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?

Continuous Learning Continues to Create Opportunities

According to a survey commissioned by Academic Partnerships (AP), human resources (HR) executives agree that advanced academic degrees are important for employees looking to advance in their companies. The advantages of advanced degrees include: Upward mobility (89%), Promotion (86%), and Increases in salary (71%). However, these executives report that only half of their employees hold […]

Untrained Supervisor = Legal Land Mine

Yesterday’s Advisor offered 6 common mistakes supervisors make; today, 10 tips for training supervisors, taken from BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer. The untrained supervisor is a ticking time bomb because there are a lot of things that seem natural or appropriate that are going to result in expensive lawsuits. Training is the only hope. Here are […]

The Dangerous Knee-Jerk No

As the HR manager, you’re on top of things, but that’s only a small part of the battle. The rest of it is fought mostly by your supervisors, and they are not HR experts … yet. Supervisors play a particularly critical role in compliance. They must be familiar and comfortable with organizational policies and with […]

How to Make mLearning Work for Workforce Training

“We believe that mobile technology can become an engine of business learning in the same way the World Wide Web became the backbone of learning during the previous technological revolution,” says Alex Heiphetz, PhD., author of “mLearning: A Practical Approach to Mobile Technology for Workforce Training,” a policy paper from The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation. Heiphetz […]

Picture This! You Using Visuals Effectively in Training

Trainers have a tendency to avoid using pictures in training materials, but “all of the research on learning with pictures indicates that pictures used in combination with words create better learning,” says Jack Massa, owner of Guidance Communications, Inc. (www.guidancecom.com). Massa uses a broad definition of “pictures” to include “any visual that is meant to […]

Corporate Training Trends to Watch for in the Coming Decade

“This next decade is really crucial to the way we develop our people,” says Cottone, a founding faculty member of The Leadership Conservatory and a managing consultant in the Chicago area. “I think a lot of changes are going to take place in the next 10 years.” For example, Cottone expects that employers will identify […]

Do You Train Supervisors to Be ‘Caring’?

From familiarizing supervisors with federal and state employment law to keeping them updated on the company’s policies and procedures, trainers must manage multiple training priorities—often on a limited budget. It can be easy to overlook a “soft” topic, such as training supervisors and managers to demonstrate care for employees and to build positive relationships with […]

Inspiring Training Success from One Company

From internships to continuous learning opportunities for employees, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (www.northwesternmutual.com) has received numerous accolades for its training and development initiatives. Last fall, Northwestern Mutual’s financial representative internship program earned a top 10 spot nationwide for the 16th consecutive year in the 2012 Vault Guide to Internships. “We’re extremely proud of our […]

There’s No Two Ways About It: Two-Way Video Training Is Here!

“Video training has been around in some way for a very, very long time,” says David Stubenvoll, CEO and cofounder of Wowza Media Systems (www.wowza.com), a provider of media server and media workflow software. However, two-way video—a relatively new technology—is becoming increasingly popular in corporate training settings, he says. “With the Internet and with high-speed […]