More than 200M adults in the US are part of the digital workforce, yet only 1-in-10 rate themselves as very proficient with the digital tools they use every day at work.  Training has not kept pace with technology, and workers, businesses and the entire economy are paying the price. Digital products and topics are rapidly proliferating and evolving, and yet there is virtually no professional development focused on these 21st century skills. For instance, organizations are using Dropbox and Box for file storage and sharing, Twitter and Facebook to connect with customers, and Google Docs and Analytics to run their businesses. These tools serve essential functions but they can only improve productivity with the right training. This paper will help you develop an action plan to assess and remedy the digital skills gaps in your business.  

"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think." David Ogilvy David Ogilvy, the famous marketing and sales executive, said it this way, "If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think." Nelson Mandela said it like this: "If you talk to [people] in a language [they] understand, that goes to [their] heads. If you talk to [them] in [their] language, that goes to [their] heart." The ability to communicate—whether to persuade or just to understand—goes beyond using words well; it requires the ability to use words in a way that has meaning for those with whom you are speaking. The ability to talk with someone in his or her native language isn’t just about them understanding you; it’s about you understanding them—their experiences, their thinking, their beliefs, and their values. While definitions lie in words, meaning lies in the people who use them.

Looking ahead in 2014 and beyond, constant change will be the new normal for talent management professionals. Market forces and other external trends continue to reverberate in the industry, among them:   A rapidly evolving, complex regulatory environment Economic turbulence, uncertain growth, and financial markets that behave unpredictably, with implications for budgeting and talent acquisition Disruptive technologies applied to HR, such as predictive analytics and social technology, combined with techniques for ensuring the privacy and security of employee data A diverse workforce, which occasionally includes three or even four generations in the same workplace, as some Baby Boomers delay or work into retirement. At the same time, the temporary workforce swells—up to 2.7 million in 2013, more than three-quarters of a million higher since 2009 Geographically distributed workforces and "road warriors" make it difficult to administer policies, processes and procedures Problems attracting skilled workers, particularly in professional services, technology, engineering, medicine, and other specialized industries A talent management software market that has consolidated, giving professionals a more integrated set of solutions to choose from

What do we mean by agility? It’s how powerfully your organization can react to changes in the marketplace, recognize and close employee skill gaps, and align the right people in the right places to handle any pivots in business strategy. How can you make your organization more agile? There are several critical things you must do.  

There’s no question, big data is a hot topic, to stay competitive in today’s market, organizations have to leverage Big Data.  Harvard Business Review dedicated an entire issue (October 2012) to the topic. A new book, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think (Mayer-Schonberger & Cukier, 2013), explains the issue in detail. This whitepaper illustrates how Metrics that Matter® (MTM) is a Big Data solution and how MTM aligns to these industry standards and widely accepted Big Data definitions.  

New technology promises to take e-Learning out of the traditional, classroom-based paradigm and into a true "digital native" context. These new e-Learning tools will allow employees to engage in more active and realistic training activities, and they will incorporate emerging social learning and informal learning methods. Download this white paper to discover the implications of these next-generation e-Learning trends and answer these Three Fundamental questions: What unique traits set today's cutting-edge e-Learning tools apart from their predecessors? What are some specific examples of next-generation e-Learning tools? How can these tools increase e-Learning ROI and enterprise productivity?  

Research shows that mobile learning results in better retention than other training models. Discover why training organizations use mobile devices to embrace online learning content. Among the many benefits, mobile devices enable learning from anywhere a user can connect to the Internet—in turn, allowing a more flexible training schedule.  

Will your employees flourish in 2014? If you have a big budget there’s no problem launching a host of great HR programs. If not, here are some simple things you can do for employees in the coming year. Pick the ones that best suit your organization.

It’s a debate that’s raging throughout the digital content world, from content marketers to eLearning professionals: "What is the ideal online medium for conveying my message?" The contenders? A flurry of tactics, ranging from ebooks to white papers to webinars to blogs to infographics to social media. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Each has gained favor in segments of the marketing and eLearning worlds. Conscious of the weaknesses of these alternatives, content creators continue to seek new and more effective media for their messages. Ask them to describe an ideal medium, and you’ll hear something like this: It would be up-to-date, like a live webinar It would be multisensory, like a video It would be navigable, like a white paper or e-book It would be actionable and trackable, like a landing page It would be interactive, like a website It would be sharable, like a social update It would be deeply engaging, like a video game It would be searchable and discoverable, like a blog It would be simple to follow, like a slideshow

Engagement, the employee’s commitment to their organization and their willingness to perform beyond expectations, has become a focus area for management. Engagement is more than mere job satisfaction; fully engaged employees are motivated and dedicated to making the organization a success. At the most simplistic level engaged employees lead to happy, loyal customers and repeat business. Importantly engagement also leads to improvement in retention levels. In short, it impacts the bottom line. Dale Carnegie Training asked MSW Research to undertake a benchmark nationwide, cross industry study of 1500 employees to explore engagement in the workplace. The study discovered that although there are multiple factors affecting engagement, the personal relationships between a manager and his or her direct reports is the most influential.