To develop better and more relevant learning solutions for the sector, Go1 conducted a survey in the first quarter of 2016 with local government agencies. Questions included whether agencies are using an online learning solution, how they are using it, and which features and courses they want to access.

A total of 55 local government agencies participated in the survey.

The findings presented in this document provide great insight into the state of training within local government and the direction it is heading over the coming years.

The Go1 Local Government Study 2016 uncovered a range of obstacles to more efficient training program delivery.

You can download your copy of the survey findings here:

The survey provides detailed information on how local governments are using online learning, the mobile impact, time spent on training and the associated management, what features they want access too, and the most popular compliance and professional development courses amongst their organisations.

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With concerns about climate change and the Earth’s natural resources rising, many people are making more eco-friendly choices in their everyday lives.

In living a greener lifestyle, there’s a focus on opting for ethical, environmentally aware decisions that work to lessen your negative impact on the environment, rather than contribute to it. While individually, these choices may only make a small difference to the environment, they can have a huge impact on the planet collectively.

Considering we spend a significant percentage of our time at work, it’s important to make these positive changes in our work environment, as well as at home. Thankfully, many organizations are looking for ways to make their workplaces greener and are seeing the benefits of these changes for both their employees and the business itself.

Making a commitment to more ethical and eco-friendly choices, no matter how small, shows clients and customers that your organization cares about people, and the planet. And in financial terms, implementing green strategies that reduce, reuse and recycle can also be good news for a company’s bottom line.

Taking the time to make your workplace greener is also good for your employees, with a healthier, more productive work environment and a positive organizational culture. Companies that promote a healthier workplace report a 20 percent decrease in the number of sick days used by employees. In addition, focusing more on your environmental impacts can also help to attract and retain employees to your company, with a more attractive brand to potential staff.

So let’s take a look at 5 ways to create a more eco-friendly workplace and make your office greener.

Lower Your Company’s Energy Consumption

Computers, printers and other office electronics use up huge amounts of energy. Organizations that focus on reducing this energy consumption not only help the environment, but also reduce their costs in the form of lower energy bills.

Encourage staff to turn off all lights, air conditioners and heaters when they leave meeting rooms or at the end of the day. You could put up energy-awareness stickers and posters reminding employees to switch off lights and equipment when not needed.

Set company computers to energy-saving settings and encourage a practice of shutting down computers when team members leave for the day – using ‘standby’ settings will continue to draw power even when not in use.

Make recycling a priority in the office, as it is at home. Some of us are perfectly diligent recyclers at our own house, then let our good habits slip when we’re at work.

To promote and encourage recycling, make sure that there are enough paper recycling bins throughout the office for all staff to easily recycle their waste paper. In open plan offices, have at least one paper recycling bin for every ten desks, with extra paper recycling bins next to each photocopier and printer.

Speaking of printers, be sure to recycle all of your used printer and toner cartridges as well as e-waste in the form of computers, printers and other electronic equipment.

As much as possible, use recycled paper and envelopes that have been processed and coloured using eco-friendly methods.

As well as recycling, reducing the amount of waste from your workplace will work to lessen your carbon footprint and lower business costs.

Reduce waste by reusing materials as much as possible – stationery items, folders, boxes, paper, everything you can. Use items for as long as possible before throwing them out.

The average American office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. Reduce the amount of paper waste by promoting double-sided copying and printing, posted within readable distance of each photocopier and printer.

Be aware of the waste generated by food packaging, particularly those take-away coffee cups you get from your local coffee shop. Take your own reusable travel mug or keep cup with you on your coffee runs.

Take a look at the cleaning products that are used in your workplace.

Many cleaning products, particularly heavy duty workplace cleaners, are full of chemicals that pollute our air, oceans and rivers and contaminate food sources for animals as well as the natural environment. They’re also likely to be packaged in non-biodegradable materials, which take a very long time to break down, further damaging the planet.

By switching to environmentally-friendly products, you’ll reduce the amount of chemicals and toxins employees are exposed to in the office, which benefits staff health while lowering environmental impact.

What’s better than recycled paper? No paper.

Cut the amount of paper used in your workplace by keeping things digital as much as possible. Incorporate minimizing paper use into your workplace culture and be sure to lead by example.

Email important documents to colleagues and clients. Use presentations rather than handouts at meetings. Store manuals and policy documents online, so employees can access PDF copies instead. Make use of online training courses, rather than in-class sessions requiring employee handbooks and printed course materials.

There’s so many things you can do to make your office space greener. Hopefully this has got you thinking about some positive changes you can make in your workplace, to start creating an organizational culture that values responsible, ethical and sustainable choices.

5 steps to creating a more eco-friendly workplace

The world of workplace learning has undergone some dramatic changes in recent years and with improving technologies and shifts in the way we understand learning, the statistics are showing a very different playing field than what was seen just 10 years ago.

Traditional corporate training in the past consisted of a mandatory day spent with your coworkers as you were taught by an expert in a classroom setting. You typically weren’t going to be engaged in the process enough to apply the knowledge to your daily work. As we are now seeing the long-term results of these failed attempts at training, we’re also seeing a hugely positive response to the online learning and interactive technologies that are replacing them.

If you’re considering online learning for your employees or you’re a staff member who wants to prove just how effective these new methods are for your workplace, there are some interesting statistics out there to help bring your point home. 

High-performing companies spend more on training

Trends indicate that when a company is performing better, they tend to spend more on training. When they’re struggling financially this is usually one of the first areas to receive cuts, often to the detriment of employees and the organization overall. Research published by Forbes shows that companies in their “high-impact” category spend more per person on L&D than lesser performing companies, indicating the effectiveness of this spending on their results.

Recent research into L&D initiatives in the workplace has shown a huge trend towards using technology rather than traditional learning methods. Everything from online communication channels to mobile devices are now important study tools that can get a more effective outcome from employees than previous teaching styles.

Offering these forms of training also means that employees are able to reach 2-3 times the audience than they previously were, due to issues such as scheduling and travel which can make in-house corporate training difficult to achieve. So not only is eLearning more effective, but it’s also more cost-effective for the organization as well.

Online training is offered by 77% of US companies

These figures show that most workplaces are seeing the value of online training, with at least 77% of American companies now offering some form to their employees. The current rate of growth for online learning sits at 13% per year and it’s expected to continue at this level until at least 2017. It’s clear as more and more companies make the switch from traditional corporate training to a more flexible and effective online environment, this growth is only going to get higher.

65% of the population are visual learners

When you think about traditional corporate training, you’re often reminded of being seated in a room for hours and listening to someone speak about skills and practices. Although the advice may be sound, it’s extremely difficult to retain. Studies have shown that over half of the population are visual learners and respond far better to visual aids such as videos, images, and graphs, all of which are commonplace in eLearning modules.

Over 18% of training is delivered via mobile learning today

As more and more workplace learning gears towards an online approach, there’s an even smaller but expanding pocket of companies that deliver their training through mobile devices. Although it may not be a possibility for all workplaces currently, the 18% of training delivered with this method signals a huge shift in how employees learn. With mobile learning, they’re able to schedule the lessons around their own needs for a flexible approach to study.

Traditional corporate training is ineffective 

Despite these rising figures indicating companies spending more on corporate training, those who fail to move into the future with its delivery aren’t seeing the same results. McKinsey and Co found during a study in 2010, that only 25% of managers found positive results from their employees and workplaces after corporate training. Considering how much money and time is spent on these events, the results should be better than that.

When you talk about corporate training, many people are reminded of gruelling day or week long sessions they were forced to participate in. At the end of these training sessions, almost everything you learned had left your head already. According to Peter Brown, the author of Make It Stick, learning should be divided into small doses and then followed up with a quiz. This allows the brain to develop circuits and help the student to recall information more effectively.

Learning management systems (LMS) are the way of the future

The market for LMS is now over $2 billion, and it’s signaled to be one of the fastest growing areas of HR software. These systems comprise of software applications that can deliver and assess online training for employees so that they can learn at their own pace and schedule and the market is expected to grow to $7.8 billion by 2018, as more and more companies are utilizing these modern forms of training for their employees.

In just 5 years, the landscape of workplace learning will likely be very different from what it is today. Future trends indicated in corporate training show that there will be a lot more interactive and online learning methods used and far less of the traditional boardroom training.

The mobile learning market in particular is set for huge growth, with an expected $37.6 billion to be spent in 2020 alone. This is among the other forms of elearning which are all set to grow exponentially and change the way that corporate training is delivered forever.

Whether you’re a skeptic about corporate training or just looking for some facts to back up your ideas on the effectiveness of online learning possibilities, these stats just don’t lie. At the end of the day, the workplaces that harness the power of eLearning are sure to put themselves ahead of their competitors in producing the most educated employees within their field and offering their staff an education that is far superior to what most companies can give.

Workplace learning statistics you should know

In this brave new digital age, we’re often left vulnerable to new and emerging threats to our safety from the “cyber” world. Although this is something that traditional workplaces never had to deal with, it seems to be the price we pay for the modern and convenient technology that we have today.

Even if you don’t think your company is especially vulnerable to cyber security threats, you should never underestimate the value of the sensitive information you’re privy too. Whether it relates to your customers and clients, employees, or your own personal information, there’s far more valuable data stored at your workplace than you might think.

Keeping your workplace protected from cyber threats is just as important as your own personal data, so you need to stay vigilant in order to stay ahead of evolving issues. No matter the size of your workplace or the backgrounds of your employees, there are a few simple ways you can ensure cyber safety so that your company and employee’s sensitive data can be kept private and secure.

In 2014, over 47% of Americans had their personal information stolen. That’s nearly half of the population. The main culprit? Workplaces with inadequate security measures that allowed the hackers into their systems to reach all of their customer’s files. Not only is cyber safety important for the sake of your workers, but also the clients who make your business run.

Although the actual figure is quite hard to determine, antivirus professionals Mcafee have estimated that cybercrimes cost us over $400 billion a year. Individual businesses in America felt the sting too, with just under 20% of them losing at least $50,000 due to cybercrimes. These figures indicate that it’s never been more important to keep yourself and your employees schooled on cyber safety in the workplace.

If you can get into the mind frame that your computer is like a child to be cared for, you’re going to find it easier to protect it. Computers are sensitive pieces of technology, and they react just as well as we treat them.

Try not to store too many unwanted files on your desktop, be cautious about the software that you download, and always use up to date programs. You should have an antivirus, antispam, and antispyware program running at all times to catch any potential risks, and always keep your software updated with the latest versions.

This one might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people gloss over it. For some people, passwords are really the only protection level they have for their personal data.

While you might assume all hackers are lurking in the shadows in some faraway place, there are plenty of people within close distance who would love the chance to access your computer. You should never share your password with anyone, don’t write it down in the vicinity of your workstation, and change it every couple of months or as recommended by your IT department.

This age old adage goes just as well for your cyber safety too, and it’s an important one to remember as you check your emails each day. Hackers are smart, and they’ve figured out how to lure most reasonable people in with a few wisely worded email subject lines.

If you don’t know the sender then don’t open it, it’s as simple as that. Just one click could leave your entire computer infected, so it’s just not worth the risk. Most email software will have an automatic spam detection, but these are still computers after all so they can’t always be 100% accurate.

Depending on your workplace’s network, you may be lucky enough to have an automatic backup system in place. If you don’t however, you should have your own backup procedure to follow in case of emergency.

At the end of each day, back up your files onto a separate location so that if anything does occur to your computer or network you’ll be able to pick up where you left off. Considering how much time and effort we put into our work each day, it’s one of the simplest ways you can insure yourself against being wiped out completely.

Cyber criminals thrive on nonchalant people; those among us who could care less about cyber safety and seemingly break all of the rules. The best way to stay protected in the digital world is to stay alert and vigilant of all threats.

Be suspicious of websites that don’t seem right, avoid opening emails if you don’t know the sender, and religiously update your software to stay protected. While you might feel like a paranoid nut doing it, you’ll rest easy each night knowing that the information on your computer is safe and sound.

The single best thing you can do for your employees to keep the workplace safe from cyber-attacks is to have them informed and educated. With regular training about possible threats, safety procedures, and privacy information, you’re ensuring that they understand just how important cyber security is.

As hackers and cybercriminals pride themselves on staying ahead of the trends and being able to circumvent virus software and other security measures, you need to be just as vigilant. Training is the best way to do this, so you should consider it just as important as other skills you require from your employees.

Just as we would train our employees on potential health and safety risks in the physical world, so too should we put as much emphasis on the digital realm. Not only is their sensitive personal information up for grabs by any cybercriminal who wants it, but so too is the information that allows our businesses to run successfully.

If you want to learn more about cyber security, check out this free course on Cyber Security Awareness Training.

We are constantly adding new courses to the Go1 Course marketplace, including a range of Top FREE courses. Why not get started by enrolling in one of our top courses of the week?

Rethinking Motivation and Productivity in the Workplace

Motivation levels within the workplace have a direct effect on employee productivity, and smart business owners and managers make employee motivation a high priority.This course explores some scientific research that sheds light on this conundrum, and proposes a new model for worker motivation in the 21st century.

People who get heard are people who have something worthwhile to say and who have also developed other important skills as well. On the other hand, some of the quietest people around are known among their colleagues as great communicators. This course explores the connection between speaking and listening, and provides some tips for improving your communication.

Nobody really enjoys making cold calls, and particularly for beginners in sales it can be a real stumbling block. This course offers a variety of materials, each individually selected to improve your ability to cold call, get over your reluctance, start to have some fun, and most important, experience success!

Looking for more? Try our Top Categories! 

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Rethinking motivation and productivity & the art of being heard -free courses

It’s no secret that effective teachers are paramount to effective learning in the classroom, and in the case of online studies, the teaching principles and methods they use are even more important. Here are 10 best practices to be an effective online teacher.

The digital classroom brings with it a range of unknown and unexplored territory, mostly in part to its relative newness when compared to traditional teaching methods. To be an effective online teacher, there are 10 simple but effective practices you can follow. When coupled with a comprehensive course load and the right resources, there’s no reason why online learning can’t be even more effective than a traditional classroom setting.

Sure, you might not be physically present in a classroom, but there are many ways to make yourself known in the digital realm. Achieving this online means utilizing a range of different communication methods and ensuring that you check in on them daily or hourly if needed. Discussion boards, emails, announcements, and forums, are just some of the ways you can be present each day in your online classroom. When the course begins, set clear guidelines for your students about when you’ll be present.

As the online classroom can often feel a little free-form, you’ll need to provide students with a very clear set of expectations before they commence their studies. These expectations should include everything from what they can expect from you as their teacher, as well as what will be required of them. The expectations can outline due dates for assessments, your communication frequency, how much online participation you require of them, and the conduct they will be expected to display throughout the course.

The aim of learning is to have students engaged in the content for as long as possible, so you need to create the opportunity for this to happen. Professor of Psychology Bill Pelz discussed in his “Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy” report that the more time the students spend engaged in the content, the more they’ll learn.

To give your students plenty of opportunity to engage with the content and each other you can ask them to find and discuss resources, grade their own assignments, and hold student-led discussions in the online forums.

4. Nurture A Supportive Online Community

Since this online space is their classroom, you want students to feel as supported as possible when they’re here. By using a variety of dialogue formats, you’ll ensure your coursework caters to all learning types and allows students to flourish.

Encourage students to use the general forum for discussion, but also set up small groups within the class so that students can engage in feedback and support with their fellow classmates. Some students may sit back and learn from the sidelines, whereas others will benefit greatly from actively engaging in this type of communication.

Not only is this an important principle for teaching staff to follow, but one that should be communicated from the very beginning to all students. As it’s well known that written text can be left open to interpretation or misinterpretation at any time, it’s crucial to craft well thought out responses and posts to others.

When crafting responses to assignments and other evaluations, the best tone to use is a simple, clear, and polite one. As these responses are all your students have to go off in regards to feedback, you need to leave nothing open for interpretation.

Sometime around the 2nd or 3rd week, you should ask your students for direct and honest feedback on how things are going. This feedback should cover everything from content to teaching methods, and request any areas requiring improvement. The best way to achieve this is in a somewhat formal tone, so post something on the discussion board and see what pops up.

7.   Foster Personal Relationships With Each Student

Getting some one on one time with each student is just as important as effective group communication. Students studying online can sometimes feel deserted and alone in the digital classroom, so it’s up to you to make an effort and reach out.

Use a blend of different communication methods, including personalized responsesto their discussion boards posts and emails addressed to only one student. At the start of the course, you should set out in your expectations the best communication methods, but never give out your personal email address or contact details to a student.

8. Make Use Of Group And Individual Projects

A healthy mix of group and individual projects is the best way to ensure success with online learning. Giving students this variety of learning styles will enhance their learning capabilities, and teach them the importance of both group work and individual achievements.

9. Use Resources That Are Readily Available

Since your students will already be engaged on their computers and use the internet to log onto the learning portal, the best resources for them are going to be online. By using an assortment of relevant and easily accessible resources such as digital publications, news sites, and online videos, your students are going to be far more engaged than if they had to refer to an outdated textbook. Where possible, mobile content is ideal so don’t forget to incorporate anything that can be accessed on their smartphone or mobile device.

Finally, you want to end the course with a bang. The best way to achieve this is with a final summary or assessment that helps students to reflect on everything they’ve learned. Allow students to reflect on the content and the experiences shared so that everyone is made aware of what they’re taking away from the course.

Incorporating these principles into your online teaching methods will not only ensure a supportive community for your students, but will make your job ultimately easier too. As online learning is still in its building stages when compared to other methods of teaching, the most effective principles will continue to grow and adapt to the new world of digital classrooms.

Best practices to help you be an effective online teacher

If you’re running a company in modern America, chances are you have at least one millennial on your team. While the term may sound terrifying and futuristic, there’s really no need to fear this young and upcoming generation.

A millennial refers to anyone who reaches adulthood around the year 2000, so you’ve likely noticed an increase in them around the workplace. With an estimated 80 million of them among us, we need to start showing an interest in what makes them tick so that they can help our organizations reach a shared goal.

Numerous studies have already taken place into just how the millennial’s mind works, with thoughts about their involvement in the workplace showing some very interesting findings. Here are a few ways you can use this research to your advantage and motivate the millennials on your team to achieve amazing things.

We’re not saying that you should back off completely and let them have free reign in the workplace, but you will need to be a little more liberal with how you manage them. Rather than giving super specific orders, relay the end goal to your employees and let them work through the steps on their own to get there.

Studies have found that micromanaging employees is one of the biggest factors causing millennials to leave an organization. It’s all about finding that fine line between being a good manager and an overbearing one and letting the millennial find their own two feet at the same time.

Although millennials might crave autonomy, they also want to know how they can do better. This need to please others, particularly superiors, can be used by managers for good, provided you are giving them honest and fair feedback. Constructive feedback is the best way to improve your employee’s performance without hurting their feelings.

If something isn’t right, explain why and then work together with your employee to come up with a solution. When they achieve something great, let them know too. Feeling respected and valued within the workplace is a huge bonus for any employee and not just those of the millennial generation.

One thing millennials are particularly good at is sensing inauthenticity. Whether it’s from their friends, consumer products and advertising, or their employees, the second that they feel something isn’t genuine they’ll want to back out of it.

As their employer, be as honest and genuine as you can with a millennial. They’ll see straight through corporate speak and wishy-washy information, so you should provide them with clear goals about what the company wants to achieve and what you expect from them.

Work and fun might seem like opposing ideas to some organizations, but it’s essential to inject a little bit of enjoyment into the daily grind for the millennial. This should be done within reason, though, and it doesn’t mean that the younger employees should enjoy fun perks while the other workers should slave away at their desks.

Try to incorporate some fun team building exercises that allow the entire workplace to come together and take their minds off work for a moment. Offer incentives to employees for reaching certain goals that have an element of fun to them. Finally, you can take inspiration from innovative companies such as Google on how to motivate your team with interactive and entertaining activities.

Millennials are the generation that craves improvement, and they’re always looking for ways to grow. In the workplace, you should foster this love for improvement and offer training and education that’s relevant to their positions.

A 2012 survey by recruitment company Adecco, showed that 68% of recent graduates identified growth and development opportunities in the workplace as one of their top priorities, making this one of the key indicators of a good company.

By providing relevant training you’re showing the millennial that you care about their future performance and offering them a chance to grow their skills within the workplace. This gives them a greater sense of worth in the team and shows them that the company is happy to invest in their future. In turn, they’ll reward this with hard work and loyalty, two exceptional qualities to have in any employee.

As the generation who grew up with technology, millennials have a very keen interest in using it for all aspects of their life. If it’s possible and relevant to your organization, you should offer all employees the chance to connect to their workstations remotely.

Even if it isn’t feasible to do this every day, you should offer incentives for them to work from home or other remote locations on set days of the week or at certain times. As the future of the workplace changes rapidly, these types of scenarios are set to become more commonplace. You may find that you get better results and a more motivated workforce when they’re given greater flexibility in their working conditions.

Working with millennials isn’t that different to any other generation, and despite the stereotypes, you’ll find that they’re generally a hardworking and motivated group. Provided you can tap into what makes them tick and use this to your advantage, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the innovative ideas they can bring to your workplace.

After implementing some of these ideas in the workplace, you might even find that other generations enjoy them too. Rather than sticking to the same old tired methods and procedures that you’ve relied on for years, why not use this opportunity to find new ways to motivate your team? You might just be surprised with the results.

It’s crucial to evolve with the millennials so that you can foster their natural talents and use their skills to add value to your organization. Soon enough, the next generation of employees will be making their way through your doors and you’ll need to remain flexible in your work practices to ensure you can motivate this new age group as well.

Get the millennials on your team motivated!

Believe it or not, more money isn’t always at the top of the list of what staff want. In today’s workplaces, it seems many people are also motivated by the non-financial factors that a company can provide them with, such as opportunities for career growth and employee development.

Organizations need to be aware that employees place high value on the amount that a company invests in their development. Staff are actively looking for learning and development opportunities to help them on their career path and need to feel that their employer is invested in their professional development.

With 76% of employees reportedly wanting opportunities for career growth, there is clear drive for employers to start investing more resources into their employee training and development.

The benefits of investing in employee development

While learning and development bring clear advantages to an individual, in terms of career progression, confidence and improved skill sets, there are also numerous benefits for organizations.

By putting energy and attention into employee development, your company can expect to see the benefits of:

Higher levels of job satisfaction, staff engagement and team morale

Higher levels of knowledge retention and transfer

That last one is very important for companies. When 40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year, it’s vital that organizations recognise the importance of investing in staff development.

By working to improve employee development, an organization can reduce their staff turnover rate, saving considerable amounts of time and money.

There are significant costs for companies associated with high staff turnover rates. The effects of just one staff member leaving can result in lower productivity for their team, with less sales or company profits. Organizations will also be impacted by the huge costs of interviewing and training replacements and may even experience negative effects on team morale and work culture. 

As Sylvie Woolf, Director of Client Services says, if you’re looking to “give employees a reason to stay – employee development is it.” 

Ongoing training and learning play a large role in an employee’s professional development.

While over 70% of learning on the job occurs informally, it’s important to use informal learning in conjunction with more formal modes of training, to make sure staff are receiving information and skills that are aligned with the values and direction of the organization.

Mentoring, training and e-learning are all great practices to help employees reach their full potential, ensuring they’re ready to take on opportunities for higher duties or pursue a new career path.

By doing this, organizations are significantly more likely to end up with knowledgeable, capable employees who are more invested in a company that invests in them.

How managers can support employee development

If you’re a manager or team leader, you need to be aware of the importance of these activities for staff, as well as how to support them in their development. This short online course, Support Employee Development, can help you identify what you need to do to support each of your team members' development efforts.

You’ll have greater understanding of the role of managers in helping guide development actions, setting development expectations, and holding individuals accountable to implement their development actions.

You might also want to take a look at our previous articles about employee development on the Go1 blog.

Find out how to develop an engaging professional development program for your staff and learn how to empower individuals to take charge of their own career path. 

Read our tips for developing an effective professional development program, full of helpful practical pointers you can use for employee development.

For more insights, 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.

Investing in employee training programs is one of the best ways to improve your company’s bottom line. Learn more about the benefits of employee training!

The importance of investing in employee development

You already know the benefits and what it can do for your company, but now you just have to convince your boss to invest in eLearning!

As online learning becomes the most popular way to perform workplace training these days, some employees might find that their managers need a bit of a “push” to test out the latest trend in corporate improvement. So, how can you do this? Well, the easiest way to convince someone of something is to appeal to their mindset.

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As a boss, they want their company to stay ahead of the trends and employ only the very best people; thankfully for you, online training can help them achieve just that. Here are a few simple techniques to convince your boss to invest in eLearning programs:

Your biggest supporter here is going to be FOMO, and for those of you not hip with the current lingo, this translates to “Fear of Missing Out”. If your boss is a savvy businessperson, they’ll want to do anything they can to keep up with the competition, particularly if they’ve managed to find an effective training method that works for their staff.

Pull some facts and data about specific training programs or modules that your competitors implemented with their staff, and show them the results. When you can’t prove just how well eLearning works within your own company, the comparison is the next best thing.

But what do you do if you can’t find anything specific to your competitors? Thankfully, the results are all there with the top performing companies in this country. Reports say that in 2014, over 41 percent of Fortune 500 companies had an implemented eLearning training program, with that number likely to have significantly increased in the past two years.

Any good proposition you send your boss’s way should be professionally presented, and training initiatives are no different. To convince your boss to invest in eLearning, a worthy business plan should focus on the shortcomings with your current method of training (if any) and how these can be rectified by implementing eLearning into the workplace.

If you’ve had particularly poor results in certain areas of the business, this is the opportune time to present them. Highlight exactly how eLearning can rectify these issues and build the staff and company to its highest performance level yet.

The online corporate market will continue to grow through 2017, with a massive 77 percent of American companies already offering online corporate training to their staff.

eLearning increases retention rates by at least 25 percent, giving your employer peace of mind that their training efforts will not have gone to waste.

Staff are able to learn up to five times more information than they could in a standard training session while retaining the information just as well or better.

42 percent of companies in America believe that by utilizing e-learning initiatives, they’ve been able to increase their revenue.

Show your boss the figures, including everything from the time saved by not sitting in a learning classroom all day while their desks go unattended, to the costs of hiring expensive trainers only to find the information is lost by the very next day. Use real life examples of previous costs the company has incurred by implementing outdated training initiatives and how these have fallen short.

A report released by IBM in 2014 highlighted just how much money can be saved by implementing an eLearning program rather than relying on traditional methods. Every $1 a company spends on this type of training will net them a profit of $30 in productivity, which is a 50 percent boost in productivity from before.

Any good employer knows that their company is only as good as the staff in it, and keeping your staff happy and engaged is crucial to the overall success of the organization. With a new generation of employees cropping up who focus on these modern technologies, it’s never been more urgent to invest in something that will appeal to all ages.

A report from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) found that companies who invest in training their staff have a massive 218 percent higher income per employee than those who don’t, or offer very little.

Offering modern and relevant training to your staff will keep them engaged and make them feel valued within the workplace. With happier and motivated staff, the company is the one to feel the effects with a higher profit margin and more harmonious workplace.

Still not convinced to invest in eLearning? Don’t give up hope just yet. Sometimes when a business has been run a certain way for so long it can take some time to shift the collective thought of the company. Continue to pepper your boss with facts and data about the achievements possible with eLearning, and enlist the help of other staff to be your cheerleaders. Sooner or later they’re bound to come to the party, and they’ll only have to thank you for the eventual success.

How to convince your boss to invest in eLearning

You’ve completed the coursework, you know exactly what you can offer potential students, and now you just need to promote it. For many online course providers, this can be the toughest part of the whole gig, especially if marketing isn’t your strong suit. Using Go1 to create and sell your courses gets you some great exposure through the course marketplace, but with a few steps you can drastically increase the number of enrollments for your course.

Your success in how well you promote your online course is going to be the ultimate decider in how many sales you make. While you might have the worthwhile content and a comprehensive course guide, nobody is ever going to hear about it without the right promotion strategy. So, what’s the best way to reach out to potential students? Here are a few simple ideas that can take the word of your course and spread it like wildfire to those who matter most:

Everyone loves a good sample, whether it’s at the local supermarket cheese aisle or with a tasty morsel of free education. Particularly for those new to the e-learning game, you might find it hard to have anyone show interest in your course without any prior knowledge about it.

By offering bite-sized portions of education and training for free, you’re able to show your worth and give potential students just enough to leave them wanting more. Offering free smaller modules is a great way to build up a customer base too, and get you some contacts that you can use with your future marketing efforts.

As 90% of people aged 18 to 29 use some form of social media today, you’d be crazy not to utilize this free form of promotion. A third of these millennials even say that social media is their preferred way to communicate with businesses, meaning this might be the only way you’re going to reach out to this important segment.

When done right, your social media presence can have a huge impact on your brand image. By sharing relevant information with your followers and offering special deals, such as your free modules, you can target a greater share of potential students without having to spend a cent.

If you’re lucky enough to already have some satisfied learners who have completed your course, their endorsements are one of the best promotional tools you can use. As humans, we can be reluctant to try new things, especially something as important as our education, and so it helps to see relatable and honest feedback from others in the same situation.

Whether you want to use a basic feedback questionnaire or take the time to speak with your previous students directly, these endorsements can not only help you to promote your course but also help identify potential areas for improvement in how it’s delivered.

The aim of a good e-learning course is to provide your students with a solution to their problem, so you need to be specific about what your course can offer. When promoting your course, don’t leave anything out or be too general in your descriptions. Your potential students need to know specifically if you can help them achieve their work or personal goals.

In your advertising, state exactly what your course offers and how it can benefit the learner. Give specific examples of the knowledge they’ll walk away with, and ensure you stick to your promises. Don’t offer something that you can’t deliver, otherwise not only will your student be disadvantaged but your name as a reputable course provider will take a hit as well.

Being an authority in your field makes you a respected and trusted source for providing others with education. It is your responsibility to build your credibility so that others look to you as a beacon of information and expert advice, and in turn, trust you to as an educator and trainer in the field.

Post regular updates on your social media accounts with links to accurate and credible information. Join e-learning groups with other education providers. Comment regularly on articles and posts, as well as hosting your own blog. All of these things will work towards building your credibility and improving your brand image.

While it’s all well and good to promote your own wares and tell others just how great the course will be, having the backup and support of respected leaders in your field will be far more effective. This is where it’s important to have a solid network of professional peers who can help each other to promote their individual interests.

If you’re still new to the market and don’t have any largely respected leaders to promote your course, try reaching out to form a relationship. Offer them a free look at your course and prove to them how worthwhile it can be to potential students. Once you have a relationship, offer them a platform to discuss relevant issues and allow them the opportunity to be a guest contributor on your blog or social media accounts.

While you might be tempted to yell from the rooftops about your e-learning course and make your message as loud as possible, it’s not always going to be the best method in reaching your target audience. Think about what your course offers and who it’s aimed at specifically to gain some insight about where and how you should promote it.

There’s no denying the power that digital media can have in promoting an e-learning course, as it’s this very form of media that you’ll use to deliver education to potential students.  Social media accounts, email marketing, and online forums are all crucial in promoting your course the right way, provided they’re done right.

Just by utilizing a few of these tips, you can be more efficient in the promotion so that the majority of your time is spent on the important task of teaching and working on the curriculum. The e-learning market is a completely different ballgame to traditional education models, so you need to treat it with the uniqueness it deserves.
Have Questions or Need more Help? Go1 Learning Consultants are on hand help you start selling courses and guide you through the process.

How to promote your online course and get more enrollments

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