The Productivity Commission recently reported that more than two million Australians have experienced some form of workplace bullying  – a staggering figure when you think about the damaging effects this behaviour can have on each individual life.

In a previous article, we discussed how bullying impacts your business, affecting your staff’s morale, productivity and work performance, as well as your organisation’s overall work culture. It also has significant financial consequences for companies, with bullying costing the Australian economy an estimated 15 billion dollars annually.

So what can we do to stop bullying occurring in our own organisations? What are the best ways for employers and managers to deal with workplace bullies?

If you’re in a leadership or management role, you need to be equipped with proper strategies to identify, manage and prevent this toxic behaviour. Here are 5 ways to deal with bullying in your team.

Whatever form it takes, bullying is a type of abuse – a way of intimidating and dominating others, through physical, emotional or psychological control.

It may take the form of continual snide comments about a colleague, putting someone down whenever they pitch ideas to the team, or outright hostility towards another team member. Bullies might also make a point of excluding certain people from team conversations, meetings or project work.

Workplace bullies will often use nonverbal tactics or subtle humiliation instead of direct threats. They can be very good at making sure their behaviour doesn’t cross over into direct physical or sexual harassment, while still making their victims feel continually excluded, uncomfortable and anxious.

Don’t enable or tolerate bullies in your team 

Unfortunately, bullies often get away with their behaviour simply because no one can stand dealing with them. These negative personalities tend to thrive on conflict and drama, but for anyone who dislikes confrontation, standing up to a bully can feel very uncomfortable and intimidating – even scary.

Because of this, some managers will choose to turn a blind eye, unwilling to deal with the disruptive person in their team. However, overlooking or tolerating bad behaviour is sending a message that it’s accepted and even enabled in your organisation.

As a manager, you have a responsibility to address workplace bullying, making it clear that a respectful collaborative environment is to be adhered to at all times. Stop bullies from constantly interrupting others or being aggressive; pull them up when they mock someone else’s ideas or suggestions; work hard to build an inclusive work environment.

Control your own response to workplace bullying

If you’ve become aware of bullying going on in your team or organisation, it’s important to make sure you respond in an appropriate and rational way. Accept that you can’t control what bullies do or say, but you can control your own response.

Recognising that you are in control of how you respond will help you to detach your emotions and manage the situation in a more effective way. Besides, showing emotions such as anger or disgust will only be giving the bully what they want – a reaction and opportunity for further conflict. 

Act on all reports and complaints of harassment

Taking workplace bullying seriously means acting on any report or complaint that is raised in your team. This will make it clear that your organisation has zero tolerance for any form of bullying or harassment. 

If someone tells you they’ve been made to feel uncomfortable by another employee, don’t make excuses for bad behaviour or laugh off inappropriate actions as “just a joke” – treat every report with the diligence it deserves.

Make sure you have an anti-bullying policy in place

Develop and implement a strong bullying and harassment policy, to show your commitment to providing a safe and productive environment for your employees, while promoting a positive work culture for all. This policy will also ensure your organisation is compliant in this area.

Bullying in the Workplace covers useful information about the most common forms of bullying in the workplace and the costs this has for both victims and organisations. You’ll also learn practical strategies for dealing with workplace bullies.

Workplace Harassment for Managers explores the negative impact bullying and harassment can have on an organization’s work environment and looks at the role of managers in preventing and responding to all forms of workplace harassment.

Bullying: The Manager’s Role further explores the role of managers in preventing bullying and abusive conduct in the workplace.

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.

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What are the best ways for employers and managers to deal with workplace bullies? Here are 5 ways to deal with bullying in your team.

A guide for managers dealing with workplace bullying

Most people spend a considerable amount of time commuting to and from work each day, with around two million employees spending an average of 90 minutes a day in transit. That’s a significant amount of travel time each day, adding up to around 7.5 hours a week – the equivalent of a whole day’s work.

You can imagine how that time adds up over the months and years! But for most of us, the daily work commute is spent either battling traffic or idly scrolling through Facebook while listening to music on the bus or train. Have you ever found yourself staring out the window and wondering if this is really the best use of your time?

While it’s up to you how you use your time commuting to and from work, you might not have considered using this travel time to focus on your professional development. The daily commute presents an excellent opportunity for individuals to take the time to learn new skills, grow their professional network and keep up-to-date with industry news. It can also be a valuable time for quiet reflection and meditation.

By investing those otherwise lost hours into your own professional development, you can quickly and easily improve your skill set and give your career a positive boost. Here are some tips for maximising your daily work commute.

Improve Your Skill Set with an Online Course

These days, we’re lucky to have the convenience of eLearning, allowing us to easily enrol in online courses on our laptops, tablets and smartphones and study anywhere and anytime – including the bus or train.

In a recent article, we discussed how you can improve your job prospects with online learning, with eLearning being an excellent way to manoeuvre the gaps within your education. As we said then, “for anyone who is struggling to find a job or move up within their company, expanding on their skill set is an ideal way of setting themselves apart and becoming more equipped to handle the workforce.”

Employees who are willing to develop new skills and improve their existing skill set are highly valued by many employers and organisations. Take a look at our list of 5 free online courses to help you succeed at work, with our top pick of eLearning courses to help you improve your time management, public speaking or negotiation skills.

By using your commute time for regular eLearning, you’ll also be keeping your brain active, challenged and engaged, which is good for your physical and mental wellbeing.

Keep Up to Speed with Industry Podcasts or Webinars

If you drive to work, you can still spend your daily commute learning, by tuning into podcasts featuring favourite industry leaders or subjects relevant to your field. 

With so many industries moving at such a rapid pace, particularly IT and the creative industries, it’s important for employees to stay up-to-date with industry news and developments. Using travel time to catch up on podcasts for your professional development will help to improve your self-confidence and knowledge in these areas and give you a competitive edge over your colleagues.

Whether you’re driving in your car, or taking the bus or train, podcasts can help maximise your commute time, furthering your knowledge and sharpening your skills without even interrupting your daily routine.

Put Some Energy into Professional Networking

Your morning or afternoon commute can be the perfect time to actively build and maintain your professional network online. If you’re going to spend time browsing social media in your travel time each day, you may as well spend a few minutes investing in your career as well.

 Use some of your daily work commute to connect with other people in your industry through LinkedIn or Twitter. Being part of a professional network can help keep you motivated, focused and energised in your work.

If you’re lucky enough to have a work mentor, or someone who regularly inspires you, use your morning travel time to catch up on their news or career developments. Why not share some of your own recent work achievements, or articles about exciting things going on in your industry?

Spending a little bit of time each morning to feel inspired and energised will also have you arriving at work in a more positive frame of mind.

Using travel time to relax and recharge might not sound very beneficial for your professional development, but daily meditation can bring significant positive changes to your whole life, including your career. 

By taking some time, even just ten minutes each day, to practice deep breathing or guided meditation you can reduce the risks of burn out and improve your mental health. This will make you a more resilient and well balanced employee, contributing to better work performance and results for you and your team.

Your morning train ride or bus trip (as opposed to your car!) is a good time to practice meditation, as you’ll start the day feeling focused and calm and ready for work. Think about your morning rituals – do you usually start your day feeling rushed, frustrated with late trains or annoyed at fellow passengers? Choosing to incorporate more positive practices into your existing routine will cost you nothing in time or money, but bring significant long-term benefits to your health and wellbeing.

Now think about how you can start getting the most out of your own daily commute and whether you would be better off investing some of that time into your professional and personal development. It could be a very good move for your future career.

Use your daily work commute to boost your career

Outstanding leaders know that their most valuable asset is their team. You could have the most cutting edge equipment and facilities and they would be useless without the right people using them!

In order to find these people, there’s no question that you need outstanding HR leadership. Here are some characteristics to help you identify the difference between a good HR leader and an outstanding one.

1.   Having a Deep Understanding of the Business 

Having this high level of domain knowledge will not only help the HR department make the right appointment, it will also help them to monitor and provide guidance to staff in the future—essentially nurturing the talent they’ve helped acquire.

The best HR leaders will have an open mind and be ready to adapt to changes. When criticism shows up, they’ll listen to what people are saying and consider their points. The best leaders are always prepared to make improvements when necessary, and this is especially true when it comes to managing people.

The most challenging jobs are often the ones that are the most rewarding.  Completing the more difficult challenges will often help you to get ahead while competing HR departments are still ambling along taking the easy option to make life easier for themselves. Although facing tough jobs may be challenging in the short-term, it will help to make life a lot easier for you in the long term. If there’s a challenging job that needs to be done, an outstanding HR manager will tackle it with enthusiasm.

Although the rules should apply equally to everybody, there are times when an individual may have a legitimate reason for thinking outside of the box. If there is a genuine case where a talented member on your staff bends the rules a bit, you might want to consider the outcome of their actions before reprimanding them. They may discover a better or more efficient way of accomplishing a task and this could have huge benefits in the long run.

A study has shown that recruiters that used social media in their recruitment efforts saw a 49% improvement in the quality of candidates when compared to traditional methods. As technology around us changes—and the world along with it—it’s important for any leader to be adaptable to the changing environment otherwise they risk being left behind.  When new tools are made available the best leaders will be willing to embrace them as they could make a big difference to the company’s bottom line. The best HR leaders will always be up to date on cutting-edge human resources technology.

Listening and understanding other people is a science and an art. Here’s a strategy that can help you get better results out of your staff:question you have asked them. Be sure to listen to all sides of an argument before making any judgments in your mind.

One method of being sure that you have heard and understood correctly is to restate what you have just been told. For example: “So what you are saying is…”

7.   Always Being Prepared To Cut People Loose

Individuals that are not meeting expectations, for whatever reason, can have an adverse effect on others around them and the business in general. This can make it a bigger issue than just that one individual. The best leaders will try to work with troublesome or low-performing individuals and provide encouragement, training, and incentives where appropriate. If you have tried your best and they are still unwilling and/or unable to meet expectations then you should be prepared to let them go. Knowing when it’s time to do this is another sign of an outstanding HR leader.

8.   Allowing Others to Take the Spotlight

HR is typically a department that operates behind the scenes. Despite HR managers and their teams working tirelessly to help keep the company moving in the right direction, it’s usually other individuals and departments that end up receiving the accolades. This can sometimes be frustrating but a good HR manager will understand that results are what matter, not applause.

When leading people, among the most effective ways of showing them what needs to be done is to get hands on and get involved yourself. This is a great way of demonstrating that the job can be done and just how it should be done. It will also help the HR department to identify if there are any issues with the process that need to be addressed.

A large part of being a great HR manager involves recruiting the right people for the company, so it’s only right that they should be expected to recruit a great team for themselves. Having a great team working for you not only helps to ensure that the day to day tasks are completed effectively, it also helps to bring new ideas and different skills that can help the team to break the mold and innovate.

The HR department is one of the most important because it helps to ensure that the most valuable assets in business are being managed and led. The right HR leadership will help keep any business competitive and going strong.

With holidays and the new year just around the corner, many employees are looking forward to a well-deserved break and time off with family and friends. It’s also often time for the end of year work party, held by many employers to celebrate the year’s achievements and encourage staff to wind down with their team mates.

Sounds like a good time, right? An open bar on the company credit card? Drinks and partying with your work friends? Unfortunately, while the end of year work party is supposed to be about fun and celebration, it can also lead to some very serious compliance and legal issues – for both employees and business owners. 

The number one mistake most people make at their office holiday party is to drink too much. Staff who behave inappropriately at their office Christmas party may start the new year unemployed or dealing with severe legal consequences involving sexual harassment, verbal or physical abuse.

Here are some things you need to bear in mind to avoid getting fired, sued or even arrested at this year’s staff party.

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses Their Job

Regardless of your industry, most workplaces are full of many different personalities, making it natural to expect some occasional tension and riffs between staff members. 

While most people manage to hold it together and keep things civil for the sake of positive working relationships, the end of year party is a classic time for workplace tensions to explode. Christmas parties are held at a very challenging time of year, when many workers are feeling fatigued, stressed and often burnt out. Adding alcohol to this mix can bring workplace disagreements and resentments to the surface, leading to disastrous consequences.

In 2014, an employee of roadworks company Leighton Boral Amey Joint Venture had his employment terminated after his behaviour at the work Christmas party. While intoxicated, the staff member repeatedly told his board members and managers to "get f**ked.”

If you think there’s any chance that your mouth could get you in trouble while drinking, it’s probably a good idea to sit out that next round of tequila shots. The employee in question also made inappropriate advances on several female colleagues, which leads us to another issue that can arise during workplace parties – sexual harassment.

Be Aware of Sexual Harassment at Your Work Party

Make sure you are alert to the increased risk of sexual harassment incidents at office holiday parties and guard yourself and other colleagues against it.

As we’ve said before, whilst many people may think of sexual harassment purely in terms of unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate touching, it can also encompass other more subtle forms of behaviour – behaviour that is still, however, completely unacceptable. Because of this, some employees may feel confused about whether certain interactions are appropriate or not, choosing not to report incidents of harassment for fear of “overreacting.”

Colleagues at work functions should be treated in the exact same way you would treat them in the office, as the Christmas party is simply an extension of your work environment. You wouldn’t make unwanted sexual advances or touch a work mate inappropriately when sober in the office, so there’s no excuse for this behaviour to occur at an end of year party.

According to workplace law expert Athena Koelmeyer, when it comes to sexual relations between work colleagues, “consent is the most important legal concept for revellers to understand and alcohol is not an excuse for claiming not to know when advances are being reciprocated or not.”

If you’re an employer, you can read more about how to prevent sexual harassment from occurring at your office holiday party, to help protect your employees.

Zero Tolerance for Violence at Work Functions

At the 2014 Future Engineering and Communication Pty Ltd Christmas party, events got out of hand when an intoxicated project coordinator pushed an engineer into a pool. As can be seen on CCTV footage, the project coordinator poked the other man in the chest repeatedly before pushing him, fully clothed, into the pool.

When the project coordinator’s manager asked him to leave the work party, the employee punched his manager several times in the head, leading to termination of his employment. As should be expected, physical and verbal abuse can result in you being arrested and unemployed, with very negative consequences for your career.

Employers should work to create a culture of zero tolerance towards violence in the workplace, which extends to all work functions and office holiday parties. As an employee, be aware of the effects of alcohol on impairing your judgement and the impact this can have on your career. 

With these thoughts in the back of your mind, you can trust yourself to act responsibly at this year’s Christmas party and enjoy the end of year celebrations with your team mates.

Remember, keep it legal, keep it safe and keep it fun.

How to have an incident free end of year work party

You’re about to reach the busiest time of year for your company… Your primary focus should be on necessary prep-work and fine-tuning, but all of a sudden three customer service employees quit and you’re suddenly very understaffed for the season!

In these types of situations, a business owner’s attention is pulled away from their main priorities and they’re forced to find quick replacements.

Sadly, for companies that face a high turnover rate, this can seem like a never-ending battle. A high workplace turnover rate can lead to serious issues, such as:

All of these concerns can play a primary role in the floundering of a business’ success, and that’s why it’s absolutely critical to solve customer service problems ASAP.

John Hausknecht, an assistant professor at Cornell University, worked with a team of individuals to evaluate the effect of employee turnover on the quality of service within a company.

Providing Customers with the Best Possible Service

In high turnover environments, new employees aren’t usually offered the comprehensive training needed to successfully complete their jobs. That’s one problem.

They’re given the basic tools and then rushed to start working to make up for the lack in manpower needed to get certain jobs done. Urgency and limited training often lead to poor customer service.

If you’re searching for the best possible remedy to this predicament, it’s time to consider a learning management system.

These systems streamline the training process and help to ensure each new and seasoned employee has all of the tools needed to get the job done right.  Not only do these programs cover the basic education needed during a customer service employee’s initial hiring, they’re also a convenient way to roll out ongoing education amongst your teams.

Whether your company is undergoing things like policy changes or the installation of new technology, learning management systems are a convenient way to handle continued education within the workplace and will save you a tremendous amount of time.

Before you can recognize just how beneficial learning management systems can be, it’s essential to understand the various ways that your company might be affected by a high turnover rate within your customer service department.

As stated previously, having a high turnover rate not only means management will have to consistently set aside the time to search for, interview, and hire new team members, but they will then have to worry about getting new employees trained.

While the allocation of this time can be one of the most hard-hitting effects of employee turnover, here are a few of the other concerns to be considered.

Depending on the type of business you run, along with the type of candidate you’re looking for, finding a new employee can get pricey.

Common costs involved in this process are for things, such as:

Many employers forget to consider the cost to find applicants. The quality of candidates you’re searching for, along with the length of time you are searching, will determine the type of ads you need to place. In ongoing situations, this can get quite expensive indeed.

Covering the cost of travel and accommodations for qualified applicants during their interview process is just one of the ways this area can cost your employer money.

Even when a new hire is undergoing training, it’s still mandatory that they are paid. This training period can be quite the cost for business’ considering they have to pay a salary while no real work is being done.

Much like the interview process, new employee training also pulls current team members and management away from their own work in order to help the new people learn their jobs.

A constant revolving door of employees can really bring down the morale of a business. Current employees are often forced to pick up the slack left behind, not to mention the inevitable increase of distracting and productivity-draining inner-office gossip.

Constant speculation over why so many individuals are leaving and what new employees are like can be a harmful distraction for any business.

Last, but certainly not least, poor customer service is one of the most devastating effects of high turnover rates.

A decrease in overall employees, along with an increase in new, uncertain employees, can provide customers with little more than a lackluster experience.

Learning Management Systems May Be the Best Solution for Customer Service Departments with High Turnover 

Learning management systems can ensure that you have well-trained employees to support your customer service departments, along with guaranteeing that your team members stay around long-term.

These online programs provide a wealth of information that will provide all of the tools necessary for customer service success.

Not only is there a large variety of coursework available through these systems, but they also allow management to take a hands-off approach to new hire training while still providing them with the opportunity to stay abreast of an employee’s progress and performance.

These types of programs are proven to reduce the costs involved in new employee training and also decrease the amount of time needed to complete initial training.

Online learning systems also provide an easy way to offer continued education. Once the base program has been set up within your company, it’s simple to find additional courses and information that may prove beneficial to the continued success of the business.

Benefitting Employees from Start to Finish

A sure-fire way of reducing the amount of turnover a business owner sees in their customer service department is to address the issues at hand.

Many times these will be related to an employee’s lack of ability or their want for a more challenging environment. Learning management systems are an ideal solution to both of these issues.

Why waste time looking for new employees and then trying to build them up? Focus your attention on benefiting the individuals already working for you and offering them the tools need to successfully serve your customers.  These learning management systems are a simple and cost-effective solution.

Streamline your customer service department with a learning management system

Do you have a good training program in place to help guide your managers through the maternity leave process with their team? 

We've have put together a FREE course created by a maternity leave expert that can help put a plan in place for your managers so that when they are next faced with an employee taking maternity leave, they will be able to set up a plan to help them through all aspects of the process from winding down at work, to re-entering the workforce when they are ready.

This course is a must have for all businesses.

With women making up just over 45% of the Australian workforce, it is inevitable that at some point an employee will tell you that they are pregnant.

In this course, you will learn how to effectively navigate the maternity leave process and how to best assist the expectant employee including how to handle the initial discussion, making plans leading up to maternity leave, and how to reintroduce new parents to the workplace after leave.

Looking for more? Try our Top Categories! 

Looking for something but can't find it? Meet one of our learning consultants and let us help you out!

Train your managers on how to handle maternity leave

The end of the year is approaching fast, and we are continuing to roll out even more updates to the Go1 system with our December release. This release that will be deployed on December 11 includes one of our biggest updates in recent months; the inclusion of a new interactive resource type. In addition to the interactive recourses, you’ll also find updates to the course card notifications, Groups access settings, and more!

Find out more about all the updates below:

Course creators can new insert interactive files into their courses using the backend course creation tools. The Scorm engine is compilable with file types: Scorm, Tincan, AICC.

To use interactive resources, simply click on ‘Add Resource’ as you have done in the past and a new option for ‘Interactive’ will now be displayed.

Keeping track of which courses you have already complete while searching the markertplace has now become even easier.  This new update will now notify users if they are trying to enroll into a course that is already in their portal via notification.

Do not allow blocked user enroll to view Project Groups

In order to improve user management and protect your content, if you have blocked users in your system, the blocking functionality now extends to blocking that user from all Project Groups too.

Not allowing users to enroll beta course without permission

‘View Last Result’ answers option when taking quiz.

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!

Making your web content accessible to users with disability or age-related impairment is a very important part of web design and development. You want to make sure that people have equal access to the information on your website or online learning materials – including those who are vision impaired.

Many people with low or partial vision use the internet every day, at work and at home. And you may be surprised to learn that a large majority of these users do not use screen reading technology. Instead, they rely on using the amount of vision they have to continue working on screen. However, certain websites can be harder to read and navigate than others, which leads to eye strain, headaches and frustration with the online experience.

To address this, web designers and developers work to identify the main considerations for accessibility and inclusive design when creating web pages or electronic documents. This includes accessibility features that make it easier for users with impaired vision, eye disease, age-related macular degeneration or colour blindness to see information on screen.

Web accessibility guidelines also form an important aspect of making sure your content is compliant. In some industries, accessibility is a legislative requirement, meaning businesses have a legal obligation to make sure their web content is able to be read easily by all users, including those who are vision impaired. 

If you’re developing online materials for an eLearning course, you’ll need to be aware of some of these factors so you’re not excluding any members of your learning community. We’ve put together some guidelines for making your web content more accessible to users with vision impairment, allowing them to better navigate your website or learning materials.

For many users who experience low or partial vision or age-related problems with their eyes, simply making text larger on screen can mean a world of difference.

Offering alternate stylesheets with larger font sizes allows individuals to have the option of adjusting the text size to suit their needs. For large articles or amounts of text, you should also offer text-only versions such as PDFs that can easily be read on screen or printed.

If your target audience is over 50, consider making your default font a few points larger. As people in this demographic become increasingly comfortable with technology, the amount of internet users over the age of 50 will become even higher and you want to make sure you’re catering for that audience.

Keyboard shortcuts can make site navigation for visually impaired users a lot easier and far less frustrating. Using keyboard commands to move around a site or document, instead of the mouse, means less need to follow the cursor around on screen – which can be hard for people with low sight or partial vision as they need to constantly shift their focus to track down the mouse cursor.

Australian writer Robbie Kirk, who is vision impaired with partial sight in both eyes, says she relies on using the “good parts” of her eyes to read on screen. This means looking around the whole screen to see something in focus, rather than being able to take in information all at once as she used to. 

Because of this, it’s easy to miss certain parts of a website or document that are probably quite clear to other users. As Robbie says, “unless I turn my head around to see the sidebar I don’t even know it’s there.” She also struggles with losing the mouse on screen, which can lead to eye strain and headaches as well as frustration. 

Allowing people like Robbie the option to use the arrow keys instead of the mouse will improve your content’s web accessibility and create a more positive user experience.

Contrast levels on screen can cause significant problems for people with vision impairments, as they often have difficulty differentiating between similar shades and levels of brightness.

Robbie says that certain contrast levels can cause “shadows around letters, like halos” which makes them very difficult to see clearly. Some fonts can also be impossible to read. While each user will have a different experience, bold text on low-contrast items seem to be best for vision impaired users.

While it might not be possible to offer a second version of your site with more contrast between elements, you could give people access to the mobile version of your site. This is a great way to improve your site’s readability and accessibility, with no extra financial cost or development.

You might think it’s a good idea to use big green and red action buttons on your site, especially for submitting forms or accepting conditions. But for colour blind users, this will cause a lot of confusion.

When creating eLearning materials for an online course, or choosing colours for your website, think about how accessible they are to all users. It’s not just people with colour blindness that are affected by the way colours are used on screen. Vision impairment can cause difficulties in perceiving certain colours when they’re placed on a different coloured background.

For Robbie, the hardest colour combination to read on screen is anything that uses a black background with white text. “I can’t see the letters at all,” Robbie says. “Pale green, orange and yellow are also hard to see.” This means action buttons or hyperlinks will be missed if they’re in any of those colours, which greatly affects user experience.

Choosing accessible colours for your content is obviously important for users who have problems with their sight, however you can see how it also affects the readability of your materials in general. Paying attention to these factors of your eLearning materials will not just make your content accessible to a wider range of people, it will also make your web content more usable for everybody.

Learn More About Web Accessibility for the Vision Impaired

If you’re keen to learn more about this area, or refresh your skills in accessibility, online courses such as Web Accessibility: Learn Best Practices, Tools & Techniques can provide you with tools to confidently develop accessible websites, ensuring your content is able to be easily navigated by all users. 

With eLearning course Web Accessibility, participants can take part in a hands-on experience in making web applications accessible, gaining insight and understanding into when and why users need accessibility. You’ll learn how to make a page work properly with screen reader and keyboard navigation techniques, that help users with partial vision navigate your pages easily and reliably.

Is your learning content accessible to vision impaired users?

People power is one of the single most valuable assets that any company will have. In order to help a business flourish, the people working there need to be the right people who are committed to taking your business forward. This includes everybody in your organization from those in a senior management positions to temporary workers.

Considering the importance of getting the right people for the job, there is quite a bit of pressure on the HR department to get it all just right. The best HR departments have bulletproof procedures to help make their recruiting efforts as effective and efficient as possible. Here are just a few examples of how you can turbocharge yours.

According to Forbes, 75% of recruiters are struggling to recruit fully qualified personnel. One reason could be down to how vacancies are being advertised. You may be offering the best job in the world, but you’re unlikely to get the response you’re hoping for if it isn’t advertised in a way that makes it attractive to the ideal recruits.

What makes a job attractive is not only about the role, title, and salary—there’s a great deal more that people take into consideration. What are the working conditions like? What flexibility will they be allowed in their role? What additional training will they receive? Will they get the opportunity to learn from leaders in the business…the list of additional factors that can make even an otherwise mundane role a good proposition is endless.

In order to really attract the best talent, find out what people are looking for when applying for positions. You can then adjust the role and the additional benefits associated with it, helping to make the job a much more attractive proposition. Remember also to make it absolutely clear what benefits are available when advertising the job so the best prospects know that it is a great opportunity for them.

While it’s essential to have a team in place, it’s perhaps more important to have the RIGHT team in place. Rushing into hiring decisions and appointing the wrong person because you need to get SOMEBODY in place can be very counterproductive and hinder your productivity. If you do have the wrong person in place for a role then you could run into problems and the rest of your workforce could be adversely affected. You may also end up having to go through the time and expense of recruiting for the vacancy again.

Spend a little more time, effort and perhaps even expense in getting it right the first time and you could save yourself a lot of inconvenience and expense in the future. Recruit hastily and on the cheap, however, and you may well end up regretting doing so.

Strike a Balance between Experience and Talent

Recruiting an experienced candidate that has ’been there’ and ‘done that’ is a good way to help ensure that a job gets done. Sometimes though just getting a job done is not enough and what is really needed is somebody that can bring fresh ideas to the workforce if you are to stay ahead of the competition.

Many very talented prospects get overlooked for more experienced candidates in the recruitment process, and this could be to the loss of the recruiter. While you are recruiting the experienced candidates that are adept at getting the job done in tried and tested ways, your competitors can be snapping up those that bring innovation and variety to your company.

Ideally, you should try to find the right balance between experienced candidates that know the ins and outs of running an organization as yours with fresh talent that can help you shake things up with new ideas and approaches.

While it’s important to not be too hasty in making recruitment decisions, it’s equally as important that you don’t keep potential candidates waiting for too long. Many job applicants, particularly the better ones, will have other options available to them so if you drag your feet for too long then they may end up working for the competition.

If you are losing candidates to competitors during the recruitment process then you may need to look at your process to see whether or not it can be streamlined. Are parts of the process being duplicated, perhaps there are too many departments involved, or is there unnecessary bureaucratic tape slowing things down?

Undertake a review of your recruitment process and you could not only help to find ways to speed up the process, but also ways to enhance the process to improve the quality of recruitment. With a sleek and efficient recruitment policy in place, you are ready to build a team that can help to take your business to the next level.

Firing Can Be Just As Important As Hiring

It’s never an easy thing to have to tell people that they are no longer needed, but it is sometimes necessary. It’s important to remember that an unruly or inept member of the team can affect others, and it would be unfair to those that do contribute if they are adversely affected through no fault of their own. In cases where you have exhausted all possible procedures yet there is still no sign of improvement, it would be best to replace the person from the position and focus on ways you can turbocharge your recruiting to find a more suitable person for the role.

How HR managers can turbocharge the recruitment process

Even here in the 21st century, gender inequality is still an issue despite our best efforts so far to combat it. While the workplace has become more equal than it ever has been before, there is still work to be done before it is genuinely an even playing field for both genders. Addressing the situation is not always easy for companies, however, as many issues regarding inequality can be very nuanced, with causes going deep below the surface.

Many companies though are making concerted efforts to address gender inequality in the workplace with initiatives that are designed to encourage equality. Such innovators are creating examples that the rest of the business community can look up to as an inspiration when trying to tackle inequality in the workplace.

Generally speaking, we tend to consider a company’s workforce to be the people that are sitting in the company’s offices and working in their factories. However, the chain of contribution goes much further than that. Even if a person is not directly employed by a company, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable contributors to the organization. Indeed, such people are often essential to any organization.

One such example is the contribution that female dairy workers make toward a company such as Nestle, and their contribution has not gone unrewarded. Nestle is helping these dairy workers with valuable advice and free veterinarian services, while they also help to make sure that any medicines needed for livestock

Research reveals that there are now more females going into further education than males. While this may well be helping with gender inequality issues in America and Europe, education opportunities for females are still lacking in other parts of the world.

Some companies have gone as far as providing funds for women to gain an education, particularly in impoverished parts of the world. Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, for example, runs an initiative that provides education to girls living in Guatemalan coffee producing villages. Such initiatives provide education not only in academic subjects, but also on health, well-being, and gender inequality issues.

Subconscious bias in interviews can lead to better-suited candidates being overlooked for no other reasons than their gender. Quite often the interviewer has every intention of approaching the recruitment process fairly and is unaware that they are biased toward a particular gender. That the interviewer is often unaware of his or her own bias means it is a particularly difficult problem to overcome…or is it?

The solution is actually a lot simpler than it might first appear to be, and some of the largest companies out there are endorsing it as a policy.

In having both men and women interviewers, any subconscious gender bias is automatically balanced, helping to provide a much fairer recruitment process. For the company, this means that the best candidate for a job is more likely to be selected for a role, helping to create a more effective workforce. It may not be a perfect solution, but it should certainly go some way to helping redress the balance.

Some companies have developed programs that actively encourage women to take more prominent roles within their organization. This often involves mentoring programs that help to develop women’s qualifications and provide inspiration for them to take on the challenge of pushing higher up the echelons of the workforce. International law firm Allens has adopted such a strategy and has seen great success so far, with just over half of the participants now holding senior positions within the organization.

Such initiatives are not always entirely altruistic. In encouraging their brightest and most talented women to push further up the ladder, they get to tap into a talent pool that might otherwise have not been used to its full potential. Having women in senior positions within the organization also helps to act as an inspiration to others that are looking to progress in their career.

One of the greatest divides in the workplace is the subject of maternity and it is something that has long held women back in the workplace. Women are now legally protected throughout much of the world when it comes to pregnancy and maternity, but some businesses are taking it further than just abiding by the law.

Companies such Banco Brazil and Spanish financial services provider BBVA have created initiatives that emphasize equality where maternity is concerned. Their initiatives allow maternity leave beyond the legal requirements but that’s not all. The initiatives also help to create an environment where the woman is not made to feel guilty about taking maternity leave, helping to create a truly fair environment.

To ensure genuine equality, many companies also ensure that men are allowed paternity leave to spend time at home with family after the birth of a child.

These are just a few of the ways companies have been addressing gender inequality in the workforce. We still have a long ways to go, but hopefully we will see even bigger progress throughout the world as we move forward into 2017.

How the best companies address gender inequality

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