AN EXCERPT FROM FROST & SULLIVAN’S ‘ENHANCING OMNICHANNEL AGENT PRODUCTIVITY’ REPORT - NOVEMBER 2016 There is no substitute for the human touch provided by omnichannel contact center agents when connecting virtually with customers for complex service and sales support issues. Agents are the linchpin to successful and profitable Customer Experiences. But it’s costly to hire, train, manage, accommodate, and equip agents to perform these essential tasks. Wages and benefits comprise the lion’s share of operating expenses (65%-70%). Moreover, having contact center agents work on premise incurs significant real estate, facilities, and equipment outlays. In today’s competitive environment, organizations (businesses, non-profits, and government agencies) must delight customers and control costs in order to exceed their goals and spur growth. Ensuring that contact center agents are productive and engage with learning is essential. Recommendation: Click below to download

When asked to identify the weakness in most e-learning, designers and students alike often note the failure to engage the learner’s attention as a chief problem. E-Learning is labeled boring; learners take the path of least resistance instead of thinking through the questions; completion is something to be checked-off a list rather than an indicator of proficiency. The problem is, "How do you motivate the learner while still doing the serious work of instruction?"

Tracking and assessing workforce-diversity programs shouldn’t be hard work, but it should be a top priority. Because businesses benefit when they employ highly engaged workers with different backgrounds, HR leaders and hiring professionals contribute directly to a company’s success when diversity programs meet their goals. The opposite also is true: Workforce-development professionals who do not effectively measure the outcomes of their diversity programs are in danger of having the programs — and perhaps their jobs — deemed expendable. Ongoing competitive pressures are driving business leaders to demand that all investments return bottom- or top-line improvement, including workforce diversity programs.

Over the next decade, organizations will experience the largest wave of retirements in history. To further impact turnover rates, Gen X and Gen Y workers on the average are leaving after only 5 and 2 years of services respectively.

Most organizations agree that talent is their most important asset, but the results of a new survey show that most businesses are not in tune with employee perceptions around key talent imperatives, including engagement, training and career development. Reaching 1,800 HR leaders and employees across the U.S. and the UK, the recent 2017 State of Employee Engagement Survey conducted by Saba Software highlights the challenges many organizations face in capturing consistent employee feedback and accurately assessing engagement across the organization. The survey also warns of gaps between the perception and reality of talent management program effectiveness, and the impact on critical talent outcomes. This report delves deeper into the survey findings, providing insight organizations can use to close potential gaps that exist between business leaders and employees in critical areas, including feedback and engagement, training, performance management and career development.

During this session, you will discover tactics to create more meaningful communication with training requesters so that you can better understand the performance and results that the training is intended to support. You will learn the critical questions to ask that will allow you to move beyond the training talk and into conversation about organizational needs.

The BIG Question for 2017: Have companies built a workforce strategy where employees become a competitive advantage? More than ever, today’s CEOs recognize the tremendous competitive advantage in a workforce that’s highly motivated, excited and tightly connected to business goals. Building a powerful workforce strategy remains front and center for HR teams. The BIG Challenge: Technology For many companies, talent management technology was supposed to offer the answers. And it did in many ways: less paper, lower costs, saved time. You know the drill. However, traditional talent management technologies focus on automating HR functions, often ignoring business goals and the most important consumer, employees. Brandon Hall Group research indicates a high dissatisfaction with technology and a need to go beyond traditional approaches, engaging today’s savvy employees with more than an automated process to align with business goals. The BIG Shift: Moving Beyond Processes to Experiences As HR leaders look ahead to 2017, attention is shifting. Processes remain important, but a new emphasis emerged on moving beyond activities to creating an employee journey that attracts, motivates and connects to company results.

Sometimes discarding or letting go of seemingly efficient LMSs which significantly fail to meet business needs, provides a fresh start and changes the game to produce far better returns. Studies have shown that companies are systematically changing LMSs into newer and better suited learning systems to support newer learner needs and business demands.

Career development appears at the top of many list. Unfortunately, the lists tend to be focused on what employees desperately want but are not getting from their managers. As for managers, most appreciate the value of career development and really which they could do it more frequently and more effectively than they currently do. But let's face it: a manager's day-to-day reality are kaleidoscopic blur of meetings, responsibilities, and shifting priorities. Helping employees develop and grow is one of many activities perpetually pushed out in time to the elusive someday that too rarely comes. How could managers get past this conundrum? How can they make career development happen within the pressure-cooker reality that is business today? The answer is definitely not new systems, checklists, processes, or forms. Those have actually contributed to the problem.

Despite strong efforts in many organizations, women continue to be poorly represented in top leadership roles worldwide. This means many businesses are failing to reap the well-documented "gender dividend." So what are all these well-meaning companies doing wrong?

Paper in Brief Discover the limits of "feel good" teambuilding activities, especially when critical business results are on the line Explore a thinking-based system to help teams build trust faster, streamline communications, make better decisions and get the benefit of diverse perspectives Learn how to apply the latest research on thinking and team effectiveness to achieve specific business objectives, whether the team is virtual or co-located, intact or cross functional Get practical tips for overcoming three common team challenges

As many industries recover from a withering worldwide recession, organizations are focusing on new ways to expand the strategic contributions of their leaders. AchieveGlobal conducted research with 50 major companies to get a clear picture of what leadership development looks like - the challenges, goals, approaches and outcomes - and to share insights you can apply in your organization.

Today's C-Suite executives have a wide variety of concerns, mostly involved with planning, managing and affecting change throughout the organization.  They are also concerned about multiple constituencies - customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers, competitors, business partners, regulatory agencies and the various governments in which they operate - both domestically and internationally.  C-Suite executives are willing to meet with professional salespeople if they are convinced that the salesperson can deliver true business value to them. This white paper will outline the six steps that will enable you to successfully engage with C-Suite executives - and to maintain and leverage those relationships over the long term. We also invite you to view this complimentary recorded webinar:

Can a virtual team be as effective as a co-located team? This is a question that organizations are debating, and the arguments on both sides are very compelling. Factors like work-life balance and organizational savings need to be balanced with the value of face-to-face collaboration and managerial oversight. Whether you personally embrace the concept or not, chances are you will participate as a virtual team member during your career.

When you're leading remotely, with store visits at a minimum due to time and distance, you have to rely on technology to engage, motivate, and leverage the strengths of the entire team. This handy guide outlines the pitfalls to avoid and the pointers for effectively using the most common forms of electronic communications, including email, text messages, telephone, and voicemail.

Despite economic conditions, unemployment levels, or any other business factor imaginable, your best employees - the ones you need most - want one thing from you, plain and simple: to support their growth and development. Study after study confirms that development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving engagement, retention, productivity, and results. Yet, HR leaders know that career development is frequently the thing that gets sidelined unless or until the organization demands that some form be submitted during regular review cycles.

It’s a new day for corporate training and those who manage learning functions. Today, traditional training programs aren’t enough to meet growing demands for better company performance, consistent compliance, changing employee expectations, and cost control. Companies can take learning to the next level with new tools and approaches that increase employee interest and engagement in learning, and are linked to employee performance, goal setting, and succession planning…all making a direct contribution to business growth. Ready to take learning to the next level? This Guide can help you get there. You’ll read about: Five essentials to transform learning Measuring ROI Tips to improve existing programs Case studies -- real-world examples of companies taking learning to the next level  

Bill Brewer will introduce participants to the basic concepts underlying Peter Block’s highly successful Flawless Consulting workshops. The principles are simple and practical.

According to Accor Services 90% of organizations say employee engagement impacts business success, but 75% of organizations have no engagement plan or strategy. Senior leaders are the visible face of an organization. These leaders are responsible for building and communicating the vision and strategic direction of the company. Employees belief in senior leadership is one of the three critical ingredients of employee engagement. When employees believe in and trust senior leader companies are more likely to have a higher level of organizational engagement. Dale Carnegie Training’s White Paper "Building a Culture of Engagement: The Importance of Senior Leadership" explains how leaders can build a workforce around organizational engagement which gives their company's a competitive advantage.

Successful organizations understand that people are their most important assets. When high-performance businesses understand employees’ core skills and development needs, they’re more likely to achieve superior results. But building out a dynamic learning culture that really understands your employee needs is not a simple task.

We struggle with problems that seem unbeatable. Will we ever be able to improve employee engagement, cut costs, grow profit, and improve quality? These organizational problems are really team problems, and team problems are primarily people problems.  

Coaching is growing and growing. It’s finally here the ultimate opportunity to extend our value and brand as training professionals. Managers who coach extend the value of training and can be measured in terms of great organizational value. Far too long has gone by where the training professional has had to fight to quantify and validate our existence. Coaching has changed that!

Imagine the difference between looking across the room through a glass of muddy water and a glass of clear water. The muddy water represents how our decision making is impacted by negative emotions. Our minds were designed to keep us safe. Every moment your brain is scanning around you to see what might threaten you. Luckily, most of us are not physically threatened very often, but our brain also picks up threats to our self-esteem. 

Since the early days of "creativity training" and "problem solving," brain research has vastly enriched our understanding of the human mental process. New research findings with very practical, down-to-earth applications may well revolutionize our understanding of the ways people think, learn, and perform. Functions like social intelligence; emotional intelligence; practical intelligence; cognitive preference; neuroleadership; design psychology; and subliminal impacts of color, language, and narrative are opening up new ways to approach teaching, learning, and development.