These days, more organisations are looking for employees with a good combination of ‘hard’ technical skills and ‘soft’ interpersonal skills. Yet a massive 80% of employers are struggling to find graduates with the soft skills they need.

Across many industries, managers and employers are expressing frustration at the lack of soft skills in younger workers – skills such as communication, critical thinking, attitude, and accountability.

Different from technical or functional skills, ‘soft skills’ are considered very valuable to employers, as they add to the overall functioning of your team, or the experience of your customer. In fact, it’s often the soft skills that matter when employees are being hired and fired.

As more organisations are recognising the value of soft skills, it’s really important that employees of all ages cultivate and develop these qualities in the workplace. For employers, bridging the soft skills gap will greatly benefit your business, with more productive, motivated and engaged workers achieving better results.

Let’s look closer at the soft skills gap, how it impacts business, and what you can do to help younger employees improve their skill sets.

The skills lacking in the younger generation

But first, are younger workers really lacking certain skills, when compared to older generations? Bruce Tulgan, author of 2015’s best-selling Bridging the Soft Skills Gap, believes so.

“Today’s young workforce has so much to offer – new technical skills, ideas, perspectives and energy. Yet, too many of them are holding back their enormous potential with underdeveloped soft skills,” he says.

Tulgan began tracking generational workforce issues in the mid-1990s, so he has a lot of insight into the workplace issues that managers complain about most. The most common complaints from managers of younger workers are that many seem to have problems with:

With this information, Tulgan believes there is “a growing gap between the expectations of employers and the reality of how young talent is showing up in the workplace.” And this is what we refer to as the soft skills gap.

Having the right technical skills and knowledge to successfully carry out your job is only one part of being the best you can be in the workplace. In addition to these hard skills, you need a good combination of soft skills to know how to work well with others.

Being able to handle conflict, perform well under pressure and work as part of a team are all very valuable skills for any employee. In addition to this, staff who possess soft skills tend to conduct more satisfying relationships, which leads to better workplace outcomes and a more positive work culture for all.

Let’s say you’re faced with two employees with the exact same set of technical skills. Yet these two individuals are very different when it comes to attitude or the ability to communicate and work as part of a team. Which person will you promote to a higher level – the staff member with the good attitude who is always willing to pitch in, or the uncooperative employee who seems to enjoy making life difficult for their colleagues?

Soft skills also go a long way when it comes to being a good leader, as many traits that are necessary for strong leadership can be linked to high levels of interpersonal skills and EQ. For anyone in a leadership or management position, developing your skills in areas such as problem solving, decision-making and motivating people will be very beneficial.

Hiring employees with advanced soft skills can have a significant impact on an organisation’s ability to function effectively, within its own structure and as part of their industry. For example, with sales-focused companies, employing staff with strong communication and teamwork skills will have a direct impact on customer experience, as well as profits.

Developing soft skills through online training

So how can you help staff to improve and develop their soft skills?

One of the best ways to learn new skills, or improve existing ones, is through online training. Regular, ongoing training will help to build up the soft skills of employees of any age. And bridging the soft skills gap will help your business to retain the best talent.

With many employers neglecting to provide training in these areas, focusing only on hard technical skills, make sure you’re a step ahead of your competitors and get your staff started with soft skills training.

Browse through the Go1 platform to see the huge array of soft skills courses on offer – whether you’re looking for online courses to improve communication, problem solving, critical thinking, or team work skills, we’ll have the right resource for you. You might like to check out our top five online courses to improve soft skills to get started.

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How to bridge the soft skills gap in younger workers

If you sat down with some of the most successful people on the planet, you would learn that they experienced a lot of failures along their journey. Through challenges and disappointments, they gained tremendous insight and knowledge. Instead of giving up, they turned their failures into incredible success stories. You can do the same thing. One of the best options is to take advantage of online education and training.

With easy access to a computer and the internet, combined with the dedication of time and focus, you will be on your way to turning failures into successes. No matter what field you currently work in or want to enter, there are thousands of online videos, courses, and articles to help you with your journey.

To learn from past mistakes and failures, start by adopting the right mindset. Instead of seeing unfortunate situations as a reason for giving up, use them to push you forward. Take all the negativity to challenge yourself. Having a positive mindset will allow you to prove to the world that you will not give up. Instead, you will use your hardships to make you and your career better.

Now that you have newfound determination, you need to set things in motion. Regardless of the work you currently do or want to do, online education and training is an excellent way to succeed. What makes that so exciting is that you can work on courses while on your lunch break or in the comfort and safety of your home. With this flexibility, you work toward your goal at a pace that works best for you and your lifestyle.

Persistence – When it comes to turning failures into successes, persistence is among the most critical aspects. Not only will it help you reach your goal of learning, it will also teach you how to push through challenges along the way, the very things that caused you to fail in the first place.

Time Management – Although you can work at a comfortable pace while learning online, you still need good time management skills. You cannot procrastinate nor try to learn without focusing. For you to fully use online training videos and courses, it is essential to set up a schedule so that you can dedicate your time to working toward success

Communication Skills – While you might not think that you need good communication skills when using online resources, you do. There will be times throughout the process that you come upon something you need help with, which means you need to reach out to the right person. Perhaps not communicating well was one of your failures. Make it a point to have mentors or trusted individuals you can turn to when you feel stuck or even unmotivated.

Motivation – If you want to succeed rather than keep failing, you need to stay motivated. Conduct online research or read biographies of other people just like you, those who had to work through issues to get where they are today. Along with feeling motivated, you will more than likely pick up some important pointers.

No Distractions – As a parent, choose a time of the day when your partner, grandparent, friend, or neighbor can take care of your kids, or wait to study while they sleep. Also, make sure you have a quiet environment, void of music, television, and so on. The more you focus on the course, the easier you will learn.

A great example is a website called The Point that launched in 2016. This site served as a “meeting space” where people could come together to solve a variety of problems. Although the concept was excellent and the endeavor had incredible support, it lost nearly $1 million within the first year.

Most people would see that as a failure, but not Andrew Mason, the person who created the site. Instead of giving up, he switched gears by providing people committed to buying with discounts and deals. The result is the now-successful website called Groupon.

While turning failures into successes, it is also crucial that you work on building your confidence. After all, failures can do a lot to a person’s mind and will. You need to accept that failures are part of life. How they affect you and your career is up to the decisions you make. Like Mason, you must accept what happened, learn from it, and then move on to bigger and better things.

Thanks to online education and training, you can spin a positive outcome regardless of the earlier failure. In addition to bettering yourself and your career, you can take your newfound knowledge and pass it on to others. The bottom line is that failure puts you one step closer to success if you let it.

The business world changes almost daily. With increasing customer demand, many organizations struggle to keep up with production, customer service, technical support, billing, and more. With little if any time to provide employees with training, a lot of businesses have turned to technology. Although new software and hardware programs help, the fact is they often serve as more as a babysitter than actually teaching workers to become proficient in their jobs.

Although state-of-the-art technology will always play a vital role in virtually every business, training is just as critical, if not more so. If you own a company, it is essential that you recognize the value of in-person and online training, not just for your current employees, but also for contractors and new hires. You will find that quality training improves the overall operations of your business.

Even with increasing automation and artificial intelligence, technology will and should never replace training. With online education readily available and affordably priced, there is no reason not to provide your employees with what they need to succeed. However, along with that, it is crucial that you offer in-person training as well. As former US President Barack Obama once said, “If there is no offline interaction, mere online engagement is probably going to be a failure.”

Critical thinking is a significant part of training. Along with gaining knowledge, your employees will learn how to better understand strategies, communications, processes, and more. When you provide an in-person training program, the instructors can carefully observe the body language and facial expressions of your employees. With that, they have the opportunity to fine-tune their teaching methods to garner more interest and interaction.

In-person training also makes it possible for instructors and employees to have open and honest conversations. If someone does not understand a specific point, that person can sit down one-on-one with the teacher to get a better handle on the topic. Technology simply cannot beat hands-on experience.

As part of your in-person training courses, the instructors can teach your employees soft skills. In comparison, technology teaches hard skills. That means that things like creativity, empathy, and emotional intelligence, all intangible skills, come from in-person training as opposed to technology. At that same time, your instructors can teach skills that people should use every day on the job like respect, compassion, generosity, and so on.

While many online training courses do a great job of educating people, even they cannot always replace in-person training. The instructors at your business have the ability to convert information into knowledge that your workers can apply to their jobs. In addition to becoming more efficient, this prepares them to advance in their careers.

Something else to consider about in-person training is that it is engaging, whereas technology is not. Sure, some computer programs are fun and interesting to use, but they will never offer the same human interaction that makes in-person training so vital.

As a business owner, you need to think outside the box when it comes to employee education. Yes, automation and artificial intelligence have a role to play, and an important one at that. However, both in-person and online training are also critical components of your company’s success. With everything combined, the sky is the limit for your business.

Keep in mind that trained workers have more sense of pride in their performance. For that reason, they tend to work harder and achieve better results. In exchange for that, your customers will receive enhanced service and support, which increases their satisfaction in doing business with your company. Ultimately, your business experiences growth from both a size and financial perspective.

What it comes down to is this: There is no technology in existence, nor will there ever be, that can replace the value that in-person trainers and online training courses provide. No matter the size of your company, its industry, or the number of employees you have, you should create a training program for them, you, and your business.

Just make sure that you offer training sessions that cover the right topics and that your workers find enjoyable to attend. You want instructors who make education fun yet informative. The goal is to empower the people who work for you so they can be more efficient and productive in their respective roles.

When you consider that the latest studies show that approximately 5 percent of interviewers reach a decision within the first minute about whether to hire a candidate or not and close to 30 percent decide in just five minutes, it is essential that you come up with ways to stand out from the crowd.

All companies, big and small, want to hire the best talent available. “Talent” does not automatically mean experience, although that is important. The one thing that most companies look for on a resume is the type and quality of training an individual has completed. Why? In addition to a candidate having in-depth knowledge and understanding of a specific type of job, training shows drive and initiative.

When someone walks into an interview with a resume that showcases the completion of various online training courses, it means that individual invested personal time, effort, and money to better him or herself and become more efficient. If you plan to seek employment soon, either complete several training courses before going through interviews or create of list of courses you have signed up to take. Then, list them on your resume.

Respect – Even to the front desk receptionist who greets you, always show respect. Remember, it is common for interviewers to ask other people who came into contact with a candidate about their impression.

Business Attire – Wear the appropriate business attire. Regardless of whether you plan to interview for a janitorial or a director position, men should wear a suit and tie and women a suit jacket and skirt or slacks. The goal is to look professional regardless of the job.

Arrival Time – Make sure you arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled interview. Not only will that give you a few minutes to pull yourself together, but it will also show the potential employer that you respect the company and the interviewer’s time.

Advanced Research – Before going on any job interview, take time to learn as much as you can about the company, what products or services it offers, its philosophy, leadership team, and so on. That way, you walk in educated, making it easier to connect with the interviewer.

The Importance of Online Training on Your Resume

Better Interview – Potential employers will gauge your value by your accomplishments and drive. Adding superior quality education to your resume will help you stand out and open the door to in-depth conversations with the interviewer. That gives you the chance to share what you learned, what you want to learn, your interests, goals, and more. Overall, you end up with a much better interview.

Relevant Skillset – Another benefit of having completed online training courses on your resume is that you get to showcase a relevant set of skills. As mentioned, if you decide to complete courses before interviewing, choose those that align with a specific company, industry, or position. To the interviewer, you will have a unique skill set compared to other candidates.

Integrity and Character – When it comes to personality traits, employers look for two characteristics: integrity and character. They want to hire people who demonstrate drive, maturity, discipline, willingness, and even curiosity. Showcasing your training lets interviewers see that you possess those two critical traits.

How to stand out from the crowd in an interview

Want to give your employees the staff training they need, but worried you don’t have the funds?

Many companies, particularly small business, find traditional training programs too costly for their budget. Booking reputable trainers and speakers, hiring conference rooms or venues, and catering for travel and meals can certainly be expensive.

But rather than neglect your staff’s professional development, it’s important to look for other ways to provide training for your employees. These days, we’re seeing training managers adopting more diverse and creative methods to deliver their learning and development programs. One of the most popular (and cost-effective!) ways to do this is through online learning.

Here, we look at how eLearning can help you provide effective and engaging staff training for your team – on a budget.

It’s easy to see why more organisations, from SMBs to large multinationals, are making the switch to eLearning for staff training needs.

With online learning, you’ll find you can give employees the flexibility, autonomy, customisation and engagement they want and need – at a fraction of the cost of traditional training.

This growing learning trend has seen a huge influx in the training options available online, with a vast selection of online courses, MOOCs, podcasts and webinars developed by experts in different fields.

eLearning – a Cost-Effective Training Solution

So what makes online learning such a cost-effective training solution?

eLearning tools such as online courses and live webinars are incredibly useful and practical, as they recreate the interactive element of traditional classroom learning, without the costs. Team members (even remote workers) can interact and network with each other just as well as in the ‘real world’ – without the need for expensive travel or overheads. What’s more, you can find many online courses being offered completely free!

eLearning goes much further than professional development. You can also create your own online courses for employee onboarding and compliance testing, quickly and easily putting together the exact courses you need for your staff, with fully customised content. Team members can access these eLearning materials as many times as they need, helping to improve the learning experience.

The Many Benefits of eLearning for Staff Training

As well as being cost-effective, eLearning tools and online courses bring a number of additional benefits to your business, including flexibility, consistency, customization and improved knowledge retention. 

The flexibility of online training appeals to many employees, as it allows individuals to work at their own pace and from the comfort of their desired location. It’s an effective training solution for all generations, as eLearning courses can be designed to perfectly fit your target audience, allowing you to tailor online courses specifically to your business and workforce.

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Go1.com has been named one of the top 20 outstanding Australian “Businesses of Tomorrow”, from 200 selected by Westpac for 2018. The companies were recognised for their vision and drive to help shape the nation’s economic future.

Through the program, Go1.com will receive benefits including mentoring, a $50K professional services package and a two-week study tour to Silicon Valley, plus the use of the Westpac Businesses of Tomorrow logo and access to the Businesses of Tomorrow network.

“We are thrilled and honoured to make be named in Westpac’s Top 20 Businesses of Tomorrow,” Go1.com co-founder and CEO, Andrew Barnes, said.

“We are looking forward to deepening our relationship with Westpac as we expand and scale Go1.com into the future,” he said.

In a statement, David Lindberg, Chief Executive, Westpac Business Bank and 2018 program judge, said this year’s applicants demonstrated the scale of movement of the Australian economy into a digital world.

“The digital economy is predicted to be worth $139 billion by 2020 to the Australian economy, as a key driver of change in future, this year’s businesses chosen by Westpac reflect the drive that’s disrupting and shaping the industries they operate in,” said Mr Lindberg.

In the mentor matching program, the top 20 firms get to work with notable Australian business leaders. Go1.com has been paired with Jack Delosa, Founder and CEO, The Entourage Group.

Go1 in Top 20 of Westpac’s 200 Businesses of Tomorrow

As we continue to expand our ever-growing content library to include the highest quality content from across the world, we are very excited to introduce FISH! as the latest content partner to join Go1. 

You can now access training from FISH! as a part of your Go1 Premium subscription for no additional costs, as well as being able to purchase their courses individually through the Go1 Course Marketplace and Training Assist.

Passion. Fun. Energy. Engagement. The philosophy underpinning FISH! to improve organisational culture taps into these key elements and has been used successfully by over 50,000 companies across the world since 1998. Techniques aimed at making individuals happy and active in the workplace are based around the four principles of Be There, Choose Your Attitude, Make Their Day and Play. FISH! is also used successfully in schools to create environments where teachers and students are excited and passionate about learning.

“We are thrilled that FISH! will now be available to Go1 Premium clients,” said Danielle Peters, Director of Fun with The Training Store.

“Millions of individuals have been trained on FISH! around the world and this partnership will now make it easier for HR and People & Culture Managers to share FISH! with their team.”

FISH! eLearning will offer flexibility, the chance to reignite the philosophy for those with previous training or equip new staff for success, help overcome geographical challenges, offer career and personal development, and allow the reporting and tracking of progress.

It is a relationship which both Go1 and FISH! believe is an innovative step forward.

“Go1 are excited have FISH! come on board as a Go1 content partner. Their high quality training content will be a great value add to our Go1 Premium offering” – Rohan Chandler, Head of Content at Go1.

Get started with FISH! and their courses today!

All of us have to-do lists that we work through each day for personal reasons or work. The tasks on the list can range from the more benign house chores or preparing slides for meetings to potentially trickier ones such as planning for holidays or fulfilling your professional development requirements. We often enlist specialised products or services to help us complete the tasks. They can be either physical or digital, e.g., the Dyson hand-held for cleaning, HelloFresh for meal sourcing and preparation, the productivity applications of Office365, TripAdvisor and Airbnb for reviews and accommodations, Go1 for your professional and compliance training needs.

The best products or services are the ones that help us accomplish the tasks within certain constraints. These constraints can be about cost, effort, time, and so on. For instance, I need to renew my first aid qualification as cost-effectively as possible. I can enlist Google Web search to help with the task or I can hop onto Go1 for that. Both would likely yield the outcome I want but the best choice would depend on whatever constraints that accompany the task. If I want to be able to find cheap, quality providers and at the same time, not have to scour through dozens of websites, then the latter option would deliver much more efficiently.

Problems occur when undesirable situations arise during the use of the products or services which slow down or worse, prevent the completion of the tasks. Since the first things that the people encounter in an undesirable situation are the more tangible signs, we are often stuck with those and attempt to solve for them. These are just the symptoms and addressing them does not guarantee that the problems will not re-occur. The focus should always be on the things that actually led to the problems.

The root causes to many of the problems in our context of product and service usage can be traced back to three broad groups. The first one is the product or service enlisted is not being used for what it was designed for. It could be as simple as  a person filling a non-tempered glass (with clear instructions advising against it) with hot water and finding that it cracks. The problem now is the person is unable to drink (from it) because the glass is not usable anymore. If I try to solve for the symptom of the glass cracking, I would just replace the glass with another (potentially non-tempered) glass. The problem will re-occur unless I realise that the root cause is the misuse of the glass.

The second one is the product or service genuinely lacks the necessary features to effectively help with a task. Consider an e-commerce website that allows customers to search and buy kitchenware. If the search functionality does not offer the customers the ability to sort the results by price, then it becomes a problem for those who are more price-conscious. The third is the product or service does not operate the way it was intended to. An example would be a vacuum cleaner stopped working after the third use despite the unit being new and the battery being fully charged.

In the following sections, we will look a scenario and unpack two potentially intertwined but distinct topics: the right product for the task and problem solving associated with product usage. For the first one, we discuss the importance of selecting the right product for the task; the lack of which could potentially give rise to problems with the use of the product. This brings us to the second topic of separating the root causes from the symptoms in solving problems associated with the use of products. Together, the ability to build or recommend products that are best suited for the users and to identify root causes for problem solving along the way are the two most critical skills to have in areas such as customer service and product development.

It was a long weekend. Luke visited a hardware store with a broken drill bit on Saturday. As he walk through the entrance, he was greeted by a customer service person. He asked how he could help. He showed him the broken drill bit and was pointed to aisle 18 for replacement. Luke went to the aisle and walked away with a replacement, two of them in fact.

The next day, Luke went back to the same store with two broken drill bits. He went straight to aisle 18. He saw a staff member standing near the electric drill section. Luke showed her the broken drill bit and told her this is the third one in two days. She had a look and asked him what surface was he drilling on. He said concrete and she told Luke that he has been using the wrong drill bits. She pointed him to the right ones and he walked out this time feeling reassured.

The next day, Luke paid the store another visit. He bumped into the same person who introduced him to the masonry drill bit the day before. He told her that the drill bit did not break this time but he cannot seem to get a hole in the concrete wall. She asked him what kind of drill he was using. It was then that Luke found out his regular cordless drill was not fit for the task. He needed a hammer drill and he went to get one. He did not have to go back to the store after that.

It was Saturday the week after and Luke had some friends over for dinner. He showed them to his living area and the photo frames that he have put up recently. He told them about his bad experience with the drill. It was only then that Luke found out there is a new product by 3M that allows him to reliably hang pictures without nails.

Let us first unpack the scenario above from the perspective of tasks and products. As they say, there are many ways to skin a cat. It is important that we first understand the task and the constraints within which the customers want the task to be done before building or recommending products for them. The actual products or services should always come second. In our scenario, the customer was fixated on a particular product to accomplish the task of hanging pictures on the wall. During his repeated visits to the store, the staff members whom he interacted with just went with his choice without questioning what the product was being used for. If the constraint is about being hassle-free, most of us would agree that there are better ways to get the task done. Let us be clear that whilst the “hole in the wall with a drill” approach may not be ideal for that particular customer, it does not constitute a problem.

There is a saying in the innovation community that goes “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole”. I would go further by saying most people do not want holes in their walls, they just want to hang stuff off them. The trick here is to recognise and cut through the intermediate outcomes that sometimes exist with these sorts of task. What would have been excellent customer service is the store assistants talking to Luke about what he was trying to do with having holes in the wall. That would have saved him the effort of running around and the cost associated with purchasing new drill products just to arrive at the same outcome that the use of 3M strips would have.

What causes the problems with the product?

The other important skill that we can unpick from the scenario is root causes versus symptoms for problem solving. The scenario above can be complicated as there are two layers of hiccups associated with completing the task of hanging the pictures. The first layer has been discussed above, which is the hassle from the use of a product when a better-suited alternative approach exists. This may be an inconvenience but it does not qualify to be a problem. The real problems exist in the second layer from the inappropriate use of the product.

Let us assume that Luke really needed the holes in his wall for some reasons. The inability to create those holes using the drill then becomes a problem. Isn’t the drill bit breaking causing the problem you may ask? In reality, the staff member was just helping Luke address the symptom when he points Luke to the aisle to get drill bit replacement. Did replacing the drill bits fixed the problem and helped Luke get the holes he wanted? No, that is not the root cause.

The next time when it was pointed out to Luke that he was using the wrong type of drill bit, the store assistant just drilled into, pun intended, one of the two root causes. In other words, the drill bit breaking was not the root cause, the use of the wrong type of drill bit is. It took Luke another trip to the store to find out the other root cause – he was using the wrong drill. All in all, the incorrect use of the product was the thing preventing Luke from creating the holes, hence the problem. This fits into the first group of root causes as mentioned initially in the article.

We discussed about the importance of helping customers find the most appropriate products or services for their tasks. The use of products that are less suited for the tasks can give rise to all sorts of problems. When problems do occur from the use of products or services to perform tasks, the ability to get to the root of a problem is critical. Addressing symptoms instead of tackling the real problem can be costly for a business. However, getting to the root of the problem can sometimes be challenging, especially if there are multiple causes or the tasks are complicated. Some of the techniques such as the jobs-to-be-done framework which have been discussed in another article can help us build or customise products to solve unmet needs, and the “5 whys” to help us get to the bottom of things. And if anyone ever needs training in these areas, we know that Go1 is the right tool for the job!

Managers: How to Develop Your Employees in 10 Minutes a Week

Imagine for a moment that your employees were consistently improving their skills. And imagine if your employees were developing new capabilities. Sounds like a manager’s dream come true, doesn’t it? Employee development sounds incredibly attractive. But bosses have already got so much on their plates so when are they meant to find the time to develop their employees? And besides employee development sounds like one of those things that HR does.

Now HR does have a role to play in employee training and development. But what I want to share with you is why effective managers take ownership of their employees development. And if you can spare 10 minutes a week then I can show you how you can improve your employees skills and capabilities. And why your employees will love you for it.

How Effective Managers Use Employee Development as a Management Tool

The secret to manager success is that managers succeed when their employees succeed. Effective managers don’t try to be the super hero boss who does everything themselves. Effective managers know how to get the best from their employees. And employee development is one of the tools that you can use to improve employee performance.

PS: Are you looking to Develop Your Own Manager Skills? This article includes extracts from the online training course: How to Develop Your Employees. Are you responsible for the performance of employees as a manager or as someone who works in HR? Find out how to develop your employees in just ten minutes a week.

How Developing Employees Increases Employee Motivation & Retention:

Your employees want to feel like they are learning and growing,

Your employees like to do work that they are good at, and

Your employees want to know that you care about them enough to invest in their future

Did you ever have a teacher, mentor or a coach that helped you to grow? Did that help you to reach your potential? If so, don’t you think it’s time that you played the same role to your employees?

Tip: Help your employees to help themselves by assigning the “How to Develop Yourself” course to them.

Obviously more capable and motivated employees make your job as a manager easier. But because so many managers are snowed under with work I just wanted to speak about finding the time for development.

Some managers think that they don’t have the time to develop their employees. But effective managers know that investing in employees saves them time because:

Skilled employees make fewer mistakes that managers have to fix,

Skilled employees know how to do their job faster and

Managers can manage their workload better when they upskill their employees to support delegation. (See related resource: Ultimate Guide to Delegation)

The 10 minute, Step by Step, Coaching Process

Secure your employees motivation and commitment to the development process,

Help your employee to identify development opportunities,

Collaborate to set performance improvement goals. (TIP: don’t set training goals, set performance goals to ensure that the development results in a business benefit),

Collaborate to identify training resources. (TIP: Check out the Go1 marketplace as a starting place because there’s a wide variety of affordable training solutions),

Collaborate to agree on an action plan (TIP: Help your employees to find development time by agreeing on development time slots, see this video for how this works),

Track your employees process and keep your employee on target (TIP: Don’t solve your employees problems for them, use Active Listening Skills to encourage them to solve their own problems),

Related resource: If you want more detail on how to do this then look at How to Develop Your Employees.

Managing employees is a difficult job, especially when so few managers are trained in the essential management skills. Improving your manager skills will give you confidence in your management ability. And I can tell you that when you help your employees to learn and grow, it feels pretty awesome too.

Developing Employees as An Essential Manager Skill

So now that you’ve seen how developing employees improves employee performance you’ll see why I consider developing employees to be one of the Essential Manager Skills. It’s tempting to leave development in the hands of HR. But I believe it’s worth taking an active and regular interest in developing your own employees. After all - it’s you as the manager who gets the benefit of a skilled team.

Thanks for making it to the end. If you are a manager and found this useful, this article includes material from the course How to Develop Your Employees Find out how to develop your employees in less than 10 minutes a week. This course includes coaching worksheets and a script to secure your employees commitment to the coaching process.


The Go1 platform has got several features that make developing your employees easier. Find out more about how to use these features in the Getting Going with Go1 course

How to develop your employees for better performance and retention

Employers looking for ways to increase employee productivity may find that encouraging employees to take creative breaks could be an effective solution. Studies have shown that scheduled breaks can have a significant improvement on the physical and mental health of employees.

Taking a break not only boosts physical health but can also improve emotional and mental health. As most of us are aware, job-related stress can take a heavy toll on productivity. Even just taking a five-minute break each hour can help employees return to work feeling more refreshed, relaxed, and rejuvenated.

Overworked employees are much more likely to become ill. Even missing one day of work can create serious delays, which is why it’s important to support a healthy workplace. Allowing and even encouraging employees to take breaks on a regular basis can create a more positive and relaxed work environment.

The long-term physical and mental health benefits in the workplace cannot be denied. While some employees will willingly take breaks, others will push themselves until they are exhausted. For this reason, employers might wish to consider instituting a policy of required scheduled breaks.

It’s entirely possible for employees to work too hard. This is particularly true for employees who can set their own schedule. The issue is that continual stimulation can have a negative effect on the brain.

Taking a break for even a few minutes can help employees feel more revitalized and come back to work with renewed sharpness and clarity. Physical movement can also help get oxygen and blood flowing to the brain, which allows employees to work to their full ability.

Regardless of the type of business you run, the work environment can affect the overall productivity of your company. Scheduling regular breaks shows employees that you appreciate them.

This type of policy will ensure employees know they a part of an organization that cares about them, their health, and their happiness. When employees are happy where they work, they naturally tend to be more productive.

Many employees are shy about asking for breaks even when they need them. As a result, they often work up to and past the point of exhaustion.

By scheduling regular breaks, employers can remove some of the burden on employees who might be nervous about speaking up when they need rest. When people feel more comfortable about communicating, the workplace will naturally function better.

How Often Should You Schedule Breaks for Employees?

According to experts, the longest employees should work before taking a break is 90 minutes. In an ideal situation, employees should work for one hour or less before taking a short break.

With that said, the way you choose to schedule breaks for employees may be determined by your workflow patterns and corporate culture. Below are a few popular ways to schedule breaks for your employees to help boost productivity.

Pomodoro Technique – Also known as the 25/5 split, this strategy allows employees to work 25 minutes at a time before taking a short 5-minute break. After four 25-minute work sessions, employees then take a longer 15-minute break. The goal of this strategy is to maximize an employee’s attention span.

50 On and 10 Off – With this strategy, employees work for 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. This strategy works well for employees who have longer attention spans.

Exercising at their desks, such as yoga or stretching

Courses to Facilitate Scheduling Breaks and Boosting Employee Productivity

Rethinking Motivation and Productivity in the Workplace

This course offers scientific research and an innovative model for increasing motivation levels in the workplace.

Reduce Your Stress and Anxiety: Practicing a Simple Meditation

This course can help employees to dramatically reduce their anxiety and stress levels. The lectures contained in this course shows employees an easy-to-learn way to practice effective, yet powerful meditation techniques that will provide physical and mental relief.

Although many people have a fairly good idea of what’s good for them and what’s not when it comes to eating, it can still be a struggle to eat healthy at work. Even so, learning how to maintain a healthy diet in the workplace, including snacking on breaks, can go a long way toward helping employees feel more productive.

This course shows employees how to stay healthy at work by making better food and beverage choices. Employees can eat smarter by choosing healthier places and times to eat.

Employers are not completely responsible for employee productivity, but making the effort to encourage employees to take regular breaks can help employees feel more comfortable about stepping away for a few minutes. That alone can aid in boosting employee morale and productivity.

How you can schedule breaks to increase employee productivity

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