The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a nightmare for some and a blessing for others. For businesses, especially the human resources departments, understanding all of the new changes and compliance regulations can be quite a challenge. Failure to comply will mean large fines for companies—even if a company doesn’t realize it isn’t complying accurately.

“There’s nothing like getting a little experience under your belt, especially when it comes to complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But experience in this area is hard to come by,” said Natalie Burg of Forbes, in ‘What Small And Large Organizations Alike Can Learn From The First Year Of Annual ACA’.

The ACA is not only a landmarked health reform, it’s also unchartered territory for businesses when it comes to legal compliance and all that is involved.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “The landmark health reform legislation enacted in March 2010 is designed to expand the availability of health insurance, reform the regulation of health coverage and restructure its delivery.”

ACA calls for expansion in health care coverages such as:

Employers that employ 50 or more employees are required to offer affordable and essential health care coverage to their full-time employees (employees that work 30 hours a week or more)

Provisions for insurance premium subsidies for certain low- and middle-income households (SHRM)

A mandate that individuals without health insurance through an employer or other source, such as Medicare, purchase it on their own or pay a penalty for not doing so (SHRM)

Establishment of state-based insurance exchanges—marketplaces where individuals can shop for and purchase health insurance (SHRM)

“The law also prohibits lifetime limits on coverage and arbitrary cancellations of coverage, and it requires that nondependent children up to age 26 be permitted to stay on a parent’s health policy,” said SHRM.

It took many companies and business owners by surprise when the ACA was challenged, yet found constitutional by the courts. “For most human resources and employee benefits professionals across all sized companies, the constitutional validation of the ACA by the Supreme Court was unexpected,” said ADA Research Institute. No more than 10 percent of professionals surveyed were expecting the Supreme Court to uphold the entire law. Consequently, companies may be behind in their ACA preparations.”

“It’s never been more important for employers to have clearly defined worker classifications. Incorrectly defining employees, contract workers and temporary workers has big consequences under ACA — especially this year,” Burg from Forbes said.

Employee classification may be one of the largest areas of confusion. If a company employs 50 or more employees, it is mandated to provide medical health insurance to its full-time employees. However, this can get tricky as HR reviews the employee list and may discount contract employees or others that may have worked more than 30 hours in a week.

Calculating whether an organization is subject to the employer mandate should be done monthly, and a record of such calculations should be maintained. Here are the steps:

First, calculate the number of full-time employees—those who are regularly scheduled to work an average of 30 or more hours per week.

Next, calculate the total number of hours worked during the month by employees who are not full time, and divide the total by 120. The result (rounded down) is the number of FTEs represented by the hours worked by the organization’s non-full-time employees.

Last, add the number of full-time employees and the number of FTE employees represented by non-full-time employees. The result is the organization’s total FTE employees.

Collecting and maintaining the correct data is another challenge area. ACA requires specific tax forms and other data to be turned in on a regular basis. The system is new and there are bound to be mistakes; however, it could take up to – and even beyond – 18 months after filing taxes for a company to be notified of a mistake.

“Simply put, don’t trust that your methods were perfect the first time around,” Burg said. The fact that you haven’t heard anything to the contrary yet doesn’t mean anything.”

It is recommended to check and recheck the data yearly for any mistakes or discrepancies. It is also a good idea for periodic checks and updates because of employee turnovers and changes of status.

“That shows good-faith effort to be compliant,” said John Haslinger, vice president of strategic advisory services for ADP. “Otherwise, you’ll probably do the same thing wrong for 2016, 2017 and into 2018. You could be looking at a multi-year penalty.”

Notifications to employees. The HR department will be responsible for letting employees (current and new) know about health care options, as well as marketplace insurance and how to obtain it.

Summary of costs. While most companies provide a basic (or even detailed) booklet on costs for the different health care plans offered, with ACA there are even more plans and costs for employees to choose from, making it more time consuming and even confusing for both employees and employers.

IRS filing. ACA requires more data and tax forms to be filed, which means more work for HR departments. It may also require specialized training to make sure everything is done correctly to avoid costly fines.

“The ACA is a work in progress, and it’s going to keep changing,” said Burg. “To stay compliant, employers should be as “To stay compliant, employers should be as To stay compliant, employers should be as  vigilant about watching for forthcoming changes as they are about tracking their important employee data.”

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How the Affordable Care Act has affected legal compliance

Did you know that your level of emotional intelligence can have just as much of an impact on your work life as it does on your personal life? 

While traditionally, companies focused more on an employee’s IQ as a measure of potential success, today’s workforce is paying a lot of attention to EQ – emotional intelligence.

EQ, also sometimes referred to as EI, is seen as something that is a bit “intangible,” but nevertheless has become a solid indicator of the quality of relationships, career success and overall happiness of an individual.

Emotional intelligence is not about your intellect – as Travis Bradberry, author of the best-selling book ‘Emotional Intelligence 2.0’, puts it, “emotional intelligence is the other kind of smart.”

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to monitor your own and others' feelings and emotions, and to use this information to guide your thinking and actions. It’s made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.

Personal competence involves your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on yourself as an individual, rather than on your interactions with other people. It’s about your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your own behavior and tendencies. 

Social competence concerns your social awareness and relationship management skills – your ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior and motives in order to improve the quality of your relationships. 

Overall, across these two core competencies, EQ plays a significant role in how an individual manages behavior, navigates social complexities, and makes personal decisions to achieve positive results. In the workplace, as well as in your personal life.

The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Your Career

There’s been a lot of interest in emotional intelligence and its impact on employees and the organizations they work for. 

Studies have revealed that 90% of top performers have high EQs and emotionally intelligent employees can expect to earn more than individuals with lower levels of EQ. In fact, people with high EQ make $29,000 more annually, with a single-point increase in your EQ adding $1,300 to your salary.

In a recent study by TalentSmart, emotional intelligence was tested alongside 33 other important workplace skills, with the result that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. 

Individuals with high EQ are seen to possess calmness, clarity of mind and the skills to conduct more satisfying relationships, which are all positive assets for an employee. 

The Benefits of Employing Staff with Higher Emotional Intelligence

If you’re in a management or recruitment position, it’s worth knowing that employees with higher levels of EQ can bring a number of benefits to your organization.

Individuals with high EQ are seen to be: 

Being able to handle conflict, perform well under pressure, and lead and manage teams are invaluable and very highly regarded skills, regardless of your job description or industry.

That last factor is also very important, as the emotional wellbeing of individuals has a very positive impact on their working relationships and individual productivity – indeed, “happy workers are a great asset because they work better in teams, provide better service to customers and are generally more creative and productive.”

Improve Your Emotional Intelligence with eLearning

So is there a way to boost your own EQ? The good news is yes, you can! 

Unlike intellect, emotional intelligence can be developed and expanded, meaning we can learn to improve our EQ and apply it to our work relationships and roles. You can easily enroll in online courses in your downtime to work on your EQ, learning skills that enable you to recognise and manage emotions, both your own feelings and those of other people.

Why not start with the short 30-minute online course, Emotional Intelligence? This eLearning course will give you an expert insight into the core skills of EQ, providing you with ways to boost your own emotional intelligence and succeed in work and life.

Particularly useful for managers and team leaders, and also available online, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace shows you how to get better results in the workplace through better communications. This eLearning course consists of one hour of videos, broken down into 25 lectures.

If you want to be a more effective workplace leader and manager, this course will help you develop and use your emotional intelligence for better workplace outcomes. It uses real world examples to illustrate what emotional intelligence is, why it is important to develop and use it in the workplace. There are useful quizzes and downloads for both yourself, and ones you can use with your team in the workplace.

Why emotional intelligence is so important at work

We recently deployed our October release, and to make sure you get the best learning experience possible, we've now made even more improvements to the system to round out the month. In our end of October update you'll find updates to displaying terms of service, new company course searching features, additional portal theme colours and more!

Find out more about all of the updates below:

It’s easier for you to find the course you are looking for in your company courses. New course filtering toggles were recently added to the course marketplace allowing users to find courses easier, and now this toggle has been applied to your company courses tab. Using these tools you can now search for company courses using a search bar, as well as being able choose which courses that you’d like to display based on their status; In Progress, Completed, or All Courses, as well as by popularity.

Portal Primary and Secondary Colour List Updated

To make sure you can theme your portal to match your company branding, we have now updated our colour list in the portal settings to include all of the colours that we are currently able to support.

Using Autopilot to track your users activities is now easier than ever. Under the 'Integrations' tab in your settings menu under your name, you can now select the 'Integrations' option to view your Add-Ons. Autopilot is now a featured add on, and to activate, all you need to do is click the on/off toggle.

We have now enabled users to have multiple email addresses associated with their Go1 account, and with the ability to set a primary email address to be used for correspondence.

When you open up your Go1 learning portal, you will now see the portal name listed as the name of the page in the browser tab, as well as in your portal.

Displaying Terms of Service on initial login

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please let us know and our Customer Success Team can help you out!

Some people hear the word “eLearning” and they might assume that it’s a “passive” method of studying. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Being a successful online learner means applying discipline to yourself and being in control of your own motivation. Here are some eLearning dos and don’ts to keep in mind when studying online.

Being in control of your own motivation doesn’t mean that eLearning should be a grueling challenge in self-discipline, though. You simply might need to adjust your strategy a bit. For a successful eLearning journey, there are some basic eLearning dos and don’ts that will ensure you get the very best from your effort and motivation.

1. Do Shift Your Attitude Towards Learning 

Numerous studies have already proven the power of positive thinking and just how effective our minds can be when it comes to altering our entire perception on things. As an eLearner, the first and most important thing you can do is to shift your attitude towards study from thinking of it as a chore and turning it into something you enjoy.

Some simple ways to improve your study mindset, as recommended by psychologist Dr. John M. Grohol, include:

Avoid catastrophic thinking, and always try to find the upside in a situation.

Always think positively as you study, and if you’re not feeling positive then step away and do another task until your mindset has changed.

Don’t compare yourself with others, whether it’s students or peers, as this approach never helped anyone to succeed.

2. Do Have A Reliable Internet Connection 

It might seem simple, but it’s also one that slips a lot of people’s minds. When you study online, you should imagine your computer and internet access just as important as the physical settings in a typical classroom.

Would you be able to succeed in studying effectively without notebooks, textbooks, pens, paper, or a chair to sit in? Then you should consider your internet access equally critical. Have this organized before you begin studying so that you’re not left with any distractions if the internet decides to cut out mid study session. Avoid opening multiple tabs and watching cat videos and you’ll be way ahead of the game.

Absolutely crucial to any student’s success, but even more for the eLearner is the necessity of taking regular study breaks. When we attend college or school our breaks are already planned out for us, but when we’re forced to make our own schedules we can forget how important these are.

Set yourself some smaller study breaks and plan towards them. According to guidelines set out by MIT, a 10-minute study break every 50 minutes is ideal. After this you can add a larger break of 30 minutes or more every couple of hours. These will not only be great goalposts to work towards, but they’ll help you feel refreshed and rejuvenated for your next study session.

4. Don’t Be Afraid To Seek Out Help From All Avenues 

Being an eLearner can feel isolating at times. Rather than interacting face to face with fellow students and speaking directly to your instructor for help, the online learner might find themselves feeling a little lonely. This is normal with an online setting, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways for you to communicate with others.

Most respected eLearning providers will have this covered with a range of communication methods designed to keep you in touch with students and teachers. These are here for a very specific reason, so make sure you reach out on discussion boards, emails, and in group settings whenever you can.

5. Don’t Just Assume You Can Study Anywhere 

One of the best things about learning online is that you can do it from just about anywhere, but you still need to be smart about where you choose to study. Any area filled with distractions such as a TV room or loud cafeteria filled with rowdy people probably isn’t going to be conducive to studying.

If you like to study on the go, think about breaking up your lessons to suit different times and places. Read your notes on the train ride home each day, save online quizzes and assessments for when you’re home and at your desk, and watch educational videos when you have your headphones handy. Being an eLearner means you have a world of possibilities for where and when you study, so you need to use them wisely.

When you’re an online student, you can often feel left to your own devices when it comes to planning your study schedule. For those who attend college or training seminars, the days, weeks, and even years have been planned out for you so you know where and when you’ll be learning new modules.

It’s extremely important for the eLearner to spend some time each day and week to reassess their schedules. When you begin your study session, you should plan the modules out to the best of your ability, and then adjust these each day and week to suit your availability. Have a daily checklist of what you want to achieve, and a clear outline of when assignments and other important milestones are due. As an eLearner, nobody is going to be doing this for you so it’s crucial to develop strong organizational skills for yourself.

Although these form some blanket rules for effective eLearning strategies, there might be some that work uniquely for you. Just like anything worth doing, it will take time and patience to understand how you best work with an eLearning schedule and what times and methods work in your favor.

With so many benefits to be had from eLearning, whether it’s in a corporate setting or for your own personal educational goals, it makes sense to give it the very best shot. Understanding what makes this style of learning so unique and using it to your advantage will put you miles ahead of other students.

eLearning dos and don'ts: get the most out of your training

It's now easier than ever to create and publish your online courses, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to find it easy to get more enrollments, or make money off your content. Udemy User Joe Natoli experienced this first hand before he noticed a sudden spike in enrollments from an alternate source.

Joe, who is the owner and founder of GiveGoodUX has created two courses on the on the Udemy platform covering User Experience Design Fundamentals and UX & Web Design Master Course: Strategy, Design, Development. Although his courses were highly detailed and receiving great reviews on the platform, Joe's courses were not getting the exposure that he would have liked to have seen, until one day after an increase in enrollments it was revealed that there was a new leading source of traffic to his course pages, the Go1 Marketplace.

Since it's launch in June this year, the Go1 course marketplace has expanded to contain the largest collection of online course in the world, with in excess of 100,000 courses listed. The marketplace contains courses from a number of parters of Go1, as well as indexing some of the top content providers worldwide to allow users to find the best, and most relevant course to meet their needs.

Because Joe's course was listed in the Go1 course marketplace, it was then able to be discovered by an entirely new audience, as well as being promoted through regular Go1 marketing materials and category listings on the website.


"The number of people on the Internet — and the number of products and services competing for their time and attention — has grown exponentially. So your course may offer tremendous value and be really useful to them, and they may be desperately looking for what you have to offer. 

But the strength of your course — and that matching need — is irrelevant unless you can actually get it in front of those people! You have to be able to cut through the clutter of Internet traffic and let them know it exists.

There is no way I would have more than 45,000 students if it weren’t for affiliate marketing through organizations like Go1. Aligning our efforts with theirs provides the kind of reach we simply would not have otherwise." 

You can learn more about GiveGoodUX and view Joe's courses by clicking here.

Get your course seen with the Go1 course marketplace

Regardless of your job description or the industry you work in, taking the time to improve your skill set shows initiative and drive. It also shows your ability to learn new skills and a willingness to advance your career – qualities that are highly valued by many employers and organizations.

Employees who are willing to develop new skills and improve their existing skill set demonstrate a commitment to ongoing learning and professional development. Learning new skills is exciting and challenging and keeps your brain active, while also opening new doors so you can succeed at work.

Improving your skill set takes time and commitment. These days, we’re lucky to have the convenience of learning online. Online learning is a great personal and professional development tool, helping you to meet your goals and boost your job performance. And there’s never been a better time for learning, with so many e-learning tools and online courses available to us – many of them free.

We’ve done the hard work for you and found 5 free online courses you can enroll in to improve your skills in some key areas. Mastering these essential skills will make you a more well-rounded employee and an asset to any company, while improving your own self-confidence and knowledge in these areas.

Knowing how to effectively manage your time, both at home and at work, is one of the most essential skills you can have. Strong time management skills are highly valued in many organizations, with companies looking for high-performing individuals who can work at elevated levels of effectiveness and efficiency. 

Being able to perform and function productively with a clear head, even when it seems that you have an overwhelming number of things to do, will go a long way in any organization. In this way, taking the time to become more organized and productive will make your life far less stressful, while gaining results for your employer and your own professional development.

With the online course Learn Time Management, Get Organized and Get Everything Done, you’ll learn how to take control of your priorities, set the right goals and plan your time effectively. The course also contains practical tips on how to overcome procrastination and take control of your schedule. There’s also interesting information on personality types and how this affects the way you spend your time.

With verbal communication skills ranked high on the list of many role descriptions, improving your public speaking skills can be a very valuable step for your professional development.

Strong verbal or oral communication skills show that you can articulate your thoughts and ideas and communicate effectively with colleagues and clients. Many roles also require public speaking from time to time, whether it’s making a speech or delivering a pitch or presentation, and for many of us this can be a source of fear and anxiety.

Spending some time on developing your public speaking skills can also take the stress out of having a presentation or speech sprung on you at the last minute – you’ll feel confident in your skills and prepared for any occasion.

Take a look at How to Master Public Speaking, which has been designed to help you feel more confident while talking to any audience, large or small. You’ll learn how to calm your nerves and feel more at ease while speaking in public.

Even if you’re quite comfortable with speaking in public, an online course can be a way to make your presentations or speeches more effective, helping you to learn more about the use of tone and hand gestures while delivering your message.

Whether it's with a direct report, colleague or manager, difficult conversations can provoke feelings of intense anxiety and discomfort for all involved. You may be passing on negative feedback, assessing an employee’s performance or dealing with a sensitive HR issue – regardless of your role or rank, these conversations can be hard to navigate.

However, often these kinds of difficult conversations are an opportunity for positive change and meaningful discussion, presenting a way for personal growth and professional development to occur.

How to Master Difficult Conversations will provide you with the tips, tools, strategies and solutions you need to initiate and participate in difficult conversations. By the end of the course you’ll feel more empowered and confident, ready to face these conversations without fear and participate in them without difficulty.

We all take part in certain forms of negotiation every day, both at work and in our personal life. Whether you work in sales, finance, project teams or contracts – getting people to do something is a form of negotiation.

In this way, negotiation is one of the most desirable skills in employees, and not just for those in management level. Showing strong negotiation skills within your organization can help your company succeed, as well as advance your career.

Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills is a great introductory course to negotiation, guiding you through the four steps of a successful negotiation strategy and helping you improve your skills in this important area.

You might be a little surprised by this last one, but learning to effectively manage stress can make a huge impact on all aspects of your life, including work. Employees who know how to manage their own stress levels are a positive attribute to any company.

As we discussed in a recent article about the risks of burning out at work, excessive stress can lead to serious impacts for both employees and their employer – organizations can expect to suffer from reduced productivity, higher employee turnover, financial burdens from absenteeism and the possibility of medical, legal, and insurance expenses. For individuals, burnout can contribute to serious mental health issues, such as anxiety, insomnia, hyper vigilance and depression, as well as serious physical health problems.

Through Stress Reduction and Wellness, you will learn to identify stress, establishing what situations, thoughts or feelings stress you out. You can then find ways to reduce this stress using mindfulness meditation techniques. You’ll become more aware of your thinking patterns, allowing you to increase your resilience to stressors, achieving greater calm in the workplace, as well as your personal life.

Ready to get started? Take a look through more great courses, many of them free, in Go1’s marketplace – simply enrol and complete training modules online, at your own pace, in the convenience of your own home or office.

5 free online courses to help you succeed at work

Legal workplace compliance issues have become a “hot topic” for companies today. Sure, conflicts come up in any work environment and that’s part of the cost of doing business. You have so many different personalities, roles, and expectations that it’s simply impossible for things to be “smooth sailing” all the time.

However, some employees cross the boundary between conflict and compliance—and when this happens you need an effective strategy for addressing the problem before it gets out of hand. Just as the working world is evolving at a breakneck pace, so are the compliance issues we are facing today.

Decreased productivity from your employees. This is generally due to anxiety, feelings of helplessness, or preoccupation with the discrimination that is taking place.

Disgruntled employees and a rise in conflict-based incidents. Discrimination can lead to frustration, anger, and annoyance between co-workers and this can cause disruptive arguments and fights in the workplace.

Financial issues for your employees and your overall business. When an employee is facing discrimination they are not able to carry out their job to the best of their abilities. This can cost a business their two most valuable resources: time and money (and that’s before legal gets involved!)

Costly legal issues which may be ongoing as a result of a filed discrimination charge or against the company for not taking action. Legal problems can shut down any business, and discrimination is a very common source of legal issues in the workplace today.

Sexual harassment is absolutely illegal and should never be tolerated in the workplace, regardless of gender. However, the unfortunate reality is that we are still seeing a rise in sexual harassment in many states today.

Physical and verbal harassment of a sexual nature

Sexual harassment is a proven path to creating a hostile work environment and that’s why the best companies spend time educating their employees on the topic.

Keep in mind that harassment can come from anyone involved with the company, not just employees. For example, harassment can come from:

Workplace bullying is another issue affecting businesses all over the nation. According to Dr. Gary Namie, the National Director of The Healthy Workplace Bill, workplace bullying is on the rise and becoming a huge concern for businesses and employees.

When a person is being bullied at work you might notice:

An increase in work absence due to health issues.

Reduced productivity due to feelings of depression and hopelessness.

Social anxiety and irritability that prevents them from interacting with supervisors and coworkers.

What can you do about workplace bullying? 

One of the best ways to address this issue is to enforce a zero workplace bullying policy. This policy should be read and signed by all employees and workers in the company to ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them.

When implementing a policy like this, it’s important that you spell out the consequences for any bullying behavior that takes place. Management should have a clear plan of action and follow up with any reports that workplace bullying is taking place as soon as they learn about it. Addressing the matter quickly may help you avoid costly legal expenses in the long run and it will absolutely help you maintain a more positive work environment for your team.

When it comes to legal compliance issues, the best approach is a swift one. Far too often businesses wait until the issue has gotten so far out of hand that legal action is the inevitable conclusion. However, if you create a culture of accountability and put in the time to educate your management and staff about your policies on a regular basis, you’ll be less likely to face compliance issues over time

Top compliance issues in the United States right now

Delivering high-quality customer support is a critical component of any successful business. Customer service helps you retain customers, improve sales figures, and ultimately it provides the vehicle that drives long-term profits back into your business so you can grow. Sure, it’s true that many companies are still stuck in the “old school” paradigms of traditional customer service, there are several businesses that are shaking things up the customer service experience and these are the folks you should be paying attention to.

Here are a handful of companies that are doing it right:

Zappos is an online retailer that has built a reputation for delivering outstanding customer experiences. In this article from Forbes.com, CEO Tony Hsieh talks about the great lengths he went to learn more about his customers so that his team could really boost the “wow” factor.

For example, one of the first things Zappos did in the beginning was really drill down to find out how user-friendly their website truly was. They collected tons of data and optimized their UI and shopping cart to maximize the customer experience rather than short term sales. This was the exact opposite approach that many online retailers take and it ended up paying off in a big way.

For Zappos, every customer interaction is an opportunity to make a connection. Today they offer 24/7 online customer support and a 365-day return policy that has cultivated a huge amount of trust with buyers. At the end of the day, the Zappos team always seems to go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure their customers are satisfied and this is certainly a key factor that helped Tony turn Zappos into the billion-dollar profit machine it is today.

Amazon has long been at the head of the pack when it comes to customer service.  While other retailers can really drop the ball when it comes to shipping, for example, Amazon looks at lost packages as an opportunity to build a lasting impression. Replacement items always show up at your doorstep lightning-fast and the support team actually provides support, rather than throwing up a ton of red tape to climb over.

Their customer support has played a huge role in their exponential growth over the years, and it’s a key reason why so many people choose to do the bulk of their shopping online at Amazon.com. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has been quoted many times about his dedication to satisfying 100% of customers, no matter how large or small their orders may be. Every customer—no matter how much they spend with you—can become a “brand ambassador” if you treat them right.

With over 450 brick and mortar retail stores across the globe, Apple is another major contender when it comes to changing the face of customer service. The inclusion of the Genius Bar in every store, for example, helped Apple provide a more “hands on” experience for customers with both hardware and software issues. Nobody else was really doing this when the Genius Bar came on the scene…and certainly not with this amount of attention to service. When you combine their helpful staff and world-renowned warranties, it’s easy to see why the entire customer experience at Apple from A to Z is so essential to the brand. Like marketing, customer service is about how you make the consumer feel and if you can make them feel like you really care, it wins you customers for life.

REI is a retailer that specializes in outdoor sports gear and clothing and their customers are so invested in the brand they have almost reached “cult status.” Here’s just one example why: to ensure customers are completely satisfied with their products, REI has a policy in place that allows you to replace your boots after you’ve put 300 miles of use or 3 years into them. While other retailers are looking for ways to milk their customers for as much value as possible, REI has decided to flip things around. REI also has a reputation for providing outstanding in-store experiences that feature highly knowledgeable salespeople who actually know the ins and outs of the industry and enjoy educating their customers.

Virgin America is an airline that’s known for providing an above average flight experience for customers. While other airlines look for ways to cut costs on snacks, Virgin decided to invest in their customers and make things FUN at the same time.

During your Virgin America flight, for example, you watch in-flight security videos that are uplifting and entertaining instead of boring and wooden. You’ll find top of the line retailers in a Virgin terminal rather than generic magazine and potato chip vendors. The music you encounter when you’re purchasing your ticket might be upbeat jazz, pop, or classic rock. The interior of the planes are lit up like a Miami night club and the flight attendants are genuinely committed to giving you a positive in-flight experience, which seems to be very rare these days.

Virgin America’s approach proves that you don’t have to take your image too seriously even if your competition does. Customers are humans who like to have fun and feel good and when you can help them do this they will love you for it, no matter what industry you’re in.

The world is changing at a breakneck pace and this means your customers are changing just as quickly. The days of providing a “one-size-fits-all” or scripted approach to customer service are long gone. Now, if you don’t treat your customers like real people and invest in them then they have thousands of options to choose from within a few short clicks.

This means that if you want to stay ahead of the game then you need to find out how to create an experience that sets you apart from everyone else. If you take a look at the companies above then you’ll realize that customer service is now all about being proactive rather than reactive. Herein lies the path to long-term growth and healthy profits.

How these companies are changing the customer service experience

It's October, and that means it's time for the latest release of the Go1 system, including a stack of exciting updates to improve your learning experience. In this update you will find a range of improvements to your portal display settings, courses enrollment settings, new options for adding multiple email addresses, and more!

It's inevitable that sometimes we forget our passwords. That is not a problem with Go1 though because we have refined our password recovery process to ensure that you, or your users, can quickly and easily reset your password and get back to learning in a matter of minutes, with no downtime.

Manually Passed Courses Automatically Pass Course Modules

If a user has been manually passed for a course, all modules within that course will automatically be passed to ensure that the user will be accredited accordingly.

A new setting has been created in your 'Portal Settings' which allows administrators to set up a landing page that all users will be directed to once logging out of their portal.

Being able to switch between the portals on mobile devices

User GradeBooks are now available showing courses

Top header display on mobile devices has been improved

A favicon has been added for the webapp on iOS

Generate a course URL from 'Embeded courses' page for Scheduled events

Event courses have been removed from "marketplace browse course” page

Courses on company course page can be filtered by tags

For many of us, the phrase ‘compliance training’ conjures feelings of drudgery. Dull, mandatory training that you just want to get out of the way. While it may not be anyone’s favourite part of the job, compliance training is foundational for any business. 

Luckily, it doesn't have to be this way! Compliance shouldn't be a slog, as we recently discussed in our article on levelling up your compliance training. We believe it’s time to shatter that stereotype, giving employees the engaging compliance training they deserve. It’s a lofty goal, but maybe, it’s time to make compliance training sexy.

When done right, the benefits of compliance training are significant and far-reaching, ranging from higher productivity and profitability to increased employee engagement and risk reduction. These benefits apply to both small businesses and large global organisations, regardless of industry.

These benefits, coupled with your legal obligations, mean you are doubtless eager to ensure your business complies with state laws and industry regulations. However, like many, you might be unsure where to start. Compliance is a vast, intimidating topic, after all. Where to begin? You understand compliance is essential for the security and reputation of your business, but how can you improve compliance within your organisation? Thankfully, it’s easier than it sounds. 

Below, we’ve outlined three essential steps to get started on better compliance for your business. But first, we’ll examine the state of compliance training globally, sharing the key statistics you need to know. 

Let’s start with the good news first. Globally, compliance training is maturing. This year, the number of organisations with "mature and advanced" risk and compliance programs grew by 29%. Likewise, the number of compliance programs deemed “reactive and basic” fell by 34%. These statistics are hugely encouraging, showing that organisations are thinking more deeply about their compliance programs to deliver engaging, forward-thinking content. 

Even so, there is still work to be done, as just 17% of teams say their compliance culture is ‘fully aligned’ across the company. 70% say their compliance culture is somewhat aligned, while, more concerningly, 13% say it’s not aligned. On a brighter note, Deloitte finds that 57% of organisations rate their compliance culture as either positive or exceptional. 

These positive advancements make sense, as organisations lose an average of $4 million in revenue per non-compliance event, making a mature and comprehensive compliance culture essential. Similarly, CEI finds that US businesses spend an average of $10,000 per employee on regulatory costs, while regulatory monitoring can save $1.03 million on average. Moreover, there has been a 45% increase in non-compliance costs in the last decade. 

It is also interesting to note that remote work has impacted the cost of non-compliance. According to IBM, data breaches cost over $1 million more on average when remote work is a factor. Put simply, non-compliance is prohibitively expensive, meaning it pays to invest in an up-to-date compliance program. 

So, how much do teams invest in compliance? Bloomberg finds that 50% of organisations spend 6-10% of their revenue on compliance costs, while 20% spend less than 5% of their revenue on compliance costs. 

Further, according to Deloitte, 72% of teams say their compliance budget has increased over the last five years. Yet, 36% say the level of investment in compliance is inadequate, and it’s hard to argue. When the cost of non-compliance is so high, it’s well worth investing in a dependable compliance program. 

How are teams delivering compliance training?

In the wake of the pandemic, compliance costs now include 62% of organisations that use eLearning to deliver compliance training. 30% of teams use blended learning for their compliance needs, while 9% favour instructor-led training. Additionally, 34% of organisations outsource some or all of their compliance functionality. 

This shift towards eLearning has helped teams streamline their compliance programs, with 70% of compliance experts saying COVID increased their reliance on technology to improve decision-making, performance monitoring, and risk management. Overall, these figures represent a major paradigm shift, with teams discovering the benefits of eLearning for compliance training. 

While this shift to eLearning is a broadly positive step, there is still room for improvement, particularly for alignment and capacity. 60% of teams say their compliance training is only “somewhat tailored” to individual business units, while just 13% believe their compliance training is “highly tailored.” Further, 87% of teams say their compliance function has no spare capacity due to being understaffed, which is cause for concern. 

Top challenges and skills for compliance teams 

With these statistics in mind, it’s worth asking: what challenges are compliance teams facing, and what skills will they need to overcome these challenges? 

For starters, MetricStream identified some of the top challenges compliance managers face. These are: handling compliance assessments, undergoing control testing, and implementing policy and process updates. 

Likewise, Deloitte identified the biggest challenges compliance teams face: 

Coordination between business functions (17%)

To overcome these challenges, Thomas Reuters revealed the top three skills compliance officers need: subject matter expertise, communication skills, and anticipating future regulatory trends. 

Similarly, Deloitte found that the three most important skills for compliance teams in the future will be: influencing skills, communication skills, and stakeholder management. Future-ready compliance teams would be wise to start developing these skills. 

3 steps to better compliance training for your business

Now that we have a broad overview of the state of the compliance industry, the question becomes: how can my business deliver better compliance training? Here are three steps to exceptional compliance training. 

Compliance communication means informing staff of all policies, processes, and procedures that apply to an employee's industry and role. Essentially, it’s about getting staff to read, understand, and comply with relevant legislation and regulations. This can include anything from fire safety to cybersecurity, and everything in between. 

To achieve this clear communication, you must tell all staff that a compliance program is in place and ensure compliance regulations and policy changes are distributed, received, understood, and acknowledged by each employee. Many compliance programs focus on changing employee behaviour, while also communicating what to do in the event of non-compliance.

At this point, getting employee buy-in can often be challenging. Many employees may associate compliance training with negative stereotypes, such as wading through pages of legal jargon to understand the latest compliance updates.

Other challenges include competing priorities, which mean employees might not have time to read long compliance updates. Others still may be unaware of where updates are shared. Therefore, sharing compliance updates in plain, decipherable language is vital. You can also try summarising the key points of your compliance updates to ease time pressures. Finally, ensure all employees know where to access the latest compliance updates.

Thus, to create an effective compliance communication strategy, EQS recommends taking the following steps:

1. Maintain a central source of information so employees always know where to look if they’re confused. 

2. Establish a mechanism to communicate new regulations and amendments (i.e. a Slack channel, monthly meeting, or email updates). 

3. Align compliance messages across internal communication channels to ensure everyone sees them.

4.Generate continued interest in compliance topics by prompting employees to engage in continuous learning and upskilling. 

5. Harness the potential of microlearning to make compliance training seem less intimidating and time-sensitive. 

6. Make sure your compliance trainers also receive regular training to stay up-to-date with current information and trends. 

Most importantly, your compliance communication materials must carry the same key messages repeated over time to encourage behavioural change.

We’ve outlined three essential steps to get started on better compliance for your business. But first, we’ll examine the state of compliance training globally, sharing the key statistics you need to know. 

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