Category: Learning & Development

Employees are valuing career development more than ever—it’s a sign that the company is willing to invest in their future. How are businesses approaching training today? What are their pain points, and what topics are being addressed in training?

Boosting Participation in Online Learning

Online courses can be a great tool for employers. Not only can they accommodate far more employees than traditional, in-person courses that are limited by the size of the room; they also facilitate the ability to include employees from around the country or around the world.

How-Tos of Reverse Mentoring: Part 1—What Is It and Who’s Doing It?

Mentor relationships in the workplace are a great way to build relationships between employees, share knowledge and corporate culture, and retain employees. Traditionally, we think of a mentor relationship as between an experienced mentor with a lot of time spent in the industry and the company and an inexperienced mentee. Typically, this mentee is new […]

Coaching Underperforming Employees–4 Vital Steps

In a study conducted by the Center for America Progress, the cost of losing employees reaches hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, sometimes even millions for larger companies. One way to decrease high turnover costs is to begin coaching employees who are underperforming. Below are four vital steps you must take when coaching underperforming […]

Leadership: 'Bring Me Solutions, Not Problems' Is the Wrong Message

Topic:  Training Strategy Traditional management wisdom would say that it’s good to tell employees: “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions,” but some experts and educators are suggesting that this approach, rather than being empowering employees, does the opposite. It may actually cause employees to shut down and refrain from bringing issues to their managers’ […]

 Maximizing MOOCs for Employee Development

Wouldn’t it be great if you could offer your employees the opportunity to take free, online courses from renowned universities like Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, and others? Courses on subjects ranging from negotiating contracts to high-performance computing–from marketing analytics to Ruby on Rails programming?

Should You Help Employees Make Friends in the Workplace?

The Gallup Q-12, a well-known employee engagement assessment tool, contains a question that has often given people pause: Question #10 asks, “Do you have a best friend at work”? While seemingly “odd,” the question is included for a good reason. Gallup research has correlated having a best friend in the workplace with higher rates of […]

Gender Bias and Inflexible Interview Schedules

Yesterday we explored how job descriptions and a reluctance to accept job gaps negatively influence female workers and can result in gender bias. Today we’ll look at how inflexible interview schedules can do the same thing. Most organizations strive to be gender-blind when hiring. The focus is on finding the best talent, regardless of sex. […]

How to Prevent Job Search Gender Bias

Most organizations strive to be gender blind when hiring. The focus is on finding the best talent regardless of gender. However, even the best intentions can go awry, leading to job search gender bias.

Benefits of Employee Mentorship Programs

Many companies have for years utilized employee mentorship programs. These programs pair employees with a more senior employee who acts as a mentor, helping with anything from finding the lunchroom and introductions to key staff to leadership training and providing insight into company culture and values. Is such a program right for your organization? Here […]

Should You Cross-Train? Here Are the Benefits

Cross-training is a technique employed by some organizations in which an employee spends some time doing—or at least trains to do—work in a different business function. For example, a marketing employee might spend some time working in the operations group. A finance employee might spend time with the sales unit. The same process can be […]