2014 feels like it’s gone by in a flash and people are already looking back at how their year went and planning fresh goals for 2015. I’ve enjoyed dozens of fantastic networking events and conferences this year and have had the pleasure to meet some brilliant and inspiring people along the way. More than ever before, 2014 has shown me the importance of collaborating and communicating face to face to make great things happen. So what can we expect next year? These are some of my 2015 predictions. Greater fluidity of talent Job hopping is set to grow exponentially next year, with many Millennials and Gen Y employees turning into nomadic job seekers who are unwilling to settle long-term. These generations enjoy strong networks, are tech-savvy and extremely well-informed. Mobile and social recruitment tools are exploding, with more than 80 per cent of job seekers already relying on theirs smartphones to search for new positions and the majority of candidates more inclined to apply for a company that uses social media to source talent. As a result, it will be even more challenging for companies to hold on to their best people. At the same time, there is increasing evidence of a glaring skills gap in the job market, which is unlikely to be closed in 2015. So we’re looking at restless employees on the one hand, and companies who claim they can’t find the right candidates to fill their positions on the other. This isn’t an easy place to be. Companies can only attempt to keep their employees by offering a perks and clearly defined career path with growth opportunities which will fulfil their staff’s needs and help to diminish the skills gap. New allies for HR and L&D With technology seeping through to the recruitment, training and retention of our talent, the need for HR and IT to collaborate is becoming ever clearer. Once considered an "odd couple" who would have little reason to even talk to one another, these two departments will find more and more common ground in the future and realise how important it is for them to work together. This trend is also reflected in HR technology market, which was already worth a stunning £9.6 billion in 2014. I’m not saying HR and L&D managers need to become tech pros overnight, but understanding and leveraging technology to support their goals will ultimately be a competitive advantage for the company. Another potential ally for HR and L&D can be found further up the food chain. In a recent study by Ellie Filler of Korn Ferry, there was a surprising overlap between the skills needed to be a Chief Executive Officer and the skills needed to be a Chief Human Resources Officer. HR is moving away from being a back-office, administrative department to becoming deeply involved in the company’s business’ overall strategies. The aspects with the greatest overlap found in the study were task-focused and social leadership styles, flexible, complex and creative thinking styles, as well as emotional competencies, such as ambiguity tolerance, composure, empathy, energy and humility. So be prepared to see more senior HR professionals entering the board room than in the past. The only thing they might still need to work on is confidence - here, CEOs are still miles ahead in the study. An age of transparency 2015 will call for leaders to display very different kinds of skills from those in the past. Instead of just managing and executing, they will need to break down hierarchical barriers and collaborate with their employees as peers more than ever before. This involves openness and transparency. In fact, Generations Z and Y rate honesty as the most important quality a leader can have. During our annual talent management forum in Berlin, we discussed traits of successful leaders. Here too, our delegates named "soft" traits such as honesty, but also understanding and compassion as crucial. We are heading towards an age in which employees demand to know what is really going on in their company and simultaneously, want their voice to be heard and understood by top management. Some companies are already going as far as letting their staff view everyone’s salaries and bonuses. But for many organisations, this would still be a taboo for the moment. Whatever approach we choose, open communication will lead to better employee morale and give our top talent a reason to stay. The New Year will pose many new challenges for the workplace - such as business efficiency, productivity and growth, but if we’re able to think outside the box and really listen to our people, these challenges can be turned into great opportunities. I’m excited to see how things pan out. Roll on 2015!

Eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Don’t we all love gathering around a table for a good meal, not just to pamper our taste buds, but also to enjoy the company of others? And let’s not forget that cooking has become quite the trend in our day and age, not least because of the many cooking shows and channels we see on TV. That’s why, a couple of days ago we decided to escape the Speexx Madrid office early and spend a very special "Let’s COOK Together" evening with our friends and customers. We chose the Kitchen Club as our location, a magnificent and professional place for cooking some fantastic dishes with the best chefs in town. A group of 30 people, we were set to spend an evening chatting, laughing, smelling, tasting and drinking - and of course - cooking! The evening began with a workshop that allowed us to put our skills into practice. This highly interactive session gave us the chance to chat and exchange some ideas about recipes and cooking skills while preparing our aperitif. We learnt a lot of new things and luckily for us, the chefs were very patient, too. Our hard work in the kitchen was rewarded with an elaborate meal for the Kitchen Club cooks. We spent a fantastic evening exchanging not only cooking tips but also experiences in learning and development and above all, networking. For us at Speexx, it’s very important for us to let our clients and friends meet once in a while and create new synergies. In summary, Let’s Cook was a great opportunity for HR and L&D managers of large organizations to share a meal as well as some interesting conversations about what’s moving the world of HR right now. We’d like to thank everyone who took part and hope to see you again soon at our next event. Let’s … Take a look at the evening in pictures:

As part of our A Million Chances campaign, each year, we donate one million Euros worth of language courses to charities and NGOs around the globe. This January, we started a new partnership with Concern Worldwide, a charity that works with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives by tackling poverty. Instead of donating financial resources, we decided to support Concern in their learning and development with online language courses. As part of this project, we give Concern employees the chance to improve their foreign language and communication skills. After all, communication is crucial at Concern, not only for speaking and writing with colleagues, but also for staying in touch with those in need. This communication often takes place in a language other than their mother tongue and needs to be quick, error free and clear. Over 200 employees at Concern Worldwide have signed up for Speexx to improve their French or English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, writing, listening comprehension and spoken skills. The numbers are growing every day. With Speexx, members of staff at Concern build their skills at their own pace and also take part in regular virtual classroom sessions. In these live sessions, they communicate with colleagues from all over the world, while receiving guidance and support from a professional native speaker and their language trainer. The online course is flexible, available on a 24/7 basis and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. This has made it possible for Concern employees from countries all over the world to take part, including Bangladesh, Rwanda, Ireland, Uganda, Zambia, Haiti, Pakistan, Malawi, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Tanzania, Turkey, the UK and the USA. The education project covers all language levels from beginners to advanced for English and French. In addition, HR Managers at Concern have a user-friendly overview of all learning progress in the Speexx Performance Centre. Here’s what some of Concern Worldwide’s students say about Speexx: "Speexx has been very interesting for me. The topics are motivating and engaging, so I’ve spent much more time on it than expected. The learning process is based on leading instructional design as well as a range of exercise levels ranging from easy to difficult."   Mohamed Ahmed Tarabi, Somalia "I’m a proud to have the opportunity to learn English with Speexx. So far, the course has offered me a formula for success and I am ready to continue from that point." Abdifatah Ibrahim, Somalia   "I really appreciate their approach of teaching. Learning with Speexx is like chatting with a friend while developing your language skills." Tigist Tadesse, Ethiopia "I am about half way through the course. The coursework is very interactive and offers students a way to learn that does not feel like a chore. I am motivated to continue to the end, due to the diversity of methodologies applied to keep the student interested and engaged." Alice Simington, Rwanda "Speexx is great. It has allowed me to revise my French language skills when and how I want. It is great to be able to attend lessons with native French speaking trainers and interact with other learners. I like the balance between grammar and conversation skills. The website portal is both fun and useful." Simon Foster, Zambia We’d like to thank our partner Concern Worldwide for their great collaboration and look forward to continuing this great partnership! About Concern Concern Worldwide is an international charity dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world’s poorest countries. Concern works in partnership with the very poorest people in these countries, directly enabling them to improve their lives. They use their knowledge and experience to influence decisions made at a local, national and international level that can significantly reduce extreme poverty. Want to know more about Concern Worldwide? Visit https://www.concern.net/.  

We just kickstarted our year by presenting at one of China’s greatest educational events. The 2015 China Online Education Summit in Shenzhen, China, is one of China’s largest events of its kind, with representatives from 1,800 learning centers and 800 attendees. The focus of this year’s forum was to open up new distance learning opportunities for university students by adopting innovative technologies. Building an open distance learning ‘ecosystem’ will benefit government departments, educational institutions as well as students. Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx, was among the event speakers and talked about "Empowering communication - why are communication-empowered organisations more agile and profitable?". The presentation highlighted how organizations can leverage strong communication skills to drive business results. We’re the first non-Chinese learning provider to have a speaking opportunity in the history of the event! Check out the press release here.

A new year is a chance for us to get rid of some unwanted habits and set fresh goals. Many of our resolutions are work-related. While employees may be looking to finally get that promotion or switch to a new company, managers are concerned with meeting targets, keeping an eye on their budget and successfully managing their teams. But let’s face it; resolutions are notoriously hard to keep and many of us end up falling back into our old habits because they are what we’re most familiar with and what somehow always worked until now. However, there are indications that we need to make some serious changes this year. One of them is the fact that 2015 is being called the hottest - and toughest - year for hiring. A recent study found that more than half of recruiters cited a lack of quality candidates as the biggest factors hampering growth this year.  The war for talent is upon us, and companies are gearing up to secure the best people out there in innovative ways which will outsmart the competition. This includes working with aggressive hiring agencies, dipping into the digitalised world of social recruiting and even reaching out to Generation Z, who are now at an age to undertake their first internship. If companies don’t keep up with technological changes and get an understanding of what the modern employee really wants, they will miss the boat and fall far behind. But recruiting the right person is only the first step. How will we make sure our new hires are trained to suit the company’s needs and more importantly, what guarantee do we have that they will stay? The truth is we don’t. Let’s remind ourselves that nowadays the average staff member does not expect to stay in a position for more than 3-5 years. Nonetheless, there are a few steps we can take to enhance our employee retention and help them have a positive impact on our organisation, even if they don’t stick around forever. Motivation means more than perks and pay rises Most of all, our people need motivation. What motivates one person might not work so well for another, but in general terms it is safe to say that we all want to feel valued and respected within a company, work on a variety of tasks and continue to develop our skills over time. No pay rise will outweigh having to complete menial tasks or working under a dismissive boss. That’s why regular pulse checks with our workforce are crucial. It doesn’t have to be a complex and formalised process, but a simple chat to understand their needs and desires can make all the difference. The most successful companies out there are using 360° feedback sessions to let their staff make suggestions for improvement and have a say in their responsibilities. Motivation through effective learning and development According to a recent survey[1], many Millennials feel that their employer is not making full use of all the skills they have to offer. This kind of gap can be easily detected in a feedback session as mentioned above. What additional skills does he or she have and how can they be implemented and aligned with business goals?  Finding some untapped talent in your workforce could mean a huge advantage and save a lot of recruitment or outsourcing costs. But there are plenty of times when it’s necessary to upskill staff through formal training. In these cases, employees need to feel motivated and engaged by the content understand why they need to learn it from the organisation’s perspective. This is where technology-based learning comes in. E-learning solutions offer employees the chance to learn on multiple devices while at home, at work or during travel. They can be adapted to individual needs and offer HR and L&D Managers real-time progress reports, which can be discussed during a feedback session. An experienced third-party provider will be able to create a solution that fits both employees and managers and adapts to different industries or job functions. Furthermore, the rise of big data plays a significant role in finding out what our learners really want. Big data measures, collects and analyses data on individual learning styles; it tells us what motivates learners and what doesn’t and can even predict behavioural patterns in training programmes. The trick is to make it work in our favour. A popular saying goes, ‘What if you invest in your employees, and they leave?’ ‘Well what if you don’t, and they stay?’ Whatever happens, those of us who think ahead, adopt the latest technologies and understand our people will be the ones who continue to attract and retain a healthy and motivated workforce. So what’s top of your list this year? [1] http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1149159/millennials-feel-organisations-skills

Almost a third of organisations (32%*) claim to be using corporate MOOCs to offer employees flexible, on-demand training, no matter where they are based. MOOCs (massive open online courses) are delivered over the internet to potentially thousands of learners at a time. They appear to offer economies of scale and effective learning and development but in many cases, MOOCS are failing to deliver on their promise. MOOCs entered the learning industry in 2008. Until recently, they were mainly found within higher education and had little impact on corporate learning. According to the Speexx Exchange Survey, however, MOOCs are making their way into the corporate training market, with 32% of organisations already using them and 29% rating their effectiveness as high. The potential is certainly there - the global corporate learning market is worth an estimated £90 billion and 58% of respondents plan to increase their e-learning budget in the next three years. But many MOOCs need further development if they are to work in a corporate environment. The rising demand for personalised, motivating and relevant learning content is a crucial factor driving the success of corporate MOOCs, which empower the learner to study what’s relevant to them at their own pace. They deliver mobile learning, largely in video format, to thousands of employees regardless of their location. This is particularly valuable to companies with dispersed subsidiaries. Knowledge exchange Corporate MOOCs allow employees to exchange knowledge with peers through discussion, role-play or other group exercises. Yet there is a real danger of losing the intimacy of face-to-face communication, making traditional classroom discussions difficult to replicate online. Contact with a human being makes students feel supported in their learning; 83%** of Speexx learners surveyed strongly appreciate the personalised coaching and feedback provided by a trainer. Additionally, if learners are to benefit fully from the potential of collaborative cross-border learning, there needs to be renewed emphasis on building language and communication skills that will underpin further learning and development. However, a lack of foreign language skills is the biggest factor hampering communication across borders cited (39% of respondents). Intercultural differences are also a significant barrier for 29% of respondents. Communication is not just a vital ingredient for networked learning with MOOCs, but also for a company as a whole. A corporate strategy - around training, new business goals or cultural changes - must be communicated clearly and effectively at all levels to motivate employees and help the organisation thrive. 89% of respondents to the survey rated communication as crucial or important for business success. The benefits of a strong communications strategy cited include cost savings (35%), collaboration across borders (28%), quicker decisions (19%) and better customer service (19%). Corporate MOOC considerations Corporate MOOCs have the potential to revolutionise corporate communication and learning. But before implementing them, there are three questions to consider. Are your learners ready for the switch? Rather than sitting passively in a classroom, your employees will be expected to take charge of their own training programme which requires a certain amount of self-discipline but can also achieve better results in the long run. How will you communicate the change? Your workforce needs to understand why learning in this particular way is important and what it means for the overall company strategy. This needs top management buy-in. Are you willing to experiment? Every MOOC project will be different and it’s up to you to find out which content, platform or learning method suits your workforce best. IT can play an important role in creating the right learning environment for students. You should also talk to the vendor and see what methods they suggest for your particular training needs. The answers to these questions will create the foundations on which to build a cost-effective L&D platform for the future - millennials, who are tech-savvy and will make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020, are more likely to be able to work with corporate MOOCs independently, at a cost much lower than traditional training.

As the dominant language of business and technology, English is no longer just about grammar and vocabulary. A new art of ‘plain English’ is helping managers overcome cultural boundaries when directing global employees. There are close to 400 million native English speakers, 300-500 million fluent speakers of English as a second language and an additional 750 million foreign speakers with varying levels. With nearly a quarter of the world speaking some level of English, communicating in plain, direct English has become important for businesses around the globe. Although in many international companies, native English speakers make up just 10-15% of human capital, these companies often choose to adopt English as their official language. Many of these firms focus on hiring new managers with diverse cultural backgrounds and a mastery of the English language. Understandably, this helps executive committees understand and adapt to cultural differences among employees and competitors. But even someone with a gift for languages and management may still be hard pressed to make his or her wishes known to co-workers. That’s why established managers often undergo global management training, with ‘plain English’ being an integral part of the overall cross-cultural management training package. ‘Plain English’ reduces sentence length, uses the traditional ‘subject-verb-object’ sentence structure and tries to eliminate the unnecessary use of jargon. The method also discourages verbnominalization: users of plain English are encouraged to say ‘The project will be complete on February 1’ rather than ‘Project completion is scheduled for February 1.’ Likewise, teachers emphasize using the active vs. the passive voice, or in layman’s terms: the ‘He told me’ versus the ‘I was told.’ Cross-cultural managerial training also aims to reduce colloquial speech and subtle sarcasm, which can easily be misinterpreted by parties around the conference table. In the United States and United Kingdom, for example, it is not uncommon to criticize others or openly use humor to poke fun at coworkers. In France and Germany, however, casual humor or open criticism of colleagues or even the boss in front of others is not always understood or appreciated - especially in a foreign tongue. Another potential pitfall involves confusing a demand with a request. In some Asian cultures, for example, the directness of an order may be understood very differently. Saying ‘I would like this to be done by Wednesday,’ may be interpreted as ‘It would be nice if this were completed by Wednesday, but Friday is okay too.’ Not only has ‘plain English’ proven useful as a lingua franca for international companies, but it has also taken hold in countries where most people speak English as a first language. In America and Great Britain, the ‘plain English’ movement has been lobbying for government reports, financial information and legal documents to be written in plain English so that the average citizen has a chance of understanding it too. In short, the straight-forward, basic language used in plain English favors the reader rather than the industry.

The dictionary defines the term small talk as ‘light conversation about common, everyday things or chit chat.’ In a business setting, this ‘light conversation,’ when done successfully, can lead to some heavy business. For many, just the thought of making small talk leads to sweaty palms and an increased heart rate. Those few seconds at the coffee machine, racking your brains for something to say to a colleague or boss can be utter hell. And then, no matter what you say, afterwards you wish you’d said something else. So why bother? Isn’t it easier not to say anything at all? Researchers at Midwestern University discovered that in 80% of cases, it is not people’s deficit in technical or business knowledge that prevents them from getting ahead, but rather their lack of social skills. A similar study carried out by Stanford University School of Business tracked MBAs over a period of ten years and discovered that it was their ability to converse with ease, and not their grade point average, that had a bearing on their success. Small talk is not just important ‘unimportant’ conversation at the coffee machine. Far more, it is an opportunity to build a relationship and gain trust - two vital elements required in business. When entertaining potential business partners or clients, good social skills are a must. Though getting down to business straightaway is acceptable in the United States, on the international stage, small talk is still taken seriously - so much so that it can be the focus of an entire visit. When meeting for the first time, it is standard etiquette for the host to lead the small talk. The guest need only follow his lead. Networking experts recommend preparing three topics to chat about, as well as some generic questions to get the ball rolling. If you have met your guest before, try to refer back to something you know he or she is interested in. There are no real rules on what to talk about, but it is recommend that people steer clear of controversial topics, such as politics and religion, personal health issues, gossip, or inappropriate jokes or stories. Humor is not off-limits. On the contrary, it is an excellent addition to conversation if it is genuinely funny and not in bad taste or at anyone’s expense. Topics generally accepted as safe include the weather, traffic, books, the arts, and topical current events. An environmental disaster can be a real godsend for the small talker. Regardless of topic, small talk is not an invitation to rant, flaunt or brag. The conversation should be inclusive, and not leave anyone feeling left out. In other words, topics should be so broad that anyone can take part in them. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, small talk should be listened to. Good manners dictate that you provide feedback and stay focused on the conversation. Glancing around the room at this point is a big no-no - and might just be the end of what could have been a beautiful relationship.

We’ve just published our latest white paper on big data and talent mobility in 2015. The world of work is being revolutionized more rapidly than ever. Globalization, a 24×7 work environment and pervasive technology, coupled with demand for greater transparency, are transforming the modern workplace. By 2020, the tech-savvy millennial generation will make up almost 50% of the workforce and they expect on-demand learning content across multiple devices. But are HR and L&D Managers ready for this? There’s a lot of talk about big data and how it can help businesses become more responsive to customer needs, and the same thinking can be applied to corporate learning. We’re excited about helping you exploit this opportunity and recognize other industry changes with a new white paper edition. Grab your free copy now and find out   How to maximize on learning technology and big data How to address the global war for talent How to foster a more mobile workforce   Download now  

There is a lot of talk about big data and how it will transform businesses and help them become more responsive to customer needs. The same thinking can be applied to corporate learning and development. To date, HR managers and L&D professionals have approached skills development from either a business need perspective or to meet demand from line managers. Now big data, revealing the way in which individual learners are embracing and using e-learning, is driving and developing more effective workforce learning. The increasing availability of learner data looks set to change learning and development planning and delivery. Learner data can provide real insight into which strategies and content are working and which aren’t. Analytical tools allow HR managers and L&D professionals to respond to individual learners much faster and more efficiently than before. Data gets personal Learner data will enable better personalisation of learning to individuals. Personalisation, relevance of learning content and smooth delivery of personalised content to all platforms from PCs to mobile phones is key to the success of long-term learning initiatives. Big data not only informs HR about how well individual students performed on a test or how quickly they finished an e-learning module, it also offers insight into every student’s individual learning path and allows learning providers to respond to individuals as they encounter issues. A personalised, individual approach is key to successful learning delivery - even the most effective use of big data combined with powerful analytics is best supplemented by the human touch. A recent survey* found that 83% of corporate learners appreciate coaching and feedback provided by a personal trainer, while 84% of corporate learners consider a professional kick-off session with introduction to the course to be useful, highlighting the importance of the human factor and ongoing support. One to one coaching and active use of big data offers the best combination to deliver a personal learning experience that is just as effective as costly one-to-one training while being available 24/7. Multinational companies are increasingly looking to ensure consistent delivery of training programmes to staff across all locations. More often than not, they are focused on delivering consistent communication skills training, getting all employees up to speed with foreign language skills to allow them to communicate effectively with each other, as well as with partners and customers.  Research has also shown that 89% of corporate learners appreciate the flexibility offered by online language training and 80% of corporate learners report an overall positive outcome from their online language training*. With big data and the right analytical tools, L&D professionals are able to track an entire learner population at multiple locations throughout the learning process. Data helps organisations to understand where current skills gaps reside - or might be in the future. It can unlock enormous potential for an organisation’s talent succession strategy and workforce mobility. For example, a skilled employee with a solid grasp of English working for a subsidiary in France may be transferred to fill a temporary or long-term skill gap in a UK subsidiary. Big data underpins standardisation Big data also helps to identify patterns that will support the standardisation of learning modules across borders and for the entire organisation. Standardisation of terminology is crucial for large multinational manufacturers looking to guarantee an effective production chain. For example, one of Speexx’s customers, a major car manufacturer, has 42 different terms for a single small part of a car engine. These terms are unique to this corporation and needed to be consolidated so that they had the same meaning for more than 50,000 staff across five continents. Big data analytics has enabled the car manufacturer to build and measure the usage of a standardised glossary across the entire organisation. Increasing use of personal data tends to go hand in hand with raised concerns about the privacy and security of that data. Data privacy regulations vary from country to country and the level of concern about privacy issues varies accordingly. However, these concerns can and have been overcome as learning solution suppliers have become expert in navigating global privacy regulations. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing HR and L&D managers has been the requirement to collect as many types of learner data as possible and feed them meaningfully into a central talent or learning management system. There is a pressing need for learning content providers to develop custom APIs that will interface with learning systems in a way that goes beyond the simple view of learner data that standard interfaces allow for. Widely used technical standards for e-learning system interoperability, such as SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), did not go far enough in the big data world. However SCORM is evolving fast and in its new incarnation as the Tin Can API it offers a new specification for learning technology that makes it possible to collect data from the wide range of learning experiences a person has online and offline, using multiple technologies, in a consistent format. As the technology matures, HR and L&D professionals can plan to incorporate big data into their global workforce development strategy. Individual learner data has always been key to the most effective learning delivery and the technology is now available to turbo charge the collection and analysis of learner data to achieve the most effective and consistent training delivery. *Data source:  Global audit of HR and L&D professionals and senior managers carried out by Speexx from sample size is 72,197 Speexx students, during the period 01/06/2013 - 31/05/2014 across Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa.

Pancake racing, a seemingly unlikely event found on sports calendars in Great Britain, traditionally takes place the day before Ash Wednesday, and offers a final shot of fun before the sobering weeks of Lent. In the forty days leading up to Easter, known as Lent, devout Christians are expected to fast or give up various things: meat, sweets, entertainment or other frivolous things. On the day before Lent begins, Shrove Tuesday, believers were expected to go to church and ‘be shriven.’ The name stems from the past tense of the English word shrive, which means to acquire absolution for one’s sins by confessing them and doing penance for them. Throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, Shrove Tuesday is more colloquially known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. As one might expect, pancakes are a popular dish on this day. Making pancakes used up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk and sugar, all items that would spoil during the fasting period. British pancakes are only a little thicker than French crepe - and can be easily filled, rolled up or folded. They are traditionally made using only milk, flour and eggs, although some cooks add melted butter as well. They are most commonly topped with sugar and lemon. It is believed that the tradition of pancake racing can be traced back to a housewife in Olney, in Buckinghamshire. She was busy making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, when suddenly she heard the church bells ringing, calling her to service. She ran out of the house, still carrying the frying pancontaining the pancake. Pancake races are traditionally held on Shrove Tuesday throughout the United Kingdom. The most famous race takes place at Olney, and has been held there since 1445. Contestants race a predetermined distance to the finishing line while carrying a frying pan and tossing a pancake in the air as they go. The winner is the first to cross the line with the pancake still in the pan and intact. Increasingly, pancake races are held as a way of earning money for worthy causes, such as hospitals or other charities. London’s biggest event, the Great Spitalfields Pancake Race will be raising funds for the London Air Ambulance, while the Parliamentary Pancake Race which pits teams comprised ofMPs, Lords, and members of the press against each other, is organized by the charity Rehab. Despite the differences in pancakes on other side of the Atlantic, Americans too are getting in on the fun. Since 2006, International House of Pancakes (IHOP) has provided all guests with acomplimentary short stack of pancakes at all of its locations on Shrove Tuesday, which is usually called Fat Tuesday in the US and Canada. In return, customers are asked to donate to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or other local charities. This year’s goal is to raise $3.5 million for charity.

21st February 2015 marks the sixteenth International Mother Language Day[1], which was originally established by the UNESCO in 1999. The aim of International Mother Language Day (IML) is to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as multilingualism across the world. It got me thinking about just how valuable multilingual and multicultural skills are in a today’s globalised business world. For one thing, the right linguistic abilities will allow employees of a multinational organisation to communicate much more efficiently among each other. If they are open and sensitive to intercultural differences, this builds an environment of mutual respect and understanding. A culturally diverse workforce provides a rich source of perspectives, ideas and lays the foundation for innovation. Of course, some cultural gaps are inevitable - the way people start a meeting in the USA might not be the same as in Spain. A Polish employee might address a senior manager differently to the way a Chinese person would. The good news is, if such nuances are recognised and addressed early on, conflict can be avoided. Training your workforce in cultural awareness and foreign languages will give them the abilities they need to handle these situations. On top of that, this type of training can be a rewarding and inspiring experience for staff. It doesn’t need to be a formal face-to-face training programme either - with the help of technology, these skills can easily be acquired with online courseware, in live virtual classroom sessions or via mobile apps. Many organisations have opted for having one standard business language for all employees, no matter where they’re located. A new company perk might include letting employees spend a period abroad to discover the language and working culture of another country. Ultimately, strong intercultural and foreign language skills will harmonise relations among personnel, speed up processes and limit misinterpretations. Multilingual business But such skills can be extended and utilised beyond a company’s boundary, too. Knowledge of a second or third language means opening up the lucrative opportunity for new business abroad.  We cannot assume that, just because English has come to be the dominant business language, it is automatically spoken and comprehended flawlessly by all business people worldwide. In fact, the number of native Mandarin and Spanish speakers (955 million and 405 million, respectively) outnumbers those with English as their mother tongue (350 million)[2]. When dealing with clients or partners around the globe, soft skills such as cultural awareness or knowledge of the other person’s native language are a real competitive advantage. Not only will these abilities reduce the potential for error, they will also make the customer feel comfortable and able to express themselves openly. More than anything, clients wish to feel understood by their supplier, not just on a business level. A provider who can communicate with a customer taking into account their cultural and linguistic background will have a higher chance of winning a contract and building a successful and long-lasting partnership. Scientific backup There are other advantages, too. Did you know that learning a new language makes your brain grow? According to a Swedish MRI study [3], just three months of intense language study causes certain parts of the brain to increase in size. This includes the hippocampus, which helps consolidate information from short-term to long-term memory and is partially responsible for navigation, as well as three areas in the cerebral cortex. Another study found that people who speak more than one language scored better on attention and concentration tests, regardless of whether they’d grown up bilingually or had learnt the second language later on [4]. So it’s never too late to start learning! A more long-term incentive is the fact that studying a foreign language is said to slow down brain ageing and delay dementia later on in life. If these facts are not enough to convince you, here’s a final quote from the United Nations IML Day microsite, "All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue." Happy International Mother Language Day!   [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mother_Language_Day [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers [3] http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning [4] http://www.livescience.com/46048-learning-new-language-brain.html

Every year there are new themes that emerge in learning and development. Shortly after the 2008/9 crisis hit, everyone wanted ‘Finance for Non-Financial Managers’ type courses. Strategic Thinking also became a big topic there for a while. You couldn’t walk 15 feet through an office at that time without hearing someone use the word ‘strategic’. So many companies clearly felt it was probably a good idea for their people to know what it meant. Although it’s still clear that not everyone got the invite to that particular course. One topic that has stayed in ‘Need’ list for the last number of years is Leadership Development. It’s tricky developing leaders. It can be expensive, too. Go and get a quote from one of the big institutions and you’ll see what I mean. Plus it’s hard to get the high potential into the classroom, they often have other pressures and commitments. There are ways to start the process more cheaply and in a way that the company can manage easily, but it takes commitment. Once a week a senior, experienced leader in the organization gives up 30 minutes of their time. He or she is there to facilitate the session with the high potentials in the room. One of the potentials chooses an identified leadership competency or challege and researches the topic in the week prior to the session. Perhaps finding a short video with a leadership luminary like Marshall Goldsmith, Jack Welch, Tom Peters or Jeffery Immelt, addressing said topic or concern. He or she should then look to provide a 5-minute summary of some of the concerns around the topic, before throwing the discussion out to the floor, facilitated and guided by the senior figure. 30 minutes a week. That’s all it takes, but it has to be something that is bought into at the top. They need to understand that part of their role is not just to lead but to coach and guide. Call them what you will, ‘Breakfast and Learn’ ‘Toolbox Talks’, but they can make a difference in helping your high potentials understand the nuances between management and leadership. William Spindloe is the Director of Business Development Asia at International Human Resources Development Corporation (IHRDC). IHRDC provides world-class training, e-Learning, and competency management to oil and gas companies around the globe.

HR, L&OD reclaim the initiative across the Asia Pacific Workplace according to new research from Cegos Asia Pacific As a Learning company, we at Cegos are passionate about organisational learning - right across the globe. Recently, however, on the back of the GFC and slow return to confidence, Learning and Development has been pared back to save budget and sits alongside some of the other "first to go’s" - Some marketing spend, recruitment, training etc. Even in the APAC region our recent surveys into the workplace learning trends have shown challenges since 2010. In our third, 2015 survey, all that is changing. Learning is getting front and centre attention, a key battleground for Talent is being realised. Learning Professionals and Learners appear to be closing their previous rift and are more collaborative. In short, organisational leadership is understanding that a skilled workforce = better competitiveness and growth (organisationally and personally), better attraction and retention of Talent and is a value adding benefit to their employees. Download now   Some key headlines to whet your appetite. In 2015 we polled over 2,500 personnel across 6 main APAC territories (Australia/New Zealand, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore). Of those surveyed 440 represented Learning Professions (ie HR leaders, L&OD); the rest were all Learners at employee and management level. Our survey findings for the Asia Pacific region highlight, among other areas, Who is receiving training / Reasons for training Where training is being sourced / Employee satisfaction with training Learning methods and role of technology in organisational learning solutions The role of HRD / L&D management, employees themselves and their Line Managers concerning the sourcing, participation in and follow up of training interventions And much more…… > Of the 2200+ APAC Learners polled it is clear there is a great buy in to learning and personal development. Alongside this, there is an eagerness to embrace all the learning methods available from face to face to technology enabled solutions. LEARNERS ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THEIR DEVELOPMENT. THEY OWN IT. > The gap between learning professionals and learners themselves had started to widen between 2012 & 2014.  2015 - HR, L&OD have retaken the initiative and engaged the Learner population in more collaborative discussion and have challenged the Leaders of the business to release learning budget. HR, L&OD WITH TEETH! CHAMPIONING LEARNING. > Technology enabled learning, like eLearning, Blended training solutions and mobile (tablet led) learning are growing in popularity. In 2015 there will be more eLearners and Blended learners in Asia than anywhere else in the world. APAC LEADING THE WAY IN TECHNOLOGY ENABLED LEARNING

When most people think of training they think of one or two-day courses in a face-to-face, typical classroom type environment, with a trainer, a Powerpoint screen and a few icebreaker exercises to kick the show off. But, in truth that is how it used to be, and while face-to-face classroom-based training is still very important today, thanks to the internet, training has been completely reinvented. It can now be delivered in a range of more economical, flexible and engaging way. It is certainly about time, as there seems to be a well-acknowledged skills gap leading to a surge in employer training. This recent study by CareerBuilder shows that 61% of employers have hired people who don’t meet their requirements and plan to help that person grow into the role. At the same time, 49% plan to train workers who don’t have the right experience and hire them, which is an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous year Thanks to how the web has reinvented training, employers have many more options to deliver web-based training to this wave of new, but underprepared recruits. There are 5 key ways in which the web has revolutionized training for the benefit of the modern employer. 1. Training can now be delivered on demand. You no longer have to wait until you have enough internal trainees for your course to make it worthwhile. Now you just have your trainer create one recorded course and this can be delivered to your new hires and employers at any point during the year. Web-based, recorded training modules are flexible and convenient as they can be viewed and played back by employees whenever they like. 2. No need for trainees to travel. Part of the huge inconvenience of face-to-face classroom training were travel expenses and considerable lost work time, especially if international travel is required. Thanks to web-based training, trainees can learn from their own home or in the office, eradicating travel expenses and minimising lost work time. 3. Can take a modular approach. Traditional training courses had to be done all in one go and many workers found it hard to find one or two days in their schedule to do a course. Web-based trainees can watch, pause and resume training, so they can train in bite-size chunks and fit it around work commitments. 4. No more scheduling conflicts. With traditional classroom training it was difficult to get everyone together at the same time. Web-based, recorded training can be watched at the trainees’ convenience and a place to suit them, meaning there are no more scheduling issues. 5. Know what has been learned.  Modern, web-based, training has in-built assessments and monitoring, making it easy to track trainer engagement, learning and course completion, in a very automated and inexpensive way compared to the manual, form filling approach of traditional class-room based training. These are 5 key ways in which the web has reinvented training. Have we missed any? How else do you think the web has changed training?   About SkyPrep The SkyPrep founders were approached by a colleague to find them an online testing and training software to sell their training courses to companies. They were amazed they couldn’t find an online training software platform that was easy to use, yet had all the functionality that they were looking for! So what did they do? They built one. Whether it’s a company with over 1000 employees to train, a small-sized business with just a few employees, a private tutor, a large school, or someone wanting to sell courses online, the feedback has been unanimous; SkyPrep is addictively easy to use.  

Purists despise it. Traditionalists sneer at it. Non-corporate types just roll their eyes. Yet, it adds that unique flourish without which internal corporate communication would seem as weary as chewed out chewing gum on the sole of a shoe: yes, it’s corporate speak. Why bother with the very prosaic ‘don’t waste time with that incredibly complex task,’ when you can tell someone ‘not to boil the ocean’? Why refer people to a standard company profile when you can send them off looking for a boilerplate? And why ask people to be creative when you can insist that they do a spot of ‘blue-sky thinking’? Business jargon, acronyms, buzzwords, neologisms, euphemisms, slang - whatever the title - all add a kind of sexy frill to the harsh realities of business talk. They stem from all areas of life - from the world of science to the world of sport. Companies routinely talk about their ‘ecosystem’ when referring to the network of organizations and people with which they interact. And instead of landing in a lengthy meeting, business people are increasingly finding themselves being dragged into a ‘huddle.’ (A ‘meeting’ is so ‘80s!) The word ‘huddle’ comes from the group meeting that takes place between players on the field during a game of American football. So, does this predilection for colourful language reveal another side to the corporate beast? Is it the poet inside that’s coming out? Or is this verbal anarchism a very conniving way to exclude those not in the club? After all, dealing with corporate speak cannot be a walk in the park for the layman - not to mention the problems it might pose to the uninitiated foreigner. And that’s just trying to decipher it. Think about those clingy inhibitions which have to be shed in order to actually speak it - fluently. And even those who have mastered the tongue perfectly are often the subject of ridicule. Games like ‘buzzword bingo’ are routinely played in corporate stadiums, where a pre-determined list of buzzwords is circulated before a meeting or conference event. As the speaker uses the words, the participating members mentally tick them off during the talk. The truly brave will shout out ‘Bingo’ when all the words have been said, though a less job-threatening version involving a silent mouthing of the word does also exist. In a day and age when good communication is the key to success, how is this ‘corporate speak’ epidemic to be rationalized? In many ways, it is not! Nothing hinders the transfer of information more than opaque language. Nothing turns people’s attention off more than a thick façade of buzzwords, acronyms and slang. Yet, the alternative is so dull, so lacking in sexy frilliness, that it practically lullspeople to sleep. The moral of the story? Choose your words carefully - it’s all part of the fun. Want to hear some real corporate speak? Check out our Business Podcasts.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that his company produced a ‘Who We Are’ sort of brochure. Nothing odd in that you might say, but this one was not advertising products and services. This glossy tri-fold enumerated the ‘Ethics’ of the company, with subheadings like Commitment, Values, Standards, Compliance etc. The reason he thought this was a little odd is that he had been with the company for more than two years and had never known anything about the company’s ethics or these corporate maxims, and it would appear neither did anyone else who worked there. It was a marketing department production. To his co-workers, a cynical attempt to cash in on the ‘ We are Ethical’ type of marketing that seems to be churned out of many organizations today. Many of whom are very aware that big business has a poor perception among the many, and perhaps for good reason. The ethics brochure made claims of supporting the community, aware of its responsibilities to the environment, its legal obligations to the world at large, caring for its employees, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. The message that came loud and clear from the employees was that if the company wanted to extoll its ethics and virtues, then perhaps it should start by discussing them with the staff BEFORE living them. Ironically, the company in question was found to be trading illegally in at least one territory, had been threatened with legal action over denigration of staff in one foreign office and had lost a spate of constructive and wrongful dismissal cases the months following the distribution of the Ethical Tome. This is perhaps an extreme case. We do, however have an obligation of the kind that the brochure described. Balanced of course with pragmatism. Tempered with the knowledge that in today’s world of Facebook, Linkedin, Glassdoor and social media in general, light is not the fastest thing in the universe. Nothing travels faster than bad news. ‘Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. - Albert Einstein

March 17 is a national holiday in Ireland, and known as Saint Patrick’s Day by millions of people throughout the world. Perhaps not surprisingly, you don’t have to be Irish to really make a day of it. St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day to commemorate Saint Patrick (386-493), the patron saint of Ireland. Although St. Patrick’s Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, it is most commonly observed as an honoring of Irish culture, in all its many facets, by people all around the world. Perhaps the most public display of Irish pride are the gigantic parades. In Ireland, these one-day parades date back to the late 19th century and stem from the heightened sense of nationalism typical of that period. Since 1996, Dublin has played host to the St. Patrick’s Festival, which is a four-day event incorporating spectacular fireworks, open-air music, street theater and of course the traditional parade. The traditional parades have both floats and marchers. These floats are manned by members of local organisations, everything from sport clubs to schools to local businesses. During the parades, children vie for an advantageous spot for catching sweets, which are thrown from the floats. Many people sport green garments and wear shamrock. Crazy costumes and painted faces are also de rigueur. In recent years, the four largest parades outside of Ireland have been held in New York City and Boston in the United States, Birmingham, England, and Montreal, Canada. New York’s parade is the world’s largest. It has taken place annually since 1762. It progresses along 5th Avenue in Manhattan and attracts an estimated two million onlookers. Chicago, which also holds an annual parade, even dyes the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day. In Manchester, the festivities last for two weeks. And in Montreal, which claims to be second only to New York in North American St. Paddy’s Day enthusiasm, supporters are lobbying to make March 17 a national holiday, just as it is in Ireland.St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day to commemorate Saint Patrick (386-493), the patron saint of Ireland. Although St. Patrick’s Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, it is most commonly observed as an honoring of Irish culture, in all its many facets, by people all around the world. Perhaps the most public display of Irish pride are the gigantic parades. In Ireland, these one-day parades date back to the late 19th century and stem from the heightened sense of nationalism typical of that period. Since 1996, Dublin has played host to the St. Patrick’s Festival, which is a four-day eventincorporating spectacular fireworks, open-air music, street theater and of course the traditional parade. The traditional parades have both floats and marchers. These floats are manned by members of local organisations, everything from sport clubs to schools to local businesses. During the parades, children vie for an advantageous spot for catching sweets, which are thrown from the floats. Many people sport green garments and wear shamrock. Crazy costumes and painted faces are also de rigueur. In recent years, the four largest parades outside of Ireland have been held in New York City and Boston in the United States, Birmingham, England, and Montreal, Canada. New York’s parade is the world’s largest. It has taken place annually since 1762. It progresses along 5th Avenue in Manhattan and attracts an estimated two million onlookers. Chicago, which also holds an annual parade, even dyes the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day. In Manchester, the festivities last for two weeks. And in Montreal, which claims to be second only to New York in North American St. Paddy’s Day enthusiasm, supporters are lobbying to make March 17 a national holiday, just as it is in Ireland.

Hooray! We’ve just won the Golden Globe Tigers Award in the category "Best Use of Technology for Training". Hosted at the Prince Hotel and Residence in Kuala Lumpur, the Golden Globe Tigers Summit celebrates initiatives across a variety of sectors including Sustainability, Banking, Training & Development, Retail, Healthcare, Fashion, Sports Management and many more. The award recognises organisations and individuals for outstanding achievements and initiatives which have made a difference in communities around the globe. The jury panel consist of representatives from the Academic Council, as well as a number of high level executives and vice presidents from the corporate sector. This year, Speexx received the Golden Globe Tigers Award in the Training & Development category "Best Use of Technology for Training" for its online language training solution. Speexx combines live communication skills training (via virtual classroom, telephone or face-to-face) with self-paced online courseware and ongoing personalised coaching for Business English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. With Speexx, organisations are able to offer their workforce an innovative and interactive language learning solution with measurable results, based on global standards. Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx commented: "We’re thrilled to have won such a highly acclaimed prize. Receiving the Golden Globe Tigers Award is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of our employees and the great collaboration with our friends, partners and customers worldwide. On behalf of Speexx, I would like to thank the jury panel for this recognition." Check out the full press release here.  

This is going to be a big year in the world of corporate talent. According to Bersin by Deloitte, we are entering a talent world where people data is central to every decision, adding, "Organisations that are investing in analytics teams, analytics tools, and analytics expertise are going to far outperform their peers." Big data has already transformed retail and consumer facing businesses and is now set to revolutionise corporate learning, too. HR and L&D professionals will increasingly become ‘data-enabled’, with big learner data informing decisions about skills development alongside demand from line managers. Making the most of big learner data is not just about identifying what type of learning and development is needed and which topics need to be covered. It is also about getting better information about how learning is embraced and used, what works and what doesn’t, who is learning and who is not, and why. With the help of technology and analytics, it is now possible to adapt and improve training and learning delivery as it is happening, based on real-time data about learners. Big learner data can provide unparalleled insight into the learning process. HR managers who tap into learner data successfully will be able to offer the type of responsive and relevant learning that is most effective. Using big learner data to boost global workforce development Use learner data to standardise delivery: Analysis of learner data can reveal patterns that will inform the standardisation of learning modules and the standardisation of terminology as employees worldwide get up to speed with the language and communications skills they need to communicate effectively with each other, as well as with suppliers and customers. It is vital that multinationals bring a shared glossary to global production and data from language and communications learning can help build a shared lexicon. Blend data-enabled e-learning with face-to-face support for best results: In a large-scale survey of e-learners, 84 percent of corporate learners said they found a face-to-face introduction to the course useful and 83% said they appreciated feedback provided by a trainer in person. A combination of classroom and online training has proven to deliver the best results. Offer training through multiple devices to engage learners: The latest technical standards for e-learning system interoperability allow for the input of learner data from multiple sources, making it possible to collect data from a wide range of learning experiences. Technical standards for e-learning system interoperability such as SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) are evolving all the time. SCORM’s latest incarnation - Tin Can API - offers consistent collection of learner data from multiple devices. Read the full article via HR Review.

Earlier this month was the 106th International Women’s Day, which celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, present and future. This year, it sparked a lot of questions and opinions around the web. It’s 2015, but have things improved at all? And what can we do to support gender equality, both in the workplace and at home? A recent study stunned us all when it found that there are fewer women chairing FTSE 100 companies than there are men named John holding these positions. Here in Germany, meanwhile, the government has just passed a new law stating that by 2016, women need to make up at least 30 per cent of the board in multinational companies. While applauded by many, this new law also faced some criticism, such as the fact that it is gender-biased and, in an ideal world, should not be necessary at all. On top of that, it may be risky to just fill positions with people based on their gender instead of their skills and experience. Back to basics Let’s take a step back and look at higher education. According to the University of Oxford, among all the factors contributing to graduates’ careers, gender still has the highest impact, ahead of social background, ethnicity or degree subject. For example, male graduates were found to be more confident about their career prospects and more proactive when approaching recruiters. Upon leaving university, they are 9 per cent more likely to find a graduate-level job within six months (and earn a higher salary!) than their female counterparts. So without realising it, women may be one step behind on the career ladder before even entering the world of work. We could even take this right back to our early school days, where girls are frequently discouraged from taking "difficult" subjects like maths or physics. Boys on the other hand, are expected to excel at science and less encouraged to study foreign languages, where girls tend to shine. This, in turn, can be traced back of our parents’ and teachers’ perception of gender-based skills differences. So the obstacles might already be in place long before we reach university or work. But let’s say a woman does get a great job right upon graduating and receives the same pay as her male peers. There’s another potential barrier waiting for her out there and that is other people’s perception of male and female success in the workplace. Two professors demonstrate this in the Heidi & Howard experiment, where two groups of people read the same case study describing an individual’s successful career path. Only in one version the person is Heidi, a woman (actually the case study is based on the true story of a woman’s career path) and in the other, it’s a man - Howard. When the groups were asked to describe the person they read about, the Howard group found him likeable, while the Heidi group said she was selfish and not somebody they would like to work with. This is not very encouraging news, but something we must take into account if we want things to change. The communications gap Many supporters of gender equality like to highlight typical ‘female’ strengths, e.g. the fact that they are better listeners, negotiators or more compassionate. There is also a common belief that women outperform men in foreign language and communication skills. Working at a language training company, this is something we often hear from our customers who are aiming to train their workforce in a new language. They are worried that their male employees will be at a disadvantage in language training. But actually, our internal data of 72.000+ learners from around the world showed there was absolutely no difference in their performance. The only gender-related difference was that women were slightly more likely to attend live virtual classroom sessions than men. What affected their performance more was the amount of coaching and live training they received, how often they studied and how much their HR and L&D Managers backed their training. I’d like to make a bold statement here and say that intellectual skills are gender-blind, and that it is society’s stereotypes and expectations that often push people down certain career paths. A woman can become a brilliant scientist, just like a man can become a great communicator. If we only ever look at the situation through the lens of gender, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall. To challenge our perceptions, we need to change the way we talk to our friends, colleagues and our own children. So instead of accepting the status quo, let’s keep pushing forward.

I was waiting for a friend at a restaurant bar a couple of nights ago, and as I glanced around the room I was struck that there was not one person who did not have their face buried in a smartphone, even those clearly with other people. And can someone explain why there is a sudden desire to take pictures of our food? I could probably go on at some length about people who take pictures of their food or who feel the need to turn on their cell phones the very second a plane touches the ground or of course those who use ‘selfie sticks’. The ownership and usage of which should be accompanied by a long prison sentence, but I shall try and get to the point of this missive instead. We are bombarded by information these days. From home to the office, to the malls, airports etc we are under a constant information assault. Oddly enough it would appear that our appetite only seems to grow as a result. There are many who simply would not know how to function without their phone or phones. I’m not sure that this constant bombardment is doing us any good. I think we are losing the art of verbal communication. I think that as expedient as the internet can be, I think its important that we also look to still learn from our peers and the more experienced through conversation. So I am proposing this- A Digital Day Off, or Smart Phone Free Fridays. Basically a day at work every week, where we have to leave the phone(s) at home. Where we actually have to get up, and go and speak to people, rather than ‘Whatsapping’ them. Where if we need to know something we ask someone rather than Googling. I’m not against technology, I like it. But I do feel we are losing touch with one another in the workplace, and perhaps at home too, but those much brighter than I have been seeing this coming for a while… "I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." - Albert Einstein

Humanitarians work tirelessly to provide hope, resources, and relief in some of the direst natural disasters and conflicts around the globe.  Very few receive ongoing professional development and training either because they cannot afford it or because the classes take place in locations not accessible from the field. In partnership with leading humanitarian organizations such as the International Red Cross, UNHCR, Oxfam, and Save the Children, the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation launched DisasterReady.org to provide high-quality online training to humanitarian aid and disaster relief workers around the world. Registration is free and all users have unlimited access to more than 400 professional development resources including videos, webinars, and e-learning courses. More than 45,000 aid workers have signed up for DisasterReady.org from more than 190 different countries and the usage is expected to grow to 60,000 by the end of 2015.  Recognizing that many aid workers are on the move and not always connected to the Internet, DisasterReady.org’s training is now available on mobile devices and offline players.  With such a global and multi-lingual audience, we have worked hard to make DisasterReady.org accessible in English, French, and Spanish.  By making this no-cost training available to more humanitarians in their native language, we can reach even more of them and fulfill our mission of increasing the preparedness and effectiveness of humanitarians in natural disasters and conflicts around the world. Increasingly, aid workers are responding to these disasters in countries where they do not speak the local language.  And as aid organizations seek to work more collaboratively with their beneficiaries and local staff, being able to communicate in the local dialect becomes an operational imperative.  Unfortunately, access to high-quality language courses is often limited which places additional burden on the organization’s interpreters as well as national staff. This is why we are so fortunate to partner with Speexx to give disaster responders the opportunity to learn conversational basic English, French, and Spanish.  In recent months, demand for these courses has increased significantly as more humanitarian staff and health professionals have responded to the Ebola outbreak in French-speaking West Africa as well as the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Dadaab Refugee Camp, which is the largest refugee camp in the world, hosting over 400,000 refugees that have fled various conflicts in the larger Eastern Africa region.  I had the opportunity to interview a number of aid workers and hear firsthand about their experience working in this challenging environment.  One aid worker, Evanson Njoroge, has worked at Dadaab since 2008 told me about the Speexx French language courses he has been actively engaging with.  He reiterated that access to traditional learning institutions is severely limited when working in the field.  After taking the Speexx course, Evans can now work in emergency operations like the Ebola crisis in West Africa where French is actively spoken. For humanitarian response to be most effective in fulfilling their mission, they must build trust with their beneficiaries.  Having even a basic understanding of the local language allows the aid worker to better understand what the local population is facing and what specific interventions would be most effective.  Moreover, a direct conversation between humanitarians and beneficiaries helps break down any perceived barriers and fosters a more collaborative approach to long-term relief.

We’re excited to present the first of our three-part video guide which will help HR and L&D Managers harness the power of workforce mobility and big learner data. "Succession Planning and Talent Mobility" looks at the role of succession planning in today’s working context and how language learning will help a multi-generational workforce. It also highlights the internal organisational barriers that are likely to prevent a truly mobile workforce and offers practical tips for building a better succession planning strategy. Breaking down the barriers for better succession planning "Technology has broken down borders, enabling a truly global workplace, but in many cases the language barrier remains an obstacle to skills-based succession planning and employee mobility. A thorough succession management strategy involves foreign language and communication skills training for all staff, across the board.  Furthermore, if organisations get the process right, learner data can also provide unparalleled insight into the learning process. Talent management as we have known it over the past ten years is about to be reinvented, with a focus on engagement, experience, and empowerment." Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx. And stay tuned for our next two videos about  "Navigating data protection regulations for a global workforce" and "How to drive corporate training with big learner data". Questions or comments? Drop us a line!