Organizations that leverage learning beyond traditional on-boarding and mandated compliance training reap the rewards of a more engaged, more skilled and more productive workforce. But getting today’s distracted, impatient and busy learners to participate in training and development activities isn’t easy. Dealing with the realities of low adoption rates are a reoccurring nightmare for learning and development (L&D) teams. THE COLD, HARD FACTS ABOUT THE DISTRACTED WORKFORCE It’s no secret that you’re competing for your learner’s attention, but here are a few facts that might startle you: • 67% of organizations struggle with low learning management system (LMS) adoption rates1; • 88% of employees don’t have time, or make the time, to engage with L&D oerings, • 64% of managers don’t encourage, enable or follow up with L&D, and • 64% of people are not aware of what is available in their LMS2. The concept of "if you build it, they will come" doesn’t hold true for learning organizations. If you build it, they will not come. Not unless you come up with a solid marketing, content, delivery and engagement strategy to get them there. THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF AN ENGAGING TRAINING PROGRAM The nuts and bolts of an engaging training program really come down to a well thought out strategy focused on the learner’s experience. Many learners forget - or were never really made aware of - the benefits of learning and development. They don’t realize the resources available at their disposal that are designed to polish their skills and advance their careers. It’s your job to make them aware.

Download this interview with memory expert Ida Shessel to gain a deeper understand of how our memories work and how your can help yourself and others use your memory more effectively to improve how well you learn.

CSO Insights’ 2017 Sales Manager Enablement Report compared the win rates on forecasted sales opportunities between companies with a formalized approach to coaching—meaning there is a standard approach used by all sales managers—to those companies where coaching strategies were entirely left up to the manager or done informally. Their findings provide proof as to why a sales coaching initiative at your company is so important: companies who had adopted a formal approach to sales coaching achieved a win-rate on forecasted deals that was 19% higher. In short, developing a strong sales coaching culture offers a great ROI. And great leverage: Each sales manager trained is then empowered to improve the win rates of every sales rep on their team. Here are seven keys that will move you in that direction.

There are dozens of studies and surveys each year reporting on the "state of the training industry." With some modest differences, these reports are consistently reporting very similar data. Among the data points routinely reported are the following: annual per employee spending on training, how many hours of training are available to employees, what training areas organizations are emphasizing, the ratio of training budget to overall expenses or payroll, etc. In other words, you can find a myriad of fascinating metrics all telling about the training industry from the organization’s perspective. What about the employees’ perspective? Aren’t we all supposed to be training employees?

No matter how fun your game-based solution is supposed to be, you will still need a plan for launching it, promoting it, and measuring it. How will you communicate about the game? Will you require players to play? How will you incentivize play... or do you need to incentivize?

Goal management is among the most powerful methods companies have to execute business strategies. Thousands of studies have examined the impact of goal management on workforce productivity.  The common finding from this research is: Effective use of goals often increases employee productivity levels by 25% or more.  The financial value of goal management is staggering given the relatively low cost associated with implementing goal management methods. Because the value of goals is tied to fundamental psychological principles of employee behavior, the benefits of goal management do not depend on being in a certain industry or market.  If a company employees people then it will benefit from better goal management.

NeuroTracker evolved out of a pure science approach through years of research at Prof. Faubert’s Visual Psychophysics & Perception Laboratory. Designed to uniquely measure and enhance high-level cognitive function, it has become established as a valuable research tool for understanding human performance. The not-for-profit CogniSens Applied Research Center (ARC) supports an increasing number of NeuroTracker research projects across a variety of science disciplines. To date, published studies discovered important neuroscience findings in the following areas. Measurement NeuroTracker provides objective cognitive metrics on brain functions fundamental to human performance, and also relevant in cognitive conditions. High-level mental processing is required to perform NeuroTracker at increasing speed threshold, as such, measures have been found to differentiate elite performers from amateur, reveal characteristic of brain development with age, identify impairment with healthy aging or learning related disorders, and possibly to help to detect function-related brain damage, such as with concussions, and reveal non-contact sports injury risk.  

Executing talent management activities before they’re needed is an earmark of a successful business. With aging workforces and a shortage of critical talent being among the biggest challenges facing today’s businesses, strategic workforce planning - the discipline of forecasting future gaps between demand and supply of critical talent, to ensure that you have the appropriate workforce mix three, five or ten years from now - has become one of HR’s most important responsibilities.

Analytics are at the heart of a modern data-driven business. When it came to content, we used to rely almost entirely on anecdotes and guesswork. That is no longer good enough - content is at the heart of the sales and marketing process and we must know how it is being used and how it is performing.   Marketing Automation tools made that a reality for marketing content. They let marketers analyze and optimize content marketing efforts during the first half of the sales cycle, providing analytics to show how effectively content moves customers through the funnel. But until recently, as soon as a deal was handed off to the sales team, it entered a content black hole.   There has been no way to answer very basic questions about sales content. Do reps have what they need? Do they use it? Do customers pay any attention to it? Does any of this actually generate real revenue? Even in our increasingly data-driven world, sales content has remained back in the days of guess and hope. But an emerging set of Sales Enablement platforms has changed that. They manage sales content throughout your sales engagements and use analytics to give you full visibility into how that content performs. This guide walks through eight reports that answer the key business questions about sales content and shows how to use them to optimize the way your company engages with customers.

AN EXCERPT FROM FROST & SULLIVAN’S ‘ENHANCING OMNICHANNEL AGENT PRODUCTIVITY’ REPORT - NOVEMBER 2016 There is no substitute for the human touch provided by omnichannel contact center agents when connecting virtually with customers for complex service and sales support issues. Agents are the linchpin to successful and profitable Customer Experiences. But it’s costly to hire, train, manage, accommodate, and equip agents to perform these essential tasks. Wages and benefits comprise the lion’s share of operating expenses (65%-70%). Moreover, having contact center agents work on premise incurs significant real estate, facilities, and equipment outlays. In today’s competitive environment, organizations (businesses, non-profits, and government agencies) must delight customers and control costs in order to exceed their goals and spur growth. Ensuring that contact center agents are productive and engage with learning is essential. Recommendation: Click below to download