"Hello, my name is…" Orientation is the chance to teach new hires all about the company culture and help them fit in as well as prepare them for their individual duties on the job. But one study has shown that trying to make new employees ‘fit in’ is a less successful onboarding approach than encouraging new hires to simply be themselves. In the hopes that new employees will be happy and productive in their new positions, most companies offer some sort of orientation program, which many Human Resources departments call ‘onboarding.’ This traditionally includes a tour of the company, an explanation of company procedures, a packet from human resources and plenty of direct and indirect information about the corporate culture. According to Harvard Business School Associate Professor Francesca Gino, this approach to orientation is too company focused; no emphasis is put on the value of the new employee himself. In fact, it discourages self-expression, which could eventually lead to job dissatisfaction and possibly even to an employee retention problem. Many companies openly admit that they hire new personnel from outside because they want the infusion of new ideas. So why stifle exactly that desire during corporate onboarding? Gino, along with her co-authors Daniel M. Cable from the London Business School and Bradley R. Staats from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, hypothesize that a few small changes in the way companies handle new employee orientation could have a dramatic effect on employee retention. The primary change is an emphasis on the value of employee individuality. To test their theory, they conducted a field study at Wipro, a major business process outsourcing company in India. The company had been experiencing extremely high turnover. The field study divided new employees into three groups: a control group, which would go through the company’s usual orientation process; a second group which focused on organizational identity and a third group which focused on individual identity. The control group focused on skills training and awareness of company culture. The other two groups received the same training, but also an additional hour-long presentation related either to the corporate identity or individual identity and answered questions related to their topic that emphasized that focus in a meaningful way. The two identity groups also received fleece sweatshirts embroidered with either the company logo or their individual names, respectively, which they were then asked to wear for the duration of employee training. Seven months later, Gino and her team evaluated how the changes to orientation affected how long the new employees stayed with Wipro. The result: The turnover rate in the control group was 47 percent higher than the individual identity group, and 16 percent higher than the corporate identity group. Encouraging new employees to think about what they could contribute to the company had had an effect. Impressively, the additional cost and time needed for either the corporate identity or individual identity sessions was minimal. The Indian company Wipro was so impressed that it redesigned its orientation process accordingly. If, as Gino believes, requiring new employees to ‘fit in’ rather than be appreciated for their new blood and individuality does in fact affect employee retention and job satisfaction, maybe it would pay off for more companies to reevaluate their onboarding process.

We live in a world where job hopping is the new norm and millennials are impatient, career-savvy, and don’t expect to stay in a position for more than three years at a time. This has created a highly fluid and fast-moving job market which is forcing organisations to rethink their succession planning. Whenever an employee is promoted or switches companies, they leave a skills gap behind. A gap which usually needs to be filled within a short space of time. This results in a last-minute, expensive and time-consuming hiring process or, in other employees having to take on the person’s tasks - we’ve all been there and know how frustrating it is. At the same time, there is a demographic change going on, with an ageing workforce and the challenge of finding young talent to take on new roles. Succession management comes at a cost Many have tried to put the cost of losing and replacing a good employee into figures. Estimates range from 1.5x to 3x the salary of an employee if we take consider the cost of hiring, on-boarding and training new talent, as well as loss of productivity and potential errors while the new hire is still learning. On top of that, we’re dealing with non-tangible costs, such as low employee morale as a result of a colleague leaving. Despite the many job hoppers sprinting around the recruitment market, companies often report difficulties in finding the right people with the matching skills. According to CareerBuilder[1], you can expect to lose almost £10,000 (€13,900 EUR) for every position that is vacant for over three months. Step 1 - Audit your talent pool regularly How can we ensure sure we’re not left with a glaring and costly gap when one of our best employees suddenly announces they are leaving? Many organisations are turning towards their internal talent pool and trying to fill these gaps from within - a strategy which serves as an invaluable insurance policy for talent. We can start off by planning ahead and not assuming everyone will be sticking around forever. If A goes, who else could do their job at short-term notice? Is B ready for this or are there still some skills missing? Regular skills audits help to prevent a crisis situation when somebody leaves. Technology nowadays enables us to carry out large-scale and standardised audits so that we’re fully aware of what talents we have and what we’re lacking. In fact, many talent management system providers have already embedded succession management into their solution - this is something that almost 60 per cent of HR and L&D managers require nowadays[2]. Step 2 - Build a culture of mobility and knowledge sharing Fostering a culture of mobility, where employees are willing and able to move to a different department or country, will put us in a far better position for dealing with sudden skill shortages. We can work on this by training our employees in intercultural awareness, foreign language and communication skills. Moreover, regular job rotations will allow employees to acquire skills they wouldn’t normally have access to. For example, a product manager could spend a month in the company’s marketing division to get some valuable insights and also to strengthen ties between the two departments. This will result in a much richer internal talent pool and boost employee motivation, since ongoing learning and development will become a fundamental part of their daily work. Another facet of mobility is allowing employees to collaborate across borders in virtual workspaces, where knowledge and ideas are shared via virtual conferences, wikis and chats. Knowledge needs to become fluid and transferable and this can only work if the right communication skills are in place. Step 3 - Remember that one size doesn’t fit all Despite the many opportunities technology now offers us for identifying skill gaps, if you’re dealing with subsidiaries all over the world, chances are you’ll need to adapt your strategy to local customs and expectations. Succession planning in North America will be different from succession planning in China. So somebody moving from New York to Beijing will not necessarily go through a smooth transition. For opposite sides of the world to work together effectively, we cannot rely on technology alone. Instead, we must embrace cultural differences as part of the organisation and be prepared to provide ‘human’ support such as intercultural integration, language training and local guidance. Only then will our talent and skill pool be truly fluid. The bottom line? Keep your talent happy for as long as you can but don’t assume they won’t need a successor at some point. [1] http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=3%2F6%2F2014&id=pr807&ed=12%2F31%2F2014 [2] http://marketing.bersin.com/succession-management-technology.html

We are frequently reminded through advertising and marketing of how many  Multinationals claim to be ‘truly global’ in their approach to business. But for many, words like Values, Integrity, Social Responsibility have all become much more marketing fodder than actual maxims by which to guide a company. But what does that actually mean to be a global organization anyway? Well this piece will deal with what it is not. The reason for this article is driven by a conversation I had with a bright young manager who was working for a large multinational. She is based in SE Asia, where she was born and had recently taken a couple of trips overseas to visit the group head office.  That was when she got to witness first hand a disparity in standards, policies and what she described as ‘simple decency’ between the Western home of the company the Asian overseas operation. She explained to me that she knew there would be a different wage structure. The economies were very different, but did not see the reason why areas like health and safety had to have such differing standards. The question was posed and she was advised that the company had always met its legal obligations in each of the countries it operated. ‘Why did the company simply not create a standard that exceeded the ‘letter of the law’ approach she further ventured ?’ She told me at which point she could feel the atmosphere changing in the meeting and if the Head of Global Compliance had a panic button under the table it would have been pushed and she would have been forceably removed from the room. She took home from the head office the employee handbook and began to become increasingly moved agitated until a conference call was requested with HR at the head office. She discussed with them areas where the company had either exceeded the legal requirements in the home country or where new incentives had been created but not replicated elsewhere in the world. The quality and size of the workspace - ‘ You get what we deem to be acceptable in the local market and your are generally smaller people’ Health Coverage - ‘it would simply be too expensive to provide everyone with the same levels of coverage’ Maternity/Paternity Leave- ‘ it would be economically unsound to follow our model given the size of the families in Asia’ She also questioned why there was a random drug testing policy in Asia and why this had not been replicated throughout the group. She was told there was never the ‘need’ anywhere else, although it was not explained why the ‘need’ had been established in the first place in the Asian operation. Needless to say she does not work for this group anymore. She does work for another multinational however, but one that has created global standards. She tells me they are not perfect, but that its OK, because the employees see it is a work in progress and that the company genuinely seems to want ensure a global approach is taken. The new company have also cultivated local rather than purely expatriate leadership and that the average turnover is a little under 5 years rather than a little under 18 months. "Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn’t the will to do what is right." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Learning management systems (LMS) are becoming mission-critical software applications that allow corporate L&D teams to package and deliver digitalized learning content to learners in an efficient, effective and compelling way. While of course those organizations already using an LMS know how beneficial LMS can be, organizations that are new to the game often face a battle to convince decision makers of the benefits that an LMS can bring, in return for the investment.  That’s why we thought it would be useful to highlight five of the chief benefits that LMS can bestow on an organization. Lower training costs-per-head. If L&D professionals want to win over the CEO, Finance Director and departmental budget holders, they should be able to demonstrate that LMS can impact the bottom line of the business. The good news is that studies show that LMS, (by way of it’s ability to deliver e-learning content), has reduced training costs by anything from 25% to 40% in organizations where it has replaced face-to-face learning models. LMS can in theory drive down costs and boost profits. Removing the admin burden. LMS, by way of it’s built in tracking system and highly automated assessment, monitoring and reporting can remove a huge amount of the admin burden associated with traditional HR processes. This can bring benefits for different stakeholders, for example, you’ll be able to deliver more training with less staff which should impact the bottom line and impress profit-center managers. But, also your L&D staff will be able to spend less time doing basic admin and more time improving the quality of learning content and enriching their jobs, increasing L&D staff engagement. Can automate mandatory training delivery and improve compliance. Many workers are required to receive mandatory training in areas such as: health and safety, diversity and inclusion, anti-harassment and bullying, etc. Compliance training often requires a lot of box ticking and delivering this kind of training via traditional decentralized methods can be very laborious and management intensive. An LMS can simplify what can be a complex, box-ticking process by automating: scheduling, booking, delivery, tracking and reporting of mandatory training. Centralized learning environment. Centralizing functions in many areas of a business can lead to efficiency gains, by removing duplication and allowing better sharing of information. It’s no different in training. An LMS will enable you to centralize your training content, resources, personal development plans, assessment and progress outcomes all in one place. It makes it much easier to see who has done what, to see which content is working and which is not, and to deliver consistent training. It will also make it much easier to produce reports and analytics, giving you 20:20 vision into training delivery, making it easier for you to target learning content to the areas where it is most needed. Means you can deliver bite-size learning on demand. LMS enables organizations to deliver the traditional 1 day course in a series of perhaps eight, 1 hour digital chunks over a course of a few weeks or months. This is called bite-size learning. Learners can take these e-learning courses on demand at a time to suit them on their PC or mobile device. This makes it easier for the modern, time pressurized user to fit learning into their schedules. Studies show that this form of training delivery increases both learner engagement and recall. Share with us your experiences using an LMS and how it benefits your organizations training  

Whether it’s a private cloud or a public one, and even if you don’t know what or where that cloud is, chances are, you’re probably already using it. Cloud computing is a general term referring to any kind of service hosted over the internet. More specifically, cloud services refer to hosted services which are located in big blocks of servers in one or many places around the globe and are accessed over the internet. These server blocks are considerably larger than those found in any one company, and provide servers for multiple companies simultaneously. The nebulous name was inspired by the symbol traditionally used to represent the internet on diagrams: a cloud. There are many different versions of cloud computing, of course. Companies pay a certain amount per month for use of the internet service, such as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) or storage as a service (StaaS). In the case of SaaS, a hosting service provides and manages software and makes them available to companies of all sizes using a central server. What this means is that companies no longer have to worry about what versions of software have been installed on a particular machine or at a particular location because users can simply log on to the host site and access what they need from the cloud. For start-ups especially, the cloud can be a financial godsend. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) can be either private or public. A private cloud only offers its services to a limited number of customers but a public cloud sells its services to anyone on the internet. Naturally, companies don’t really want people to know exactly how many servers are being used to host their services. However, Amazon Web Services is believed to be the largest public cloud provider, running an estimated 450,000 servers. Other companies, like IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce, are big players in the field of commercial cloud computing as well. Probably the most frequently used cloud service is Google, which offers its software and services free to billions of users worldwide in the form of email, photo sharing, online productivity tools and even website creation tools. There are drawbacks to cloud services, of course. Cyber security is the most vexing concern. The increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative work make the concept of keeping information absolutely secure a problematic issue no matter where data is stored. Giving up complete control of private data is another reason cited by companies for not yet embracing the cloud. In other cases, the need for restructuring the company in order to accommodate the cloud is too daunting a task. And what happens if the power goes out? While uncommon, a power or internet outage could be very damaging. Ronald Rivest, a professor of computer science at MIT, thinks part of the problem is cloud computing’s rather innocuous name. He believes terminology plays a crucial role in how we perceive a particular technology. ‘If we go around for a week calling it swamp computing, I think you might have the right mindset.’

One of the great things about working in e-learning is getting to meet your customers face to face and hearing how your solution has made their life easier. We recently met with Ursula Hostettler of Mobiliar, Switzerland’s oldest private insurance company, to talk about the benefits of blended learning for training her staff in English, German, French and Italian. Watch the video here: What Mobiliar says about blended learning with Speexx "We have contacts and partners abroad, for example, we’re a member of Eurapco, which is an alliance of different insurance providers, such as Gothaer in Germany or Covea in France. They’re insurance companies that collaborate on an international level. They work together to analyse potential new risks and threats such as terrorism or climate change. This allows them to exchange new ideas about how to deal with these issues and develop new business models. Switzerland is unique in the sense that we’re a multilingual country. Our company is headquartered in German-speaking Switzerland, in Bern, but we have a second main office in Nyon, which is in French-speaking Switzerland. So here we’re already dealing with people who speak German and French and need to be able to communicate with each other. Furthermore, we have about 80 independent general agencies which receive guidance and products from our headquarters. But then they work locally and regionally. Then there’s another quite funny situation in the Canton of Wallis, where our staff and agency members need to learn English. Why? Because a lot of English people spend their holidays here! On top of English, French and German, there’s also a demand for Italian, of course, since we have an Italian-speaking Canton as well. So in order for these people to work together internally, they need to have the right language skills. For some time, our employees had been asking for a learning solution that would allow them to study languages independently, not in a classic language school setting. For example, we sometimes have whole departments asking for specific courses, but then it turns out there aren’t enough people of the same skill level to get a whole class together. So we had a look around and found that blended learning might be worth a try. That’s when we came across Speexx and started a pilot project with 50 people. I really value Speexx as a flexible, personable and competent partner. You can call them anytime, explaining your needs and the blended learning solutions are delivered very quickly and unbureaucratically, and most importantly, in a useful way. We also find the prices very reasonable. Finally, what’s important to us is that our employees really enjoy learning languages with Speexx. So it’s a really elaborate and diverse blended learning solution."

Every day, we’re faced with innumerable potential conflicts and misunderstandings every day, be it face to face, on a phone call or in an instant message. Not only do we all have our own individual communication style, but our different cultural and professional backgrounds, even our generation, impact on the way we convey and perceive information. Lost in translation When communicating across borders in a foreign language, there is bound to be some misunderstanding at some point. If one of the speakers uses a term the other has never heard of, they may be asked to clarify (which isn’t as simple as it sounds) or the other person may just let it go and then miss other important details. Then, you have the many false friends where two words sound similar in two different languages but actually mean something completely different. For example, the word "actual" in Spanish or "aktuell" in German means "current, present, up to date", whereas in English, "actual" means "existing in fact" or "real". As a language and communication skills training provider, we’re constantly dealing with managers who want their workforce to communicate better. One of our customers once reported an extreme case where an employee had been refusing to answer phone calls from abroad, for fear of not understanding the person on the other end and subsequent embarrassment. Improving their language skills gave them back the confidence to deal with calls from outside of their country. So you think you speak English? Even when we think we’re speaking the same language, things can go wrong. For example, a British lady was once asked to "bring a plate" to a party in Australia. Not being from Australia, she simply assumed her host might be short of crockery, so she ended up bringing three plates and a bunch of flowers just to be polite. What this means Down Under, however, is to "bring a meal" with you. Even many native speakers of English are unfamiliar with this expression. If you think of all the different kinds of English spoken around the globe, the possibilities are multiplied exponentially. Miscommunication can also lead to expensive or even dangerous problems. In 1983, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet altitude, about halfway through its flight. The reason? The fuel requirements were assumed to be in litres but they had actually been recorded in gallons! Then of course, we have non-verbal communication - certain hand or body gestures are considered rude in some cultures but completely standard in others, as we’ve all experienced when travelling abroad. Instant tips for better communication Below are some ideas for reducing conflict and errors in our daily communication with others. This is by no means an all-inclusive list! Gather information. No, this doesn’t mean we need to become part-time spies. But if we have time to prepare for a conversation in advance, it’s good to find out more about the person we’ll be talking to. What is their background, their working style, what can other people tell you about them? The same goes for the conversation topic itself - try to comprehend it in all its breadth and depth and think of problems it may have caused in the past. This will help the communication to run much more smoothly. Learn to listen actively. How often do we really listen to someone without skipping back and forth in our brains or being distracted by something else altogether? It is very rare for someone to listen with the simple goal of understanding the other person. This isn’t something we’re taught in school either. For the speaker, any form of passive listening is very frustrating because they feel that what they are saying is not being valued at all. Active listening means putting aside distracting thoughts, not mentally preparing a rebuttal, showing the person that you are interested (e.g. through body language) and not judging their words. Paraphrase. This is actually related to active listening but such a key factor that I think it deserves its own bullet point. Paraphrasing, i.e. feeding the information back to the person in your own words, is one of the best ways to make your interlocutor feel they are being heard and minimise any room for misunderstandings. It will also help you to become a better listener and put yourself in another person’s position because you will be relaying the information to yourself on an ongoing basis. Assume you will be misunderstood. Yes, it is far safer to go into a conversation assuming you will be misunderstood rather than understood. We’ve seen how quickly misinterpretations can arise and how much room there is for bad communication - so don’t assume everything is crystal clear to others just because it makes sense to you. Monitoring your own words (not just the other person’s!) will help to avoid ambiguity and ensure that you are fully understood. You can also check how things are going by simply asking the other person if what you’re saying makes sense every now and again. A nice saying by Anaïs Nin goes ‘We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are’. Read between the lines. Is the other person folding their arms, shifting about in their seat, avoiding eye contact or frowning? Chances are, they are not happy about something you’ve just said and you should try to find out what’s going on. Perhaps they have simply misunderstood something, or perhaps there is a real conflict. Either way, it is much healthier to deal with problems openly than pretend they do not exist, which will most likely build up an underlying problem between you two. Communication is the glue holding everything together and it’s what can make or break a situation, a relationship, even a whole company. It will never be perfect, but if we keep a few simple steps in mind, it can definitely be improved. I’d be interested to hear what other tips you have!

The 70:20:10 framework - where 70% of the learning is on the job, 20% from colleagues and 10% from formal courses and reading - is proving an effective tool to support the transition of learning and development to the new world of work. The workplace is becoming increasingly flexible and borderless - the traditional nine to five is rapidly phasing out. Learning now needs to be just as fluid as the mobile collaboration that employees have come to expect as part of their working life. Organisations that are allowing employees to work smarter, whether at home, at work or during business travel, and on the device of their choice, are also exploring how to make learning content available anytime, anywhere and on any device. Mobile learning provides on-the-job relevance (the main part of the 70:20:10 approach), and performance support is provided at the point of need. The 70:20:10 training and development blend can help accelerate learning to support a changing business. As technology and the internet revolutionise every sector, organisations are having to respond by releasing new versions of products and services much more regularly to meet customer demand and compete in the marketplace. Employees must stay up to date with evolving client and consumer demands and this requires regular upskilling. Traditional classroom-based training methods no longer meet the challenges of the fast-paced and globalised business world. Online and flexible training, where the learner is in charge of what, when and how they learn, is more agile and effective, yet organisations have concerns about how this fits in with the 70:20:10 approach. The 20% element of the 70:20:10 approach recognises that people learn from people and that informal learning has an important part to play. A good first step in creating a knowledge sharing culture is to find out what leaders know and how this could be useful for their teams. It is crucial that both HR and employees recognise that important knowledge sharing in the workplace can take place through wikis, web meetings and even informal chats. How to embed 70:20:10 Have a clear strategy in mind: It is vital to document what you want to achieve with the 70:20:10 approach, as well as why and when. At the same time it may be necessary to abandon the traditional ‘command and control’ learning framework and allow the learner a lot more autonomy. Be a good communicator: Employees need to understand the importance of learning beyond the classroom, so express it in clear, relevant language, both online and offline. Introduce the 70:20:10 framework and its advantages to all members of staff across all subsidiaries and hierarchy levels to get them on board. Have a global communications strategy in place so that colleagues can communicate smoothly across borders with fewer errors and misunderstandings. For example, a developer in Brazil can reach out to a colleague in Japan to ask for advice if both have a common business language; this will usually require the business to support their employees in foreign language training. Don’t forget the human factor: If budget allows, let employees spend some time in a different subsidiary abroad and meet their international colleagues face to face instead of only talking via virtual meetings. This can be a very rewarding and fulfilling experience, both personally and professionally, and can motivate employees to improve their language and communication skills and widens their cultural awareness. Remember that one size will not fit all: 70:20:10 is a broad framework and the proportions will vary depending on function, industry, seniority level and the countries involved. Before starting a 70:20:10 initiative, plan how you will measure the results: One approach could be to ask employees to keep a log of their learning and development under each heading. The impact of 70:20:10 70:20:10 is primarily an agent of change for extending our thinking about learning beyond the classroom and other structured, event-based development activities. Good use of the 70:20:10 framework results in increased focus on supporting effective learning and development within the daily workflow, naturally and at the speed of business. Organisations working to a 70:20:10 framework for learning and development should see more business agility, with an increased ability to meet changing market demands and stay ahead of the competition. If HR is realistic about the fact that learning no longer needs to take place in a traditional classroom, they open up a lot of opportunities for employees. They can learn from joint projects with their peers, through trial and error while solving a complex problem and through mobile learning apps on their tablets. Happier employees, who feel they have the performance support they need to cope with their day-to-day workflow, means happier customers and more business value from each employee working to their potential. In turn, an organisation with motivated individuals who feel they are having their learning and development needs met and that they are working for a competitive business will be well-placed to attract and retain the best people. Motivated employees will drive the 70:20:10 themselves, once they understand the benefits, and will seek out more learning opportunities suited to their schedules. Organisations are looking not only to reduce the time it takes to provide training, but also the time it takes to translate that training into business impact and this is where 70:20:10 provides real business value. Combined with better communications, this approach will help organisations unlock their full potential.

Last Thursday, we spent a fab day Factor Humano in Madrid, which is organized by IFAES each year. We knew the event would be one of a kind even before walking through the doors. IFAES  didn’t choose an average hotel or conference building for its venue - instead it went big (really big) and rented Real Madrid’s home in the north of Madrid - Santiago Bernabéu football stadium. Not bad and not easy to top! So many of the conference discussions could be watched with a world-famous stadium in the background, where Zidane, Ramos, Ronaldo and the likes have trained. It was hard to tell whether delegates were more captivated by the conference topic or the endless green in the background. Needless to say, this event generated huge amounts of interest, and the attendees started swarming in at 8.45 am sharp. A total of 800 HR and L&D leaders from large organizations attended to speak to learning solution providers and listen to experts about current talent management trends and challenges. Spanish events are particularly attractive because they’re accompanied by a lot of free food - tapas, canapés and paella are carried around on trays during every break, and after 2 pm, the wine and champagne bottles start to pop! This year’s themes were extremely diverse and relevant to professionals from all kinds of HR and L&D functions. From leadership development over to employer branding engagement, motivation, outsourcing, e-learning and talent management systems - nothing went uncovered. Speakers from companies such as Google, Orange, Electrolux,  DHL, Adidas, ALSTOM and many others took the floor and got involved in thought-provoking talks on how HR and L&D can accelerate business growth. Oliver Albrecht, Vice President at Speexx hosted a session on "How to involve teams in an international project" together with representatives from BNP Paribas, Europ Assistance Spain, Nissan, BSH and Abengoa. The topic addressed organisations wishing to expand on a global level and aiming to train their staff in a standardised way. Back at the Speexx stand, we wantd to try something different to entertain our visitors and invited them to take snapshots of themselves with our toycards, designed by our very own Giulia in Italy. Here are some of the pictures we took.   By the way, Speexx and Speexx Espana were among the top Twitter users at the event - not too shabby! Thanks IFAES for a great day and we’re excited to see which location you’ll go for next year!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to teach in many places at the same time? Or to have business meetings all over the globe without having to take a plane? Well - today that is possible! I had been teaching traditionally for many years when I discovered Skype. Skype is an excellent tool if you want to teach or coach a person who is located far away from you. I have had great results since the sessions have been interactive and I have been able to send the presentations with the same tool while speaking. But Skype has a limit. You can only invite a few people to each session. In this way you might find yourself having to do multiple sessions when you could have managed to invite more people to the same one. I find the webinar to be a much better tool. There are many ways to create a webinar.  You can have hundreds of participants to the same session or only a limited number. It is up to you. Furthermore, you can choose if you want the participants to talk or to chat during the lesson, and they can choose whether they want their chats to be visible only for you or for all the attendees. You can upload a presentation in the webinar session and also have a web cam on, which makes the whole moment more personal and interactive. As a presenter you can record the session and send the registration to all the participants afterwards. A great idea is also to use the recording to do marketing for yourself or your company. You can post the recording on your homepage or use it in newsletters to new prospects. Working in this way will save costs and time. You won’t have to travel as much as before but you will be able to reach a lot of people in the whole world! You can gather students from many different countries in the same live session.  But remember to consider the different time zones! Plan the time of the day accordingly if you want to reach countries in different parts of the globe. Personally, I have used webinars for different purposes; for presentations of my book, for coaching sessions and for meetings with clients. My book is in Swedish, but there are Swedes everywhere in the world and a lot of people have been able to attend my presentations. This has saved me travelling time. I have also been coaching people in the sales field with this tool and feel it is fantastic to reach so many people without having to move away from my chair. I have used webinars for work, showing reports in real time for customers located in different countries and discussing topics as in a real face-to-face meeting. It is possible to upload different documents to be used during the session and a good way to ensure that you improve each session is to make the attendees fill in a short survey afterwards. You can use the survey to check the comprehension, gather feedback of the webinar or both. Of course, the best way to teach is still face to face. Personal contact is fantastic! When being near a person you can see in their eyes if they have understood everything and an experienced teacher can easily feel if there are questions. But you could never reach as many students in one hour that you can do with a webinar. And you could definitely not be in many different places at the same time!   About Annika Widen Annika is a Marketing Professional within the IT field. She is Swedish and lives in Rome but works mostly in Swedish and English. She is also a writer and has written a book in Swedish and has 6 blogs in Swedish, English and Italian. Annika on LinkedIn Annika on Twitter www.annikawiden.com

Just a few days left before our joint expert webinar with Laura Overton of Towards Maturity! In "Modernising Learning - how to stay ahead of the game", we’ll show you some practical tips for improving your learning strategy and making a real impact on the bottom line. Over 150 learning professionals from around the world have already registered, so hurry up and save your seat before we book out! What do the top performing learning organisations do differently in their L&D strategy? Discover ideas, techniques and insights that will help you accelerate L&D for your workforce and stay on the cutting edge. Drawing on independent research with 3,500 L&D leaders from over 40 countries, the Towards Maturity Benchmark helps organisations looking to accelerate their performance through the application of learning innovation. Join this free webinar session to discover the secrets of top performing teams, find out how you can compare your progress with others, flag areas for ongoing improvement and access targeted resources to help you, and your stakeholders, take the next steps on your journey to success.   Laura Overton Laura Overton has over 2 decades of experience helping organisations to improve the business impact of learning technologies in the workplace. She is the Managing Director of Towards Maturity - a not for profit organisation that provides research and online resources to help organisations deliver effective learning intervention at work. Follow Laura on Twitter: @lauraoverton   Armin Hopp Armin Hopp is the Founder and President of Speexx. He is a regular speaker at international talent management conventions and contributes to leading L&D blogs and journals around the globe. He was recently voted the #5 most influential person in the European e-learning industry. Follow Armin on Twitter: @speexxtweets   Discover how you can transform learning to accelerate business performance as a whole.   Meet professionals from all over the world and let our speakers engage you in interesting conversations about current HR and L&D issues.   Use a proven framework and compare your organisation’s results with top performers About Towards Maturity Towards Maturity is an independent, not for profit organisation with a passion for helping others to improve the impact of learning technologies* at work. Businesses have to continually respond to fast changing economic environments and innovative thinking on behalf of learning and development professionals is essential if they are to meet demands to deliver improved results with less resources. The current economic climate is accelerating the demand for change. Learning technologies have a role to play but over the years organisations have had varied experience. Large investments have been made but often with very little return. However our research has shown that businesses who are mature in their use perceive a positive difference on both their staff and business productivity. Find out more.  

The rapid acceleration of technology has made learning possible anytime, anywhere and on just about any device. How and what we learn is up to us - we could be listening to a TED talk on the plane, joining a webinar hosted on the other side of the Atlantic while at work, or taking a quiz on an app before we go to sleep. The challenge for learning providers has become to make content relevant and adjustable according to an individual learner’s taste, as well as available as a browser-based solution, app, in a virtual classroom session and compatible with any operating system.  I’ve also found that you can learn something in any situation, even without being hooked up to your tablet, smart phone or laptop. Knowledge can be acquired in a simple face to face conversation or phone call with a friend, or while taking a walk somewhere by yourself - there’s always something to learn, you just need to keep an open frame of mind. For conversations in particular, it pays to be an active listener, but this requires practice. Instead of waiting for the next pause so that we can butt in and get our point across, active listening means focussing on the content at hand and paraphrasing it to confirm we’ve understood it correctly. 70:20:10 The 70:20:10 framework is gaining more and more significance, as organisations realise that a formal training session is not enough to keep up with the pace of tech innovation and the vast amount of information out there. This framework states that about 70% of learning happens on the job, e.g. through trial and error, 20% through our peers and just 10% in an actual classroom setting. This supports the theory that learning can take place in any given situation, either alone or in a group, be it formal or informal. For a company to effectively apply this framework, however, management needs to be on board from the start and communicate the benefits to everyone across all levels. Otherwise it will end up being another paper-based theory which nobody fully understands or is able to put into practice. Never too late There is no reason to think that our years of learning are over once we grow up. In fact, we probably don’t start connecting the dots and acquiring real wisdom until at a much later stage in life. At the same time, however, studies show that, the brain reduces in size and our memory becomes more difficult to access as we age. To some extent, we can work against this by keeping our brains active, acquiring new knowledge and skills outside of the workplace, taking up hobbies, reading and writing or even learning things off by heart. Simple cognitive tests can facilitate this and increase the amount of grey matter, which serves to process information in the brain. How to know you’re learning Teaching others is a great way to figure out if the knowledge or skill has actually stuck with us and whether we’re making progress. And while doing so, we’ll acquire another great skill - teaching! We should try to find out if we can we convey our skills by talking to others, writing up a report or manual or holding a formal presentation. Joseph Joubert once said: "To teach is to learn twice." In teaching others, we will often learn even more than our students. Not only does this require a good grasp of the material, but we’ll also be expected to respond to the queries of our students and extend our understanding of the subject, as well as see it from a different perspective. Finally, ongoing learning can have great advantages in the workplace. We should talk to our colleagues and bosses about our new skills and see if they can be applied in a different area of work to make things more interesting and diverse. Making learning and skills more fluid and accessible will ultimately benefit the company in terms of reduced recruitment costs and increased employee engagement and long-term retention.

This week we had a very dynamic and exciting webinar with Laura Overton and Armin Hopp about how to modernise our L&D strategies in 2015. Check out the recording here Are you ready to benchmark your L&D strategy and be among the top performing teams? If you have benchmarked before, take just 20 minutes to update and reflect on your progress. If you haven’t, then check out our 61 reasons to Benchmark, grab a coffee and give it a go. Keep up to date on Twitter and follow progress at #BeTheBest15. Benchmark now   Over 60 attendees from England, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, the US and many more joined to ask specific questions and engage with each other. How can I improve my L&D strategy? What do my learners really want? How do I align learning with my company’s business strategy? Here are some of the discussions that were thrown into the room: Learning is not learner-centred enough, but technology-driven  Permissions to do what is required to be done. Stuck in control and command cultures.  We have more, yet we have too much…  Not transferring learning into doing (70/20/10)  Include learners more into design of learning solutions  Changing goals on the run  Learners are not aware of the resources that are available  Disconnect between "traditional L&D culture" vs "learner-driven" culture  Learners are been distracted  ‘Build it and they will come’ mentality within L&D  Move learning budget from line managers to learners  Don’t over complicate but provide integrated solutions  L&D having a place at the top table. Influencing.  appreciation for learning at higher levels in mgmt  Learners are also stopping us as they don’t see learning as everyday, they expect and want a course or its not ‘real’ training. We need to change the conversation.  Do learners see a need?  in fast-pace context, raise awareness to how important it is to invest now to get results (and save money) later  Do learners have time for learning?  Learning is a process, not a one-off  Agree with Michelle and Mike about needing to move to a model where learning happens everyday, everywhere  They do if we change the conversation - ask them how they last booked a holiday, or planned their wedding or learnt to drive a cara. They are expert modern social learners drawing on network, tech, knowledge experts, books, etc in their private lives. We need to harness that in the workplace.  Love that!  It’s getting that built into our conversations.  L&D skill of the future is to be great at networking and relationship building!  The study is based on top corporations from all around the world with a focus on Europe.  Consultancy, influencing  Pattern-sensing relative to "big learning data"  Fast responses  Consulting skills  Understanding the business, be a challenger for the business  Coaching skills, testing skills  The ability to be consultative, embrace technology as tools for the new agile crowdsourced learning  Learning professionals can not do or know it all - they need improve procurement and outsourcing skills  Ability to identify and analyse corporate level data to illustrate business impact  Develop line managers so that they can act as developer to their staff  Mentoring and coaching  More technology awareness and the skills to use them, away from face-to-face  Influencing skills - change the way leadership approaches learning  Collaboration - use your experts to get the right learning  But L&D may still bear the brunt of the blame when things get "sticky" The challenges of tech. Good job there are so many great opinons and ideas in this chat room.  This slide which is up is interesting. Does it reflect other people’s learning programmes? Or wildly off the mark?  please record it and share it later on  Apologies for joining the meeting late I’ve been having local issues while you were all trying to get sorted.  Recording would be great - thank you.  It is interesting that delviery via virtual classrooms are low skilled for L&D people! Somewhat ironic today.  We’ve been having discussions for some months and in fact years now about L&D being the Curators of L&D - hence us needing to deveolp these skills.  Right, need to say goodbye for today, looking forward to the recording!  for us its about convincing the workers councils around the globe  love this quote - there’s so much power in awareness  I agree Elena.  Good point, still a way to go…  Surely worker’s councils cannot argue with eveidence, as Laura is suggesting.  Laura, is there an example for the report. I would like to talk so some people in my organization  Yeah, I agree, I would love to see an example of the benchmark report to see what it looks like  Q what is the smallest size of organisation who should fill in the benchmark survey?  We were pleased with our report in Warwickshire UK  Great to hear that the benchmark covers SMEs as well as globals.  Exciting to hear  Yes. We are considering a small number of people undertaking the benchmarking      

We’ve just won the LT-Innovate Award, Europe’s award for innovation in language learning technology. The ceremony took place last Thursday in Brussels as part of the 2-day LT-Innovate Summit. This event brings together industry experts, investors and language training providers from all over Europe. A total 18 start-ups were shortlisted to present theirs solutions and solution and Speexx was selected as the overall winner. The judging panel rated presentations based on innovation & technology excellence as well as business potential & investment readiness. We’re really chuffed to be able to add yet another amazing award to our awards list. "The LT-Innovate Summit is a brilliant and highly dynamic event", says Armin Hopp, our Founder and President. "As providers of corporate online language training, we’re constantly innovating our solutions to make our customers’ lives easier. Winning the LT-Innovate Award for leading language technology shows we’re on the right track. I’d like to thank the jury for honuring Speexx with this fantastic industry prize and look forward to collaborating with LT-Innovate in the future." To read the full press release, click here. About LT-Innovate Summit The LT-Innovate Summit is the annual point of convergence for the Language Technology Industry to network, discuss strategies and explore innovation and business opportunities. It consists of a number of workshops, networking forums and product showcases displaying the latest innovations in the language technology industry.

Vodafone and Speexx started their partnership in 2011 to improve Business English communication skills at the multinational telecommunications company. To date, over 1250 courses have been launched. At Vodafone, learners boost their English skills with the award-winning Speexx online solution, live communication skills training and ongoing coaching. Here’s what Manuela Mancine, Learning Design Training Specialist at Vodafone, has to say: "Good morning everyone, I’m Manuela Mancino, I work in the HR department in Vodafone. I deal with the learning design for managerial training. Our partnership with Speexx started many years ago. It has certainly been a great example of valuable and efficient collaboration from a learning point of view. Our language training offer is broad: we provide our students with several types of courses, mainly in English, because our headquarters are in the UK. But we also offer a number of other languages, such as Italian. What really distinguishes our partnership with Speexx is the level of modularity and customization. Modularity because the language training offer ranges from online courses to face to face solution, as well as many other tools which allow us to have a proper customized blended learning strategy. The coaching, virtual classrooms and phone training are tools which give our students the possibility to be always connected, having a highly diverse learning process, in all phases. Another great aspect of our collaboration is the project manager, a crucial figure for our students’ learning process. Why? Because the project manager allows us to combine technology with the human factor, giving our students the opportunity to approach the learning process in a softer way. Our training offer has changed over the years: we’ve moved from giving one course to all our employees to a more specific training solution for each person, depending on their needs for developing knowledge. Speexx has accompanied Vodafone throughout this digital transformation process, so we would like to thank them for this efficient partnership and wish you all a good day." To see what our other customers think of our online language training solutions, click here.

It’s back! Speexx Exchange, our annual talent management forum, kicks off in Berlin on 2nd December and registration is now open. Now in its 5th year, Speexx Exchange is one of the most successful and groundbreaking talent management forums of its kind. Join your HR and L&D peers from around the globe for an exclusive industry Reality Check. _ Wednesday, 2nd December 2015 | On the eve of Online Educa Berlin _ Meet HR Managers, L&D Experts and Talent Management Professionals _ Networking | Latest industry research | Innovative solutions | Great food Speexx Exchange in a nutshell First launched in 2011, Speexx Exchange is an internationally-renowned event for learning innovation where thought leaders, friends and customers converge to explore today’s hottest trends and define the future of learning-driven organizations. Save your seat   Each year just before Christmas we bring together HR and L&D experts from all over the world to take an in-depth reality check of e-learning and talent management. No future talk, just real hard facts. Save your seat now and meet industry leaders, talk about best practice for global e-learning strategies and get the latest results from Europe’s leading talent management research. You will return to work with brand-new insights and practical HR and L&D solutions for delivering real results.

Speexx was founded in Germany, a country with one the of the strictest data protection regulation policies I know of, at least. We’re now based all over the world and the one of the greatest challenges we see is that HR teams from regions with lower data protection standards don’t yet understand the regulations from countries with more rigid laws. This is a major issue when it comes to big data. The right to be forgotten European citizens have the right to be forgotten - something that wouldn’t be understood by many companies based in the US, for example. So the interpretation of data privacy and the period of time over which that data may be stored is different. In most Western and European countries, we’re only allowed to store user data for six months and then we have to delete it. In other parts of the world, we’re encouraged to keep them for as long as possible.  This underlines the difference between technology itself and the way we interpret and use it. What HR really needs to do is to find a common denominator for the usage of technology, as well as for monitoring and reporting user results or any other kind of big data. Data privacy is about data protection and about workforce law, which varies strongly depending on where you go in the world. As a result, when implementing large-scale global IT systems within HR structures, you need to be very aware of the fact that there are different regulations out there which may hamper the system you wish to install. In addition, you will need to find the common denominator to manage the entire set of regulations within that system. For example, we have clients that don’t use cloud-based systems in some parts of the world, simply because they cannot cope with the regulations in those areas. The way out of the maze I strongly believe that cloud-based delivery / SaaS is a strong solution for both HR and users across large organizations. From an HR perspective, it allows us to disseminate a common standard in training throughout the entire organization, to monitor and gauge results from that delivery. On the other hand, it allows students to learn anytime, anywhere. They can use their mobile device, learn in the workplace, learn at home - so it’s learning anytime and anywhere. At the same time, results are available to HR throughout the entire organization. However, At Speexx, we’ve found lots of ways to work with these regulations and make them worthwhile for our customers… Read the full post via EDUKWEST.

A famous quote by John F. Kennedy goes "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." Even in this turbulent workplace where we’re expected to adapt to new situations without much time to acquire new knowledge, I couldn’t agree more with this quote. Simply being promoted or given a new title doesn’t turn us into leaders overnight. Rather, it is just the beginning of a long and crucial learning process. A call for change Leadership is one of HR’s greatest challenges, given the growing gap between what leaders want and what HR is able to offer with the resources at hand. Commonly known as an administrative function keeping track of time, compliance issues and risks, HR had little need to think about leadership strategies in the past. At the same time, many HR departments are yet to recover from the 2008/9 recession and have not received adequate investment compared to other functions. So it’s time for leadership training to catch up with the pace of change happening in other parts of the business. Traditional leadership training tends to make leaders focus on themselves (introspection), rather than looking at their direct actions within a group and experimentation with new approaches and ideas. Research suggests that people learn most when put into cross-functional and international assignments or strategic tasks. It helps if they redefine their daily tasks and relationships first, before rethinking themselves in a classroom situation. Taking into account the 70:20:10 framework, we will realise that most learning does not in fact happen in the classroom, but out there in the ‘real’ world and in the job situations we face with our peers every day. It’s all in the alignment For a company to thrive, learning and development need be aligned with overall business goals - this goes for leadership development, too. The Towards Maturity 2014-15 Benchmark Study showed that the top quartile organisations are five times more likely to put what they learn into practice than those in the bottom quartile. These highly aligned organisations are also 13 times more likely to respond to increased revenue and 50% more likely to witness positive changes in their staff’s behaviour. Some very encouraging results! So how do we get there? To start off, HR needs to know exactly what is going on across the organisation as a whole (what’s the business model, the marketing strategy, the financial situation?) and what leaders need to learn in order to perform. Moreover, putting HR managers themselves into leading positions will deepen their familiarity with building leaders. A recent Deloitte report showed that a staggering 40% of HR leaders come from other areas of the business, not from HR backgrounds.  So there is still a lot of potential when it comes to bringing HR and leadership closer together.   Speaking the language of leadership Finally, if HR is to become more agile and responsive to change, it needs to start speaking the language of business and leadership.  This way, HR managers will be in a much better position to collaborate with other departments and support the business strategy, as well as communicate well when it comes to developing leaders. A solid leadership development strategy needs to be communicated clearly across the whole organisation, and HR must encourage feedback, questions and even criticism - only this way will they know if leaders have really understood the idea behind their training. Without strong and clear communication, there is too much room for misunderstandings, assumptions and frustration. But with it, we will start to pave the way for transparency, collaboration and a true culture of leadership.

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

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

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

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

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

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