Earlier this year the Go1 received a Microsoft Hololens to allow us to start working on adapting training through augmented reality. Although the Hololens is still only available as a developer version, we have recently been taking it along with us a a number of conferences over the past few months to give the general public a chance to experience the future of learning, and try out the Hololens for themselves.

Earlier this week we had our Hololens down at Work 2.0 in Sydney when Alexar stopped by the Go1 booth to have his first augmented reality experience, and discuss how this exciting new technology can be used to train and educate people with Go1 co-founder Vu Tran.

You can watch the full video of Alexar's experience as live streamed on Periscope below:

Earlier this year, we did an in-depth review of the Hololens and how it can be used for training students and employees.

"As an entry point to the augmented reality market, this is mind blowing. A lot of the things that are still a touch clunky at this stage will very easily be resolved, and the first consumer versions of this product, which is yet to have a release date, is likely to be an affordable and eye-opening look into the future of human interaction that anyone can afford."

We are very excited about getting this technology into the hands of as many people as possible over the coming years, and if you are at an event with Go1, make sure you come try it out for yourself!

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VIDEO: Go1 and The Microsoft Hololens learning experience

Investing in compliance training online is one of the key steps we recommended recently for building a better compliance program for your business.

If you’re looking to update and improve the compliance processes within your organization, moving your training online is a great place to start.

Taking this step has a number of benefits for both your employees and your bottom line, saving you time and money while making the process easier and more engaging for staff. Let’s look at these benefits in more depth.

Save time and money on compliance training

As we’ve said before, compliance is a combination of time and money – it doesn’t work without an appropriate investment of both of these factors. And you no doubt want to get the best possible return on that investment.

Carrying out compliance training online reduces the amount of time your employees spend in the training room, and for most organizations we know that time equals money. With e-learning, particularly if you’re a large organization, or have staff across various locations or working remotely, online training will save you a significant amount of money compared to face-to-face training by an instructor, as well as travel fees, venue hire and printing costs.

In fact, using a good Learning Management System for online training can reduce training expenses by more than 50%. Moving your compliance training online can also reduce the risk of your organization receiving penalty fees or fines, saving you further money in the long run.

Make compliance training easier for your staff

These days, online training courses are available for all areas of compliance, making training incredibly easy, convenient and effective for your staff.

With e-learning, employees can log in to their relevant training courses or modules from anywhere in the world, from the convenience of their home or office. Staff won’t need to attend all-day training lectures, meaning they can keep their focus on their work responsibilities and maintain their productivity without interruption, until choosing to log in.

While you can easily train all staff, right across the board, from an online portal, you can also customize each individual’s training materials, making it a more personalized and worthwhile experience for each user.

As a recent article by Game Effective says, with online compliance training, “employees know that they are getting relevant information that pertains to their position, and that increases the value of the compliance online training experience.”

Improve employee engagement with compliance 

You’ll also be providing staff with a far more engaging user experience by moving your compliance training online.

Instead of having team members attend long-winded lectures on compliance issues, employees will have access to targeted online training activities and modules based on their job duties. As a result, they’ll be more motivated to learn and actively participate in training on these subjects.

People also retain more information when the subject matter is made more engaging, making e-learning more effective than the traditional modes of delivering compliance training, such as workbooks, assessments and training room scenarios.

Using up-to-date training modes and interesting, relevant course content is beneficial for your company’s organizational culture, particularly with new hires who have just started and are going through compliance training as part of their onboarding or orientation.

Use an LMS to deliver your compliance training

Using a Learning Management System such as Go1's online training platform to create and deliver your compliance training gives you access to customizable reporting, engagement tools and analytics.

This allows you to easily track staff progress, see how each team member is going with the content and whether they may need additional direction, assistance or further resources. You can even use your own compliance content with the Go1 platform, creating a fully customized program for your employees.

Maintaining and updating compliance training content is also simple, as administrators can simply log in to their online compliance program, make any necessary modifications or changes to the course materials, then deploy the updated compliance training to all staff, in all locations.

To find out more about compliance, before moving your training program online, you might also like to read through our previous articles on this subject:

Why You Need to Spend Time and Money on Compliance

Get Started on Better Compliance for Your Business

Benefits of moving your compliance training online

Proper procedures may be the foundation to a successful customer experience, but they are nothing without the group of people who are performing them.

According to an article in Forbes Magazine, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for good service. A company might have an award-winning plan to ensure customer satisfaction, but if the employee assisting that individual is not up to par there is an automatic decrease in the chance of conversion.

Achieving greatness amongst your customer service team might seem tricky, but there are three key factors that can make all the difference:

Abiding by these basic ideas will help to ensure successful business practices, happy customers, and an effective customer service team that keeps things running smoothly.

When a business owner wants to improve their customer service tactics, they need to start from the ground up.  Choosing employees that exhibit certain necessary skills will allow them to best serve their customers.

Traits like adaptability and patience can make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Not only is each customer different, but also every situation itself is unique. Employees that bestow natural flexibility will have the ability to appeal to a broader variety of personality types and needs.

Managers and owners should also look for team members with great communication skills.

In today’s modern world the digital contact portals available are extensive. Not only are customers calling businesses on the phone, they’re emailing and looking for live chat opportunities. The ability to clearly communicate throughout these different forms is essential to providing a positive customer experience.

Not only will your customers feel more understood themselves, they will also feel more confident about the information the customer service team is providing.

It may seem obvious to say, but knowledge is another key factor in excellent customer service. Guaranteeing someone who has had proper training and education is assisting your customers will help safeguard the company against potential issues.

In a recent Huffington Post article, an intriguing question was posed:

“Are your customer service representatives enabled to be the best they can be…?”

Hiring on team members with the right skills and capabilities is the perfect first step to answering yes to this question and achieving a great reputation for quality customer service.

Time and experience have shown many bosses that there is a direct correlation between happy employees and successful customer service. When a member of the team is being positively motivated on a regular basis, their desire to good work is exponentially higher.

In order to properly motivate employees, a business owner should look at things like:

Letting your employees know how much they are appreciated is a great way to provide motivation. All too often, business higher ups forget to convey gratitude for the work their teams are doing.

When a customer service employee is consistently putting forth a ton of effort but never being acknowledged, their drive to do more will quickly begin to weaken. High morale is key and it’s incredible how much a simple thank you can make a difference.

When a person is happy at work, that happiness will rub off on the customers, which will, in turn, positively affect sales.

Fostering a little friendly competition throughout the workplace is a great way to motivate your customer service team. Whether the award is a small bonus in their paycheck or a restaurant gift card, people love a challenge and a little good-natured competition will bring a sense of fun to the job.

Competitions provide goals that give team members something to work towards. They inspire dedication and increased efforts that will result in higher sales rates for the company.

Whether it’s nothing but raving compliments or a little bit of constructive criticism, the opportunity for a customer service employee to sit down with their boss is an invaluable chance for motivation.

Not only do these meetings provide a platform for feedback, they also offer the employee a chance to discuss any questions or concerns they may be facing.

However big your company is, taking the time out for a one-on-one chat with your employees allows you to focus on them and their needs. This will not only provide a fresh perspective for both boss and team member but will often encourage higher respect throughout the company.

When you’re trying to figure out how to get your customer service team performing at their best, one of the most helpful answers is to walk a mile in their shoes.

Taking the time out of your busy schedule to spend a day working in customer service will provide you with the firsthand knowledge needed to truly understand the work being done and the expectations of your consumers.

You will have the chance to interact with your own service equipment and products, which will unveil potential weaknesses in the system. This will help you determine what types of reevaluation and re-training may need to occur

Logistics aside, however, seeing your company from the other side of the counter will probably give you a newfound respect for the work that your employees do. As a result, your customer service team will feel encouraged by your own dedication to the work.

Improving Your Business’ Success from the Inside-Out

A high performing customer service team is a major key to successful business practices.

Your customer service employees are the face and voice of your company. Their happiness and effort will directly affect the number of successful customer experiences you see and will keep said customers coming back for years to come.

A company with a reputation for amazing customer service speaks volumes in the world of business and it doesn’t take much to get there. If you remember the three main topics mentioned in this article: capability, motivation, and understanding, you will be laying the groundwork needed to become a triumph in the customer service industry.

How to get the best out of your customer service team

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.”

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