strategy’; one that has the business outcomes and performance at its core. Modernising Learning: An Active Improvement Process To achieve our aspirations and modernise our learning strategies, we need to take action. One way of doing this, is to look at those L&D teams who are already at the top of their game. What can we learn from them? More importantly, what can we DO differently as a result? The Towards Maturity Model has long provided a benchmark for effective learning practices, with the top quartile of the Towards Maturity Index™ consistently delivering more for less. It is clear: this year, more than ever before, we need to understand that it is what the top performers are doing that makes a difference. Benchmark now   Staying Ahead of the Game: Top Performing L&D Teams In Modernising Learning: Delivering Results, we took a fresh look at the learning leaders - the top 10% of the Towards Maturity Index™ (we refer to these organisations as the Top Deck). Across the board, these organisations are twice as likely to achieve the benefits they seek from a modernised learning strategy and report 30% fewer barriers than average across the 2014 sample. These organisations are not all cash-loaded multinational corporations; they are varied across a range of sectors, sizes and L&D budgets. Our research tells us that the best learning organisations are established users of learning technologies. They invest twice as much budget percentage into learning technologies than the average. Whilst they do use certain tools like everyone else (online courses, LMS etc.), they are more than twice as likely to use technology tools such as cloud-based content, blogs, social bookmarking and achievement badges to connect staff with great content and to motivate them to engage and share with others. They also deliver great results, because technology helps them to: Speed up application of learning in the workplace (65% vs. 21% avg.) Provide faster response to changing business conditions (62% vs. 24% avg.) Support organisational change (69% vs. 32% avg.) Increase job productivity (72% vs. 28% avg.) Common characteristics of Top Deck L&D Teams The Towards Maturity Model tracks over 100 effective practice behaviours. Typically, different organisations show different strengths across the 6 strands of the model. However, with the Top Deck organisations, there are four ‘fitness’ behaviours that they all share consistently: 1. Two-Way Strategic Alignment with the Heart of the Business Talking about business alignment has become all the rage in the last 18 months, but the top Deck organisations have turned talk into action. They all align L&D team activity with the strategic goals of the organisation (compared with 56% on average) and continue to regularly review their programmes and check that they support and enhance organisational goals (43% avg.). 2. Giving Learners an Active Voice Since our very first benchmark study, the top performing learning organisations had a learner centric foundation to their strategy. Eleven years on the Top Deck teams continue to provide learners a proactive voice. Today, they continue to understand how their learners learn and what learners need (something that only 36% of the sample across the board actually does). They are also more likely to use technology to encourage user - generated content and are four times as likely to actively encourage staff to collaborate in building knowledge resources. Actively encouraging the learner voice doesn’t stop there as the Top Deck also understand that success breeds success with nine out of ten encouraging peer to peer feedback about the impact of learning interventions. 3. Designing Beyond the Course Armed with the knowledge gained from learners, Top Deck organisations are at least 50% more likely to use technology to transform learning across business skills such as Leadership and management, problem solving, communications and team working skills. It is clear in that all of these learning elite consider the ‘course’ as only one of the many options for building skills and performance. 4. Being Proactive in Making Connections The fourth characteristic that all of the Top Deck organisations share is the way that they support change. Modernising learning involves change for many and this involves change management. Top Deck teams ensure that individuals can access clear information on all learning opportunities open to them. In an increasingly mobile enterprise, they are all focussed on providing learning to staff in places that are convenient to them. Benchmark now   It’s Time for Action Every single one of the Top Deck L&D teams say their learning initiatives support the skills the business needs, compared to just two thirds of L&D leaders on average. 73% report positive changes in staff behaviour (compared to 21% average). Most importantly of all in our fast changing business environment, 9 out of 10 Top Deck leaders report that their business leaders recognise that learning interventions are aligned with the overall business plan AND that when something is important to the business, it is resourced correctly. What’s clear, is that the Top Deck organisations are ‘doers’ rather than ‘talkers’ when it comes to modernising their learning strategy. Their fitness strategy involves being 100% committed and active in balancing individual and organisational need; they think outside the box when it comes to learning design and they prioritise activities that allow them to connect with staff at their point of need. If you want to find out how your learning strategy compares, use Towards Maturity’s proven Benchmark process to review your activities and get free, personalised feedback.

The Tech Revolution has reached the clothes industry. Leading designers and sport brands are working on smart ‘wearable’ garments that integrate phones and cameras; keep our bodies cool while working out or will even help us survive in the wilderness. Adidas has developed the collection "Climachill". The sport company includes titanium and aluminum into the fabric of the clothes in order to give the wearer a cooling sensation while working out. This technology is innovative because the chilling sensations are only provided when the body is warm. This enables longer training sessions and better performance for athletes. Designer Jacqueline Nanne decided to concentrate on the opposite of cooling. She focused on the most important feature of clothing in order to survive in the wilderness: warmth. Her experimental project, Adaptive Survival Clothing, uses the thermoregulation properties of wool and turns them into an intelligent textile that can eliminate the need to change clothes in different seasons. This helps hikers stay comfortable in an ever-changing temperature environment. The fashion industry is also taking wearable tech very seriously. A company from New York has designed a stylish scarf called "Scough". It filters and cleans the air you breathe. Tommy Hilfiger has designed a jacket with integrated solar panels that charge mobile devices. And the London-based wearable technology clothing company CuteCircuit is developing a "smart" jacket with a built-in phone and Twitter feed. This might sound like science fiction, but Francesca Rosella, creative director at CuteCircuit, says: "In five to 10 years, all the little gadgets we have to carry around - like mobile phones or cameras - will disappear and everything will be integrated into a garment". Ralph Lauren is one of the big fashion labels that is ahead when it come to smart clothes. The brand has developed a sports shirt that monitors heartbeat, respiration and stress levels. It will soon be in the shops on both sides of the Atlantic. David Lauren, executive vice-president of Ralph Lauren, says: "The technology has evolved to a point where it can now be synthesized with clothing. The goal now is to merge it into all kinds of clothing. It will be mind-blowing five years from now". And the future holds many more possibilities: There will be outfits for children that tell us if they’re getting enough exercise, jackets warning us if our blood pressure is too high or even garments that can change their pattern and colour depending on how you are feeling. Some of these ideas seem practical; some of them are strange. For example, the idea that one’s dress or trousers might one day also be a telephone. However, it wouldn’t be the first time for design and technology to fuse. So what’s next - satnav sneakers powered by Google or iHoodies designed by Apple?

We’ve just published the final edition of our 3 part video guide to help HR and L&D professionals deal with developing a global workforce. ‘How to drive corporate training with big learner data’ gives an insight into how learner analytics benefit organisations in their training programmes and decision-making processes. It also lists practical tips on applying the right metrics and predicting learner behaviour in the future. There is a lot of talk about big data and how it will help businesses become more responsive to customer needs. The same thinking can be applied to corporate learning and development. To date, HR and L&D professionals have approached skills development from either a business need perspective or to meet demand from line managers. Now big data, revealing the way in which individual learners are embracing and using e-learning, is driving more effective workforce learning. Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx, presents: Part 1: Succession planning and talent mobility: http://bit.ly/1HQ6ZA1 Part 2:Navigating data protection regulations for a global workforce:http://bit.ly/1MWgqR7 Part 3: How to drive corporate training with big learner data http://bit.ly/1JcN6pO. "Data analytics allows HR and L&D to respond to users much faster than would have been possible in the old days", says Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx. "Big data allows us to control and measure learning results while steering learners along a learning path based on their results and achievements. With the help of cloud-based solutions, organisations are disseminating systems throughout their workforce and measuring the results against the standards that they’ve set." Like this topic? Then you might also like our white paper ‘Big Data and Talent Mobility to Drive Business in 2015’ which is available to you free here http://bit.ly/1WxRdm4.

The annual Speexx Exchange Survey has just gone live and we’d love for you to take part. Share your thoughts on the current state of talent management and e-learning and tell us what your company is doing right now. All it takes is 15 minutes of your time and you’ll have the chance to win a brand-new iPad Air 2 and a Speexx language course of your choice. The survey results will be shared with you exclusively on the conference day and in our next white papers. Start Survey   Last year, we got extremely valuable feedback from over 200 HR and L&D professionals from around the world. The results can be seen in our white papers and infographics. Here’s a summary of the main findings: Results from last year’s Speexx Exchange Survey 200+ survey participants, including Senior HR and L&D managers, C-level executives, e-learning strategy developers and learning consultants. 29% were multinationals with over 5,000 employees. The majority of respondents were from Europe and North America. E-Learning 92% have already implemented some form of e-learning (compared to 90% last year). Similar to 2013, 21% have embedded e-learning courses across the entire organisation Almost half (47%) do not plan to invest more than 10% of their training budgets on e-enabled learning in 2015, yet 63% plan to increase their e-learning budget by 2017, compared to just 57% in the previous year. E-learning adoption and investment are clearly growing. The top advantages organisations have registered from e-enabled learning are flexibility (cited by 57% - up from 51% last year), reduction of direct training costs (15% - down from 18% in 2013) and speeding up time to value (11% - up from 9%). Empowering Communication Strong communication as a competitive advantage is on the rise, with 92% rating business communication skills as important or very important for overall business success, up from 85% in 2013. Yet, there are still some obstacles that make good communication difficult for organisations, the top one being lack of foreign language skills, cited by 41%. Other factors include intercultural differences (20%) and lack of management support (18%). Getting the edge through good communications is certainly worthwhile, though - the top benefits that can be achieved with it include better collaboration across borders (31%), cost savings (30%) and better customer service (24%). Corporate MOOCs MOOCs are courses delivered over the web to potentially thousands of students at a time. Until recently, they have been predominantly found within higher education and had little impact on corporate learning. But this is now changing. 27% have already started using some form of corporate MOOC to train their workforce and 26% want to implement them by 2016. But almost half (47%) do not use them or plan to use them in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, the data is encouraging and 31% rate the potential of corporate MOOCs as "high". Mobile and Social 79% of organisations allow and/or provide mobile devices in the workplace, up from 76% in 2013. However, just 32% use them for learning and development purposes, so there is still a gap that needs to be closed for offering a flexible and on-demand e-learning solution to employees. So what’s making the implementation of mobile learning difficult? Corporate data security issues are still the main obstacle, cited by 23%, slightly down from 24% in 2014. Other barriers named are the absence of a BYOD strategy and low user adoption rate (each cited by 19%). Mobile learning is all the rage and HR and L&D Managers are quick to demand a mobile solution when dealing with e-learning vendors, but many of them seem to go into this head first without looking at whether mobile learning is actually viable and desirable for their staff members. No student is an island. Social learning in the workplace builds connectivity among employees and can boost satisfaction and motivation. Despite these advantages, it’s difficult to put a figure on social learning and measure its outcome. In terms of social learning, 26% already have a social learning strategy, up from 22% in 2013, and 19% plan to implement social learning in the next three years. On the other hand, just 24% rate its potential as "very effective" and 50% rate it as "somewhat effective. If L&D managers want to implement social learning, they need to be clear about their desired goals and outcomes and not just go into it blindly because it’s a buzzword.

Few things in the corporate world generate such vociferous reactions as the performance review. Held annually, employees meet face-to-face with their judge, jury and potential executioner. Sometimes, the outcome is positive, with the employee relishing a well-earned pat on the back, hefty bonus or promise of better things to come. Other times, well, the experience is not quite so pleasant. Walking a tightrope Opponents of the performance review assert that the procedure is not just a waste of time, but a highly subjective, highly destructive process. Samuel Culbert, author of Get Rid of the Performance Review! How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing - and Focus on What Really Matters and professor at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, claims that performance reviews ultimately destroy the trust between managers and their team and promote a culture that encourages employees to suck up to their boss rather than do what’s best for the company. Moreover, Culbert highlights the fact that performance reviews tend to deter people from voicing their concerns about problems because doing so may adversely affect their career path or compensation. Culbert points to the two high-profile cases, BP and the Japanese nuclear reactor site, where he says that employees knew about defects but undertook nothing. The reason for this, according to Culbert, lies in a lack of trust between management and employees. Yet, despite abundant criticism, over 90 percent of companies worldwide carry out performance reviews, in part because no better alternative is available and partly because enough employees actually want them. After years of having no performance review process in place, SAS, the global leader in business analytics, software and services, actually instituted a performance review system in response to repeated requests from employees. Most of these employees were university hires - more often than not PhDs - who had been used to regular feedback at university. This trend is also expected to increase as millennials - employees born between the late 1970s and early 1990s - permeate the workplace. Raised on a heavy diet of immediate feedback, millennials don’t expect to toil away in obscurity. They want to know how they’re doing and they want to know it now. So, if carrying out a review means cultivating the wrong kind of corporate culture, but not doing so means neglecting the employee’s need for feedback, not to mention failing to reward good work, how can HR managers successfully walk the performance review tightrope? Good reviewer is crucial Both industry professionals and employees agree that when it comes to the performance review, one thing is crucial: a well-trained reviewer. A good manager will provide constructive feedback and a clear direction to help employees achieve success. A poor manager will destroy confidence and look for someone to blame. The New York-based consulting group, Sibson Consulting, also advises upping the frequency by carrying out a review at the end of every project, instead of at the end of every year, while the performance being appraised is still fresh. Culbert takes this a step further and suggests dropping the reviews in favor of previews, which take place during a project, when there is still time to make adjustments to performance. Other non-traditional approaches to the appraisal process include peer reviews, and even a peer-to-peer bonus system whereby a team member can award another team member with a $50 cash bonus for excellent work - an instant tangible reward system. So, what’s the bottom line? Tread carefully.

If there’s one thing that will keep your organisation on the right track, it’s employee engagement. There are many definitions of engagement in the workplace, but most agree that it is represented by three main elements: Purpose, attachment to the company and the resulting effort employees invest in their daily tasks. To put this more simply, it’s about ‘happiness’ at work. Sounds easier than it is though, right? Everyone is talking about the Millennials as a demanding, easily distracted and hard-to-hold-down generation. One key prerequisite of the Millennial workforce is to have all content available anytime, anywhere and on any device. This goes for business-related topics as well as learning content. They also expect to be in direct touch with senior managers and consider them as their peers rather than bosses. Many companies are struggling to deal with this type of mind set - both on a business and cultural level. Capitalising on a cross-generational workforce Perhaps we need to stop separating generations altogether and accept the current workforce as it is - with a mix of age groups who all have strengths to offer. Building teams with a mix of age groups and encouraging cross-mentoring is one way to help people collaborate across generations. Another good starting point is to survey our employees’ wishes and needs. What do our people want out of their job and what will make them feel valued? Deloitte’s fourth annual Millennial Survey found that a staggering 72% of Millennials feel their employer isn’t making full use of their skills. This is a hugely missed opportunity and one that results in a lot of frustration. I’d be interested to see the same survey conducted among the Boomer generation. If they feel their skills are being utilised more effectively, why is that and what did we do differently? It’s worth finding out! Say we sort out the generational problems as an initial step, what’s next?  I think the real secret to engagement is having great leaders. These are the ones who listen to their teams and make them feel significant to the company as a whole. It’s not just about interesting tasks anymore, but about inspiring employees and making them realise why they as people matter, not just their line of work. Leaders also need to build trust in order for their employees to open up to them and express what they appreciate about their company or would like to change. For this to happen, our leaders need to have a high level of emotional intelligence and be truly aware of their people’s needs. It also requires strong communication skills. Communication is not just about expressing yourself well, but being able to read your surroundings and seamlessly adapting your message. It means the message has less to do with the speaker and more to do with the wishes and needs of the listeners. Will this be possible for the Millennials, who are so often accused of being "me-focussed" and so used to communicating via text that speaking to someone face-to-face has become the exception rather than the norm? Only time will tell, but the sooner we start addressing these issues, the more likely we are to overcome them. Start helping people to become better leaders and communicators and exchange skills and ideas across generations. It need not be a complicated process - it can be done through simple and cost-effective mentoring programmes within the company. Ask people