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With millions of Australians facing extended lockdowns and restrictions, the isolation has made it harder to not only check in with the people in our world, but also to recognise the early signs of someone struggling. 

As we approach R U OK? Day on Thursday 9th September, we are encouraged to genuinely focus on checking in on one another and asking, ‘are they really ok?’  

At any one point, 1 in 6 working age Australians will be suffering from a diagnosed mental illness, and a further 1 in 6 will be struggling with symptoms of poor mental health, such as fatigue, worry and sleep issues. With the added pressures of the past two years, many employees are showing up to work carrying the weight of struggling mental health. 

Within a workplace, it’s important to develop a culture where everyone can feel confident asking and answering the simple yet impactful question, ‘R U OK?’ Besides the legal responsibility of providing a safe and healthy workplace, regardless of whether in an office or remote, these conversations can make a real difference to anyone going through a challenging time. 

So how can we empower our team to comfortably check in on each other?  

Knowledge is particularly powerful when creating a mentally healthy workplace. By including mental health awareness training as a part of your organisation’s ongoing L&D program, you can empower not only those struggling but their peers as well to recognise the early signs of low mental health. 

Mental health issues can affect anyone, regardless of background, age, gender or income, and symptoms often look different from person to person. Providing education to your teams around not only the normalcy of mental health struggles, but the simple signs to look out for in each other, has the potential to change someone’s life.  

Make it as easy as possible for employees to reach out for extra support when needed. Consider this pathway as crucial as your team knowing where the fire exits are in an office building. Knowing the pathway to support can make an impactful difference, particularly when someone is in a crisis situation. 

Employee EAP and Mental Health Counselling programs are an amazing way to provide wellbeing support to employees. If not available, ensure you have implemented clear promotion for and education around accessible community support options such as those listed below.

Lifeline 13 11 14 
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 
The Suicide Callback Service 1300 659 467 
MensLine 1300 78 99 78 
Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800  

With a solid foundation of mental health education, and clear pathways to extra support for anyone struggling, you have already made beneficial steps to creating a mentally healthy workplace. As the year goes on, make time to remind and refresh your teams. Days like R U OK? Day are purposefully developed to help foster an environment within your workplace for conversations around mental health, suicide and suicide prevention.  

In partnership with Go1, R U OK? have masterfully developed the online course below, helping your teams learn when and how to ask 'R U OK?' at work. The course is free and accessible, ready to be integrated into your R U OK? Day plans.  

In addition, make sure you check out the other amazing workplace resources from RUOK?, including Workplace Champion packs and registration for their R U OK? Day webinar on Thursday 9th September 2021.

Looking for comprehensive Mental Health and Wellbeing training?  

Go1 has over 2,000 training modules and resources developed specifically to educate and increase the health and wellbeing of your team. Speak to your Go1 Customer Success Manager today about curating a playlist built to educate and empower.  

Please remember, if you are experiencing significant distress, you can reach out to Lifeline 131 114 or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 for immediate support. If you, or anyone you know, is feeling suicidal call the Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 for immediate support. 

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With the added pressures of the past two years, many employees are showing up to work carrying the weight of struggling mental health. So how can we empower our team to comfortably check in on each other?

Empower your workplace this RU OK? Day

With the added pressures of the past two years, many employees are showing up to work carrying the weight of struggling mental health. So how can we empower our team to comfortably check in on each other?

Which content partner should you check out? 

Do you wish ever wish you could take an online course and only get the information you needed rather than going through the full course? Chart Learning Solutions has partnered with Area9 to create over 80 Adaptive Learning courses that do just that. Adaptive Learning creates a unique personalized learning journey that adapt to the needs of each learner using intelligent algorithms and probes. With a wide variety of topics, from ethics to career development, these adaptive courses will resonate with all employees, regardless of where they are in their career.   

Check out this video to learn more about Adaptive Learning through Chart Learning Solutions.  

Chart Learning Solutions is a thought leader in the learning and development field and continues to win awards every year for their leadership and sales courses. In addition to their adaptive learning modules, they have over 100 modern and in-depth eLearning courses on the Go1 Content Hub that enable learners to apply what they have learned through step-by-step instructions and exercises.   

Which content partners have joined the Go1 library? 

Omni HR – This South African company brings us global content in leadership and personal development.  Their courses offer comprehensive content through text, videos, and assessments, ensuring learners get a robust experience. 

Proactech – This France based company brings us Microsoft software and personal development courses in French.   

What’s new from our current content partners? 

Stone River - A variety of updated courses in number of areas, including Java, Google Apps, Node, and Game Development 

Simon Sez IT – New courses on number of topics, including Python, JavaScript, React, and Asana   

AMC – New compliance courses for Human Trafficking, N95 Fit Test, along with state specific harassment courses, all for healthcare workers (US specific) 

Health Staff Ed – Nursing Management (Australia specific) 

Allara – A variety of health and safety courses, some specific to South Australia  

Marcom – Updated a large number of their courses, including industry specific harassment courses (US specific) 

What’s Shannon’s favorite course right now? 

As I go through our library, I often look for courses to assist in my personal development. iAM Learning recently added a quick 10-minute course on Growth Mindset. I always love their content, often very short and to the point. This course was a great refresher for me for a topic I have spent time learning about in the past. Growth mindset is such a valuable thing to be more successful in business and in your personal life and this short course was a great reminder. 

The Go1 Content Insider is your first stop for all things new in the Go1 Content Hub. In this August update, find out the latest and greatest in the world of content!

The Go1 Content Insider — August 2021 edition 

Globally, the skills gap has widened in recent years. Deloitte estimates that the global skills gap will leave 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028, causing an economic impact of $2.4 trillion. Similarly, a recent survey by McKinsey found that nine in ten executives say their organisations either face skill gaps already or expect gaps to develop in the next five years. 

Additionally, 1 in 5 workers admit their professional skills are not up to date, with a further 85% of employees saying they wish their company had offered more new skills training last year. 

As a result, it should be no surprise that many employees want to take matters into their own hands. 59% of employees say that they received no workplace training. Instead, most of their skills were self-taught. Likewise, 42% of employees pursued training on their own following last year’s initial lockdowns. 

Put simply, the global skills gap is a major concern that will have far-reaching consequences. As such, it has become increasingly important for employees to identify their skill gaps so they can access the upskilling or reskilling they need. 

With this in mind, we’ve decided to analyse the best ways to identify your skill gaps, offering six ideas to help you get ahead. 

First things first, it is imperative that you have clearly defined professional goals to help you narrow down your skill gaps. After all, it’s no good identifying ‘cement mixing’ as a skill gap if your dream is to become a librarian. While this might be a slightly exaggerated example, defining your professional goals will help you identify clear, relevant, and achievable skill gaps. 

It might help to write a list of professional goals, accompanied by a list of your current skills and proficiencies and another list of the skills you think will be required to achieve your goals. This can be an excellent opportunity for self-reflection, as well as a chance to take stock of your current skill set. From there, you can narrow down the most pressing skills that you need to develop. 

To avoid getting overwhelmed, try to prioritise these skills in order of urgency and work through your list at a methodical pace. 

Sometimes, we just don’t know what we don’t know. At times like these, it can be helpful to get an outside perspective. For example, you might ask your colleagues to write down your five greatest strengths and weaknesses. Ensure these are constructive criticisms based on your professional output, not weaknesses like ‘plays music too loudly through their headphones’. 

Likely, there will be some overlap between the responses you receive. If so, these common weaknesses are probably skill gaps that you should address. By finding these common themes, not only can you reinforce what you are already doing well, but, more importantly, you can identify what skills you need to work on. 

You could also ask your manager or other senior leaders in your organisation for tips on how you can grow your skill set. Following this, you might collaborate with your manager to create a professional development plan. Remember, identifying your skill gaps doesn't have to be a solo mission. It is usually a good idea to gather a variety of perspectives to ensure you have a well-rounded view of your skills. 

According to SkillSoft, 81% of roles will change in some way due to digital transformation. Further, 57% of employees are concerned that significant parts of their role will be replaced by technology in the next ten years. As such, employees must focus not only on identifying current skill gaps but also on developing future-ready skills. 

Given this, it is vital to stay abreast of the most in-demand skills. For instance, LinkedIn’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report identified the highest and lowest priority skills for L&D professionals. Leadership management (57%), creative problem solving and design thinking (42%), and communication (40%) topped the list, while at the other end, mobile computing (9%), engineering and coding (8%), and cloud computing (8%) were lower priority skills.

Similarly, SkillSoft found that the following digital skills training would help employees the most in adapting to the transformation of their role: Microsoft Office training (59%) video-based microlearning (50%), collaboration training (48%), Social for Business training (37%), G Suite training (35%), and Adobe Creative Cloud training (34%). 

To identify current and future skill gaps, ensure you stay up-to-date with the most in-demand skills in your field. 

This tip is simple: research a few experts and thought leaders in your field to see what skills they currently have, what skills they want to develop, and what skills they are prioritising for the future. Then, compare these findings to your current skill set. If common skills arise that you don’t currently possess, it’s probably a good idea to add these to your list. 

Ideally, this process should give you a solid foundation to work from, revealing the skills most likely to lead to expertise in your chosen field. 

Ultimately, success breeds success, so it is rarely a bad idea to emulate the experts in your field. 

Surround yourself with relevant information

In general, it's far easier to identify the skills we already have than the skills we lack. Again, we often don’t know what we don’t know. So, immersing yourself in relevant information can be an excellent way to identify your skill gaps. 

Most people probably know the feeling of reading an article or listening to a podcast and thinking, ‘I’d love to learn more about that.’ Following thought leaders and surrounding yourself with pertinent podcasts, books, and articles can be a great way to gain knowledge and uncover new skills that you would like to develop. 

We might be a tad biased, but the Go1 Blog and the Learning with Go1 podcast are excellent places to start on this journey. 

For further insights, be sure to read our articles on closing the skills gap and what you need to know about the skills gap. 

To find out how Go1 can help close your team’s skills gap, you can book a demo today. Or, reach out to our friendly 24/7 support team anytime for a chat.

Globally, the skills gap continues to widen. We’ve analysed the best ways to identify your skill gaps, offering six ideas to help you get ahead.

How to identify your skill gaps

At Go1, we believe in creating solutions that make it easy for organizations to learn. One key element to executing these solutions is a focus on personalized and integrative learning experiences. 

We are excited to announce a global partnership with Adobe that will see Go1 equip Adobe Captivate Prime learning management system users with our extensive workplace learning online library.  

A new Content Marketplace from Adobe Captivate Prime will provide its users with in-product access to more than 70,000 titles from the Go1 Content Hub. Users will also have access to topical content bundles, curated exclusively by Go1 for Adobe Captivate Prime, that address the learning needs of popular job functions and skill domains such as Sales, Leadership, and Project Management. 

“Digital learning has seen tremendous growth over the past years and will continue to accelerate well beyond the pandemic. Bringing Go1’s extensive catalog of world-class content to Captivate Prime will offer users engaging learning and development experiences across any digital device,” said Amit Dayal, Vice President and General Manager, Print, Publish and Digital Learning, Adobe. 

Adobe Captivate Prime is a next-generation learning management system that delivers AI-based personalized learning experiences that allow users to embed learning tools into their work. Adobe Captivate Prime LMS is recognized as a leader by G2 and used by millions of learners across large enterprises. 

“More than 3.5 million learners rely on Go1 for a seamless and frictionless experience for their workplace learning needs. With Go1’s Content Hub, Adobe Captivate Prime users will gain access to the world’s top online training providers coupled with an unparalleled learning experience to improve employee development and retention,” Basem Emera, Go1 Vice-President of Partnerships and Alliances, said.  

This exciting partnership means Adobe Captivate Prime users now have ready access to a broader scope of personalized learning options.  

Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about the partnership. 

Go1’s partnership with Adobe to equip Captivate Prime users through AI-based personalized learning experiences

Self-advocacy can be one of the most difficult skills to master in a professional environment. Most people can probably relate to feeling dissatisfied, stuck, or even stagnant in a job at some point. In fact, in a recent survey, a whopping 74% of employees said they aren’t reaching their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities. 

There can be several reasons for this feeling. Perhaps your company’s L&D program is lagging behind (or, in some cases, nonexistent). Maybe you aren’t being given enough time to learn at work. Or maybe, professional development just isn’t prioritised in your workplace. However, while these feelings are one thing, challenging the status quo to advocate for your professional development is another thing entirely. 

With this in mind, we have decided to offer some tips to self-advocate for your professional development. We’ll start by looking into what self-advocacy is and why it’s so difficult before answering the question: how can I advocate for my professional development at work?

If you need a quick refresher on the benefits of professional development, be sure to read the first article in this series, how to motivate your team to invest in their professional development. 

What is self-advocacy, and why is it so difficult? 

In many ways, the concept of self-advocacy is self-explanatory. In a professional context, it means speaking up when things are important to you, asking for things you want or need to progress in your career, and setting healthy boundaries and expectations. You know, advocating for yourself. Speaking up to advocate for professional development opportunities is a key aspect of self-advocacy in the workplace, allowing you to learn new skills and progress in your career. 

According to MyWay Employability, “self-advocacy means standing up for yourself and letting people know about your rights and needs. Advocating for yourself in the workplace helps to ensure that you can do your job safely and to the best of your ability. Advocating for yourself also means you are more likely to be treated fairly by others and have an equal opportunity to succeed.”

Forbes expands on this definition, explaining that “self advocacy is a critical part of healthy relationships, long term success, and overall happiness in life. One of the many benefits of self-advocacy that helps establish these three pillars of overall wellness, is that when you feel comfortable advocating for yourself, you can get what you want and deserve out of your negotiations.”

However, these relatively simple definitions belie the difficulty of advocating for yourself at work. 

To exemplify this point, only 29% of employees are "very satisfied" with their current career advancement opportunities. Similarly, 76% of employees are actively looking for career growth opportunities, while Gallup finds that a mere 13% of employees worldwide are fully engaged. 

These statistics reveal two vital points. Firstly, many organisations lack the robust, well-funded professional development programs that most employees crave. Secondly, many employees are in a position where they are unable to advocate for their professional development. There are many reasons for this. For example, organisations may foster a culture where speaking up is discouraged, or employees that do speak up may not be listened to. 

Emerald Works backs this up, finding that many organisations are resistant to change. According to their 2020 Back to the Future report, 36% of leaders have traditional expectations of L&D that are difficult to challenge, while 28% of organisations experience reluctance by senior management to encourage new ways of learning and working. 

Whatever the reason, many people find it difficult to advocate for their professional development at work, thereby stifling their career growth opportunities. 

How to self-advocate for your professional development

With these challenges in mind, it is worth asking: how can I advocate for my professional development at work? 

The first and most important tip is to come prepared. While it is great to advocate for your needs, without a solid justification and measurable statistics, these requests are likely to fall on deaf ears. Our article on the cost of not investing in digital learning is a great place to start, as it shows organisations and managers how much they miss out on by not investing in employees’ professional development. For example, one-third of all turnover is due to either unsupportive management or a lack of development opportunities. And these turnover costs add up quickly. 

While building your case, another helpful tip is to align your goals with the overall goals of your business. As Masterclass puts it, “make sure what you want also benefits your company. The next time you ask for something you want at work, frame it as a win-win for both you and your company.” By putting your requests in terms that executives can relate to, your needs are more likely to be taken seriously.

For instance, if you want your organisation to upgrade their professional development program, you could point out that 94% of employees would stay longer at a company if it invested in their professional development. Likewise, Emerald Works finds that nearly one-third of companies are concerned about the cost of set-up, maintenance, and development for L&D tools. To ease these fears, you could point out that ​​companies that invest in L&D have a 24% higher profit margin than those that spend less on training. 

If these requests still go unmet, it might be time to take matters into your own hands and look elsewhere for professional development opportunities. This doesn’t necessarily mean changing jobs, but thinking outside the box. As Seek explains, there are still many ways to get ahead if your company’s professional development plan is lagging behind. One way to do this is by growing your connections on social media. By building your network, you will be exposed to more perspectives, have more chances to interact with experts, and advance your development by learning from other peoples’ skills. 

You may also want to reach out to a mentorship program to help grow your knowledge and skills. Or, you could lean on resources such as books and podcasts from industry leaders to help advance your career. If you’re looking for a great podcast to aid your professional development, we’d recommend listening to Learning with Go1. 

Finally, it may also be worth talking to other people in your team to see if they feel the same way. If they do, you could encourage knowledge sharing by organising learning workshops within your team. One good way to do this is by organising ‘Lunch and Learns’, where you can take turns teaching each other new skills. Likely, you will all have different skills, perspectives, and experiences to impart. By doing so, you can help to foster a sustainable learning culture within your organisation.

To find out how Go1 can take your team’s professional development opportunities to the next level, you can book a demo today. Or, reach out to our friendly 24/7 support team anytime for a chat.

Self-advocacy can be one of the most difficult skills to master in a professional environment. So, we have decided to answer the question: how can I advocate for my professional development at work?

Tips to self-advocate for your professional development

Any effective manager will know that motivating your team can be equal parts challenging and rewarding. Without the proper tools and processes, motivating your team to invest in their professional development can be a struggle. On the other hand, watching your employees develop new skills and go from strength to strength in their careers can be extremely satisfying. 

As such, we have decided to investigate the best ways to motivate your team to invest in their professional development. We will start by looking at the benefits of professional development, before moving on to five ways to empower your team to invest in their professional development. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more, as this will be the first in a series of blogs looking at professional development. Next week, we will shift our focus to the employee’s perspective and analyse how to advocate for your learning if your company’s L&D strategy is lagging behind and how to self-identify skill gaps. 

The benefits of professional development 

In many ways, the benefits of professional development are self-explanatory. After all, who doesn’t want the opportunity to develop new skills, learn new things, and progress in their careers? Still, a deep dive into the statistics reveals exactly how beneficial professional development can be. 

Unfortunately, the current state of workplace professional development leaves a lot to be desired. 59% of employees say they received no workplace training and most of their skills were self-taught, while only 29% are "very satisfied" with their current career advancement opportunities. Although this is a worrying trend, it also provides an opportunity for organisations with high-quality professional development programs to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

The good news is that employees crave professional development opportunities. 74% of people are willing to learn new skills or retrain to remain employable. Plus, 87% of millennials believe L&D in the workplace is important. What’s more, 76% of employees want opportunities for career growth. The message is clear: employees want professional development opportunities, so it is your job to offer them engaging, relevant, and timely learning. 

Finally, a robust learning culture doesn’t just benefit employees, but the whole organisation. For example, 86% of millennials would be prevented from leaving their current position if their employer offered better training and development. To exemplify this point, companies that offer professional development opportunities have 34% higher retention rates. As such, a strong learning culture can save you a sizable amount in retention, recruitment, and turnover costs. 

Further, companies that invest in L&D have a 24% higher profit margin than those that spend less on training. Finally, employees who receive regular professional development opportunities are 15% more engaged. 

Thus, companies with a well-thought-out professional development program are likely to have higher retention rates, better profit margins, and more engaged employees. Who doesn’t want that?

How to motivate your team to invest in their professional development 

The benefits of a strong professional development program are hard to ignore. With that in mind, let’s move onto the how. The exciting news is that, in many cases, you don’t have to do too much to motivate your team to invest in their professional development. Usually, they’re already motivated and just need you to provide them with the right opportunities. In fact, 59% of employees say they already invest in their own upskilling.

Even so, there are always ways to motivate your team to achieve even better results. According to DeakinCo, one of the best ways to motivate your team is by aligning learning value and business value. As they explain, “as you define what your organisation wants to achieve, work from a high level to ensure your human resource planning – incorporating employee learning and growth programs – aligns with your strategic goals. By taking this top-down approach, your HR development initiatives will align with your goals, and your entire organisational culture will value employee development and learning.” 

Similarly, Nav advocates for a culture of knowledge sharing to motivate employees, explaining, “employees exposed to a ‘learning culture’ will benefit from an improved mindset while developing a stronger sense of self-worth, ownership, and accountability. Together, these things can provide the intrinsic drivers that your employees need to complete development tasks.”

Other potential methods to motivate your employees to invest in their professional development include: formalising your L&D strategy, conducting regular performance reviews, incentivising employee development, personalising training programs, offering mentorship opportunities, and fostering a culture of career advancement and upward mobility. 

Want more? Here are five concrete ways to empower your team to invest in their professional development. 

5 ways to empower your team to invest in their professional development 

To find out how Go1 can help empower your employees to invest in their professional development, you can book a demo today. Or, reach out to our friendly 24/7 support team anytime for a chat. 

Without the proper tools and processes, motivating your team to invest in their professional development can be a struggle. As such, we have decided to investigate the best ways to motivate your team to invest in their professional development.

How to motivate your team to invest in their professional development

Without the proper tools and processes, motivating your team to invest in their professional development can be a struggle. As such, we have decided to investigate the best ways to motivate your team to invest in their professional development. 

Josh Novelle, Global Head of Learning Design & Technologies, has worked in learning and development at a number of multinationals. And knows a thing or two about building an L&D team from the ground up. 

Josh recently joined Go1 host Nick Ramsay to discuss the experience and challenges of launching digital learning for the first time. 

🎧  During the episode, you will learn more about: 

What Josh has learnt building an L&D function from scratch

Josh's beliefs on the most important part of an L&D strategy

The skills Josh would consider when hiring L&D professionals

The skills needed to build a successful L&D team 

Here are some of our highlights from the conversation. 

L&D calls for people who challenge the status quo, who can dig deep to get to the root of a problem and understand it to its core. This requires a skill that is not often thought about, but is absolutely essential when it comes to building a successful L&D strategy - and that is, curiosity. Listen as Josh explains the growing role of curiosity in L&D below.  

Developing a practice of curiosity

With a long history of managing teams and working with different people in various roles, Josh knows what's most important when building an L&D team from the ground up. 

In this highlight, Josh draws on his past experiences to talk about the big lessons and learnings of building an L&D function from scratch.  

Building L&D from scratch

Something that is becoming an even bigger priority for L&D in the last couple of years is the change of messaging around inclusivity in learning. Providing learning content that empowers all levels of learners to develop their skills and perform better at work, regardless of qualifications or job title - that's where businesses will really start to see success. Josh talks more about having an inclusive strategy below.

Inclusivity as a priority

What does the future of L&D look like? 

Let's answer the above question using two words - employee experience. 

This is something that Josh believes will truly transcend the L&D function moving into the future. 

This means embedding the learning function on a hidden basis, where it seamlessly blends in with the flow of work. This also means having resources available to learners in the right place at the right time. This is a place that Josh is certainly excited for L&D functions to reach. Find out his thoughts below. 

Employee experience as a focus for L&D

We’d like to thank Josh again for joining us on the Learning with Go1 podcast and sharing some really great insights into the evolving world of L&D. If you haven't already, you can check out the full episode here. 

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Italy, Cyprus, Eqypt, Oman, Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, the USA and many more. Stay tuned! 

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. And hear how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape.

In Episode 14 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, we were joined by Josh Novelle to discuss how organisations can build their L&D function from scratch. Catch up on some of the highlights from the podcast here.