Your favourite Go1 articles of 2018
As 2018 draws to a close, we’d like to thank all our readers and followers for your ongoing feedback and engagement throughout the year.
We’ve covered many exciting and interesting topics over the past year on the Go1 blog, exploring all aspects of learning and development.
To close out the year, here’s a look back at the top five most-read articles of 2018!
#1. Building Rapport with Customers Through Customer Service
There’s an old saying that customers first buy into the person and then into the product.
That’s why it’s important to know how to build good rapport with your customers.
It’s no good having the most up-to-date tech gear, fancy coffee machine or cool open-plan office – if your business doesn’t deliver on customer service you’ll find it hard to stay ahead of the competition.
This article looks at how building rapport can bring big benefits to a customer service scenario.
When people have a solid rapport, communication and ideas are able to flow easily. They feel ‘in synch’ with each other and are likely to have a good understanding of where the other person is coming from.
Being on the same page as your customers is an important step in meeting their individual needs and finding the best solution for them.
So how do you make sure that you’re able to build rapport with your customers?
#2. Decision Making in the Workplace
In business, you can’t afford to be indecisive.
Decision making is an important skill you’ve got to have if you want to progress. It doesn’t matter what industry or role you’re in, you will always use decision making in your everyday working life.
In this article, we discuss how decision making is a skill that you can master with effective training.
Over time, you can learn more about the thought processes involved in decision making, to become more adept at identifying problems and analysing different solutions to find the best outcome to move forward.
When you know the process of decision making, you can become more efficient in the workplace, encouraging innovation that leads to new products and services and milestones.
Find out more about using decision making to boost your career.
#3. Why You Need to be Monitoring Employee Professional Development
Have you recently invested in professional development training for your staff? That’s great.
But how do you know if you’re getting a good return on this investment?
This article looks at how and why you should be monitoring professional development across your organisation.
Professional development programs aim to improve staff competencies and increase productivity, while helping team members set goals for their career.
Improvements in technical skills can often be measured quite easily, in tangible figures and numbers. Productivity itself is a very good indicator of the success of your company’s training methods, allowing you to see if your training program has been effective.
If you’re not sure how to measure the professional development of your employees, this article will link you to the popular Monitoring Performance and Professional Development course.
In this online course, managers will be shown the steps they need to take to properly monitor and track employee training. You’ll learn how to analyse each team member’s past performance, to identify strengths and challenges before setting goals and plans for personal improvement.
Check out the full article and online course here.
#4. The Facts About Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
In this article, we presented you with some clear facts about sexual harassment in the workplace.
Some people are still unsure of what behaviours and actions constitute sexual harassment. Or how prevalent it is in Australian workplaces.
Would you know what to do if you saw someone being harassed at work? Or if you experienced it yourself?
Reading this article will help you understand more about sexual harassment, with important steps you can take to address this issue within your own sphere of influence.
All organisations should have clear policies in place around any form of bullying or harassment. These policies must define what sexual harassment is, outlining unacceptable and inappropriate behaviours, as well as the consequences employees will face from those actions.
Regardless of whether someone is staring inappropriately, making sexually suggestive comments, telling inappropriate “jokes” or subjecting you to unwelcome physical contact – all of these examples are considered sexual harassment and are behaviours that are completely unacceptable in any work environment.
Take a minute to learn the facts about sexual harassment so you can work to create zero tolerance in your organisation.
#5. Why Non-Verbal Communication is So Important in Business
Rounding off the list, we looked at the important role of non-verbal communication in business.
Did you know that around 75 percent of communication happens through non-verbal signals?
Whether we like it or not, our facial expressions, gestures, movements and even posture are conveying a story to our audience. We use non-verbal signals all the time – whether it’s something we agree with or don’t agree with, our bodies are telling the story for us.
In addition, there’s a lot we can read from other people’s non-verbal signals, which can help you understand more about them and even what they aren’t saying directly to you. Very handy in the workplace!
This article looks at the three ways we communicate in business – using verbal, written and non-verbal signals. Each one of these methods is an important way to talk to others and share your views and opinions.
Of course, you have complete control over what you say to another person, as well as what you write down. But, non-verbal signals are very different. This is something we aren’t always aware we’re doing.
Learn more about understanding body language in the workplace.
We hope you enjoy these five articles and look forward to bringing you more in the new year!
Happy reading, and happy holidays, from the Go1 team.
