Many companies, from global organizations to small business, have chosen to move away from traditional learning methods in favor of eLearning. Online courses have proved incredibly effective for employee training, in areas of compliance, professional development and acquiring new skills.

For staff, eLearning delivers a training solution that is flexible, efficient and convenient, with employees able to learn at their own pace and in the comfort of their own workspace. However, while we talk a lot about the benefits of eLearning, online courses can also have their drawbacks – just like all training methods.

If you’ve just enrolled in an online course for the first time, or are thinking about using eLearning materials at work, it’s important to be aware of the problems you may come up against when learning online. This way, you can be prepared, and ready to overcome any challenges in your learning journey!

The most obvious difference between eLearning and traditional classroom teaching is that you won’t have the usual face-to-face interactions with your teacher and other learners. For some people, especially extroverts, who bounce off the energy of others, this can be a problem. However, for introverted employees, having the choice to complete training in your own comfort zone, without any distraction or interruptions, can definitely be a positive!

If it’s important to you to have a strong sense of connection with your trainer and other learners, think about ways in which you can recreate that connection online. Thanks to technology, it’s really not that hard to do. These days, many remote workers and telecommuters are able to remain just as closely networked with workmates and leaders working out of the office. And collaboration technology continues to make remote teams just as efficient and productive as traditional workplace environments.

Before taking your online course, think about how you can connect with others through Skype, video chats, conference calls, social media groups and discussion boards.

Online courses offer students and employees a very flexible, convenient way of acquiring new skills and knowledge. But participating in eLearning can actually require extra levels of self-motivation, discipline and time management.

Just like in traditional teacher-led learning environments, problems will soon arise if you don’t put in the proper time and effort. Some people find themselves a bit lost in online learning environments, without having a teacher or instructor in the same room to constantly look over their shoulder or urge them on. If this happens, it’s important to overcome this challenge, as you don’t want to slip further and further behind.

Read through our previous article on knowing how to study effectively for your online course. This will really help you maximize your eLearning experience and results, with helpful advice on:

As with any kind of learning materials, staff or students will fail to engage with an online course if its content doesn’t apply to the real world. In classrooms, universities and employee training rooms alike, it’s natural to want to know that you can apply your new skills and knowledge to real life situations and work environments.

If you enrol in an eLearning course, but are unable to see any value or benefit, that is definitely going to be a problem – especially if the course is compulsory for your job. To combat this, look for courses that use scenario-based training and offer real-world benefits.

These eLearning course are designed to place learners in the real world, rather than relying on predominantly text-based learning. Using eLearning scenarios makes training far more interactive, engaging and effective for learners. If you aren’t able to choose the training courses you participate in, do some research into scenario-based courses online, then have a chat with your manager or employer about the benefits these courses could bring to you as an employee.

Thinking your tech skills aren’t good enough

The next problem you might run up against in eLearning is thinking that your tech skills aren’t good enough. Unfortunately, many people, particularly older generations, miss out on the world of online learning because they’re intimidated by technology.

If this is you, or someone close to you, you can overcome this challenge. eLearning professionals and online course creators must design materials in a way that’s accessible to all people – not just the ones who are tech savvy!

A well-designed eLearning course will be easy to navigate, able to be used on a wide range of devices (including mobile) and will feel intuitive to the learner. Don’t let fear of technology stop you from taking advantage of all the knowledge out there – online courses can really help advance your career. What’s more, as you change your mindset towards technology and overcome challenges, you’ll become a more resilient and effective learner.

Not having support from trainers or teachers

On that note, it can also be a problem when learners aren’t aware of the support available to them – for tech support and learning assistance in general. Unfortunately, it’s a common misconception that online courses offer no support to employees or students.

Because in fact, one of the best things about eLearning is that you can work at your own pace, from anywhere in the world, while still being able to tap into the experience and skills of your trainer and fellow learners. In the same way that we suggested making sure you have the right tools to collaborate and connect online, make sure you’re aware of the support channels available to you.

Most eLearning courses will have a comprehensive FAQs section, an instant messaging tool, discussion boards and support staff you can email or chat with online. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your trainers and instructors – that’s what they’re there for!

Hopefully this has put your mind at ease, when it comes to common eLearning problems. Remember, all training and teaching methods will have their pros and cons. What’s important is that you’re able to identify the challenges and are willing to overcome them.

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Common eLearning problems and how to overcome them

Designing an eLearning course for your staff or students? We recently published a handy eLearning course design checklist, to help you feel confident that you’re designing your online course in the best way possible for your audience.

Our comprehensive design checklist will help you make sure you’re covering important aspects of eLearning design throughout the process – such as accessibility, navigation, graphics, multimedia and assessments. Why are these factors so important to course design? Because you want people to be able to get what they need from your online course - and enjoy taking it!

If you’ve already read through the design checklist, and are looking for more in-depth discussion of online course design, you’ve come to the right place. As we said in the checklist article, the design process plays a major role in how effective and successful your course will be, with factors such as graphics, multimedia and accessibility all playing a part. Even the fonts you use in your course materials can have a positive or negative impact on learners.

Karla Gutierrez, Inbound Marketer at Aura Interactiva, recommends looking at the science behind what makes an eLearning design effective. “If you learn the science behind good eLearning design and use it properly, you will be able to connect with your learners, make them care about the subject and even change what they do and how they think,” she says.

So let’s look closer at what makes a good online course design, in terms of the fascinating science behind the design process.

Using Gestalt’s Theory of Perception and Visual Hierarchy

One of the interesting concepts Gutierrez raises is Gestalt’s theory of perception and its consideration of visual hierarchy. According to Gestalt, the human brain is wired to make sense of the world by ordering and structuring diverse elements into an organized, logical whole.

How is this important to eLearning course design? Well, you need to work with visual hierarchy, rather than against it. As Gutierrez explains, when designing your online course, "your screen's organization should create a visual hierarchy – leading the learners’ eyes from the first thing they should see to the next, in the proper order."

She recommends following these guidelines when designing each screen of your course:

Create a definite focal point for the most important element of the screen – doing this will lead the learner’s eye and attention to that part of the screen

Use large, eye-catching fonts for headings and sub-headings – this will help important information stand out

Make clear sections on the screen, using boxes and frames

Use plenty of white space to further define your sections and make things less overwhelming for learners

Using Shapes and Icons to Help Learners Navigate Content


Another concept Gutierrez explores is the way in which visual content is digested by learners. It’s important to use design tactics to streamline the scanning process for your students or staff. There’s no doubt about it, learners will be bored and frustrated by long endless screens of text – so you need to use design elements to break them up.

As Gutierrez explains, “this is where shapes and icons come in. The use of shapes and icons helps organize content into a scannable and easily digestible form. This discourages distraction, and helps learners make sense of your content quickly.”

Shapes, lines, arrows and icons can be used to successfully point out info, allowing people to quickly identify and grasp the most important concepts on each screen. Shapes can also control the speed and direction at which learners take in content. Think about the way arrows guide your eyes across the screen, or bullet points lead you through information in a very clear and logical way – the clever use of shapes is particularly important for eLearning, where people are being asked to digest and absorb a lot of information in short periods of time.

Using the Psychology of Color and Emotions


Last but not least, Gutierrez discusses the psychology of color and how this needs to be considered when choosing the colors of your eLearning course. The use of color is about much more than just aesthetics and making things look ‘pretty’ – color also has a strong impact on the way we feel about things and respond to them. Even if that's happening on a subconscious and intuitive level.

In fact, 90% of quick decisions we make regarding products are based on color. Color speaks to our emotions, with red often signifying anger, blue bringing a sense of calm, and yellow evoking happiness or joy. Certain colors can also have particular cultural associations – think about how green and red are used at Christmas time, orange is traditionally associated with Halloween, and how blue and pink are marketed in a gender-specific way.

You should also consider the age of your learning audience – in general, older people tend to prefer darker, more mellow colors like purple, green and blue while younger learners may be drawn to bolder, brighter colors of yellow, red and orange. Whatever colors you decide to go with for your course, Gutierrez suggests using "a harmonious color palette that works to enhance your information, not distract from it."

Hopefully this glimpse into the science behind eLearning design helps you to feel more confident in the design process. With this information, as well as our eLearning course design checklist, you'll be well equipped to create online courses that are well-designed, engaging and enjoyable for your learners.

Building resilience is one of the best ways to help reduce stress levels in the workplace. In today’s fast-paced work environments, employees with increased levels of resilience are known to be far more productive, successful and happier in their career. They’re also able to bounce back from obstacles or adversity, often with renewed strength.

That’s because with improved levels of resilience, you become more adaptive and flexible to stress or sudden changes. This means that when confronted with challenges, both at work and in your personal life, you’ll feel better prepared to deal with them as they arise – comfortably and calmly.

Are you keen to start building your own resilience? The good news is that resilience is a skill that can be learned and improved upon. And just like a muscle, the more you practice being resilient in everyday life, the more you can increase your resilience over time.

We’ve handpicked three of the very best eLearning courses for you to enrol in, to help you become more resilient at work.

This practical online course offers a great introduction to the topic of resilience, with the aim to help you change your health, your thinking and your life. Through Power Up your Resilience , you can develop the skills you need to bounce back from adversity, manage stress and reach your full potential in life.

The eLearning course is broken down into seven videos, based on content from Dr Sven Hansen, founder of The Resilience Institute. Dr Hansen is a medical practitioner with a background in special forces and sports medicine, and since gaining an MBA in 1993 has focused on applying the science of resilience to business.

You’ll cover a wide range of topics in this course, as you discover how building resilience can help with all aspects of your life, including your health, emotions, sleep patterns, stress levels and relationships with others.

Dealing with Change and Building Resilience

Dealing with change is a large part of learning to be more resilient and managing stress – particularly in the workplace. This popular eLearning course has a definite business slant to it, making it very effective for staff training.

Dealing with Change and Building Resilience is presented by Clare and Anne of BrainSmart, graduates of the Neuroscience of Leadership and Change and Positive Psychology. From this background, they help learners to understand the nature of stress and change from the perspective of evolution and the brain. This can help you better manage your emotional responses to situations that usually trigger a stress response.

return to thinking clearly and rationally regardless of the levels of pressure

problem-solve in a calm and considered state.

Want an online course that you can complete in an hour? Personal Resilience in an Hour is top of the list for a short and sweet introduction to resilience that’s well worth your time.

Trainer Chris Johnstone has three decades of experience teaching resilience skills, with feedback from past participants vouching for his professionalism and warmth.

The course consists of an hour of video content, covering seven practical strategies you can use when faced with challenging situations. The eLearning course also contains handy PDF downloads for each strategy.

What makes this eLearning course different? It also introduces emotional first-aid practices you can use to steady your nerves when you're feeling anxious or stressed, and teaches learners how to use a storyboarding process to design resilient responses. Johnstone also shows how inspiring examples of resilience in news stories can help you identify key elements of resilience.

Remember, being resilient can also mean knowing how to seek support when you need it – whether it’s talking to a friend, colleague, manager or a professional counsellor. So if you’re struggling at work and feel overcome with demands and stressors, putting your hand up can often be the strongest thing to do.

Top online courses to help build resilience

When it comes to corporate training, blended learning is a “bulletproof” approach. This type of training is highly flexible without sacrificing the depth of learning experience you can get from a classroom or face-to-face experience.

Your learners get to take advantage of the most effective parts of both synchronous learning and asynchronous learning.

There are a number of blended learning models that you can choose from and each one has a different set of advantages. In order to find the one that meets your company's goals, it's important to have a clear idea of what your objective is before you design the course itself.

Once you have a clear understanding of your objective, have a look at the following blended learning options:

This model incorporates both online study materials and classroom (or one-on-one) instruction. When you’re looking for flexibility this is hands-down one of the best corporate training options available.

The emphasis is placed on rotating some or all aspects of the learning experience to keep the learners engaged and help them retain the material.  For example, you can have your learners rotate between physical stations that emphasize different skill sets or modules, or you can have learners rotate between the classroom and online modules where they can go through different simulations and scenarios. Trainers are available to act as a guide for the learners and help add depth and context to the materials when needed.

Advantages of the Rotation Blended Learning Model: 

Material can be delivered virtually or in a classroom environment

This learning model spends more time emphasizing online training and mixes in a smaller amount of group instruction. Many times designers will create these courses in a way that allows learners to work with their peers rather than depend on the instructor for all of their answers. This model relies much more on teamwork and individuals who are self-motivated and don't need a tremendous amount of guidance or assistance.

Important: emphasizing collaboration is one of the keys to helping your learners retain the information that you’re introducing in the Flex Blended Learning model.

Advantages of the Flex Blended Learning Model:

This learning model relies 100% on online based coursework – even if the material is being delivered in a classroom environment. Many times trainers or instructors will deliver pre-recorded training modules and then provide guidance and support across multi-channel platforms, such as email, instant messages, or chatrooms.

One of the advantages to this model is that it significantly reduces your training overhead - the material can be recorded once and delivered over and over again.

Many companies find that it's more efficient to set specific times when instructors are available to answer questions and provide guidance for students – whether it’s through chat rooms, webinars, Skype or in a face-to-face environment. This cuts down on time spent messaging back and forth with individual learners and going over the same solutions multiple times.

Benefits of the À La Carte Blended Learning model:

Easier to customize to individual student needs

The Enriched Virtual Blended Learning model

This model focuses on real-time lectures and/or face-to-face training and then delivers additional material after the training has been completed.

Usually the additional coursework and resources are delivered online and designed to help reinforce the material and raise retention rates. You can make use of online games, role-playing, presentations, webinars and more to help ensure that the learning process continues even after the classroom material has been completed.

Advantages of the Enriched Virtual Blended Learning model:

Can be highly customized to each individual team

Can be completed online or in the classroom

Once you’ve chosen the right blended learning model for your organization and you’ve gone through your first rollout of your training material, you want to get as much feedback as possible to find out how you can optimize the experience for your learners and get the best results out of the training.

To help the process along, here are a few questions you can ask with a simple survey:

What was your favorite part of the training?

What did you feel like could be improved?

How would you describe your experience using the tools provided?

How would you rate your instructors teaching methods and abilities on a scale of 1 to 10?

Did you enjoy the online or face-to-face learning experience more?

What suggestions do you have to help us improve this course in the future?

When it comes to corporate training, blended learning provides the high degree of flexibility that modern learners are looking for. Today we have an entire generation that has grown up with multimedia learning options at their fingertips, so it’s no secret that the most effective companies of the 21st century will deliver training that reaches out to learners via platforms that they will recognize.

At Go1, we give you access to over 100,000 different learning modules to help you deliver the most effective training for your teams. If you want to learn more about how you can use blended learning in your organization, here are a few courses you may consider:

Leadership Development Through Blended Learning Curriculums

Blended Learning: Personalizing Education for Students

Tips to use blended learning in corporate training

We hear a lot of talk about content these days – particularly in terms of the popular saying that “content is king.” But is content more than a passing buzzword? It certainly is. In fact, these days it’s wise to include content curation as part of your organization’s learning and development strategy, to help create a more effective learning culture within your organization.

In doing this, you can use content curation to support corporate training – rather than replacing it – while bringing a number of benefits to your employees and your business.

Asha Pandey, Chief Learning Strategist at EI Design, agrees that companies should be using content curation to support their corporate training. Pandey defines content curation as “an exercise to continually find, filter (group, organize), and share the most relevant content on specific topics and offer it to learners as an online tool or through a portal or platform.”

Finding the best content from multiple sources, either from your existing knowledge base or external sources

Filtering, so only the most relevant content makes it through

Sharing it with the right audiences, at the right time, through the right platform

Adding value to that content with commentary, context or organization

In this way, as Pandey says, content curation “gathers and organizes all online and offline resources available in your network and allows learners to access them all on a single platform.”

The benefits of content curation for employees

In today’s workforce, employees have significantly higher expectations of corporate training programs. They want information that is relevant, up-to-date, engaging and easy to access. Taking a proactive approach to content curation will help you in consistently delivering this kind of content to your staff.

With content curation, your chosen platform will collate content for your staff. Meaning there’s no need for trawling through separate intranets, web portals and discussion boards – everything they need to know will be all in one place. This helps individuals feel empowered with the content, as they can choose which information they want to be engaged with.

As your content will be carefully filtered, you know that you’ll be delivering focused information that applies directly to your audience’s learning needs. Employees have the opportunity to share content, as well as contribute to the platform, meaning there’s potential for continual sharing and value enhancement.

The benefits of content curation for your organization

Over time, this approach to content curation will help create a more positive and effective learning culture within your organization.

You’ll be offering staff a more engaging and responsive platform, which will help improve collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation across teams. As employees share content, it also helps to establish strong connections and working relationships between subject matter experts and learners.

Using the one single platform for your content means that all information will be safely housed for long-term use, as well as easily accessible to staff at any time. Content curation can save workers significant time, helping to improve company productivity and results.

As you can see, taking a proactive approach to content curation and incorporating it into your learning strategy will result in many benefits for your staff and the business overall. Using it alongside your regular staff training mechanisms can create positive and long-lasting changes to your organization's learning culture. So what are you waiting for?

Why content curation is important for staff training

You use knowledge and skills every day. When you’re watering the garden, when you’re driving a car, when you’re writing an email. Knowledge and skills are fundamental to human achievement. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. And if that’s true, then skills aren’t far behind. 

As the global skills gap widens and knowledge becomes more specialised and in-demand, knowledge and skills are valuable commodities. To remain future-ready, it is vital to keep your knowledge and skills up to date. Therefore, understanding the difference between knowledge and skills is an excellent first step. 

With this in mind, we’ll explain the difference between knowledge and skills, detailing everything you need to know to improve your knowledge and skills in the workplace. 

Knowledge and skills are similar but separate terms that express two vital elements of success in a situation. Many people use these terms interchangeably despite their different meanings. So, what does each term actually mean?

Here are the Oxford Dictionary definitions:

Knowledge: “facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject”, or, “awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.”

Skills: “the ability to do something well; expertise”, or, “a particular ability.”

eLearning industry takes these definitions a step further, explaining that knowledge is “information acquired through sensory input: Reading, watching, listening, touching, etc. The concept of knowledge refers to familiarity with factual information and theoretical concepts. Knowledge can be transferred from one person to another or it can be self-acquired through observation and study.”

In contrast, skills “refer to the ability to apply knowledge to specific situations. Skills are developed through practice, through a combination of sensory input and output. As an example, social skills are developed through interaction with people by observing, listening, and speaking with them. Trial and error is probably the best way to achieve skills mastery.”

Or, in other words, knowledge is theoretical, whereas skills are practical. 

Both knowledge and skills are necessary to achieve a goal. A teacher may have a certificate showing the requisite knowledge to educate young people, but, without engagement skills, they will struggle to transfer their knowledge. In simple terms, it’s the difference between knowing something and putting it into practice.

A teacher must be able to interest students, motivate, and nurture fascination. Likewise, the best performing salesperson in a team may not have received higher education in the finer points of sales. They may not have attended seminars on communicating with clients. Nevertheless, their skills give them a knack for quickly building a rapport with clients, thereby making them an exceptional salesperson.

Many employers are concerned about the skills gap, and rightly so. The skills gap is the gap between what employers need their workers to do and what their workers are capable of doing. For example, a team leader may want an image edited in Photoshop. However, no one in their team has the skills to complete this task, as they are unfamiliar with the software. In recent years, this gap has widened. 

A recent survey by McKinsey found that nine in ten executives say their organisations either face skill gaps already or expect skill gaps to develop in the next five years. 

Additionally, 1 in 5 workers say their professional skills are not up to date, with a further 85% of employees saying they wish their company had offered more new skills training last year. Further, Skillsoft’s Mind the Gap report finds that 48% of L&D employees believe their team is underskilled to deliver what is needed for their business.

As a result, 62% of L&D professionals say that ‘closing the skills gap’ is their number one priority. 

While there are many nuanced explanations for the global skills gap, one theory is the over-emphasis on attending university for young people. While these soon-to-be employees may have gained an exceptional education during their time at university (knowledge), their lack of exposure to the practical demands of the workplace (skills) can make it hard to hit the ground running in a new job. 

In other words, they have the knowledge but do not possess the skills. This example does not mean that university isn’t worthwhile. Rather, it means that universities should encourage students to apply their knowledge in real-life situations more frequently.

For further insights on the skills gap, be sure to read our articles on how to identify your skill gaps and closing the L&D skills gap. 

To help close the skills gap, organisations can use a number of strategies to develop an employee’s skills. 

Offer team-building exercises: Corporate team-building exercises and holidays are becoming more popular every year. Yet, not every organisation uses them. Teamwork is a necessary skill for anyone who works within an organisation. Further, teamwork can improve the efficiency and performance of a business.

Improve communication skills: Online resources like eLearning courses offer a speedy way to improve staff communication skills. Digital learning courses that require engagement with other learners are ideal as this will allow learners to practice their new skills. Companies that offer these courses can also tailor them to the needs of an individual learner.

Constant feedback: Employees can track their performance via ongoing feedback from a manager. It is a good idea to set goals and offer incentives and encouragement to help develop an employee’s skills. 

Invest in L&D: Most importantly, companies who wish to develop employees’ skills should invest in L&D. Companies with robust L&D programs have a significant advantage in closing the skills gap. According to a report by RMIT, 52% of people value a learning culture over a fun culture at work. Similarly, The Transformation Journey report found that high-performing learning organisations are 3x more likely to “possess the right skills to exploit learning technologies for business advantage.” These figures show that learners crave consistent L&D opportunities to help close the skills gap. 

While companies should invest in their employees’ skills, this is not always the case. Unfortunately, 59% of employees have received no formal workplace training. Instead, most of their skills were self-taught. Likewise, 42% of employees have pursued training on their own. As such, many employees are forced to develop their skills independently. 

If this sounds familiar, here are a few essential tips for developing your skills. 

Public speaking: Any good public speaker knows how to tell a story. By honing your skills on PowerPoint and Keynote, you’re more likely to produce an engaging speech. Being familiar with these programs won’t be the silver bullet, but they will give you the confidence to perform with aplomb.

Empathy: There’s no single course you can complete to learn how to empathise with others. However, by practising your listening skills, you can be more aware of other people's needs. This trait is always attractive to employers — no one wants a hardheaded colleague who is never willing to co-operate.

Doing, not speaking: Being decisive and doing what is required shouldn't be a skill that needs to be taught. Yet, employers frequently complain that they have to spoon-feed employees. Work on doing rather than speaking, action rather than inaction and indecision, and employers will value you further.

Additionally, a recent report by SkillSoft identified the skills training that would best help employees adapt to the transformation of their role. These were: Microsoft Office training (59%) video-based microlearning (50%), collaboration training (48%), Social for Business training (37%), G Suite training (35%), and Adobe Creative Cloud training (34%). As such, workers may also want to focus on developing these skills.

Ultimately, knowledge can only get you so far. The practical application of this knowledge (i.e. skills) is what sets outstanding candidates apart. With the skills gap continuing to widen, ensure that your knowledge is up to date and your skill gaps are closed as tightly as possible.

Need some support developing your skills? Go1 can help. Start your free trial today to access dedicated courses on Identifying your skill gaps, Knowing your skills and gaps, and many more.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

We’ll explain the difference between knowledge and skills, detailing everything you need to know to improve your knowledge and skills in the workplace.

The difference between knowledge and skills

We’ll explain the difference between knowledge and skills, detailing everything you need to know to improve your knowledge and skills in the workplace. 

In today’s workforce, it’s important to know how to handle complaints. You may think this is only relevant to people working in the hospitality or retail industries. But the truth is, customers can be internal, as well as external. No matter what position you hold, or industry you work in, you need to have the skills to effectively handle complaints.

Unfortunately, when it comes to handling complaints, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the emotions involved. Often the customer will be prepared before making their complaint – giving them the upper hand in the situation. When dealing with an unexpected scene, particularly when the customer is very angry or emotional, it’s easy to shut down and not know how to react.

However, with a little help, you can learn how to feel more confident and clear-headed when faced with complaints.

The most important thing to understand about these situations is that your actions and attitude towards complaint handling will have a direct impact on your organization or employer.

Did you know that 95% of customers will give you a second chance if you handle their complaint successfully? With every negative customer experience there is an opportunity to create a positive outcome. Employees who can handle complaints in this way, finding positive solutions to negative situations, are incredibly valuable to any company.

For managers and employers, teaching staff how to handle complaints effectively will help build brand loyalty and grow a successful business. While also making team members feel more comfortable in their jobs.

Learn How to Use the LAST Complaints Handling Plan

So how do you go about it? How can you teach your employees to handle complaints in a positive way?

 A structured approach to complaint handling is vital. If you try to handle complaints without a proper plan, you’re making a big mistake. With a system in place, your staff will have better control of the situation and greater ability to turn the outcome around.

The LAST Complaints Handling plan does just that, and is easy to apply to any kind of workplace or industry. Let’s take a closer look at LAST.

The first thing you need to do when faced with a customer complaint is listen! Make sure you don’t interrupt and give the person reassuring visual or verbal cues that let them know you’re paying attention. This shows that you are making the effort to empathize with their situation and understand their point of view.

The next important step in effective complaints handling is to apologize. Regardless of the situation, your customer will be looking for someone to take responsibility and offer an apology on behalf of the company. You will calm down your customer and go a long way in resolving the situation with the simple words ‘I’m sorry.’

When handling complaints, your aim is to offer the customer a solution to their problem. You can do this in a way that achieves a positive outcome for both the customer and your company, making it a win-win situation.

One of the best ways to do this is to simply ask the customer for suggestions of what they believe would be a good solution. Ask them what they would like you to do, to put the situation right and make them happy?

After apologizing, offering a solution, and resolving the complaint, you can thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention.

This final step may sound a little strange at first, but saying ‘thank you’ to your unhappy customer helps reassure them that you appreciate their feedback – even when that feedback is negative.

Their feedback and experience will allow your company to make positive changes to the businesses, in an effort to prevent this from happening again.

Use eLearning to Learn More About Handling Complaints

Keen to learn more about the LAST Complaints Handling system?

The 20-minute Complaints Handling eLearning course has been developed to give you the knowledge, skills and confidence you need to handle complaints at work. For managers and employers, getting your staff enrolled in this course is a great way to introduce them to the LAST system, and will give them more confidence in their own complaints handling skills.


Humans tend to be social creatures. In general, we like to form connections, share ideas and interact with other people – particularly in the workplace. These forms of social interaction inevitably play a large role in the way we learn, resulting in the methodology known as social learning.

If you’re involved in staff training and development, it’s wise to consider incorporating social learning into your strategic plan. Through effective social learning, you can encourage greater connection and collaboration between employees, while helping to improve their individual engagement levels and knowledge retention.

Keen to encourage social learning in your organization? Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on your way towards building a successful social learning program in your workplace.

Before you can start incorporating these social learning steps into your training program, make sure you understand exactly what is meant by ‘social learning.’

Put simply, social learning is about learning by watching, then doing. Social learning theory says that we learn through observation – by watching someone physically demonstrating a skill or task, or describing it verbally.

With social learning, students are encouraged to master the skill or task through observation and instruction. The learning process occurs in a social environment, where “learners can carefully examine and evaluate the actions of others… a behavior or idea is typically modeled for the learner, and then they are asked to imitate or perform this behavior on their own.”

Social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+

Programs such as Google Docs and PowerPoint, where staff can create content and collaborate

Online courses, or eLearning courses, that encourage employees to connect through discussion boards

Brainstorming sessions, workshops and conversations between team members

Don’t confuse social learning for social media

However, while social networks and platforms are great for helping staff to connect, they can also be a huge distraction in the workplace. You’ll also need to have a solid social media policy in place, to help staff know the difference between what’s appropriate and not appropriate to discuss on social media.

So is there a better way to encourage social learning in your workplace?

The answer is yes. You just need to invest in the right tools. And eLearning provides you with the tools you need for effective social learning.

Although online courses may seem geared towards the individual, they actually provide learners with plenty of opportunities to participate in social learning. When using online courses for staff training, make sure employees are able to connect and collaborate with one another.

Encourage staff to share content, videos and resources with one another through the eLearning platform, to promote a truly social learning environment. Sharing comments and feedback with one another helps all parties to learn, improving engagement and knowledge retention.

While it’s essential to have these kinds of open channels for feedback and collaboration, some learners may also want the option of communicating with other learners privately – away from group discussion boards or social media platforms.

Instant Messaging (IM) allows individuals to share their knowledge and experience with other employees, while also helping to build a culture of collaboration within the organization. IM can feel less formal than email, encouraging team members to chat in ‘real’ time and real tones. So make sure your eLearning course has the option of instant or private messaging.

By following these steps, you’ll be providing employees with a number of different learning environments, as well as the right tools, for social learning. As a result, you can expect to see more skilled, productive and connected employees, helping your organization to achieve its business goals.


How to encourage social learning through eLearning

eLearning courses cannot be pieced together over night. They should be drafted, re-drafted, crafted and planned if they’re to be successful and engaging for students and learners. Nobody wants to be bored while they’re studying – learning should always be fun and inspiring!

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of tips that will help you draw-up an eLearning course that will secure maximum engagement from your students. This will help both you and them; they’ll learn more and you’ll be successful in your goal of teaching. Success leads to more success, so getting it right is important.

Here are some tips on how to structure a course that will bring about maximum student engagement.

In reality, the planning of a course is the foundation of its success. Without a solid foundation, your eCourse will flounder.

Content you include should be appropriate to the topic you are teaching with a clear structure. A clear structure is particularly necessary for courses of an online nature. eLearning is student-centered, as opposed to the traditional teacher-led approach of the face-to-face class, and this places the onus heavily on the student to find meaning to their course. As students cannot interact so easily as a traditional classroom, explanations cannot be sought so easily. However, if you plan well then this purpose should be overwhelmingly obvious.

Plan, plan and plan again. Iron out confusion. Make things easy. Unlike a high school, eLearners often aren’t always required to be in the class. With poor planning you will guarantee that they are not.

Make sure there is a reason for everything students learn

Every stage of the students’ journey should be sign-posted along the way. For learners, this creates confidence, enthusiasm and engagement. Each lesson carries from the next and covers the key points of any topic. Resources are offered to make clear the necessity of learning this key point. If a student doesn’t understand why they’re learning about, for example, compliance regulations in the insurance industry, then they simply won’t engage. Nor will they learn.

The relevance of topics to the overall intention of the course is vital.

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