More than likely you’ve heard the word “HIPAA” but still don’t fully understand what it is and why it’s such a big deal. HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act established in 1996.

In basic terms, it requires your organization and employees to keep all information about your patients confidential, regardless of the medium including paper, oral, or electronic device.

For starters, HIPAA consists of five different titles, each playing a distinct role in the overall protection of someone’s personal information.

Title 1 – This title is what regulates the availability and access to healthcare plans, as well as the renewability and portability of coverage. In other words, for someone with a pre-existing condition, this title regulates the way group insurance plans handle him or her.

Title II – Included as part of this title is the Privacy Rule, which regulates the ways you can share Protected Health Insurance or PHI with various covered entities such as healthcare clearinghouses and insurers.

Title III – Title III of HIPAA is what standardizes the amount of money a person can save for a medical savings account.

Title IV – The focus of this title is on the application and enforcement of group health plans.

Title V – For patients with life insurance premiums, this title regulates the tax deductions.

Although your HR Director needs proper training on all five Titles of HIPAA, you want him or her to pay special attention to Title II since it is something organizations associated with healthcare deal with often.

This title requires the person in your organization who oversees HIPAA to complete specific training. With this, he or she can protect data connected to 18 unique identifiers. Otherwise, an unauthorized party could determine who the information belongs to, which under this Act, should never happen.

Dates (birth date, termination date, hire date, date of death)

Beneficiary number for a health insurance plan

Biometric identifiers (retinal scans, fingerprints, voice, etc.)

Photograph(s) (extending beyond just the face)

Any other distinct characteristic, code, or number that would reveal a patient’s identification)

As explained by the US Department of Health and Human Services, “the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required the Secretary of the US  Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop regulations to protect the privacy and security of certain health information.

If you operate a business in the healthcare sector, whether physical or mental, the law mandates you follow all titles, especially Title II.

HHS goes on to state before the enactment of HIPAA, there were virtually no set standards for the security of information nor were there any general requirements for protecting information on an individual’s health within the healthcare sector.

However, with advanced technology making it increasingly easy to obtain someone’s information, the government recognized the need to do something to change that in the form of HIPAA.

HIPPA training is not limited to just healthcare organizations. Any Business Associate (BA) or entity that requests, handles, and stores patient or client information must complete specific certification courses. Without proper training, there’s no way for your HR Director, Compliance Manager, L&D Manager, and others as you deem necessary, to successfully protect information about your patients.

As for Business Associates (BAs), the government defines these as any individual or business with access to a patient’s protected health information. Some examples include accountants, lawyers, and third-party insurance billing services.

While the government mandates certain HIPAA training, there are areas where training is not required. Even so, for optimum protection of the patients and clients your organization provides services to, you should have the appropriate leadership team take as many online courses possible while maintaining an emphasis on those pertaining to Title II.

If a breach of PHI compliance occurs, government officials would open a formal investigation. During that period, if they discover you failed to provide the appropriate people within your organization the training required, you would likely receive a significant fine from the Office for Civil Rights.

Furthermore, failure to comply would put your business at a tremendous risk for any involved patient or client to file a lawsuit against your company.

Keep in mind, the HIPAA training your staff needs and the courses you recommend will vary somewhat according to each of their positions and the specific functions they perform. Typically, companies that deal with sensitive and proprietary healthcare information complete multiple training courses to ensure managers understand all angles of security awareness.

Fortunately, many of the courses are available online through a reputable Learning Management System (LMS). Although an industry or topic expert develops each course, the majority only take about an hour to complete. These courses are also affordable and available in a variety of formats, including articles, podcasts, videos, and so on.

Between the mandated and selective training, there’s a tremendous amount of information. However, with an LMS, your staff can complete courses within a reasonable period, preventing them from trying to cram their minds with more information than they can retain.

After all, even mandated HIPAA training has no set timeframe, although the government expects organizations to complete it as quickly as possible to ensure compliance.

If you look under the Security Rule of HIPAA, you would see it requires training “periodically,” meaning there’s no set timeline. A good rule to follow is to have the correct members of your organization complete mandated training once a year. As for supplemental training, they could coordinate courses with their schedules. Of course, any changes to HIPAA would prompt immediate action.

The Compliance Manager within your organization plays a key role in keeping your L&D Manager up-to-speed on any HIPPA training issues. In this role, the individual responsible for compliance should perform several duties, including:

Monitoring – Monitor both the HHS website and various state publications for rule changes. Although HHS provides an advanced notice, it never hurts to have your Compliance Manager subscribe to several viable channels and news feeds.

Assessment – Whenever the HHS issues new guidelines or rules, your Compliance Manager should conduct a thorough risk assessment. With that, he or she can determine if the modifications impact your business.

 If it does, your Compliance Manager should work with your L&D Manager to ensure the proper people complete any necessary training, both mandated and supplemental. Beyond an assessment following changes to HIPAA, it’s essential to have your Compliance Manager conduct additional risk assessments regularly. That way, the risk of your organization to have a HIPPA violation decreases dramatically.


Liaison – If changes occurred, your Compliance Manager needs to schedule a meeting with the L&D and HR Managers. Together, they can identify any impact relating to compliance with Title II of HIPAA.

Training – If HIPAA changes impact your employees’ compliance, your L&D manager would organize the necessary training. Remember, only members of your organization affected by modifications to HIPAA must complete the mandated training.

The government mandates specific HIPAA training, including the Administrative Safeguard of the HIPAA Security Rule and the Administrative Requirement of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Along with those two, consider several supportive training courses for each of the four remaining titles, as well as others such as Information Security and Privacy and Compliance: Privacy Awareness. The more knowledge your executives and senior management team has the better.

These two mandated courses cover a lot of valuable information. Following are some examples:

HHS provides templates for the various HIPAA topics, making it easy for you to stay on top of training, compliance issues, and other concerns. If you have a healthcare organization, you must explain HIPAA laws to patients and provide them with a HIPAA statement that clearly outlines their rights. You should do both of these before a person actually sees a physical or mental healthcare professional.

If you run a BA or entity, meaning you don’t actually see patients but still deal with personal information, again, you need to let your clients know about HIPAA. The best way to prevent an oversight is by establishing a privacy policy reflecting the Privacy Rule.

Whether an existing or new patient, make sure you have a check and balance system guaranteeing you provide everyone with both oral and written information. Then, have the patient sign the paper, followed by keeping a copy in his or her file and storing a digital copy.

If you have an insurance assistance, billing, or some other type of company that deals with patient information, adopt the same kind of system. The goal is to cover your back, ensuring your organization is 100 percent compliant and therefore, not at risk for a breach.

Along with this system, you could create a simple Excel spreadsheet listing the mandated training courses. Include a column for the team member’s name and the date of completion. For each person, you would then list secondary training on patient privacy courses. With this, you have control of HHS and your internal training program.

One important thing to note, if you anticipate sharing a patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI) with a third-party, you’re required to seek permission first. If granted, the patient needs to sign a form either created by you or one provided by HHS, which you then maintain as part of your record keeping system. If at any time a patient requests a copy of the signed document, you’re required to provide one.

Something else you need to know is if you have a counseling, therapy, or psychiatry business, under HIPAA, you’re not required to share mental health notes. In other words, you can share names, addresses, and various other patient details to a third-party but personal psychotherapy notes are off limit. What is comes down to is you and your staff must protect the security and privacy of every person seen.

The only exception is if for some reason you have a genuine concern a patient may harm him or herself, or someone else, you can contact family members or law enforcement. In such an event, you would need to make a relatively fast assessment, followed by taking the appropriate action to keep your client safe.

As mentioned, along with mandated training, it’s highly recommended you provide your leadership team with supplemental courses.

For both, consider some of the primary do’s and don’ts:

Do – Choose online courses of real value.

Don’t – Go into great detail about HIPAA’s history. While perhaps interesting to some individuals, most people really don’t care.

Do – Select supplemental online training courses your staff can complete in an hour or less.

Don’t – Make training boring. There’s no reason to provide codes and quotes from HHS. If you plan to have your leadership team complete training on the same day and at the same location, have your L&D Manager prepare an engaging presentation.

Do – Cover the different consequences of being in breach of HIPPA. For this, you need to send a clear message about the damage this would have not only on the organization but also employees and most importantly, patients.

Don’t – Overlook the importance of documenting all training provided and completed.

Do – Choose the right members of your team for training. The three most critical people include your HR Manager, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager.

For the best HIPAA training, go through the US Department of Health and Human Services website. However, for additional training, make sure you choose a trusted, respected, and reliable source.

While you’ll have no problem finding an LMS, not all offer the same caliber of service. Go1 is by far your best option. With a vast library of courses on patient privacy and an affordable membership price, you can access whatever training you feel your team needs to complete in support of HIPAA training.

Although HIPAA training protects patients and clients, it also protects your business and the people who work for it. Enforce the completion of mandated courses and select supplemental training for optimum protection. The last thing you want is to have the government breathing down your back about a potential non-compliant issue. We invite you to visit our website or call to speak with a representative.

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All you need to know about HIPAA training

I am so excited to join Go1 as a Global Learning Strategist in the United States.

My entire career has been in learning. When I graduated with an English degree, my first job out of college was a technical writer. I researched and proofed technical articles. It turns out, these articles were for training courses and I quickly discovered a passion for learning and development.

My learning journey allowed me to travel the world working for some of the most incredible organizations. One of my most earliest memorable projects was managing the creation and delivery of Dealer Training for General Motors. Other favorite projects include developing onboarding training at Fidelity in Ireland, new hire IT training at HSBC in London and Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, and managing the team who developed the Google Cloud Platform Training team in various countries!

It’s a very exciting time for learning technology and the need for good training has never been stronger. Organizations are rapidly changing and the need for “learning in the flow of work” is absolute. Gone are the days of three week long programs. Workers need answers as they are working, and often a 5 minute tutorial will help them quickly complete critical tasks. This is what led me to Go1.

There is learning content everywhere. But, who has time to go find it? And, companies shouldn’t need to subscribe to four different content providers to get all of the training their staff needs. What impressed me the most about Go1 boils down to three things:

commitment to sourcing the BEST content in the world from the top content providers

flexibility to bring all of the content you need, into the technology you are already using, or have a learning portal created for you

This last point is a big one. Whether you have 100 employees or 100,000, the cost to bring every piece of compliance, management, IT, and health and wellness training is not a deterrent. No matter the size, all companies now have a scalable, affordable solution for delivering the best training their employees need to improve the success of the business as well as the quality of their careers.

Please reach out and tell me about your learning initiatives! Caroline.brant@go1.com

Or connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinebrant/

Caroline Brant talks about why she joined the Go1 team

Throughout 2018, the Go1 Team have been working on a range of new features and improvements that will help to improve the learning experience of all of our customers and their learners.

Our Go1 Product webinars take place every month and cover everything you need to know about the latest feature available on the platform, including a Q&A session where you can ask any questions you might have around anything to do with Go1.

We understand that not everyone is always able to make it to our webinars, so we have recording available below so that you can catchup on all of the details, and share with your team.

Webinar: GO1 Platform December Updates

In the final Go1 Product webinar of 2018, Go1 Senior Project Manager Liz Hardie is on hand to walk you through the latest product updates and give you a sneak peek into what 2019 will bring:

Liz walked you through the newest Go1 Premium providers, so you know what to add to your Go1 learning program for the new year.

In early 2019, Go1 are making improvements to how you navigate the Premium library (and content Marketplace), so you can find and search content more easily, which Liz will also talk you through.

Wrapping up 2018 and entering 2019 we will highlight some new changes including:

Monthly Product emails we will be sending to Admins, highlighting user activity and new content providers.

Changes to how Go1 will be able to support you.

Training Assist: How you can pair your Go1 online learning, with face to face training, plus much more!


Check out last month's webinar on event functionality changes. 

Webinar catchup: Go1 December Platform updates

Here at Go1, we strive to partner with the best content creators in the world to provide our customers with the highest quality training content available in the market. For this reason, we are excited to announce that Learn Now Online has come on board with Go1 as a brand new content partner.

You can now access training from Learn Now Online as a part of your Go1 Premium subscription for no additional costs.

Learn Now Online is a provider of IT Skills and Developer courses which range from beginner (eg non-technical employees learning to code) to advanced (IT professionals perfecting existing or learning new skills). Their content is created by respected industry experts and is great for developers, system admins, and anyone learning to code or improve their basic IT skills.

Learn Now Online provides proven eLearning solutions to individuals, small-to-medium size businesses and large corporations across the world. Their award-winning solutions not only provide the best content but are also packed with features that make them unique among the entire eLearning industry.

Learn Now Online understands what learners need to succeed. Talent development is an ongoing process, and the needs of customers are ever-changing. Their solutions provide learners with engaging tools to support their individual learning style through watching, listening, reading, and doing, and they empower managers with reporting tools to measure success.

Together, Learn Now Online and Go1 deliver the most effective eLearning solutions addressing the needs of a diverse employee base. You can now find 701 Learn Now Online courses in Go1 Premium, some of which retail for over $1000, which represents incredible value for Go1 customers.

Get started with Learn Now Online and their courses today!

Go1 announces new partnership with Learn Now Online

You know those people who always seem so confident, capable, and able to get along easily with everyone? Taking everything in their stride and keeping calm under pressure?

Those people most likely have high levels of emotional intelligence (EQ).

Employers are always on the lookout for workers with high emotional intelligence.

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

In fact, emotional intelligence is considered to be one of the most important factors in maintaining successful relationships, impacting on how we connect with the people we work, live, and socialise with.

But how do you know if you’re high in EQ? Or if you’re someone who is lacking emotional intelligence? After all, it’s not really something you can measure or test.

Read on to find out more about emotional intelligence, why it’s so important in the workplace, and what you can do to improve your own EQ.

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 behaviour and tendencies.

Social competence concerns your social awareness and relationship management skills – your ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviour 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 behaviour, navigates social complexities, and makes personal decisions to achieve positive results.

As you can imagine, this has a huge impact on the quality and success of your interpersonal relationships – in the workplace, as well as in your personal life.

We’re seeing that employees with highly developed emotional intelligence are far more likely to be successful in their careers. In fact, 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 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.

At this point you’re probably wondering about your own level of emotional intelligence. And if it’s letting you down in your career.

Dr Travis Bradberry, co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, is well-known for his work on emotional intelligence.

“Emotional intelligence affects how we manage behaviour, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions to achieve positive results,” Bradberry explains.

According to Bradberry, these are some of the key behaviours that are the hallmarks of a low EQ.

You make assumptions quickly and defend them vehemently.

You blame other people for how they make you feel.

Working to eradicate these patterns of behaviour will go a long way in improving your level of emotional intelligence and your interactions with the people around you.

So: keen to start building up your own EQ?

Fortunately, your level of emotional intelligence can be developed and improved over time. As Bradberry puts it, “unlike your IQ, your EQ is highly malleable.”

This means you can train your brain by repeatedly practicing new emotionally intelligent behaviours. Over time, your brain will build the pathways needed to turn these behaviours into habits, while replacing any old destructive behaviours.

You’ll soon start to feel more confident in your ability to recognise and manage emotions – both your own feelings and those of other people. And as you continue to strengthen your emotional intelligence, you’ll notice you can apply these newfound skills to the workplace, improving your working relationships and keeping your emotions in positive balance.

Everyone has worked for a boss that lacks in one area or another. While “good” at what they do, they fail to motivate, encourage, and support – all necessary qualities of a “GREAT” boss. If you work in a position of authority, regardless of the company size or industry, you owe it to yourself, your staff, and your employer to be the best manager possible.

Along with the three above-mentioned primary qualifications of a great boss, there are many others.

The people who work under your leadership truly want to excel at what they do. However, if they don’t understand your clear vision and goal, you’ll likely find that there’s a lot of wasted time and effort across the board.

Your team needs to see the results of what they do; otherwise, their daily tasks have no meaning. As an example, one woman worked for a salt company dispatching workers to repair different types of equipment inside of mines. However, having never been inside a salt mine, there was no connection between her actions and the repair work involved.

Instead of allowing her to feel inadequate and unmotivated in her job, her employer had her go down inside one of the mines. Visually seeing the equipment first-hand and meeting some of the technicians made all the difference in her performance.

A lack of performance expectations is one of the leading causes of stress in the workplace. It’s essential for you to lay out not only the department’s goal, but also individual goals for each employee. As a result, you’ll find your team becomes more invested in achieving the set objectives.

Knowing what you expect from each member of your team gives them something to strive toward which, in turn, helps reduce stress. A great boss also communicates any modifications to expectations whenever there’s a change in priority.

You’ve heard the term “constructive criticism,” which is imperative as a great boss. However, it’s just as crucial to give kudos when warranted as it is to point out areas that require improvement. For you to advance from a good to great boss, provide your staff with consistent feedback and mentoring.

As a manager, it’s your job to address both positive and negative things that happen in the workplace. If an employee doesn’t handle a customer service call correctly, instead of berating that individual, provide guidance or schedule online training. On the other hand, if a worker goes above and beyond to assist a customer, make sure you acknowledge it.

Although sometimes tricky, you want to make every effort to build a personal relationship with each person on your team. That doesn’t mean spending time together outside of work, but you should try to learn about each individual’s personal life to some degree. For staff members with children, ask about them; for someone who has some kind of hobby, show interest.

A simple comment like “Is your daughter feeling better today” after learning an employee has a sick child or “How was the miniature train exhibition” when you know someone planned to attend one creates trusted relationships and motivates employees.

At the same time, you need to be somewhat transparent in your personal life. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to know things about your employees without them having some insight into your life. The key is to use experiences as learning tools. For instance, if someone stole a parking space while out shopping, you could share the story but explain how it wasn’t worth becoming upset over.

In a Reader’s Digest article, Jerry Acuff, a sales and marketing agent, was quoted as saying, “Employees want us to care about them. They want us to help them succeed. The best way to do that is by providing competent job instruction, combined with providing your workers independence in doing their job.”

Acuff went on to say, “Fall in love with your people. You have been entrusted with one of the most important responsibilities in life – helping someone else succeed.

Those are powerful words with in-depth meaning. As a manager, you have the opportunity to help mold someone into becoming successful in his or her career. By opening up to some degree, you humanize the relationship with your employees, yet also tell stories that serve to mentor.

There’s nothing worse than going to work each day to a strictly regimented job where no one has fun. Yes, there’s work to do – but make it exciting. Small gestures go a long way. You might make it a tradition to pay for lunch each Friday for your team or to bring in freshly baked donuts and pastries every Monday. You can also organize contests whereby the person who reaches the goal first receives a $25 gift card.

A “good” boss smiles and makes the work environment comfortable: A “great” boss incorporates fun activities for the employees. Anything from a dress-down day to an off-site team-building event gives your employees something to look forward to, which makes the job fun.

Regardless of the size of your department, you want to foster a team mentality. Especially when overseeing a significant number of people, there are a lot of different personalities and opinions. Remember, each of those serves an important purpose when corralled as a team. While sometimes challenging, push for unity. In addition to achieving more, each employee will feel like a viable member of the team.

You should not only listen to employee feedback: You should also solicit it. Although you should have excellent knowledge of each worker’s role, there’s often an opportunity to learn how to do something better by listening to your individuals team members. By asking for feedback, you help unleash your employees’ creativity and give them more freedom to think proactively.

Sure, giving verbal support to your team is critical, but as a great boss, you need to do more. Make sure your staff has the resources and tools necessary to perform at the level you expect. That could be anything from securing a new computer to registering them for online training. Instead of getting in the way of your team’s performance, ask them what they need and then follow through by providing it.

Many managers believe they do an excellent job when, in fact, they’re far from great. Part of your responsibility involves taking a hard look at yourself and how you manage your team. Although you might discover some things that make you feel uncomfortable, if you genuinely care about the company and your employees, you’ll do whatever it takes to transform from a good to great boss.

In one instance, a manager for a pharmaceutical validation company was more than difficult. He berated his employees in front of others and often threw temper tantrums. One of his computer experts spent an entire day creating a detailed blueprint; however, it required one minor change. Instead of giving that individual guidance, this manager placed the CAD drawing on the floor and poured his hot cup of coffee on it. True story.

To become a great boss, you need to identify any areas of weakness and be willing to make changes in how you manage your team. In exchange, you’ll see a remarkable difference in attitude, morale, and performance – and you’ll enjoy your role far more.

Multiple studies show that when morale declines, employees automatically disengage. When that happens, people become stressed, which wreaks havoc on performance and production. In no time, you have a dysfunctional and chaotic team. Even worse, you could end up with a hostile work environment, which puts people at risk. The cause of this falls back on you. The good news is that you can change, which in turn improves your employees’ mindset and actions.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American worker spends 44 hours a week at work. When you consider how much you and your staff are together, why not make the time as enjoyable as possible? A great boss takes advantage of online training to learn how to create a positive environment that allows workers to achieve excellent results.

You’ve probably heard the proverb, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy,” something Jack Nicholson typed over and over in the movie “The Shining.” While somewhat creepy, it’s an accurate depiction of what can happen when you’re all business, all the time at work. There’s nothing wrong with being career-minded, but if you take it too far, you’ll end up with a miserable team that dreads coming to work each day.

You also need to remain mindful of the relationships you have with your employees. As mentioned earlier, it’s fine to know some things about peoples’ personal lives, but be wary of becoming “buddies.” For one thing, this gives the other members of your team the impression that you show favoritism.

Also, if have to reprimand or perhaps terminate your “friend,” you would find yourself in an uncomfortable position. In that situation, the person you hang out with could take advantage of the friendship, putting your job on the line. Even if you and one of your workers have a lot in common and enjoy each other’s company, as a great boss, there’s a line you shouldn’t ever cross.

Whether due to insecurities or just an oversight, pay attention to how and when you share company information. In a leadership role, you’ll need to keep some things private, but anything of public knowledge, you should share with your staff. If your employees hear news from an outside source, they could resent and distrust you.

Another true story involves an employee who fell on hard times. A manager working in HR knew this individual would receive a $2,500 bonus and, feeling bad for her, shared the news. While the manager thought she did something good, unbeknownst to her, the employee went directly to the head of HR to tattle. Although the company didn’t fire the manager, it lost trust in her as she shared private information that wasn’t hers to share.

A great manager has a clear understanding of his or her responsibilities to the company. In your position, you need to know your employer’s expectations and abide by its wishes. Even if tempted, understand what and when to share company news.

Do you loathe going through annual employee reviews? While other managers might share your sentiment, this is something your staff expects. Especially if reviews crop up at the busiest time of the year for your company, as a great boss, you need to make time to ensure that every person on your team gets the review and discussion time they deserve. As discussed later on, you can always delegate responsibility, freeing up your time to make the reviews happen.

Dealing with conflict within a department is a problem area for a lot of managers. However, in your role, you don’t have the luxury of pretending everything is fine when an issue arises. If necessary, you can engage your HR director and/or risk management director.

Ultimately, you want to step in immediately after you become aware a conflict exists. By Allowing things between employees to fester could negatively impact morale, production, and potentially put everyone in the company at risk for workplace violence.

If you’ve been in management for a long time, there’s an excellent chance you’ve become set in your ways. Without even realizing it, you could be holding your team back rather than tapping into its creativity. Instead of stifling your forward-thinking employees, embrace their ideas and implement change when appropriate.

Look, your employees are humans just like you, which means they’re going to make mistakes from time to time. While having everyone achieve perfection would be nice, it’s unrealistic. If you typically come down hard on your employees when they make mistakes, remind yourself to provide guidance and mentoring instead. Remember the saying, “Treat others like you would like to be treated.”

For a worker struggling in a specific area of his or her job, rather than lose hope, consider providing that person with online training. For instance, if you have a member of your team responsible for handling customer service calls who doesn’t always provide the correct information, find courses that will help with focus and communication.

For you to become a great boss, you should never procrastinate. Whether you delay the follow-up on an employee’s question, put off annual reviews, or fail to schedule a promised team-building day, there’s no room for being lax with your employees.

As a great boss, avoid putting things off. Even if a problem arises, rather than deal with it the following day or later, jump on it right away. By doing so, you set the tone that, while you’re a fun boss, you’re also aware of things happening within your department. Avoiding procrastination builds trust between you and your team.

Micromanaging is one of the worst offenses in the eyes of your employees. What this teaches them is you don’t trust they can do their jobs. For whatever reason, you feel the need to check, double check, and triple check everything your staff does. If you want employees with low morale and no sense of self-worth, all you need to do is micromanage.

As you review the provided information and take advantage of online training courses, you’ll learn how to stop being a serial micromanager and, instead, entrust even important tasks to your team. Again, there’s nothing wrong with having high expectations; however, there’s a high price to pay for looking over your employees’ shoulders all day.

Motivate – Motivation is subjective, meaning the way people respond depends on several factors. As a great boss, the goal is to identify what motivates each employee and the team as a whole. Set high standards for professionalism, communication, and productivity. If someone fails to meet those standards, instead of blaming, use the type of motivation required to turn the situation around.

Communicate – Always keep the line of communication open with your staff. Even when everything runs smoothly, take time to congratulate your team and express thanks for their hard work.

Develop careers - There’s no joy or gratification in seeing someone fail. Even if you have to put in a little extra effort, you can make a difference in your department, for the company, and in an individual’s business and personal life. A great boss helps employees reach their full potential, emphasizes their strengths, and motivates them in areas of weakness.

Delegate – You have a team because you can’t possibly accomplish all the company’s objectives yourself. Instead of seeing your staff as nothing more than “workers,” give them the credit, opportunities and respect they deserve. Engaging your employees is an excellent way to motivate and support their career goals.

Build trust – The more trust you have in your employees, the more trust they’ll have in you and the company itself. A strong foundation based on trust leads to a positive work environment – one where people feel appreciated and secure.

From good boss to great boss: do you have what it takes?

At Go1 we're passionate about bringing the learning community together so that we can, collectively, address workplace learning challenges and share transformative learning experiences to help each other grow. Our meetups are for learning and development professionals who want to discuss best practices, strategies, and innovation in learning design, delivery and instructional technology.

We're very excited to announce our first Melbourne Learning and Technology Meetup and our second Brisbane Meetup!

To end the year on a high we're bringing you Australia's best in learning and technology to speak about Content Curation vs Content Creation and which is the better option. We'll be holding the meetup in Melbourne on the 5 December and again in Brisbane on the 11 December. Both meetings will run between 6pm and 8:30pm, and we will have food and drinks for all attendees.

Please RSVP to reserve your free ticket here:

How social and workforce trends influence whether trainers choose to create vs curate training

Simple ways curation can be used to enhance training

What the future of content curation will look like (AI/ machine learning)

Scott Cooper, VP of Marketing at Go1 and author of A Guide to Better eLearning
and
Jason Wong, Learning and Development Consultant at Pentana Solutions

Scott Cooper is VP of Marketing at Go1.com, an online training platform for businesses to train staff, the author of A Guide to Better eLearning and founder of learning newsletter OnlineLearningWeekly.com. The Brisbane start-up, Go1.com, has offices in the US, South Africa, Vietnam, the UK and Malaysia.

As a Learning and Development Business Partner for Pentana Solutions, Jason Wong has extensive experience working for larger organisations, in a regulated industry. He believes that the correct approach to designing any induction or introductory learning solution should begin with the learner’s need at front-of-mind and believes a Learning Management System is a necessity, not an option, assisting in the facilitation of learning and compliance to achieve the right outcomes.

Vu Tran, Co founder and CGO of Go1
and
Heidi Mayhew-Sanders, Director, Human Resources at Bentleys (QLD) Pty Ltd 

Vu Tran is the co-founder and head of growth at Go1.com, the world’s largest onboarding, compliance and professional development platform. Vu has a passion for improving the world through helping companies grow talent and provide better staff training using the best technology.

With over 20 years’ experience in Human Resources both in Australia and internationally, predominantly in the Financial and Professional Services space, Heidi has led the HR division at Bentleys QLD to successfully deliver tangible results for the firm. Over the past few years, Heidi and the team have focused on building a robust and sustainable learning and development program. Heidi is particularly passionate about promoting a culture of knowledge sharing in the firm, and is constantly looking for innovative ways to capture the firm’s knowledge capital.

Our speakers will be holding an interactive conversation that will allow you to be involved in the conversation and walk away from this meetup with some solutions that you can start applying in your workplace straight away!

We're looking forward to seeing you all there!

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.

Content: Curation vs creation - Which is better? - Go1

Learning and Technology Meetup: Content Curation vs Content Creation - Which is Better?

 We’re excited to announce the final Go1 Product webinar of 2018 will be taking place on December 7th at 8:30am AEDT (December 6th 2:30pm PST).  

If you are not available but would still like the recording, register your interest in the link above and you will be sent the recording after the webinar.

In the final Go1 Product webinar of 2018, Go1 Senior Project Manager Liz Hardie will be on hand to discuss the latest product updates and give you a sneak peek into what 2019 will bring.

Liz will walk you through the newest Go1 Premium providers, so you have a better idea of what content to add to your Go1 learning program for the 2019 New Year! Also, in early 2019,  Go1 will be making improvements to how you navigate the Premium library (and content Marketplace), Liz will talk you through these changes so you can find and search for content more easily.

New monthly Admin emails to support your need for data on user activity. 

Training Assist: showing you how you can pair your Go1 online learning, with face to face training.

Webinar: Go1 Platform end of 2018 updates

In collaboration with Blue Ocean Academy™, Go1 is proud to announce that we will be facilitating the first official Blue Ocean Explorer™ Workshop within Australia which is set to be held from January 16 – 18, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.

Learn the underlying blue ocean concepts through a pre-workshop online Blue Ocean 101™ course, at your own convenience, anytime and anywhere.

Learn to apply these blue ocean concepts and methodologies during the three-day workshop, which will be led by world-class blue ocean practitioners, who have more than 15 years of global experience. Follow a step-by-step and collaborative process to create your own blue ocean move through the online creative workspace - Blue Ocean Studio™.

At the end of the workshop, you and your team will have an executable blue print and will have achieved a collective buy-in for this blue ocean move.

You will be awarded a Certificate of Completion for successfully completing your pre-workshop self-directed online Blue Ocean 101™ course, as well as a Certificate of Achievement for successfully creating your first blue ocean move during the three-day workshop.

Upon completing Blue Ocean Explorer™, you will be invited to become a member of our Blue Ocean Community™, a global network of blue ocean practitioners.

The Blue Ocean Explorer™ also includes pre-workshop preparation consisting of a self-paced online course Blue Ocean 101™, which is part of the Blue Ocean Studio™, and which will take you through the underlying concepts and principles behind the blue ocean tools and frameworks.

The Blue Ocean Explorer™ is conducted via onsite and online guidance through the use of the Blue Ocean Studio™ and is facilitated by expert blue ocean practitioners. The workshop will comprise of a maximum of 25 participants divided into groups of 5 on average.

Blue Ocean Studio™ is an online, interactive and collaborative workspace where you will gain practical experience in applying the concepts of Blue Ocean Shift™.  Through a step-by-step guided process, using all the blue ocean tools and frameworks you can create and collaborate with your team, anytime and anywhere. Blue Ocean Studio™ offers you a transformative way to collaborate with your team and win collective buying for implementation as you formulate your blue ocean ideas.

A full record of your project work will be available for download from your interactive Studio and you may also continue to use your Blue Ocean Studio™ after the workshop for as long as your subscription is valid.

The workshop will be led and facilitated by one of the leading global blue ocean practitioners, who on average have 15 years of industry experience.

How much is the participation fee for the Blue Ocean Explorer™?

The workshop participation fee is USD 2,850 per participant which includes a three-month subscription for the Blue Ocean Studio™ and Blue Ocean 101™ course. Details of Blue Ocean Studio™ and Blue Ocean 101™ course are available under their respective product pages.