With the UK’s economic future looking brighter than expected, it’s time for a reality check of the country’s workforce skills. I was interested to read about the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of a new governmental body called "Reshore UK". To me, this really reflected the improvement of the UK’s economy. The aim of this initiative is to bring home skills and positions which, at another time, would have been outsourced to India and China to keep expenses down. With staff costs in Asia rising in recent years, offshoring jobs isn’t as attractive as it used to be. Furthermore, locating jobs back within the UK will boost the nation’s job market and help to drive the economic growth. The burning question is, are our talent resources ready to be reshored? As I’m sure many of our readers have experienced one of the first things companies tend to cut back on during tough economic times are organisational learning and development. This manoeuvre may help to save costs in the short term, but will create significant problems in the long run: The glaring gap between what we want our workforce to achieve and the skills they actually possess to get there. Shortage of language skills According to a recent survey , businesses across the UK are struggling to find talent for over a fifth (22 percent) of their vacancies. This skills shortage will be damaging to the recovering economy if schools, universities and organisations fail to take action. The main skills employers found to be lacking among their candidates were technical, job-specific skills (accounting for 63 percent), followed by foreign language skills (17 percent). Similarly, universities across the UK have experienced a significant drop in Modern Language degrees in recent years. Two issues come to mind when we talk about lack of language skills in the UK. On the one hand, there are about 800,000 people in England and Wales with little or no English language skills. Sadly, the majority of these people have no job. This situation may even deteriorate if the government decides to go through with the plan of offering careers and benefits services in English only, as announced last month . This is a missed opportunity when it comes to tapping into new sources of talent. Immigrants living in the UK may well be able to fill the vacancies demanding specialist technical skills mentioned above, but lack the language skills to get information on these vacancies in the first place. If careers centres help them grasp a working knowledge of English and they are then taken on by a company with an online language learning solution embedded in their work plan from day one, they will boost their linguistic abilities while they work. They will also become integrated in the organisation and can start to support it with skills their employer might otherwise not have been able to find in-house. Today’s technology allows for language and business communication training to be seamlessly integrated in a daily work schedule. In Germany, for example, the Federal Employment Agency offers free online language courses to all registered job seekers. That’s more than four million people. In fact, language training has the highest user adoption rates among all skill development tools on offer within the "Lernbörse" platform. The e-learning system is completely integrated into the agency’s learning management system. This way, job seekers are encouraged to actively improve their skills, and thereby, their career prospects, while searching for new positions through the agency. See the full post via Training Journal.

I went to an e-learning industry meeting in London last week. I hadn’t joined for a couple of sessions and everybody told me it was about time to meet my peers face to face instead of just virtually. It was obvious to me that I had missed out on a lot of informal information exchange and communication so I went over to the UK. Around 30 elearning professionals from different countries attended what turned out to be a most useful and productive event. I got a great update on what is moving the industry and met loads of people new to the interest group. And as a non-native speaker of English, I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to pick up on new industry vocab or general phrases and terms - that´s the one thing that even our online language training service might not always be better at. So, even though it costs more time, money and effort to arrange for it, nothing beats good old face to face communication, does it? Not quite. One thing that stood out to me throughout the event is how little time people actually spend talking to one another nowadays. And that’s not only happening in the UK of course. It travel a lot and it`s the same everywhere. Of course, we’re all physically present, but do the people and discussions in the room actually have our full attention? Conversations appear to take place at short, sporadic intervals in between working on our tablets or sending texts from our phones. We might be speaking to someone face to face, but nervously feeling for our phones at the same time, occasionally even excusing ourselves and interrupting the dialogue to finish sending something.  The same thing happens - probably even more so - while somebody is presenting something in a meeting room. Here, the temptation to take a sneaky glance at our mobile is even greater, as it’s not a one-to-one conversation and we don’t feel quite as directly addressed. At the event in London and annoyingly for me, with a German carrier I had no signal in the room so I actually had to leave the building to call my kids for a brief good night chat - I’m guilty as well, you see. It’s hard to imagine a time when we had no electronic devices whatsoever and could become completely immersed in a business meeting.  Just have a look at this: According to Morgan Stanley, more than 90% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message.  UNISYS found that it takes 26 hours for the average person to report a lost wallet.  It takes 68 minutes for them to report a lost phone. Makes me wonder how they actually reported the lost phone - without a phone. However, our 2014 Speexx Exchange survey shows that 67% of corporations allow mobile at work but only 27% use mobile learning. We´ve been wondering about this result and mainly put it down to issues with instructional design and content availability. But lately I´ve been thinking that mobile might also be stigmatized because we often experience it as a distraction rather than as a tool for learning. If this is true we´d have to discuss a code of conduct for the use of mobile devices in business before we can even think of increasing the adoption of mobile in elearning or blended learning environments. Sometimes I think it helps to go back to basics and make the most of these rare opportunities where we get to meet our peers and talk to them in person. All the things that are largely lost through digital communications - tone of voice, body language, facial expressions - are at play here and it’s important to be able to pick up on these subtle details. This will result in fruitful discussions and an exchange for some great new ideas. And by adhering to this rather simple code of communication conduct we might even back the long term adoption of mobile learning. What do you think?

When considering a candidate in a job interview, how important is past job performance? Many HR professionals believe that previous job performance is a good indicator of future performance, but a new research study shows that even experienced evaluators like recruiters or university admissions officers regularly make snap decisions and therefore fail to consider all of the variables when it comes to deciding who’s in and who’s out during a job interview - often with unpleasant consequences. Thin-slicing with snap decisions Everyone makes snap decisions. In early times, being able to quickly determine if aperceived danger was real or not was a matter of life or death. These days, when a well-dressed business woman enters the boardroom, it is assumed she is competent and intelligent while a job candidate with dirty fingernails probably won’t get the job as sales clerk because he is assumed to be careless and untidy. Snap decisions based on physical appearance, while not necessarily incorrect, can’t take every factor into consideration. But what about snap decisions regarding a candidate’s previous experience? In today’s job market, where HR professionals often have dozens of resumes to evaluate for one job, snap decisions mean that good candidates often get rejected before they can even show up in person to make a good impression. Reading between the lines The problem often lies in the details: Candidates with less-than-perfect performance records are rejected without any consideration of why they didn’t perform well, even if they are a perfect match in every other way. A recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE asserts that even highly-trained people-evaluators regularly make ‘fundamental attribution errors’ - that is, snap decisions - when it comes to hiring. The report, entitled ‘Inflated Applicants: Attribution Errors in Performance Evaluation by Professionals,’  considers how businesses often inadvertently promote or hire less-qualified managers and how universities weaken their reputations by admitting inferior students. The consequence, according to the report, is that people are admitted who shouldn’t be, while others are rejected who shouldn’t be. The study set out to determine if people who are paid to have unclouded judgment, such as recruiters, really were able to make unbiased decisions about selection and admissions. Harsh to lenient The first part of the study focused on university admissions officers. They were asked to evaluate nine fictional candidates whose qualifications were nearly identical. However, the grading standards of the candidates’ schools varied from harsh to lenient. As predicted, the admissions officers consistently chose the fictional candidates with the highest grade point averages, regardless of the leniency of the grading policy. The result was similar in a study of business executives asked to consider twelve fictional candidates for promotion. Some of the candidates had performed extremely well at an easy job (managing a quiet airport) while others had performed less well at a more difficult job (managing a busier airport). Again, the executives consistently selected the candidates who had performed well at easier tasks. Even experts were likely to favor employees whose performance was enhanced by an easier situation. While some job applicants might view this positively, the outcome might be disastrous for the employer, since other studies have shown that an employee’s success consistently drops when different or more difficult working conditions are imposed. A silver lining While the results of the study are overall quite discouraging for job seekers and employers alike, there is hope: recognizing the danger of making snap decisions might result in experts taking a little more time in the decision making process, thus eliminating the worst consequences of our hard-wired responses. Want to get more HR content? Join our free webinar series for HR and L&D professionals and learn to communicate in proper Business English. ________________________________________________________________________________ Many thanks to Holly for your input!

We’re happy to announce that we have been selected as the preferred language training provider for Spain’s Labor Foundation for Construction. In this project, we’ll be helping to build the Foundation’s new online language training platform. The Labor Foundation for Construction is a reference entity for the entire construction sector. Its main focus points are the prevention of health and safety risks in the workplace, as well as education, innovation, sustainability and new technologies. With over 400 different educational offers, the Foundation has now added online language training to its portfolio. This is a significant step in the Foundation’s implementation of cloud-based learning solutions for communication skills training. The primary languages offered via the new language training platform will be English, French and German. The goal of the foreign language and communication courses is to support professionals who need to improve their skills in a flexible way. Students choose from a variety of options which are suited to their individual learning needs. The course modules include online courseware, personalized coaching and live communication skills training via virtual classroom or telephone sessions. This way, students boost their communicative skills in a real-life business situation. Professional Speexx language trainers are also available to give guidance and support throughout the course. The language training platform will allow students to learn at their own pace, while enabling HR Managers to compare and measure learning results. "The current economic climate and high-speed globalization have created an intensified internationalization process for organizations and businesses of this sector", explains David de Teresa, Commercial Director of the Foundation. "The quest for business opportunities beyond borders affects organizations of all sizes. In order to adapt to this change, we have decided to boost our language training offer for employees of the construction sector as well as similar industries". Elena Giménez, Head of Speexx Spain, comments, "The construction industry is key to our country’s economy, and Spanish companies represent a leading example of this sector. This partnership between the Foundation and Speexx will give professionals access to a high quality language training solution, anytime and anywhere. A strong knowledge of Business English and other languages is key to professional learning and development, both within and beyond Spain’s borders." To learn more, connect with Speexx on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Read the Spanish article about the new project and language training platform via Compromiso RSE.

Savvy organizations know that business agility needs to be driven from the ground up and that better communication removes language silos in a multinational and speeds up the time required to achieve a competitive advantage and drive results. Is your talent pool ready to go global? By breaking down communication barriers, skilled staff can be easily identified in the global talent pool and moved into different areas of the organization. This also creates greater career mobility for highly skilled staff. For instance, an employee working for a Swedish company with specialist IT skills might be transferred to fill a vacancy in the company’s French subsidiary - providing he has the right language skills. Such ‘local heroes’, who work in a particular subsidiary and are top performers in their field, need to be empowered with communication skills. This allows them to be elevated to a level where their knowledge can be leveraged across the entire organization. In our recent Speexx Exchange Survey, 49 percent of respondents said that they were ‘e-enabling’ foreign language learning. More than half were also using e-learning to improve general business and customer service skills. Interestingly, 54 percent of those respondents considered their organizations to be multinational and multilingual. A further 89 percent believed that "business communication and foreign language skills were critical in determining organizational success". Looking beyond the statistics, it’s clear to see that organizations are starting to understand that open communications will improve commercial success. To learn more, check out our free White Paper resources. Leap frogging the competition It has also been widely reported that China is now overtaking the US in terms of exports - this is an interesting area because Speexx works closely with several organizations including Beijing University in China to improve their learners’ command of English - the same could be applied to the UK by improving the command of French, German or Italian. A recent visit to China, showed me that a hunger to learn and export is still thriving. However, some businesses have a long way to go before they can tap into the profit potential of a multilingual culture. Real progress and a competitive advantage can only be achieved if businesses, large and small, develop creative and target-driven learning strategies from the ground up; strategies which are adapted to the individual needs of each organization. It all starts with inclusion Reaping the rewards of multilingual learning begins with a culture of inclusion. By taking time to understand the latest learning tools available, organizations can create an overarching attitude of learning. Companies can take stock of existing language skills among staff and use these to their advantage, while ensuring the consistent development of new ways of learning that are both motivating and compatible with the demands of the workforce. Recruitment policies, training strategies and business plans can be reviewed to ensure language learning becomes an integral part of the organization’s culture. In a rapidly changing workforce, language skills provide the key to communicating across borders and operating more efficiently and profitably. Long-term, this will lead to a real competitive advtantage in today’s market. Individuals and organizations now have greater flexibility on how linguistic skills are delivered and effective results can be achieved regardless of skill, nationality or age. Organizations wishing to gain a competitive advantage will need to upskill staff in order to be better placed to reach out to new target markets and build lasting, strategic relationships. The opportunity for business growth is real - and there is no better time than now to seize it than now.

Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about the overwhelmed employee, as well as organizations’ failure to really engage their workforce. According to Gallup research, only 13 per cent of employees worldwide feel engaged in their job. Bersin by Deloitte showed that a 78 per cent of business and learning leaders consider engagement an urgent or important issue. This poses a significant risk to organisations when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. It got me thinking about where we’ve gone wrong. Today, we’re expected to invest more time and brain power in our professions than ever before. Skill requirements and the nature of work have changed, just as our own expectations have. Employees now want to identify with their work and feel passionate about it. To me, engagement means that you’re intrinsically motivated, believe in what your company is doing and are prepared to go that extra mile because you care, not just because of the pay check at the end of the month. But how many of us are really being fulfilled? New communication channels This isn’t the only thing that has changed. The way work reaches us has, too. Most of us don’t clock in and out or work anymore - in fact, most can’t. With the rise of the internet and mobile devices, work has become fluid and flexible. We’re available 24/7 - even during evenings, weekends or while on holiday, and we can’t just forget about work once the office door closes. I’ve lost count of the number of communication channels through which people and information reach me, for both private and work-related matters. There’s a whole stream of updates and messages filling my displays every day, including emails, text messages, LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and Skype notifications. Then for the younger general, including my kids, there’s WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat. Next, Flipboard and Twitter for my daily news feed. And of course, web conferences for discussing business matters. And I almost forgot - the good old telephone call! It’s almost impossible to separate our work and private lives in the modern world, where communication channels have silently blended into each other. One of my favourite lines coming from both friends and colleagues is: "I just sent you something, did you get it?" My automatic response is simply "Where?" The overwhelmed learner Learning in organizations is undergoing a similar change. With the progress of technology, employees are increasingly expected to study in a flexible, self-paced learning environment which they can access anytime, anywhere and from any device. But let’s face it, if left to their own (mobile) devices and with all that other communication coming through around the clock, they’re more likely to lag behind, watching funny videos or reading messages from their friends than actually learning something work-related. The constant flow of information is making it difficult for us to pick out the really important information and to use new skills and knowledge to our advantage. In fact, many organizations haven’t even clocked on to the mobile learning revolution yet. The Speexx Exchange 2013-14 Survey shows that, while 76 per cent of organizations have a BYOD strategy only 35 per cent use mobile devices for training. For a mobile learning strategy to work, content needs to be easily accessible, relevant and compelling - and it also needs to beat that funny viral YouTube video that may be competing for the employee’s already overwhelmed attention. Going back to basics But even the best technology won’t keep a learner engaged long-term. At Speexx, we’ve found that something as simple as contact with a human being can make all the difference. According to our internal data, 95 per cent of learners who receive personalised email coaching on top of their e-learning content complete their course successfully. 85 per cent of temporarily inactive students are put back on track with their communication skills training after a simple phone call from their trainer. It’s about adding a human touch to all the screens and pixels. Managers play an equally important role in informing their workforce about new learning and development strategies. Engagement needs to become an issue in its own rights with a designated manager taking responsibility for it. Today’s employees are empowered and informed - they want to know why they need to acquire a new skill. They want to understand their role in the company’s overall mission. Which brings us back to basic communication: A corporate mission needs to be communicated concisely and transparently with employees of all levels and across all regions with no exceptions. This is the first step towards building true engagement for your workforce instead of letting them be overwhelmed with unnecessary information. Only the right combination of compelling technology, human collaboration and clear communication will result in an engaging environment where employees will feel motivated to drive real business.

When was the last time you chose to raise a tricky topic by email rather than face to face? Just now? Yesterday? We’ve all been there…  The reality is that we just don’t talk like we used to anymore. And this is symptomatic of wider workplace and societal trends away from direct verbal contact. While there may be time and efficiency savings for a business, there’s a negative impact, too. Moving away from rich, candid discussions with our direct reports could be more damaging than we realise. The modern manager Managers today don’t get an easy ride. How many times have you wondered, "Am I a coach now? A counsellor? An agony aunt?" Managers have more responsibility than ever, as HR responsibilities spill over into the boardroom. ‘Having courageous conversations’ shouldn’t be pitched as just another item to add to managers’ already overflowing in-trays. Rather, the ability to initiate (and successfully execute) courageous conversations should make managers’ lives easier, and become part of the day to day. Where are courageous conversations needed? Not an exhaustive list, but a flavour of potential opportunities for a courageous conversation to make a difference: Addressing poor performance - rather than hiding behind an appraisal, performance scorecard or decisions made by a committee elsewhere, managers should be more proactive in speaking about a declining level of performance, before it becomes a bigger issue. Correcting undesirable behaviour - there’s probably a judgement call here about whether this is an ‘HR issue’, but for minor misdemeanours, this could be manager territory. Such an intervention could nip the behaviour in the bud before it becomes a more serious issue. Discussing pay reviews - another notoriously prickly topic for managers to contend with, but it needn’t be. Be open and honest. If there’s a reason an employee isn’t receiving the pay increase they’d hoped for, explain the reasons and what they should focus on going forward to change this. Fear of feedback We avoid difficult conversations as we expect they’ll be uncomfortable. We know that they could lead to an emotional response, clouding what people actually hear and making our jobs even trickier. This issue is further convoluted when we’re communicating in a foreign language. In the increasingly globalised workplace, it is not uncommon for a manager or their employee to be speaking in a language which is not their mother tongue. Here, there is an even greater chance for misinterpretations or worries of being misunderstood, making the conversation uncomfortable at times. It’s far easier to bury our head in the sand; ignore issues and avoid taking action. Guess what though? Nothing changes. I call this the "Ostrich effect". Failing to act in these situations may mean you’re holding back your reports from achieving their full potential. The scenarios outlined above are part of organisational life. They’re not going anywhere. Managers must therefore be better prepared (and supported) for such scenarios. This will ensure they handle them with confidence and achieve positive results. The more routine these conversations become, the more the behaviour and communication becomes embedded in the business, and the less daunting they’ll seem. Technology: help or hindrance? Organisations spend up to hundreds of thousands of pounds each year on development programmes such as 360 degree feedback. Such programmes are undoubtedly of value to participants as they’re given a wealth of rich feedback to learn from. Ultimately though, it’s what is done with these tools which determines just how valuable they are for the individual and for their company. The point is that online appraisals, 360 degree feedback and other HR tools shouldn’t replace a manager-employee conversation, they should better enable them. Such conversations can be incredibly powerful in creating positive behavioural change, so it’s sad that many of us are avoiding having them. Advice on having a courageous conversation The first thing to say is: don’t overcomplicate things. A simple approach will serve you best: Have a clear purpose - be clear about the issues you’re raising before you speak with the person concerned and state your intentions up-front to avoid any ambiguity. If either of you is not speaking in your native language, choose your words wisely and don’t leave room for misinterpretations. You could also double-check with the other person whether anything requires repetition or further explanation. We tend to assume the unknown is an "enemy" and to adopt a defensive or aggressive mind-set, which can derail a conversation before it has started. The way you frame this conversation before it begins is vital to its ability to effect change. Stick to the facts - everyone has an opinion and they may well differ so they’re largely irrelevant here. Discuss your perceptions, and ask your report about theirs. Investigate intentions - Unfortunately we rarely explore intention in relation to our behaviour, and therefore don’t get to the crux of the matter. Whatever the intention, this is the driver. Find out what they are trying to achieve; what is the end goal? Look forward, not back - don’t dwell on past mistakes. Outline the behaviour that you would like to see - discuss your own examples, tell your own story, and coach alternative behaviours. Just having an awareness of current behaviour won’t lead to change. The onus is on you to provoke a SHIFT in thinking to generate positive, more beneficial alternatives. Agree actions - what should change as a result of the points raised (and by when)? Make a concrete plan to support favourable behaviour and provide appropriate levels of support. What’s the outcome of more courageous communication? Having managers who are willing (and able) to initiate courageous conversations offers companies a clear competitive advantage. The ability to challenge an individual’s thinking and then to support them in effecting change should be in every manager’s toolkit. Supporting managers to do this consistently will benefit the individual, their team and the organisation. This is because managers will be able to better harness individuals’ ability, handle employee concerns or issues and, ultimately, deliver a higher level of performance. The key is to keep communication constructive, holistic and developmental in nature. Managers doing this well could unleash more potential in their people than they realise. Author biography Deborah Cobb is a business psychologist working for UK-based HR consultancy ETS. Find out more via https://www.etsplc.com/. ETS are experts in employee engagement, assessment and development working with companies including Vodafone, PepsiCo and RBS.

When you drive from one American coast to the other, you’ll spend most of your time driving in a straight line. But why? It all goes back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the dream of expanding America’s borders. There’s a fairly wide-spread belief that between the Rockies and the Mississippi there’s nothing but grass. That’s not precisely true, of course: While the prairies are sparsely settled (less than 50 people per square mile) there are also rolling hills, unusual animals and land formations, and roads so poker-straight that they would have made Thomas Jefferson a very happy man. In addition to being America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson was also a farmer and a strong supporter of the Land Ordinance of 1785. He believed the future of America lay in farming and land ownership, not in building cities. He championed the idea that all land west of the Appalachians should be surveyed and divided into parcels of one square mile each, which could later be sold to anyone who wanted to settle there. An important aspect of the Land Ordinance was that it determined how America would be measured, and consequently influenced the measurement system used in America today. In fact, surveyors are at least partially to blame for America’s resistence to the metric system. The new system used something called ‘survey miles’ and ‘acres’ rather than the more traditional ‘metes and bounds’ method. With survey miles, a piece of land is measured out into township sections (usually 36 square miles) and then further subdivided into plots of one square mile each. One square mile equals 640 acres. Metes and bounds, on the other hand, uses landmarks and geographical features to determine boundaries, and relies on the surveyor ‘pacing out’ the ground. While the system worked perfectly well, it was agreed that landmarks could change over time and therefore a new system was needed for the new nation. The Land Ordinance set the foundation for land policy - surveying, selling and settling of the land - for the next 100 years. A quick glance at the map of nearly any state will reveal rectangular counties and unswervingly straight borders, especially west of the Appalachians. As people moved west, the grid system went with them. Whole states appear mapped out in evenly spaced rectangles, which certainly made it easier to parcel out for homesteading purposes. Not surprisingly, the most ambitious city planners gleefully adopted the grid system too, arguing that cities with wide, parallel avenues would not only look impressive but also intimidate the nation’s enemies. Washington D.C., for example, was planned with that goal in mind. The organic growth of cities that one sees in Europe - where cities are centuries old and grew outward naturally as the city grew - is almost non-existent in America. Only the oldest neighborhoods in the eastern cities, such as New York or Boston, have these maze-like sections. And the roads? Since roads were usually built with state money, they tended to follow the survey markings, which meant they followed the straight lines on the map rather than following the landscape. When interstate highways were added after World War II, they usually plotted a straight line between cities. Consequently, a good many of the interstates either repeat the grid design or intersect it. In the end, it all comes down to wide open spaces. America is big, bigger than even Thomas Jefferson had imagined. And when you’re in a hurry, the shortest distance between two plotted points is a straight line, right? _____________________________ A big thanks goes to Holly for her input on this one!

With the European elections around the corner, it’s time to take a closer look at our politicians’ communication and foreign language skills. In fact, their conversations in a foreign language always manage to spark some sort of reaction in the media. When it turns out they speak another language well, it gets in the news. But if they speak it badly, it’s even bigger news and they become subject to viral videos and quotes circulating the internet. In general, politicians have never been all too famous for their foreign language skills, often reflecting their own countries’ skills in this respect. In Spain, for example, people are lagging behind when it comes to speaking good English. Remember the last Eurobarometer, which showed that only 22% of Spaniards actually speak English, while the overall European average was 38%? What skills does a politician need? Politicians are expected to have a number of skills in their repertoire, including verbal and non-verbal communication skills, leadership skills, as well as the ability to manage and negotiate. There is no need for any type of degree, though. The candidate simply represents an electoral program (which is the first step towards proving their communication skills) and is then either elected or not, without any need for proof of skills. It is essential to have citizens who are prepared to defend public interest, whether or not they have an education. But when it comes to certain positions in national or international politics, shouldn’t we expect a little more? Shouldn’t they have a range of skills, as well as proven prior experience? Let’s not forget that certain key roles in society, including education, health or safety require a whole lot of education and preparation. In terms of foreign language skills, there’s always been a debate about how indispensible they really are. Some people believe that the above mentioned skills are enough to work in parliament and that there is no need for foreign language skills. I personally disagree on this one. Speaking another language, as well as the ability to understand other cultures, should be a key requirement for politicians. A multilingual person will always be able to communicate better and be at an advantage in negotiations compared to a monolingual person. Real discussions happen between meetings Anyone representing us on a political level in Europe will have to defend our interests in front of people from other countries. And many of these issues end up being discussed between politicians over a meal, in the corridor or in the cafeteria. Of course, a politician can always have an interpreter at their side, but these informal conversations flow a lot more naturally when they’re held in a one-to-one situation.  A command of the specific vocabulary in the foreign language is also necessary for these types of negotiations. Culture is another key issue here. A Greek person doesn’t do business as an English person would. Neither, in turn, deal with things quite as a Norwegian might. Their timings, expectations and strategies are all different. Furthermore, the vocabulary used to describe cultural concepts is often difficult to translate into other languages. After all, the language we speak influences our thought process, just as our habits are closely linked to our culture and our mother tongue. For example, we could argue that the most important words for native speakers of English are "please" and "thank you". They use them much more often than Spaniards do! I therefore believe that anyone aiming to represent us in politics needs to have the ability to communicate well in a foreign language. Let’s not forget that these elections will serve to choose the politicians that are meant to take us out of the crisis and will define economic politics to a large extent for Spain. Shining examples of foreign language skills Let’s take a look at some of the candidates at the upcoming elections on May 25th. Miguel Arias Cañete, the current minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment and candidate of Spain’s Partido Popular, speaks English and French fluently, as well as Italian and German (and apparently he’s learning Chinese, too!). Elena Valenciano of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, speaks English and French. Willy Meyer (Izquierda Unida) speaks perfect German, and Francisco Sosa Wagner (UPyD) speaks English, German and French. The good news therefore seems to be that candidates for the European election do tend to have a good knowledge of foreign languages, and are exceptions to the rule. However, let’s not forget about national, autonomous and local politicians. Despite admirable exceptions of representatives who speak one or several languages fluently (think of historical figures, such as Fraga or Pujol, or more contemporary ones such as Moratinos or Aguirre), the general tendency seems to be a lack of foreign language skills. Should good foreign language skills become compulsory for politicians?  It’s time to open up the debate.

Brighten up your Friday with our lovely new video of the Speexx Virtual Classroom. Freshly produced by our very own Tim.

Mobile usage is increasing at a rapid rate and more people than ever are carrying a pocketful of knowledge wherever they go. Does this really mean we no longer need to learn anything? During the Learning Technologies show in London, I was asked for the most valuable learning advice I had ever received. It was actually something my Latin teacher told me quite a few years ago in the pre-Google age when I was having the same problems with Latin grammar as my daughter is having these days. It rhymes in German but here is an attempt at an English translation. You don’t need to know how it works You just need to know where to find it. I think this still holds true today. With search engines available anytime and anywhere, the amount of facts we need to remember has dropped significantly. Now, we simply search online or even ask a friend or colleague via our social networks whenever we need to know something. In both cases, we can usually expect a quick and accurate response. However, most of the information load is predominantly in English, not only the lingua franca of science these days but also the international language of business. Skills cannot be looked up When it comes to business communication and language learning, we have also done away with the need for a bookshelf of text books and dictionaries. We ask our online translators or store words in a mobile vocabulary app. However, these are only useful up to a certain point. The communicative abilities we need to express ourselves in a foreign language are much more difficult to acquire; it’s not simply a matter of translation. Communication is a skill we attain over time, not a piece of information we can look up on our phones. Communication skills training takes time When Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten introduced an English-only policy for its global workforce, many people were sceptical. How could a geographically dispersed Japanese company manage a common training strategy that suited its entire workforce? After three years, however, Founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani confirms that the "Englishisation" project was a success: "Today, 30% of new hires are non-Japanese, and 50% of new engineers are non-Japanese. English is also helping us to attract and hire the best and the brightest talent all over the world". Thanks to the right communicative abilities, the organisation has expanded its reach to a global level. This shows once again that strong communication skills may take time to acquire - but in the end, communication-empowered organisations are more agile and profitable. Going Global Global organisations looking to train their workforce’s business communication skills need a global solution. A successful business needs a consistent strategy, where each employee is provided with the right training solution, regardless of where they are based. How else can businesses ensure that information flows across borders efficiently and accurately? Or that they create better relationships with worldwide clients and partners? This is why we believe in live communication skills training as part an overall talent management strategy. The Speexx Perfect Blend combines virtual classroom, telephone, mobile learning and interactive e-learning solutions for executive and group training. These learning tools are then customised to suit any training need and skill level. It is our belief that the technology available to us is not just about the convenience of finding short-term pieces of information. Used to its full effect, it maximises our ability to drive long-term talent and skills, such as communicating in a foreign language. Knowledge let alone and search engines do not help a lot if you cannot communicate about what you found. This is where my Latin teacher was absolutely right for once: once it comes to languages you have to know where to find it but you also have to know how it works.

Any business with a solid product or service and a decent website will attract global interest. UK exporters and would-be exporters often don’t have any foreign language skills, and some think they don’t need them, but they could be key to export success. Learning a new language takes at least 200 hours. 200 hours to learn French? OK, you may not be fluent in 200 hours but with that amount of hard graft you will achieve basic working proficiency so that you can join in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics. As organisations become multinational, by accident or design, they need to be able to speak the language of their best clients or sales territories. When the orders come rolling in, 200 hours spent learning a new language will be the best investment they ever made. UK language deficit The language deficit in the UK is shocking, according to the Chambers of Commerce (BCC). The BCC reckons that if businesses don’t start taking language learning seriously, they are in deep trouble. On the plus side, any enterprise that does invest in language skills will be able to give British competitors a run for their money in the global marketplace. Most UK employees do not speak a foreign language well enough to conduct business in the buyer’s tongue, according to the BCC. The problem is most acute for the fastest-growing markets.  The BCC’s 2013 international trade business survey found that up to 70% of respondents had no foreign language ability for the markets they served. Some had a smattering of foreign language ability among staff, but having one French speaker and a couple of Germans on the staff is not going to cut it when you are targeting the 1.3bn population of China. Only 0.5% of respondents claimed to speak Russian or Chinese well enough to conduct business deals and no wonder - even grasping the basics of Chinese is said to take around 2000 hours. There is little sign of UK businesses enhancing their foreign language skills. Despite promising statistics showing that 43% of business owners speak some German, 36% speak some Spanish and 24% speak some Italian, a closer look at these figures reveals that only around 5% are claiming to be actually fluent in these languages, while the rest struggle by on holiday-phrase levels of understanding that might just see them book a room in a hotel or order a pint successfully. Speaking and understanding a language poorly may be worse than speaking nothing at all. If you speak very poorly, you’re more likely to get the wrong information across or confuse or frustrate the customer. The reality is that you would be better sticking with English if you don’t have at least working proficiency from 200 hours of study. Business leaders who think they do not have time to train employees in a language will lose out. Some employees don’t even dare to pick up the telephone when the call is coming from another country in case they embarrass themselves. At the very least, this causes frustration and delays and it is likely to lead to lost orders as potential clients turn to providers they can talk to. Multinational and multilingual In the recent Speexx Exchange Survey, involving 230 organisations from five continents and representing more than 1.6 million employees, 54% of respondents considered their organisations to be multinational and multilingual. A further 89% believed that business communication and foreign language skills were critical for success. With the rise of the internet, very few organisations now operate only locally; nearly all have the opportunity to work with customers, partners or staff members in more than one country or language. It is not just first-time exporters who are hitting the language barrier; businesses with offices and employees in a number of countries need to be able to communicate quickly, clearly and efficiently to avoid errors, misunderstandings and delays. Yet a lack of foreign language skills was cited as main issue hampering international communication in businesses by 33% of respondents to the survey. Learning a new language is not a doddle and employees whose schooldays are a distant memory may not relish the thought of all that study. There are ways of making it less painful. A blend of methods can keep it interesting. Use self-paced online study combined with live training in the virtual classroom, via telephone or face-to-face training. This prepares learners for real business situations and is a flexible solution, especially for those who travel frequently. Online solutions can be designed to be fun and interactive nowadays and they give learners immediate feedback. Additional coaching and learning path analysis helps to keep up learning motivation. Subtle cultural differences Effective communication is more than just language skills, however. In China, for example, people are concerned about ‘losing face’, especially if they don’t know the answer to something. Some cultures are more direct and to the point than others; Germans, for example, may be less likely to pepper their sentences with apologies and qualifiers than their British counterparts. Language training should also build in a cultural appreciation that will aid understanding alongside simple translation skills. The process of learning a language can boost brainpower as well as enable the person to speak another language. Learning a language is said to grow the brain and even prevent dementia. If employees need any more convincing that time spent learning a language is time well spent, remind them that foreign languages are a highly sought-after skill and their new-found ability could lead to promotion and new opportunities to travel. Language learning is life changing. Fluency in a new language opens up the possibility of living abroad, meeting new people and understanding their culture better, and even in future the ability to raise bilingual children who again will have better grades in foreign languages at school and better career prospects. And imagine how intelligent you will feel being able to read Proust in the original French. 200 hours of language training sounds expensive and it certainly requires some sort of investment to learn a language properly. There is no doubt you will need to get management buy-in for language training - sell it to them as part of career development which will benefit company’s prospects of operating internationally and eventually achieve higher ROI. Addressing the gaps in commercial exporting skills, including language skills, must be a priority, according to the Chambers of Commerce. Businesses that have mainly English as a mother tongue may believe they start from a strong position in the global marketplace, but they will soon fall behind their multilingual rivals if they do not invest in that vital 200 hours.

The European Union’s Court of Justice recently attracted a lot of attention with a new ruling that will affect Google’s business in this part of the world. Under this popularly termed "right to be forgotten", individuals living in the EU may ask the search engine to remove links to articles, court judgments and other documents in search results for their name. The news raised a lot of eyebrows, particularly in the U.S., and Google stated that it was disappointed by the decision - but to be honest, it didn’t surprise me all that much. Both individuals and businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy protection on the web. Scepticism towards internet giants like Google is growing every day, in terms of where they store our data and who can access it. I think the feelings have always been strong in Europe, perhaps even more so in Germany. Following the revelations about Chancellor Merkel’s phone being tapped, the German government is now about to tighten national regulations affecting the IT industry. For example, the German government is considering making IT companies sign a no-spy agreement when bidding for public tenders. Providers from within the legislation of the US Patriot Act might find this very hard and could even be barred from doing business in the German and eventually the European IT public administration market. In case you’re based outside the EU, here’s a bit of background information: The European Data Protection Directive regulates the processing of personal data for all member nations of the European Union. It originates from the protection of personality rights and consumer rights. Every time a contract between two parties is signed within the EU, both must agree on the data protection terms that apply. There are very good reasons for this regulation, but actually, these terms often end up limiting the mutual benefits of a new partnership between organisations when it comes to L&D. Data security issues for HR and L&D Europe-based HR and L&D departments, as custodians of sensitive personal data, will be able to confirm this. Just think of what happens when a company in the EU decides to integrate an online learning solution by a third party provider. All student data, such as learning progress, support emails and training results, will need to be stored at a location which is accessible to both HR and the provider. With the rise of globally integrated talent and learning management systems, this type of data is increasingly made accessible through the cloud, which opens up a lot of new concerns. "By the way, where is your learning data stored?" is a question the Speexx team regularly receives from customers and potential clients. One client actually sent two data privacy officers over to Speexx to ensure our servers were safely located within Germany. This was a prerequisite just for signing the contract. Furthermore, many of our clients ask that their employees’ data be "forgotten" completely after a six-month course period and some even demand that learner results be displayed anonymously, with no possibility of identifying the student whatsoever. While I fully understand the need for data protection in businesses, I think this can sometimes be counterproductive. After all, keeping track of an online language student’s learning results for a longer period (more than six months) is crucial for recognising strengths and knowledge gaps - it simply takes longer than six months to learn a language. Only with a comprehensive and transparent set of learning data can we give our learners the full support they need and make founded recommendations for their further training. And let’s be honest, does it really hurt to know which students still need to work on their Spanish gerund forms and which have difficulties remembering their Business English vocabulary? Alternatives to forgetting To prevent data security issues from hampering your L&D strategy and to avoid having to ask your e-learning providers to "forget" your data, we recommend five simple steps. Assume that all learning and development data is personal data and ensure you document where it is held and how it is processed. Make sure that all stakeholders including unions and IT professionals are involved from the start. Multinational organisations with HR data centralised in one company but headquartered in another perhaps for tax or legal reasons will have to address where their home authority is in data protection terms. Appoint a designated data protection controller. The new draft EC regulations call for a data protection officer to be appointed by law in any public body or any business with over 250 people. Subject access requests, where people can ask to see data held on them look likely to get easier and cheaper so make sure the organisation is ready to handle these efficiently. Consent is important in data protection law. Consider how you will be able to show that consent was obtained to storing personal data in the course of learning and development, possibly through including this in the initial contract of employment.

Despite employees being ‘always on’ and constantly connected, most companies have not figured out how to make information easy to access for them. In fact, nearly three-quarters of employees still cannot find the information they need within their company’s information systems. E-learning, too, needs to be simple and easy to access and use if it is to compete against all the other channels. One of the main ways of cutting through the noise so that employees prioritise and value learning is to involve line management in developing a learning culture. If managers can explain clearly to staff in the real world why they need to do the learning, perhaps to learn a new language to communicate with new partners or customers, for example, and how it will benefit them and the company, workers are so much more likely to get involved with e-learning. It’s all in the content Content has to be very relevant to individuals. There are still too many one-size fits all e-learning applications but people who work in manufacturing, for example, will not relate to something designed for the finance sector. Language and terminology must fit each learner. Personalisation also involves creating flexibility, to suit the individual’s schedule, perhaps enabling mobile learning apps or remote access to e-learning from any device for road warriors. The Speexx Exchange 2013-14 Survey, an audit of more than 250 organisations worldwide, revealed that while 76% of organisations allow or provide mobile devices in the workplace, only 35% use them for learning. Back to basics Despite the digitisation of work and learning, we need to hold on to some basic human elements. People need to be approached as individuals if they are going to see a point in learning and development. Staff must have a clear reason why they are doing something. Engagement needs to become a distinct item on an organisation’s agenda to prevent overwhelmed employees from disengaging entirely. Somebody, preferably in HR or management, should be in charge of it. And finally? Communication should take place face-to-face now and again, not just via the internet. Self-paced learning on mobiles and tablets alone isn’t enough to keep people engaged. 3 tips to re-engage the overwhelmed employee Bring meaning back to working life with targeted learning and development. Make sure learning content is compelling and relevant to the employee and the job in hand. Use technology to make learning interesting but don’t rely on whizzy technology to keep employees away from the latest funny cat video. This is where human beings come in. Managers and other workers need to set out the importance of the learning face-to-face.  

We all love a bit of art. That’s why we decided to head out of the office early this Wednesday and spend a special evening with our friends and customers at the charming Museo Sorolla in the heart of Madrid. Even the rainy weather couldn’t stop us, and a group of 30 people joined to receive an exclusive guided tour of Joaquín Sorolla’s famous works - in English! The tour started in the gardens and then moved through what used to be Sorolla’s house. Each room has been converted to represent a different stage of his career as an artist.  A networking session followed, accompanied by some delicious refreshments and Spanish tapas. A big thank you to everyone who joined and made it such a fanstic event! Check out the art-filled evening in pictures: About Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 - 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works of art are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. About the Museum Sorolla The Museum Sorolla (Spanish: Museo Sorolla) is an art museum located in Madrid, Spain and features work by the artist Joaquín Sorolla. The building was originally the artist’s house, and was converted into a museum after the death of his widow. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1962. Stay tuned for our upcoming events here!

Here’s a useful paradox: to get better at speaking, you need to be a good listener. This is the central idea underpinning this text, in turn inspired by a book on thought and action. Written in the 18th century, ‘The art of silence’ is still relevant today. The author of the book, Father Dinouart, suggests there are three levels of wisdom, all of which are crucially important in the present day: being silent; speaking little and showing restraint; speaking a lot but neither critically nor excessively. As I pointed out in the Spanish version of this text, originally published in the magazine Cinco Días, these days we are continuously assaulted by ever more and ever louder messages. Moreover, we then we then seem to feel compelled to speak non-stop, to penalize any breaks and even more so, condemn silences. The extreme opposite can also be a bad thing - some leaders are neurotically addicted to remaining silent when intervention would really be called for. Social networks can only be fertile when personal roots are deep A month ago, an expert said that to stop twittering - which is also a form of speaking - when on holiday could easily result in losing a significant number of followers. This made me think and act: since then, I twitter less and live better. Social networks can only be fertile when the personal connections underpinning them run deep, just like learning a language is only worth the pleasure (not the pain) when we have something worthwhile to learn or to contribute. In this context, I am deliberately swimming upstream, but I might be heading in the right direction. A beneficial side effect of such verbal restraint is that it is humbling: on the one hand, it does me good to admit that I don’t have that many really good ideas, and on the other hand, keeping quiet every so often helps me escape from the acoustic overload that surrounds me. The incessant repetition of good messages strips them of their true value and may even produce dislike towards message and messenger alike. Not interrupting appears to be a key skill for good listening. Any verbal interruption is preceded by something much more profound, by mental interruption. Listening before speaking in public is an exercise in humility. I’m trying to improve, but I still notice the tendency to mentally interrupt those who speak before me. Why? For at least two reasons: first because I want to do well and speak my prepared turn as eloquently as possible and second because deep down, I tend to think that what I have to say is more interesting than what others might have to say. We clearly only learn when we listen - not when we speak. Just as clear is that we do more listening when we’re born and when we die, yet we stifle this ability when we’re supposedly at our most mature. Listening and shouting are inversely proportional to each other. As we project outwards what we generate within ourselves, I can only listen to others if I start by generating an internal silence that lets me listen to myself. If I am unable to listen to myself in silence, I’ll have no other choice but to shout at myself. In a way, I am thus harming myself and shouting at others is only a symptom of this illness. This analysis contains more wisdom than is immediately apparent and it explains why people shout more out on the road; perhaps because in the shops, you listen less. You can’t trust strangers (customers) if you don’t trust those you know (your co-workers). A prerequisite for all this is authenticity. ‘The Little Prince’ tells us that important things can only be seen with the heart, so it is reasonable to conclude that for genuine, humane listening, we also need our hearts. Put simply, we only really listen to those that we appreciate and love. And it shows. Being an example is more powerful than setting one Something you don’t always notice when listening to a public speaker is the degree of connection between what he says and what he actually does, above all, if there are direct practical applications to the topic he talks about. A classic case is that of a manager giving a conference speech about company ethics while asking the organizers to pay him on the side. The paradoxes of human beings… By contrast, there are speakers who, if you have the good fortune to meet them in person, will show themselves to be just the same person you heard speaking to a large audience. I found conference speakers like Javier Fernández Aguado, Marcos Urarte and José Aguilar to be of this quality. It is great to see that brilliance in public speaking is indeed compatible with humility in private conversations. In addition, this gives rise to two frequently overlooked abilities: contextualizing what we hear and synthesizing what we say. Finally, William Safire offers us some profound wisdom in his book ‘Lend Me Your Ears’. His long career as a White House speech writer means is able to give good advice to budding speakers who are merely hoping someone will give them their time and attention. Listening well helps us become better speakers, not least because it helps us recognize our errors and guide the perceptions of our audience. It means going back four steps and, in this order: being a good person, listening, speaking well and making sure your listeners know you’re doing all of these. To sum up, reality comes before rhethorics and yet you need to reconcile these two elements -being exemplary certainly has a greater impact than setting examples.  Enrique Sueiro, consultant and Manager Forum’s ‘Speaker of the year 2013’ holds a Ph.D. in Communication

For a lot of companies, when it comes to filling a job vacancy, it means announcing the job opening on social media sites or hiring a recruiter. But sometimes the perfect candidate is right under one’s nose. That’s why many companies have started investing in internal promotions. What is lost when a company looks ‘outside’ rather than ‘within’ to fill a position? Many companies have a stated philosophy of promoting from within, but what does their actual track record look like? Seasoned employees have already gained tremendous knowledge within the company and know how the company works. If they have been successful within the company culture and have shown that they can take more responsibility, they may be good candidates for an internal promotion. However, if the approach to hiring tends to focus on new blood, experienced employees are also likely to look outside for opportunities to grow professionally. Losing an experienced employee carries a price tag which is rarely quantified - although the investment that companies make in employees is often larger than reflected by the numbers on the books. Extensive experience and knowledge of the company is likely to allow them to navigate new situations much more quickly and effectively. Company politics are often cited as being the reason for losing good people. But, if decisions are based on objective criteria, office politics are likely to become a non-issue. Companies invest both time and money in creating a common vision and common values. People choose to stay at a company when they foresee a bright future, but this begs the question if company philosophies are in line with decision making. Opportunities must be structured around the employee’s experience so that the person is prepared to take on new responsibilities. If employees see that co-workers have successfully progressed within a company, they are more likely to believe that they too have opportunities. In this regard, some managers are likely to suffer a nervous breakdown. The fear is that an employee will be developed, developed, developed - and never have any time to work. The pressure to get things done certainly does not subside because opportunities for further development are available. A careful balance is required. In addition to having extensive knowledge of an employee, promoting from within actually saves money.  A recent HCS survey about internal promotions at over 600 organizations discovered that nearly 40% of the companies found internal candidates less expensive than external ones, even when the internal hire received a salary increase. A further advantage is that companies don’t need to outsource the search, thereby doing away with headhunter fees and advertising costs. In the end, the human resources department might want to ask the ultimate question: do internal hires really pay off? The answer is, sometimes. In general, internal hires do stay longer after a promotion - on average, 1.3 years longer. However, internal promotions may not perform better. Although internal hires are often cheaper and additionally bring experience of the company and the company’s culture with them, the survey indicated that about 55% of the companies came to the final conclusion that external candidates performed better, mostly due to the influence of new ideas, a willingness to change work habits, and a desire to question.

It’s that time of year again - Speexx Exchange 2014 is now officially open for registration and we’re more excited than ever to invite you to our global talent managament conference on 3rd December in Berlin. Get a taste of what to expect. This is what Speexx Exchange is all about It´s almost a tradition now: Each year just before Christmas, Speexx Exchange brings together friends, customers and thought leaders from all over the world to take an in-depth reality check on the state of corporate e-learning and talent management. No future talk, just real hard facts. You will meet industry leaders, hear and talk about best practice for deploying global e-learning strategies and get the latest results from Europe’s leading talent management research. Speexx Exchange helps HR and L&D managers worldwide meet the challenges in managing talent across borders. Together, we’ll create a unique exchange of ideas between HR and L&D professionals from loads of different backgrounds, all based on real facts and best practice straight from the experts. You will return to work with brand-new insights and practical solutions for delivering real results. Join us on the eve of Online Educa 2014 for a day packed with networking opportunities, expert presentations, collaboration and - great food. To get a recap of tweets and images, follow us on Twitter: @Speexx or check out the event hashtag #SpeexxExchange. What was Speexx Exchange 2013 like? Paris, Madrid, Rome and Berlin: Speexx Exchange 2013 was all about finding new approaches to global talent management and getting practical solutions that can be applied in the workplace right away. Over 450 attendees from over 25 countries joined, representing global organizations such as JW Marriott Maqruis, Bulgari, Brückner Group, ALSTOM, SGS, Saint-Gobain, Generali, UniCredit, BCD Travel, E.ON, Volkswagen, eBay and many more. Together, we created a unique exchange of ideas over the course of several weeks. Speexx Exchange Berlin kicked off on the morning of December 4th at the Hotel InterContinental Berlin in cooperation with our sponsor ChapmanBlack. The room was packed, with no seats going spare. Around 100 international guests and speakers from all over the world and a broad range of industries gathered together to get an in-depth reality check on what is happening in e-learning and talent management right now. An impressive line-up of eight international experts from HR and L&D joined to share their insights. We were delighted to welcome Laura Overton of Towards Maturity as our host, who guided us through the day with new learning approaches, lots of opportunity for the audience to interact and live votings about e-learning usage in the workplace. Laura started her session by sharing some of the key findings of this year’s Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey and showing what the top quartile do differently in terms of learning in the workplace. This was followed by Nabil Senyonga, Director of Learning at JW Marquis Hotel Dubai. Nabil gave us an insight into the e-learning advent in the Middle East and the reasons for its fast uptake. In particular, he highlighted how the learning culture in the Middle East differs from that in other parts of the world and what role the government and infrastructure play in fostering learning technologies. Barry Trout, CEO of ChapmanBlack and HireStorm took the floor next, by showing us how to hire and retain the best talent in organizations worldwide in seven crucial steps. Barry shared a comprehensive and practical set of guidelines which simplify the hiring process for any organization aiming to find and keep the right people. Did you know that there are 4 million people in the UK alone who seeking new job opportunities and available to change right now? Our final session of the morning was held by Stefan Linge, Head of Training & Development at SGS Germany. With an in-depth set of statistics, Stefan helped us to see what really remains of the learning process in self-directed scenarios. In order to really measure the transfer of skills and knowledge, we must use the formular of Learning x Ability x Motivation x Work Environment. Stefan also raised the question of how many organizations really help their staff grow their ability to learn and relearn. After a delicious lunch served by the famous Hotel InterContinental cuisine, we heard how Petra Pongratz-Kolbig of Brückner Group manages intercultural awareness in a globally engaged organization. As Head of HR, Petra is faced with the daily challenge of managing intercultural teams that not only have very different approaches and expectations in terms of their work, but also in the way they acquire new skills. Next up was Michael Salone, CEO and Co-Founder of 3-6TY, who gave us some first-hand advice on integrating learning and talent through peer-to-peer talent identification. It turns out that our colleagues often know much more about our skills than our bosses do. Michael gave us some fresh perspectives on how to deal with this and other challenges in talent management. The next session featured Bernd Binzenbach, Training Manager of the Business Travel Academy at BCD Travel. Bernd showed us why he truly believes in the power of blended learning and how to get buy-in from colleagues and management when implementing blended learning formulas. Above all, as we discovered, it is crucial to compose different learning modules and not just throw them together. Donald H Taylor, Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, wrapped up the event with an impressive insight of learning trends and pitfalls that we can expect in 2014. In particular, Don touched upon maturing delivery, the rise of the networked individual and the demanding business as the key trends. And the 2014 pitfall for HR and L&D? Organizational agility. Our final session involved a World Café with round table discussions, where our delegates got their final say on what is really driving learning and performance in global organizations. This was followed by some refreshments and networking opportunities to end a truly eye-opening day. We’re looking forward to seeing you again this year! 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Like any living language, English is changing. Each year, new words enter the language, others become obsolete. English remains the second most spoken language worldwide. But do we all understand each other? English is evolving. There are around 375 million people worldwide who speak English as a first language, and as many as 600 million who speak it as a second language. Even so, native speakers may be surprised to learn that they will account for only 15 percent of the two billion people using the language by 2020. Even today, the majority of conversations held in English are between non-native speakers.This is partially true because English has taken on the duty of a lingua franca, a language used by non-native speakers as a regular means of communication. For many, English is the language of choice or necessity at work even when it isn’t spoken at home.English is currently the lingua franca of international business, science, technology, aviation and diplomacy and is one of the six official languages of the UN. Historically, this ‘world language’ changes regularly, depending on who is the political, financial or technological top dog.An estimated one billion people are currently learning English worldwide. But are they learning ‘real’ English? The answer depends on who you ask. What specialists might call textbook English is likely to be outpaced by locally inflected ‘Englishes’ (in both spoken and written form) in the years to come. English has escaped its bonds and is busily adapting to its many new environments. It takes on attributes as it needs them, and discards others. Such changes go beyond taking over cultural references or words for local cuisine. Instead, millions of non-native English speakers are incorporating grammar, pronunciation and even word meanings that reflect their own languages and language needs into English.It’s important to keep in mind that English is no exception in language evolution, even if the process seems to be happening faster. As the Roman Empire declined, Latin transformed itself into many dialects and then later diverged into five distinct languages: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian.As for English, adaptability has always been one of its strengths. About half of the words in English are borrowed from other languages already, especially French and Latin, and another 20 percent are borrowed from languages all over the world. Such borrowings have kept the language vibrant for centuries.Textbook English, meanwhile, continues to change even as purists try to keep it the way it is. Desirable or not, in fifty years, English may sound increasingly like Chinese.Educators also believe that the lax approach to teaching grammar to native speakers will also contribute to language evolution. Since the hard and fast rules of English are not being learned by the people most likely to have a stake in enforcing them, change is inevitable. By the way, why not power up your Business English in one of our expert webinars? We offer free sessions for all kinds of industries with a professional native speaker trainer who will help you master key terms for your daily work.

For many years, I’ve been using the metaphor of language to explain leadership and to help directors build their skills. In my experience, there are about 250 words and types of behavior which turn a director into a leader. A director is someone who gets people to do what they’re meant to do. A leader is someone who gets people to want to do what they’re meant to do. It’s someone who builds commitment in their organization. Learning the language of leadership isn’t easy because it requires us to resist our natural tendency towards routine and comfort. Incidentally, these same two obstacles are what makes learning a new language difficult for us. Among the learning methods for leadership are reading, considering new examples, group training and also coaching. It is the coach’s job to somehow turn into a certain professor, who facilitates learning words, pronouncing them correctly and putting them together according to syntax. Mastering leadership is no simple task. All in all, just as with any other language, mastering the language of leadership is extremely satisfying because it allows us to discover new skills and ways of approaching reality, as well as enriching approaches to  routine relations or tasks. Finally, just as is the case with all languages, no matter how well we speak them, we can always continue to deepen our skills. The important thing is not to get tired of it, but to keep boosting our pronunciation more and more, to improve our syntax on an ongoing basis. Our underlying goal should always be to offer the best possible service to those who depend on a director who is dedicated to becoming a leader. Communication is a critical tool for reaching a target market, and the way in which leaders bring across their message to members of an organization can make or break staff commitment. Leadership is a language which some people are capable of learning and others find more difficult. Moreover, although there are many different ways of speaking the language of leadership, a few common words need to be pronounced in the same way for everyone to understand them. Compared to other languages, which require you to know between 1,500 and 3,000 words to express yourself at an acceptable level, the language of leadership only requires about 250. Those capable of handling these 250 words, i.e. 250 leadership skills, have the potential to become a real leader. Click here to read the original article in Spanish.   About Javier Fernández Aguado Javier Fernández Aguado is President of the MindValue Group, which is focussed on professional services for senior management. A thought leader and speaker, Javier is considered one of the top and most sought after contemporary experts in managing people and organizations on an international level. He is a coach for senior managers and a member Top Ten Management Spain and Top Ten Speakers Spain. His works are regularly published by HR specialist magazines such as Capital Humano and Observatorio de RR.HH.  

The 2014 World Cup has finally arrived and cities around the world find themselves flooded in a sea of national flags, raving spectators and peeping cars. In the UK alone, 15 million people tuned in to watch the Three Lions’ opening match against Italy. I’ve always been a huge admirer of the amount of physical and mental preparation that players put into every game. Everything from their dietary regime to the amount of sleep they get is paramount to their performance on the day, not to mention the hours invested on the training ground. A professional footballer is said to train for about five hours a day, five days a week. This year, to ensure that England’s performance wouldn’t be affected by the Brazilian heat, the team was even subjected to special acclimatisation techniques involving heat chambers. For us mortal spectators, the whole thing is a little more laid-back, as we enjoy the match over a cold beer with our friends, only breaking into a mild sweat when somebody scores or the referee makes a bad decision. But World Cup preparation goes beyond just physical factors such as speed, climate resistance, nutrition and sleep. The word "preparation" wouldn’t make us think of the team gazing into their iPads completing some e-learning exercises -would it? We tend to think of football and e-learning as two irreconcilable terms and that the last place for e-learning would be a football pitch. Well, that has now changed. Pace of change I was really interested to read about England’s team being equipped with iPads and their very own learning content this year. To better understand their direct opponents, each player has received access to a Brazil 2014 scouting app, provided by The Football Association. What’s more, the app is by no means generic, but has been designed to meet the squad member’s individual needs. So if you’re a striker like Rooney or Sturridge, the app will give you a detailed insight into the opponents’ defensive strategy. The content is delivered in the form of videos and expert insights, which could serve as a real advantage during the match. This is what I call truly personalised mobile learning on-demand. And it might actually be working. Although the opening match against Italy could have gone better, it could have been at lot worse, too, and England’s performance was pretty encouraging. Perhaps they should have studied Pirlo’s movement a little more closely, that’s all. The truth is that there is no such thing as an unlikely place for e-learning anymore, as e-learning and mobile solutions are becoming increasingly flexible, accessible and tailored to the individual. All these factors will help to enhance motivation for the learner, too. E-Learning is no longer a niche; it is becoming more and more common, entering unexpected sectors. In fact, the scouting app even allows for results to be measured, meaning that Roy Hodgson can see what his team has been up to in real-time. So no matter where in the world you’re based or what your profession is, chances are there’s already a learning mobile solution out there which could help to make you better at what you do. But even the best technology won’t help a corporate team or sports team if the communication isn’t there. After all, strong communication skills are the glue holding together any successful company or team. If the teams don’t discuss their tactics clearly and thoroughly in advance, there’s no way they will succeed on the day, unless through a huge stroke of luck. I’m still hoping that my national team Germany has learnt its lesson and will win this year’s cup. Bring on the opposition!

We have become a society that relies on technology for work. But how can companies begin using technology to create better workplaces? Here are some stories (and examples) of what companies are doing to create better offices. We’ve all been there. We’ve all worked in that one job that we hated. Where we would stare at the clock every thirty seconds hoping that a lot more time has passed. Where managers didn’t appreciate us for the times that we had an outstanding achievement. The type of workplace that favors employees instead of making the team better as a unit. Sadly, there are way too many workforces like this that are creating disengaged employees  who don’t enjoy being there. Two questions we need to ask: What can leaders do to turn a company’s culture around and make it a fun and engaged workplace? And how can companies as a whole do their best to engage their employees? The answer to both of those questions is simple: Use technology to solve it. Make a culture more fast-paced and fun by staying up to date with the latest advancements in tech and creating a culture of productivity. Engage Employees Using Technology Leaders can do a lot to create a fun atmosphere around their job. They have to embrace the fact that society is making a lot of technological advances (and is growing quicker and faster every day, might I add). We are becoming a tech-savvy workforce and nowadays a lot of work can be done on the go using mobile applications. Almost all our work is done via computers and mobile applications. We are always connected, we have plenty of communication channels, and if you really think about it we’re always at work. So what  type of tools can we use to engage our employees? Try using the most user-friendly softwares, services, and applications, that will allow employees to truly have fun with what they’re doing. I’ve previously done research on gamified platforms and how they will influence workplaces. Believe it or not, this growing trend is now being used by major CRM’s, E-Mail clients, and different types of services to allow employees to accomplish tasks easily. This is not only allowing people to work optimally, but it’s also to have a bit of fun with what they’re doing. There are two types of work, heuristic and algorithmic. Heuristic work is the conception of new ideas and trying to get them to work. Example: writing an article is a heuristic task because you’re required to come up with new concepts. Algorithmic tasks on the other hand, are redundant, repetitive tasks that are almost factory-like, think data entry. When you’re using a gamified platform, you’re turning all those tasks that seem redundant and boring, into tasks that are allowing you to have fun with your colleagues at work. Apart from gamification, try finding platforms that have user-friendly experiences. I feel like I’ve tried every CRM in the book. Every single one of them seems boring, outdated, and to be honest … absolutely dreadful. I’m not going to promote it, but I finally found a system that worked for me and I felt like my customer relations went through the roof. Little things like that can improve workflow and overall ambition to complete tasks … especially with the younger generations of employees. Employee Engagement Software There are such things as employee engagement softwares that managers have implemented to gain more data about their employees. These can be highly beneficial and lead to a lot of success for companies and their employees. This is mostly due to the fact that managers are able to see what their employees are like and how they interact with one another on a daily basis, while gathering analytics about work trends, happiness levels, etc. Managers can even consider conducting of employee surveys to get more information. Remember, great bosses want as much data and information as they can so they gain a better understanding of how things are running within their organization. Being a data-driven organization usually leads to success. I will add that it is vital to not forget about the human aspect of the work. We can resort to technology as much as we want to make things easier, but let’s never forget to love what we do and have fun with our colleagues. There’s not one string of data or mobile application that can create or demand intrinsic motivation. Plain and simple, an employee will be engaged and motivated if the atmosphere is motivating. So make sure you’re engaging your employees and creating a fun atmosphere by using the right technologies and software. It will boost motivation and make things easier for employees and managers alike.

Elearning is a cost-effective and efficient way of delivering training. Yet there is a real danger of online learning being drowned out by the ‘noise’ of other electronic channels in the workplace. On an average day, employees are bombarded not only with emails and instant messages, but also with input from collaboration and productivity systems, web conferences and social media. Unless elearning is both engaging and positioned as vital for the future wellbeing of the organisation and the learner, it is increasingly likely that employees will overlook it. Mobile users check their phones 150 times a day according to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ annual Internet Trends report). According to a report by Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange in 2013 [1], the average American adult who uses social networks, spends an average of 3.2 hours per day on social media. Senior executives and decision-makers spend 40% more time than junior staff on social media. Against this backdrop, it can be a challenge, to put it mildly, to engage employees with online training. However it is key for businesses to retain skilled employees by making them feel that work is meaningful and one way to do this is through effective learning and development. Real-world drivers Tasking managers to develop a learning culture is one of the chief ways of cutting through the noise so that workers prioritise learning. Learners need to understand the real-world drivers for their training. They might need to learn a new language to communicate with existing clients or win new business, for example. They may need to achieve certain certifications to allow the business to go into partnership with others or to show that it is compliant with the relevant rules and regulations. Despite the potential of the latest elearning platforms, 44% of training departments invested less than a tenth of their training budget in elearning programmes, compared with 47% in the preceding year*. Only 8% invest over half their budget in e-enabled learning. This may be partly because a little elearning budget goes a long way, compared with the cost of classroom-based trainers. On the other hand, it may indicate that organisations are not getting the most out of their learning and development strategy. If elearning is to cut through the electronic noise bombarding employees on a daily basis, it needs to be at least as accessible as competing channels, such as social media and email. There are signs that organisations are progressively enabling mobile learning apps or remote access to e-learning from any device for travelling and dispersed staff. Speexx found that over a third (35%) of the training professionals it surveyed allow mobile devices at work and use them for learning and almost a quarter (24%) plan to introduce mobile learning by 2016. Speaking the learner’s language Elearning content needs to be spot-on to compete with viral videos circulating the internet and hit its target. One-size-fits-all, in reality, fits no-one. People who work in IT, for example, will not relate to training content designed to appeal to financiers. Neither group will respond to generic content. It is vital to speak to learners in the lingo of their industry, otherwise they simply will not hear you. The latest elearning solutions go beyond tailoring for each sector or vertical industry. Tapping into a person’s working life and learning style demands an individual approach. Personalising learning might include creating flexibility so that people can learn at a time or place that suits them. Using big data and globally interoperable systems, enterprises can become training organisations that cut through the noise and not only meet but also anticipate learner needs. Top tips to cut through the multi-channel noise Tap into the power of social media to engage employees in training. Over a third (34%) of learning and development professionals believed that social learning would be very effective in the future*. Yet, at the time of the survey, earlier this year, only 22% had introduced a social learning strategy. Use new technology and don’t be afraid of it. If employees need to log on to a PC in the workplace, this limits the time available for training. HR and L&D professionals surveyed by Speexx expect that cloud platforms will play a significant role in their company training strategy in future. Just over a quarter of them expected a cloud solution would allow them to deliver consistent training to all employees regardless of location, while 45% predicted increased flexibility for users. 21% expected cloud tech would reduce direct training costs. Integrate learning systems within existing systems so that people learn as they work. Employees are much more likely to access training if it is provided as a tool to help them with their daily workflow. Need help filling in that complex form? Here is some training to help with that. Need support communicating with an overseas colleague in their language? Here is some relevant training.

Employees are becoming overloaded with information and overwhelmed by multiple channels of communication. This means for corporate learning that it can be an uphill struggle to keep learners on-task when you are competing against a cacophony of electronic noise. App maker Locket was able to work out how many times people unlock their phone to look at it - this averaged out at a massive ten times per hour. Combine this with checking PC and tablet-based communication channels, from social media to collaboration software, encompassing instant messaging and traditional phone and text messages, and there is no doubt that this daily barrage of communication is causing more stress, decreased concentration and productivity for learners. Unsurprisingly, Gallup research found that only 13 per cent of employees around the world are fully engaged at work and in China this number is only six per cent. Businesses have woken up to this issue - two-thirds of business leaders cite ‘the overwhelmed employee’ as a top business challenge in a Deloitte study, ‘Global Human Capital Trends 2014’. The same study found that only one in ten companies feel equipped to deal with the overwhelmed employee. Many of us spend more than two thirds of our waking hours at work but the signs are that as we spend an increasing number of hours working, the hours we put in are becoming less and less productive, as we struggle to handle the bombardment of electronic communication channels. At the same time, employees appear to be getting little support from HR. More than half (57 per cent) of HR executives who responded to the Deloitte study rated their capability to help employees manage information and schedules as ‘weak’ and 39 per cent rated it ‘average’. There is a pressing need to bring meaning and purpose back into employees’ working lives if they are not to disengage entirely. Josh Bersin, co-author of the Deloitte study ‘Global Human Capital Trends 2014’, believes the number one reason people leave their job is for lack of learning and opportunity. He told the Huffington Post, "Our research shows that companies that invest more heavily in training, career development, and mobility far outperform their peers in almost every industry." As organisations wake up to this and the business benefits that come from a flexible learning organisation that is constantlyreskilling to meet the demands of global competition, many are implementing the latest solutions to address anything from compliance training to language learning. The danger is that this investment will be wasted if e-learning delivery becomes yet another channel of electronic bombardment. Make your voice heard and switch on your learners Set the stakes. Employees need to have a clear definition of their company’s direction, mission and vision. Part of this mission should be to embed learning into everyday business culture. Getting a manager to explain in person what the organisation hopes to achieve through a learning and development strategy is a good start. Employees need to be able to prioritise learning above other demands when necessary, and management plays a key part in facilitating this. Some points to consider. Switch off distractions. It is a good idea to design or procure a learning solution that prompts users to switch off all unrelated programmes or applications while learning, so as not to be distracted by constant alerts and pop-ups coming through. Set your learners free. A cloud-based solution that is flexible, mobile and runs on all devices, regardless of time and location, can free up your staff to learn in a way that suits them. This way, they can pick up their learning wherever they left off and continue learning while travelling or at home. They are not forced to learn only while in the office, where they may be caught up with other tasks. Get personal. Make content relevant and personal so that it stands a chance of competing with the latest viral video or Buzz feed quiz. People thrive on individual coaching and feedback. This need can be met by offering customised learning content and coaching, perhaps by appointing a personal coach who takes care of the learner by sending regular motivational emails and giving individual feedback on their progress. People waste as much as 41 per cent of their time on things that offer little personal satisfaction and do not help them get work done, according to the Deloitte researchers. So when students feel that training and development is relevant to their work, they will do much better. Go back to basics. Speexx has found that a low tech personal phone call to a student who is behind schedule with their training may be enough to cut through competing distractions, boost motivation and get them back up-to-speed. Never stop communicating. Start by explaining why an employee needs to learn something and how enhanced skills will contribute to the organisation’s success as a whole. Keep in touch with the learner throughout the programme and make sure that he or she is recognised for completing the training successfully. Encourage learners to communicate with each other, providing peer support during training and afterwards, when trainees are applying their learning in the workplace.