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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Rethinking Motivation and Productivity in the Workplace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Nurture A Supportive Online Community

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

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

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

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

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

7.   Foster Personal Relationships With Each Student

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

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

8. Make Use Of Group And Individual Projects

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

9. Use Resources That Are Readily Available

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

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

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

Best practices to help you be an effective online teacher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get the millennials on your team motivated!

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

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

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

The benefits of investing in employee development

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

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

Higher levels of job satisfaction, staff engagement and team morale

Higher levels of knowledge retention and transfer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How managers can support employee development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The importance of investing in employee development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to convince your boss to invest in eLearning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to promote your online course and get more enrollments

With concerns about mental health continually rising in Australia, it’s never been more important for organisations to know how to support their employees.

In a recent article about the risks of burning out at work, we looked at the dangers of suffering from physical and mental exhaustion and the serious health consequences this can lead to. Following on from this, it’s important to talk more about the impact of mental health issues on Australian workers and the responsibility of employers in creating a positive work culture for their staff.

The fact is, at any given time 1 in 5 Australian employees are likely to be experiencing a mental health condition. With so many people suffering in silence from the effects of anxiety, panic and depression – possibly even that person you sit next to every day who always seems fine – why is there still such a stigma attached to talking about mental health?

And what is your organisation doing to support employees with mental health issues at work?

The impacts of mental health on Australian workplaces

Aside from the distressing impact that conditions such as anxiety, OCD and depression have on an individual, mental health also has negative effects for organisations as a whole.

As reported by Beyond Blue, “untreated mental health conditions are costing Australian organisations around $10.9 billion per year through absenteeism, presenteeism (when the employee is at work but is less productive) and compensation.”

The issue also contributes significantly to high absenteeism and sick leave rates, with over 6 million working days lost each year in Australia due to mental health.

Help staff deal with mental health concerns

It’s really important for managers and team leaders to support any employee who appears to be struggling. If you’re in a leadership role, you need to make sure that mental health is considered as part of your organisation’s work health and safety strategy.

In Australia, workplace health and safety legislation requires employers to ensure that workplaces are both physically and mentally healthy for all employees. This means steps must be taken to ensure that the working environment does not harm an individual’s mental wellbeing or aggravate an existing condition.

Let all staff know that there are HR policies in place that protect their privacy, as well as protecting them from discrimination in the workplace due to any mental health issues. Under Australian law, there is a requirement for policies that spell out the organisation’s position on mental health and the support structures they have in place for those experiencing mental health symptoms.

Build a work culture of respect and compassion

In addition to these legal requirements and policy matters, there are things you can do to make the workplace environment more comfortable for individuals living with these conditions.

Create a safe space where employees can feel secure and comfortable in discussing their mental health. By being flexible, providing support and creating this safe environment, people can feel more comfortable raising their concerns and reaching out when they need it.

If an employee does open up to you about their depression, OCD, anxiety or panic attacks, help them through these difficult discussions in a respectful and compassionate way. You should also encourage team members to look out for and care for their colleagues – a mentally healthy workplace is everyone’s responsibility.

Learn more about creating a mentally healthy workplace

As a manager, you may want to invest in some more learning, so you feel equipped and ready to help staff who may be experiencing the problems of anxiety, panic disorder or depression. By taking the time to understand more about this topic, you’ll be able to provide greater assistance for employees and help them to feel safe and secure in their workplace environment.  

The online course Mental Health at Work is a really good introduction to the topic. You’ll learn about some common mental health problems and explore ways individuals experiencing issues can seek help and talk about their concerns. The course also covers areas such as your workplace’s legal position and how to talk about this sometimes difficult topic.

For managers and HR teams, Positive Mental Health provides an excellent e-learning resource equivalent to a full one-day workshop. It offers a foundation for understanding the various components of mental health and wellbeing, with different approaches to addressing the important issues involved and particular tools or methods that can prove helpful in promoting positive mental health. As the course outline says, this course will benefit leaders committed to good mental health in the workplace, who are interested in supporting others to meet their mental health needs.

How to talk about mental health in the workplace

Every day, we are confronted with ongoing media coverage of news events as they’re unfolding around the world. 

Unfortunately, amongst the good news stories of cute baby pandas and great sporting wins, many of today’s news stories deal with far more distressing subject matter, with a constant stream of natural disasters and humanitarian crises across our screens. Other events, such as terrorist attacks, bombings or mass shootings, can bring the whole world to a shocked halt in seconds.

When certain news stories or political events become a topic of national or global conversation, it’s likely that employees will bring these conversations into the workplace. This can give rise to discussions on traditionally controversial subject matters involving religion, politics and race – subjects that can be confronting and difficult to navigate in the workplace. 

How do we have respectful discussions at work about these controversial subjects? And what can managers do when talk in the office turns to difficult topics?

The Role of Managers During Difficult Times 

When the world is being rocked by a particularly shocking news story in the media, workplaces can become more nervous and tense, as employees process the events and their emotions towards it. The events are most likely on your employees’ minds, whether they’re talking about them around the water cooler or whether you raise them in discussion or not.

It’s in these difficult times that managers must demonstrate more composure and leadership than ever before, helping staff to stay engaged, focused and motivated while also feeling safe and secure. Just as we can learn how to deal with difficult people, we can learn how to have respectful conversations about controversial subjects or events – discussing difficult topics in the workplace is a skill that can be learned and developed.

Foster a Work Culture of Respect and Compassion

Ingrid Fredeen, specialist in ethics and legal compliance training, says it’s important that organisations make sure they are showing their commitment to a healthy corporate culture and fostering an environment of ethics and respect in the workplace – no matter what’s going on in the world around them.

It’s important to acknowledge what is happening and create a safe space where employees can feel secure and comfortable in discussing the events. Being proactive in this way shows good leadership and respect for the emotional wellbeing of your employees.

As consultant Michelle Kedem says in her article Discussing Difficult Topics of Race and Equity at Work, “when an organization’s leadership fails to acknowledge what its team may be going through after a traumatic event – from terrorism to acts of racial injustice to the wide range of other events impacting people's lives – it misses an opportunity to engage its team and make progress toward real change.”

Many of today’s organisations pride themselves on being committed to diversity, equality and inclusion. Be aware that your staff may need to engage in conversations about complex topics, and help them navigate those discussions in a respectful and compassionate way.

Helping Staff Discuss Difficult Events and Topics

As a manager, you can help open the lines of communication on difficult topics. It’s best to acknowledge the challenging circumstances of the events and these subsequent conversations, before introducing your discussion as a safe space for all employees to share their thoughts and feelings about the topic.

Let staff know that the organisation’s goal is to provide all employees with a dignified and respectful workplace, and that personal beliefs on certain issues or events can often be considered controversial. You might like to take the time to remind employees about HR policies you have in place around code of conduct, harassment and discrimination.

Kedem suggests making these discussions optional, with an “invite everyone; require attendance of no one” approach. Team members will react in different ways and want different levels of support and/or privacy at work. Don’t spring these sensitive discussions on staff – by scheduling them properly, you’ll allow team members the time to consider whether they want to participate, and what they want to say or not say in front in a group setting.

It’s really important for managers and team leaders to step in and address any conversations that have become offensive, aggressive or overly heated, as they can do significant damage to the workplace dynamics and culture. Encourage staff to take time to debrief and cool down after the discussion, instead of returning quickly to their normal tasks. Some team members may prefer to talk in a one-on-one environment after the general group discussion. Keep your door open. Keep your own mental attitude positive.

Learn More About Developing a Respectful Workplace

Remember, in your role as manager, it’s your responsibility to help staff navigate these difficult discussions, while feeling safe and secure in their workplace environment.

There are many online courses and resources available to help team leaders learn more about these topics, such as these modules on how to handle difficult conversations and developing a respectful workplace.

It’s a good idea to develop your own skills in this area before any challenging events or conversations arise, so you’ll feel more confident and better equipped to lead by example.

Chris Eigeland is not your average startup co-founder. Earlier this year Chris was selected as a finalist for this years Queensland Young Achiever Awards, as well as being appointed as the 2016 Australia Youth Representative to the UN, which is an amazing achievement. Now after months of traveling around Australia to prepare, Chris is now in New York, where in the coming weeks he will be presenting to the UN General Assembly.

As a part of the preparation for his United Nations address, Chris travelled to each of the states and territories across Australia and spoke with more than 5,000 young Australians to understand which issues they viewed as priorities, so he could include them in his address.

Some of the key issues raised by the Australian youth that will drive Chris's address include education, unemployment, mental health, gender equality and indigenous equality.

In order get these youths starting thinking about how they might be able to start addressing these issues themselves, Chris also ran entrepreneurship workshops with over 1,000 young Australians, from which more than 300 solutions were developed and will be presented during the UN General Assembly.

Over the past few weeks Chris has had the opportunity to attend a number of high Level Forums covering diversity, innovation and youth, as well as being invited to speak as a part of Peace Day on Friday September 16. His Peace Day address touched on enabling the youth of the world to develop the education systems of the future through the use of improved technologies.


"Everywhere we look, there is work to be done. It will fall to our generation, many of whom are now in their late teens and early twenties – to build the institutions of the future, to build the education systems of 2030, and to build the grassroots foundation of a peaceful domestic and international environment. It will fall to our generation to take up the mantle, and pick up where the last has failed." 

Chris is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly during the week of October 3.

You can follow Chris's journey at the UN via his Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as through the Australian Youth Representative to the UN Facebook page.

Go1's Chris Eigeland to address the UN General Assembly

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