Affiliates

Compliance

Content partners

Learning and development

Learning technology

News

Product updates

Wellbeing

The official Go1 blog. Bringing you the latest insights into learning technology, professional development, thought leadership, and Go1 product news.

Blog

petrol_green

True

The latest HR posts from the Go1 Blog. Bringing you insights into learning technology, professional development and thought leadership.

HR - Go1

Privacy

Terms

Modern Slavery

Cookies

Content Provider Terms

Global settings

Twitter

LinkedIn

Youtube

Remote workers have become increasingly common in today’s workforce, with more and more businesses supporting and encouraging the idea of employees working from home.

These days, many organisations are made up entirely of remote team members, working across different continents and time zones from their home offices, co-working spaces, city libraries, or local cafés!

While remote working has many benefits, for both individuals and their employees, it also has its challenges. Practicing clear communication, staying up-to-date with collective goals, and maintaining productivity are all key to remote work.

If you’re managing remote employees, it’s important to know how to make the arrangement a success for the worker, as well as your team and organisation.

Here are some tips you might find helpful when it comes to managing remote employees.

While working from home has its definite perks, over time it can make you feel a bit disconnected from the team and regular office life.

There’s no doubt that collaboration technology is making remote teams just as efficient and productive as traditional workplace environments. However, as a remote worker you’ll no doubt be missing out on face-to-face interactions with colleagues and managers.

A recent article in Forbes discussed how important it is for remote workers to remain networked as closely as possible with peers and leaders in the office. To achieve this, managers of remote workers should be scheduling regular face-to-face time with team members working away from the office, through Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts.

Having this ongoing contact between manager and employee will help anchor the employee back to the company, while also maintaining a positive working relationship between manager and team member.

Use collaboration tools to connect remote teams

In addition to face-to-face time over video calls, you’ll want to invest in collaboration tools that allow remote workers to stay connected to the team.

Slack is a very popular and handy collaboration tool, suitable for both small and large companies. Through Slack, you can link all of your remote workers together, allowing them to easily communicate and share files in real-time.

Programs such as Slack boost transparency and a feeling of team connectivity, giving employees the ability to chat with colleagues about their projects (or anything really!) and see what their team members are working on at any given time. You can also quickly and easily jump onto a voice or video call through the Slack platform, so your team mates are only ever as far away as the call button.

Invest in the development of remote workers

As a manager, you’re no doubt invested in the professional development of your staff. After all, helping employees to boost their skills, knowledge and experience is a key part of being an effective leader. It’s also highly beneficial to the business, as a company is only ever as good as its people!

Unfortunately, however, remote workers can sometimes be neglected when it comes to professional development – even though this is most likely unintentional. In the same way, employees who work away from the office on a full-time basis can often be overlooked for recognition or promotion. It’s harder to be noticed when you’re less visible.

To avoid this from happening, managers must make a conscious effort to include remote workers in ongoing training and development opportunities. Which is easy to do these days with the help of online learning.

Schedule quarterly sessions, to check in with their progress and identify any learning needs or skills gaps. Enrol them in relevant online training courses and modules. Let them know that you are invested in their development and growth, and keen to support their career goals.

Keep your remote team members in the loop

On that note, it may seem quite small and trivial, but one of the biggest challenges of remote work is feeling left out of the loop and distant from colleagues and team mates.

As a manager, it’s important that you make an effort to keep remote employees up-to-date with things going on around the office – large and small. Keep them informed of organisational news, such as recent hires, internal job postings, milestone events, exciting awards won… all of this will help remote workers to feel more included and connected.

Why not end your regular Skype meetings on this kind of catch up note? You might be surprised at how many good ideas come out over these less formal conversations.

Establish trust and communication with remote workers

To be effective at working remotely, employees need to be clear and proactive communicators. Being able to communicate well with managers is absolutely essential for remote workers. And vice versa.

For most managers, it’s easy to see when an employee is just having a bad day, as opposed to genuinely struggling with their workload. When your team members are right there in front of you in the office, you’re able to get a pretty good sense of how they are tracking.

However, when managing remote employees, especially those working in different countries and time zones, it’s much harder to know what’s really going on. That’s why it’s important to build a positive and trusting relationship with remote staff.

By establishing trust and honest communication, you’re letting remote workers know that they can come to you if they need help with their workload, deadlines, clients, or any factor that could be affecting their job. All of the steps above will help you to build that trusting working relationship.

Want to read more about working remotely? You may also like to check out our top tips for being a successful remote worker.

False

In the last 30 years, research shows that the number of companies offering remote working options had tripled. In this rapidly shifting workplace environment, autonomy is becoming a necessity, rather than a nice to have. 

This need for a more autonomous approach also applies to workplace learning. Traditionally, facilitators led professional development opportunities and guided groups of employees to develop knowledge or set of skills. 

In the digital age, learning opportunities are available to participants as and when they need them, which presents the opportunity for employees to lead their learning, and drive progress from the bottom up. Research suggests that informal rather than formal learning accounts for up to 75 percent of learning within organizations. 

The question is, how can those responsible for workplace training help employees develop the skills needed for autonomous learning? 

What are the benefits of autonomous learning?

The Ethics Centre describes autonomy as “the idea that every person is in control of their thoughts and actions and can be motivated by ‘internal’ forces like choice and reflection.” 

In this sense, autonomy is a philosophical concept, rather than a skill that employees can develop. However, individuals can become more autonomous in their approach when they develop specific soft skills, such as self-confidence and problem-solving.

On a systemic level, this level of independent thought can be challenging, particularly in a large organization. Nevertheless, autonomous work is a necessary part of progress, and organizations need to embrace it to keep up with the pace of change. 

While sometimes difficult to manage, encouraging autonomy also gives employees the headspace and confidence they need to make creative contributions - an equally essential skill in today’s work landscape. 

How to encourage autonomous learning in the workplace

Before learners can start to direct their learning and make the process autonomous, organization leaders need to develop the appropriate learning culture. This process includes building trust between team members at all levels. 

Towards Maturity (now Emerald Group), an organization assessing the effective implementation of learning innovation describes how organizations can achieve this using their “Transformation Curve” roadmap. They summarise the journey into four stages: Optimizing Training, Taking Control, Letting Go, and Sharing Responsibility. 

When organizations make learning and development a priority, ensure that the appropriate systems and processes are in place, and train employees in using these systems, they can begin to relinquish control. They can trust employees to make appropriate decisions for their development that will also benefit the organization as a whole. 

Perhaps the most important soft skill to develop in becoming an autonomous learner is problem-solving. In schools, teachers aim to strike a balance between encouraging students to ask questions and making their way forward independently. As adults, we continue this balancing act: developing problem-solving skills is a lifelong process. 

Autonomous learning isn’t the same as independent learning. While an employee may have identified an area of their work that needs development, they may need to collaborate with others to learn new skills or find answers.  According to the 70:20:10 model for learning and development, 20 percent of knowledge acquisition happens through speaking and interacting with others. Encourage employees to ask questions and speak with their team members about the courses they are taking, or skills they are developing. 

Professional discourse can also be an excellent marker for whether or not employees are both engaged in learning and benefiting from it. Listen in to the informal conversations in the corridors (where appropriate!) and gauge the level of interest. 

Being open to learning something new is about having the confidence to take risks. If you fear failure, you are unlikely to engage with learning, because the risk of not understanding a new concept is high.  When we don’t know how to do something, we need to put ourselves out there to build the skill or find answers. 

Failure and learning from mistakes are all part of this process, and making learners aware of this can be helpful. When those in leadership model and openness to failure and making mistakes, this will filter down to the rest of the organization.   

5. Provide engaging, personalized content

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to simplify this process.

If employees have access to learning content that is both engaging and appropriate to their needs, autonomous learning becomes a natural process.  As ideas or questions spring to mind, they will have the necessary tools and information to hand.

If they can select content and develop in areas they have chosen themselves, they will be more motivated and interested in the subject matter. The success of any learning and development strategy rests on how engaged employees are in the process, at it is crucial to keep track of this continually. 

A one stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available, and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance and business training needs. 

Encourage your learners to own their personal development training, by giving them the flexibility to search and select courses that reflect their professional interests. This helps your employees take the learning outside of the workplace, so they can access it whenever and wherever they want.

Supporting employees to become autonomous learners

Let’s get straight to the point. Optimising your employee lifecycle is all about improving your employee experience so that you improve employee engagement. Improving employee engagement results in happier and more productive employees, and this, in turn, produces happy customers, which subsequently generates more revenue. That’s a win for your customers, a win for your employees and a win for your business. In a world of increasing complexity and demands on our time, having the right systems and processes in place to enhance the employee experience is essential.

 In this article, we will be exploring the critical ingredients for improving your employee experience via two under-leveraged pathways: 

1.     Implementing intelligent HR automation for the right tasks and processes during the employee lifecycle, and

2.     Providing learning and development opportunities in the flow of work so that employees can fit it into their schedules.

 Iron Mountain have conducted a significant amount of research into how automating HR processes provides a means to create the time HR needs to focus on more strategic work. Results indicate that respondents from highly automated HR departments are about twice as likely to enjoy above-average productivity and considerably more likely as those from the least automated HR departments to say they enjoyed above average HR effectiveness (38% to 25%).

 Learning is the top-rated challenge among Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report. People now rate the ‘opportunity to learn’ as among their top reasons for taking a job, and business leaders know that changes in technology, longevity, work practices, and business models have created a tremendous demand for continuous, lifelong development.

We’ve outlined 4 considerations below for improving your employee experience through HR automation, learning and development. The positive results available to HR professionals will flow on to benefit the organisation as a whole to enhance overall performance and long-term growth.

1.      The model of the employee lifecycle

 The proven model known as the employee lifecycle (ELC), is a powerful way to visualise the journey your employees take and how they interact with you. Understanding this model helps you ensure that you’re engaging them at every touchpoint they have with your organisation.

By optimising each stage of your ELC, it is possible to attract and retain a top tier talent for your business.

Here is the framework for the employee lifecycle model:

1.     Attraction: Build the right brand and culture to attract the best candidates to your business.

2.     Recruitment: Develop a multi-channel recruitment strategy and don't forget referrals when assessing who is the best fit for both your company and the role.

3.     Onboarding: Provide an engaging employee experience is essential to the retention and the success of new team members, existing employees and the organisation.

4.     Development: Foster ongoing professional development and continuous improvement across your business.

5.     Retention: Develop strategies and processes to ensure you retain your top talent. A positive company culture is essential. 

Separation: All good things must come to an end. Put a process in place to learn from the experience, continue good morale within your team, and ensure that departing employees leave on good terms. 

2.     Leverage HR automation to enhance employee performance

 Did you know that almost 70 per cent of HR work is still unstructured, relying on excel, email and calls? According to the study on The State of HR Automation in Mid-Sized Organisations, 59% of respondents said the HR professionals in their organisation spend over half their time on manual administrative tasks. Essentially that means that if you don't have the right automation in place, manual, unstructured HR tasks will result in unnecessary complexity, time wasted, and a productivity drain for both HR (and other employees). 

The work required to map, assess and automate the right tasks and processes in your organisation (so as to optimise productivity and minimise complexity), can seem daunting at first. But it doesn’t need to be.

According to Willis Towers Watson’s research, once the decision has been made to adopt automation and artificial intelligence technologies, leaders have to consider the following questions about how to implement that decision:

How, when, and where should we apply automation in our organisations? 

How do we stay on top of technological trends as work and automation continue to evolve?

 Help is at hand, however. Based on decades of experience helping companies transform approaches to work and leadership, Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach for Applying Automation to Work offers a new set of tools for applying automation and artificial intelligence in today’s organisations.

 Ravin Jesuthasan, Managing Director at Willis Towers Watson, and John Boudreau, Professor and Research Director at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Centre for Effective Organisations have written Reinventing Jobs to help HR professionals, managers and business leaders tackle the challenge of intelligent automation.

To achieve the optimal combinations of humans and automation, leaders must implement the following four-step framework: 

1.     Deconstruct existing jobs into key tasks and categorise them.

2.     Determine the payoff of each task: Estimate the relationship between the performance and strategic value of each task.

3.     Identify automation options: Consider the different types of AI and robotics capable of performing each task.

4.     Reinvent the job by optimally combining human and automated work: Create new jobs by determining which human tasks should be substituted, augmented, or transformed by automation.

When viewed through the above lens, human-automation collaboration feels more logical, less scary, and more like a process that can have positive benefits for workers. Ultimately, the aim of HR automation is to enable businesses to improve the employee experience and optimise the employee lifecycle resulting in increased efficiency and reduced costs. By designing, streamlining and implementing solutions that transform manual work into digital workflows HR automation can deliver significant benefits.

Reduce unstructured work that relies on excel, email and calls.

Reduce errors related to data entry and misplaced/lost documents.

Mitigate compliance risk and meet regulatory requirements through digital filing and record keeping.

Enable faster processing and easier data sharing to improve productivity.

Make intelligent, strategic business decisions based on real-time data with actionable reporting.

Encourage collaboration by removing silos between departments and teams.

Improve employee engagement and reduce employee turnover.

Identify the best use of your employee talent through HR data.

Ensure your employees have time to focus their talents on more complex tasks like strategy and using their soft skills to do the work that matters.

 The Harvard Business Review reports that companies which offer comprehensive employee training programs can increase sales by up to 19 percent and profits by up to 29 percent (while also reducing employee turnover by as much as 72 percent). But that’s not the only reason why providing the right learning and development for your employees is important.

Learning and development are major enablers. Education and skills are perhaps the biggest drivers of an individual's own personal earnings potential throughout their career, so organisations that offer training, lots of developmental assignments, and a coaching culture, are now the premium places to work. As more and more robotics and artificial intelligence enter the workforce, Bersin's learning research indicates that for individuals, the 'learning curve is the earning curve.' 

If you want to develop a culture of learning and development within your organisation, Britt Andreatta (PhD), an expert on developing a learning culture makes the following recommendations: 

Honour the ever-present nature of learning.

Use blended learning to maximise options.

 Andreatta says that a learning culture could positively affect organisational productivity and profit in the following ways:

A growth mindset takes root yielding ever-higher levels of performance.

Enhanced creativity and innovation drives individual and team success.

New technology skills are easier to obtain.

4.      Build a self-developing organisation

The 'self-developing organisation’ is an organisation that has the capacity, the technology and the operational agility to develop, train and empower employees on the fly. With the rise of the need for real-time learning and empowerment on the rise, rather than think about your learning and HR strategy as one of 'delivering training,' think about it as 'building a self-developing organisation.'

 Here’s a roadmap for how that might look in your organisation:

Ensure that education and learning content is readily available to anyone, and it’s easy to find and use.

Develops teams where people make time to teach and coach others, and they are rewarded for it.

The company stops and investigates its mistakes, making sure teams learn from failures.

Formal learning programs are easy to access and highly regarded, so people regularly use them.

Leaders at all levels teach classes and workshops (professional, technical, and senior executives).

Onboarding is a serious and formal effort, with a focus on making people productive regardless of where they come from.

Every job has a transition management program to help people learn the job from internal transfer.

Learning technology is modern, easy to use, and fun.

Individuals are rewarded for self-development.

Books, magazines and other external research are readily available.

People are hired for their 'learning agility' and the ability to teach themselves.

Learning is valued as part of the culture and remains in place during good times and bad.

Finding the right training solution for your organisation doesn’t need to be difficult. There are solution providers that provide the right resources for all your professional development, compliance, onboarding, performance management and business training needs. Go1’s training and development courseware provides access to more than 50,000 courses from over 100 of the world's trusted and most respected content providers.

Selecting and implementing the right HR software to automate the types of manual, repetitive and time-consuming tasks that result in unstructured work can be a challenge, but to celebrate the partnership between Go1 and Subscribe-HR, we’ve created a FREE guide to make it easier for you.

 If you’re ready to discover the difference HR automation, learning & development can make to engagement and performance in your business, then this guide is for you. Discover which HR solutions you can use to automate which tasks and the courses you can share at each stage of the employee lifecycle to provide the right learning opportunities for your employees.

Download the free HR Automation, Training & Development guide here. 

This blog post was written in collaboration with Go1 partner Subscribe-HR. 

 In a world of increasing complexity and demands on our time, having the right systems and processes in place to enhance the employee experience is essential.

Optimise your employee lifecycle through HR automation and learning in the flow of work

An article from one of our partners, Roubler.

Automation is frequently seen as the answer to business efficiency. But can it really be applied to all aspects of onboarding new employees? Is it possible to influence an employee’s success using online onboarding tools?

Consider what’s involved in onboarding for a minute. The manager will need to ensure all the relevant paperwork is completed, provide organisation-specific training, give them the work equipment they need, convey potentially complex pieces of information in a way that is both easy to digest and hard to forget, and literally orientate them around the building. That means introductions to colleagues, signposting facilities, and explaining how things work in practice (which may not be the same as how they work in principle). All the while putting the new starter at ease so they can hit the ground running!

Trying to get a computer, or any other automated system, to take all of these duties on would be tremendously difficult, not to mention require the services of advanced humanoid robots. But this doesn’t mean automation can’t lend a hand – for example by using intuitive employee onboarding software and e-learning platforms – to take the legwork out and free up time for those aspects of the process that require a human touch.

In the Human Capital Institute’s study of more than 400 organizations, two-thirds reported that onboarding practices aren’t used to their full potential. Only 40% said onboarding is effective at retaining new hires, in large part because the process has been focused on paperwork rather than people. 

Furthermore, Gallup research found that employees are 3.4 times more likely to feel like their onboarding experience was a success if their manager took an active role in the process and are consequently more likely to stay in their role.

People are the key to giving new employees the best start. Technology should be focused on affording us more opportunities for the important things, better opportunities to connect. Those connections become bonds and in turn those bonds cement a stronger workplace culture. That culture, according to research by Gallup, is responsible for attracting the top 20% of candidates.

It’s clear that less time on administration during onboarding and more time face to face with your manager isn’t just a good idea – it’s a critical success factor. So how can we use online tools to make this happen?

Let onboarding software take care of the paperwork

“At Roubler, we eliminate all of the paperwork and data entry associated with onboarding, such as filling out an employee profile, entering contact details, emergency contacts, medical information, tax and banking information and uploading qualifications and licenses,” explains Andrew Northcott, Managing Director of Roubler.

Customisable onboarding is increasingly being increasingly incorporated into all-in-one workforce management systems. Once a profile is created, data can be entered by the employee via the employee self-service system and flows straight into other tools such as rostering, time and attendance and payroll. Tax declaration and superannuation information can even be sent straight from the system to the tax office saving managers, HR and payroll hours out of their day.

The paperless onboarding process can be completed via a mobile app or a web portal and only takes a few minutes.

“The greatest advantage of this is that employees have all of these tasks completed prior to starting, so their first day can be spent getting to know their colleagues and settling in,” Northcott says.

Spending half a day filling out paperwork can be isolating for new employees, particularly if they are chomping at the bit to get into their exciting new role. When that’s taken care of before they start, the first day can be filled with cake-fuelled morning teas, getting a taste of their new role and spending time with the most important person in their working lives – their manager!

Make use of e-Learning platforms and pre-built courses

There are undoubtedly situations where training needs to be delivered face-to-face, however e-learning tools like quizzes, short courses and games are a great way to train new employees on a variety of topics and get them prepared for their new role.

Consider blending e-learning with face-to-face options to reinforce learning. This works particularly well for topics like customer service and company culture.

Think about delivery. For the best results, training needs to be memorable and enjoyable. Can you turn some of your paper-based manuals into quizzes or games?  

Compliance training on a variety of topics such as fire safety and manual handling can be completed quickly and easily online. They’ll appreciate getting this done before the real work starts.

 Use e-learning platforms to deliver videos about the company culture and team – they can go a long way to helping employees engage with their new employer.

Short video tutorials on the software and processes that the employee will need to use are more engaging than manuals and can be referred to regularly.

Whether you’re a CEO or a retail sales assistant, starting a new job is nerve-wracking. Offering new employees the option to complete some online training prior to their first day can help them feel more prepared. They’ll also feel more comfortable when meeting and working with colleagues for the first time if they already have a degree of knowledge about the company and systems.

Online onboarding tools can greatly enhance the process, speeding up administration tasks to allow more time for those essential face-to-face activities that make onboarding a real success.

But before you purchase any software, there are three important things you need to consider.  

Think of onboarding as more than just filling out payroll information – it’s an entire process that inducts your employee into your company culture and their role. It should start the moment they are hired and continue until their probationary period is over.

Look at what activities are taking up the most time – is it administration, data entry, compliance training or on-site induction? Then look at which of those could be automated without losing personal connection.

Talk to employees who have recently started with you to find out what they feel could have been improved and get an idea of how much automation they feel would be of benefit before personal connection is lost.

By combining onboarding tools and face-to-face activities, and giving employees the chance to start the process before their first day, you’re not just building a successful, sustainable and consistent onboarding program, you’re nurturing employees who feel engaged and connected to your organisation from the moment they are hired.

Katrina Strathearn is the Marketing Manager of Roubler Australia. Roubler’s all-in-one HR system automates employee onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, leave management and payroll with Go1's Online Learning Management System.

How onboarding tech sets new starters up for success

Have you noticed a number of your workmates wearing orange to work today? They’re most likely showing their support for Harmony Day, a day for people across Australia to acknowledge and celebrate the country’s cultural diversity.

With 49 per cent of Australians born overseas, or with at least one parent who was, Harmony Day is an opportunity to pay cultural respect to everyone who calls Australia home. Held each year on 21 March, the day is an important reminder of the need to promote a sense of inclusiveness, respect and belonging, in our schools, workplaces and broader community.

While it’s vital that we work to encourage inclusiveness and diversity every day of the year, Harmony Day serves as a strong call-to-action to generate ongoing discussion around this issue. It prompts each of us to think about and reflect on how we approach cultural diversity in our own lives.

Supporting cultural diversity in your workplace

By respectfully acknowledging Harmony Day in your workplace today, you can show your support for the many diverse backgrounds belonging to this nation and making it a better place – from the traditional owners and custodians of this land to those who have come here from various countries across the world.

On this day, employers and CEOs in particular are urged to reflect on their company’s approach to diversity. If you’re an employer or manager, take a realistic look at your organisation: how are you working to promote a positive and diverse work culture? Are you fostering a sense of belonging for staff, across all cultures, religions and backgrounds?

Businesses perform better when individuals feel included. When employers show that they are strongly committed to supporting diversity, it leads to a far more open, respectful and inclusive organisational culture and work environment for all.

Creating strong policies around cultural discrimination

HR managers must also play a significant role in preventing and addressing workplace discrimination. For all HR professionals, it’s vital that you have a clear understanding of your company’s position on cultural discrimination and harassment, so you can support staff on this issue.

Australian employers should have zero tolerance for cultural discrimination in the workplace. Yet even today, too many people in this country continue to experience prejudice and unfair treatment because of how they look or where they come from.

With Harmony Day also coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, today is a clear, strong reminder to make sure you’ve developed solid policies around these areas and are implementing them across your organisation.

Wearing orange to show your support for Harmony Day

Still wondering why people are wearing orange to work?

According to the Harmony Day website, orange “signifies social communication and meaningful conversations… [and] also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.” Carry these thoughts with you today. And why not choose to wear something orange, to show your respect for cultural diversity and support for an inclusive Australia.

By actively celebrating Harmony Day you’ll be helping to reinforce the day’s key message – which is simply that ‘everyone belongs.’

Celebrating cultural diversity in the workplace

Today, on Friday 8 March, we celebrate International Women’s Day across the world.

For many, it’s a day to celebrate women’s achievements; for others, it’s a reminder and call-to-action to continue pushing for gender equality.

One of the key areas in which we see a lack of gender equality is in the workforce, where there remains a clear difference between the way women and men are treated and valued.

In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2017 has predicted that it will take over two centuries to achieve gender parity across the world – with another 217 years of inequality for female workers.

The gender gap in Australia’s workforce

In Australia, women account for 34% of senior managers and 16% of chief executives in the private sector.

Recent research from three separate organisations shows senior female managers earn, on average, $93,000 less per year than their male equivalents.