As 2016 drew to a close, media attention revealed claims of workplace bullying being made against Bunnings – Australia's largest household hardware chain and retailer. 

Bunnings employee Bruce Johnson was sacked, after lodging a complaint with the Fair Work Commission against the company for bullying.

Many Australians were surprised and shocked to hear of the accusations. Was the popular warehouse store, famous for its smiling staff and weekend sausage sizzles, hiding a workplace culture of intimidation and bullying?

The consequences of fostering a culture of bullying

high levels of absenteeism and sick leave

It also has severe consequences for individuals who experience bullying in the workplace. Let’s look at how bullying affected long-term Bunnings employee Bruce Johnson.

Bunnings: an entrenched culture of workplace bullying

Employment lawyer Alana Heffernan said the alleged bullying Mr Johnson suffered was "at the more severe level in terms of what we see".

Over time, the Bunnings department manager saw his weekly hours increase to up to 60 hours a week, with no extra pay, meaning he often worked from 5.30am to 9.30pm. His own manager would frequently assign urgent tasks to Mr Johnson at the end of his shift, meaning he would have to stay back to complete them. 

Bunnings management also directed Mr Johnson to manage people out of their jobs if they were "too old" or “too expensive” – for example, if they’d been injured at work or were long-term employees who had earned a higher rate of pay.   

Mr Johnson stated that he was “asked on a number of occasions to terminate a number of people for various reasons, none of which had anything to do with their job performance." When he refused to dismiss members of his team, he was warned his own job was at risk and that a manager known as "the terminator" would replace him.

Mr Johnson also alleged that there was a decrease in the number of workplace injuries reported, because employees who did so were criticised, intimidated or sacked. According to Mr Johnson, Bunnings employees could also be “sacked if they were caught not smiling at customers on three occasions.”

Turning a blind eye can be just as bad as bullying

As employment lawyer Alana Heffernan says, "it's important that larger companies are held to account in how their middle managers treat their staff on the floor and the law recognises that inaction can be just as bad as bullying." 

It’s wrong to portray your company as a positive and supportive place to work, while failing to protect employees and promoting a culture of intimidation. As an employer, you have a responsibility to make sure all staff feel safe while carrying out their work duties. They should also feel comfortable and supported in reporting workplace injuries, harassment or bullying.

Review your policies around workplace bullying

If you’re unsure about the kind of work culture you’re creating for your employees, start by making sure you have strong anti-bullying and harassment policies in place, to show your commitment to promoting a positive work culture for all staff. If you’d like to learn more about creating an effective anti-bullying policy, you’ll find our previous article on bullying and harassment policies useful.

For employees, your anti-bullying policy will help them to accurately recognise and define unacceptable behaviour in the workplace, while guiding them to the appropriate resources and contacts for assistance. As an employer, this policy will also ensure your organisation is compliant in this area, protecting you against claims and legal ramifications.

The Productivity Commission recently reported that more than two million Australians have experienced some form of bullying at work. So it’s crucial that Australian employers, and their workplace managers, know how to handle these situations.

You’ll find more helpful advice on the best ways for employers and managers to deal with bullying here – the article also contains links to three popular online courses that will assist you in managing this topic and practicing zero tolerance towards bullying in your workplace.

False

Bunnings and allegations of workplace bullying

Business is a very dynamic undertaking. One of the main reasons why a company may pull ahead or fall behind the competition boils down to the performance of its staff. It’s easy to see when you look at the numbers, too. According to Harvard Business Review, a high performer can be 400% more productive that an average performer.

It’s easy to see why underperforming employees can hold back growth in a big way. Here are some solutions that HR managers can use to try and bring under-performing personnel up to speed as quickly as possible.

Simply listening to your staff can be essential in getting to the bottom of why things are not going as well as they could be. It may be they are not properly equipped or that overly complicated processes are hindering productivity. Perhaps your employees are missing the required training to understand their roles effectively or perhaps there are external factors that are proving to be a problem.

Holding meetings is a great way to get to the bottom of why things are not going to plan and once you know the problem, you can then begin working on a solution. Once a solution is in place, performance will begin to rise quickly.

Morale is something that is key in getting people to perform well and if your workforce is low on morale, it can truly be a productivity nightmare. Letting your workforce know that you appreciate them is a great way of helping to keep morale high. Another is to make sure that they have access to comfortable facilities and that the working conditions they are exposed to are as positive and encouraging as possible. Also, make it clear that there are clear paths for development and career advancement so that they know that their efforts will be rewarded further down the line. It’s also essential to be sure that your workplace is fair for all, with equal opportunities regardless of race, gender or any other demographic.

It could simply be that your workforce is unaware that they are under-performing and they may think that they are meeting or even exceeding expectations. For this reason it’s important to give staff regular evaluations to let them know where they are doing well, and where there is room for improvement. Most people would want to feel as though they are meeting expectations and would respond positively if being told, in a professional manner, that they are not. ­

Establish benchmarks so that your workforce has something to gauge their performance by, because only then can they tell if they are underperforming and need to “step it up.” Let your people know that they are not meeting expectations and you could see them transform overnight.

If employees are working hard but begin to feel that their efforts are going unnoticed or are not appreciated, it’s understandable that they may begin to lose their enthusiasm. Recognizing the strong performers in the workforce encourages them to continue to work hard, while also acting as an inspiration to others that their efforts will be recognized if they step it up and contribute the best that they can.

The rewards don’t necessarily need to be huge. Often all it takes is to let the person know that their hard work has not gone unnoticed. As for more significant rewards: promoting from within is a great way to reward your hardest working employees.

Make sure the workforce has adequate training

Poor performance is often a result of individuals not having the required training to know what needs to be done. While more complex tasks may require extensive training, other tasks may simply require a few minutes of instruction to bring them up to speed. Spend some time with individuals in the workforce to find out what they do and don’t know so you can devise a plan to help make sure that everybody is on the same page regarding proper procedures.

Of course, training up a whole workforce quickly is a tall order, so you will likely need to recruit some people to help you. Hold meetings with departmental and team managers to let them know what you need and they can take care of the heavy lifting for you. With a workforce that is now adequately trained, you will find that your workforce’s performance will improve considerably.

Sometimes, no matter hard you try, some people will prove to be simply incapable of performing to a reasonable degree, or they may just be deliberately uncooperative. If your best efforts at bringing an individual up to speed have failed, then you might want to consider moving them into a more suitable role, or even moving them out of the company altogether.

Just one ‘bad apple’ in the workforce can be enough to affect everybody else, and removing troublesome employees can make an instant positive impact on moral. Even if your team does go a man down temporarily, you can still find that their performance is improved overall.

The ideal way to help ensure that your workforce is performing well is to make the right appointments in the first place. Once you have taken measures to improve performance in the short-term, then you can begin looking at ways to improve things further and into the foreseeable future. 

Keys for HR managers to improve employee performance

With the month of January now well underway, many employees are preparing to return to work for the new year. For many people, the holiday season is a good time to take a break from work, celebrate career achievements from the previous year and set goals for the shiny new one.

The new year always brings with it a sense of motivation, positive energy and fresh inspiration. There’s something about looking at a crisp new calendar or diary that encourages the shedding of bad habits and a resolution to form new, better habits and improved work processes for the new year. 

This time of year also presents workers with an opportunity to assess their career. Some people, after having some time to reflect during vacation, may wonder if they’re still heading in the right direction. Others may realise they need to boost their career to achieve their goals and get to where they want to be.

Whether you’re deciding to make a big change in your work life, or want to improve your work performance, here are some steps to help you kick start your career in the new year.

Be Real with Yourself About Whether You’re on the Right Path

If you’re unhappy in your current job, the fresh energy of the new year may give you the motivation you need to make a change.

Ask yourself if you are really doing what you want to do with your life? Is your career aligned with your own personal values and authentic self? We spend so much of our lives at work – more time than we spend with our families or friends. It’s important to feel positive about your job and the company or organization you work for.

If your career doesn’t reflect your true personality or sense of self, a career assessment may be in order. Write down where you want to go. Then find out how you can get there. Are there people in your life that you could ask for help or guidance? Having a mentor, or just someone you can talk to honestly about your work situation, can be invaluable in figuring out the answers to these questions and getting started in the right direction.

Talk to Your Manager About Your Career Development

Your manager should also play an important role in your professional development, supporting and encouraging you in your career goals. 

In the new year, ask your manager to book out some one-on-one time, to talk about your career development. A good manager will have a professional development program in place for all team members, to ensure each individual is continuing to learn, grow and develop within their role and the organization.

With your professional development program, you’ll work closely with your manager to define your goals and the practical career steps you need to take to achieve them. Your manager can help you join a professional organization or find a suitable mentor.

With the new year, you might like to offer to take on some new responsibilities, or tasks relevant to the position above you, to show your commitment to achieving your development goals.

Towards the end of the year, when many employees are at risk of feeling fatigued or burnt out, things can get a little chaotic. You may have noticed your work habits sliding as you rushed to meet deadlines, juggle projects and wrap up work for various clients.

The new year presents the perfect opportunity to take stock of your organizational skills – or lack of – and set up some new processes and habits that will make your daily work life smoother. And less stressful!

These days, we’re lucky to have technology to help us get organized. There are many apps available to help workers stay focused and be more productive. Check out our list of top productivity applications that can help you get more done in less time. Find technology solutions that work for you, then stick to them, incorporating them into your daily routine. 

You should also set some time aside to get your CV up-to-date and in order – you never know when a new opportunity may come knocking at your door. Being prepared to step up into a new role, or explore an exciting new path, will make that shift a whole lot easier when the time comes.

Learn a New Skill Through Online Learning

In a recent article, we looked at how you can improve your job prospects with online learning. eLearning is an excellent way to improve existing skills or learn something completely new. If you’re keen to move up within your company or branch out in a new direction, expanding your skill set is an ideal way of setting yourself apart from the competition. You can even use your daily commute to advance your career, investing this time in learning new skills, grow your professional network and keeping up-to-date with industry news.

Through online learning, you’re also being continually challenged and engaged, which is a vital part of feeling satisfied and happy in your job. Whether you’re looking for specialized industry courses, or simply want to improve your interpersonal skills for better work relationships, there’s bound to be an eLearning course to suit your needs. So-called “soft skills” such as learning how to actively listen, or improving your level of emotional intelligence, are very highly valued in the modern workforce, particularly for managers.

Online courses can also help you to confront old fears, helping you to feel more comfortable about public speaking, for example. This year, why not make a promise to yourself to make the most of any opportunities that come your way – accepting invitations to chair a meeting, give a presentation or judge on a panel. Stepping out of your comfort zone, and succeeding, is a hugely rewarding experience and something to celebrate at the end of the year.

Happy new year and good luck kicking your new career goals!

The new year is here, and we have some great new platform updates to the Go1 system to make sure you start the year off learning in the best way possible. Over the next month we have some very exciting new features to unveil for you, but in the meantime here are some improvements to our system which will help you to personalize the way your portal looks, and communicates with your users.

It’s now quick and easy to update the welcome message that your users see when they log into their portal using our text editing tools. You can include HTML functionality and give your students the information they need to navigate their portal.

Portal administrators a number of images located throughout their portal via the Portal Settings section in their user menu. This includes being update to update login screen images, the login page background image, and the featured image within the portal.

Images file types that can be uploaded include JPG, GIF and PNG with all images must be less than 5MB in size.

This update allows administrators to personalize emails that are sent out to their users based on using tags referencing stored profile information. This includes adding the user first and/or last name and their email address. As well as being able to add portal URLs and verification links for any user.

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please let us know and our Customer Success Team can help you out!

Check out our January Go1 platform updates to kick off 2017

Online courses have become an incredibly popular way for students and employees to advance their education or professional development. Teaching an online course requires different methods from the traditional classroom, so it’s important that teachers adapt or develop their skills to the online learning environment, to make their materials effective and engaging for learners. Let’s look at 5 strategies you can implement to improve your online teaching and make your eLearning course a successful experience for both you and your learners.

Without your physical presence in the classroom, it’s vital that you establish a virtual presence at the very beginning of the eLearning course. Online teachers need to be engaging and supporting students right from the start and for the duration of the course, to maintain an effective learning community.

By establishing your teacher presence, you’ll show students that you’re both visible and available. You’ll also be welcoming them to their new learning community – just as you would in any traditional classroom.

Let your students know what days or timeframes you will be online and how they can contact you outside of those hours.

Engage with your learning community through online posts, forums or social media – when people see teachers putting time into discussions and engagement, they’ll be more encouraged to participate themselves. Through this engagement, you’ll also develop professional relationships with your students and make their experience far more personal and memorable.

2. Create a supportive learning environment

As an online teacher, you have an opportunity to create a supportive online community for your learners.

The best way to achieve this is through encouraging both teacher-to-student engagement and student-to-student interaction. Dr Judith V. Boettcher, PhD and author of A Faculty Guide for Moving Teaching and Learning to the Web, suggests the following strategies:

At the start of your online course, get the ball rolling with a personal introduction post, and encourage participants to contribute their own short bio or introduction to the group.

Create an open forum or discussion board where learners can post to request help and assistance from each other, developing peer-to-peer support.

Set up small groups, similar to traditional study groups, for supportive mentoring of fellow learners.

These strategies will encourage learners to work together as an active learning community, which brings benefits to all individuals involved.

3. Use a mix of learning tools for better engagement

These days, we’re fortunate to have the technology to create virtual learning environments that allow us to collaborate and engage just as well as if we were in the classroom.

As Dr Boettche says, “the variety of activities that are now possible online makes it possible to create many types of effective learning environments.”

The best online teachers use a combination of both synchronous and asynchronous activities, creating a blend of traditional online learning styles with newer, more collaborative audio and visual tools. Working with a mix of activities makes the content more interesting and exciting, increasing student engagement with both the teacher and other learners.

You can learn more about blended learning models in Teaching Online, a short 2-hour course that looks at the differences between online and face-to-face classroom teaching, as well as ways to introduce collaborative learning into your online program.

Feedback is an essential component of all effective learning environments – including online.

As an online teacher, your feedback will help to create an eLearning experience that is informative, engaging, and motivational for the learner. Your feedback should be continuous during the eLearning process, with constructive feedback offered as soon as possible so that students can clearly identify which behaviors or skills need to be improved.

You can encourage group feedback through collaborative exercises, which also helps to promote peer engagement.

It’s wise to acknowledge the importance of mobile learning for online teachers, with students and employees now accustomed to using their mobile devices for learning.

Mobile learning holds key advantages for learners, allowing them to access up-to-date course materials and relevant content anywhere, anytime. With bite-sized pieces of information available to be digested quickly and easily, learners can work through course materials at their own pace, assisting both performance and productivity.

Make sure your eLearning content can be easily accessed via smartphones, laptops, and iPads to maximize your teaching methods. You’ll also be demonstrating to your learners that you’re in touch with the needs of today’s modern workforce and its relevant technology.

With these strategies in place you can feel more confident about your online teaching skills and eLearning materials. You’ll also know that you’re working to create a more positive and collaborative learning environment for your students.

Improve your online teaching in a few simple steps

Even the greatest of leaders are nothing without the support of the people behind them. Getting people behind you is often the hardest part of being a leader, though, which is why doing so is one of the easiest ways to identify a truly great leader. Here are some characteristics that great leaders show when looking for support from others.

Work can be challenging at times and even the strongest of people might sometimes feel as though they should just give up. Showing people that you understand the challenges they are facing and that you sympathize with the difficulties that may be having is a great way to help people connect with you and have confidence in what you are saying.

Finding familiar ground with people is a great way of showing that your empathy is genuine. Let your people know that you identify with their situation. Once people know that they are dealing with a real person rather than an un-feeling robot, it will be much easier for them to get behind you with enthusiasm.

Also, it’s absolutely critical to be humble when speaking with others. After all, as this study has shown, humble leaders are more likely to have committed employees behind them.

Your people will respond better if they know that you have their interests at heart as well as the company’s, so it is always helpful to listen to them whenever you can. Holding meetings at regular intervals will give others the opportunity to pass on their opinions and concerns. At the same time, you should let people know that your door is always open should somebody have something they want to say in private.

Be willing to make changes where possible so your people can provide you with valuable and constructive feedback. A workforce that knows you are willing to listen to them when needed will be inspired to get behind you and work towards accomplishing big goals.

You can’t expect people to have confidence in you if you don’t have confidence in yourself and in what you are doing. One effective way of having confidence in what you are doing is by gaining the appropriate knowledge before taking action. Armed with knowledge, you can act with conviction and this will convey to the people that are looking to you for leadership.

Speaking clearly also matters. If you speak with clarity then you will show that you have confidence in your actions. Simply put, speaking clearly about the tasks ahead will let people know that you really do know what you are talking about. When they have confidence in YOU, then your workforce can have confidence in what they are doing as well.

People find it easy to relate to others that have found themselves in similar situations, making anecdotes a very effective way to connect with others. Stories about other people who have solved particular problems or gotten promoted through the ranks can inspire others to do the same and give them lofty goals to aim for at the same time. Much of the method behind inspiring people is to show them that it can be done. Anecdotes are a great way to demonstrate that something can be achieved, and by people just like themselves.

Be sure to use genuine stories though, as making something up can backfire terribly and cause your workforce to lose trust in you. People have a fairly accurate “inner radar” for detecting made up stories.

If you are honest with your workforce, then they will know that they can trust you in the future and trust is an essential part of getting people to follow you. Being honest helps people to accept both criticism and praise, meaning that they are then likely to react positively moving forward. Show dishonesty and people will immediately question the integrity of every subsequent word and action in the future.

On the other hand, it’s important to remember that brutal honesty is sometimes not the best option and a more diplomatic approach might be needed in these instances, particularly in sensitive situations. In sensitive situations, it is best to balance honesty with the need to be considerate.

People like having something to aim for. It allows them to check their progress along the way and see how close they are to reaching a destination. Achieving goals also gives the person a sense of achievement while letting them know that they need to push harder if they wish to achieve even bigger things. Great leaders will use goals to measure progress and persuade their teams to make bigger strides. These goals can give your people a competitive edge and a sense of pride in knowing that they are out-performing others and could be in line for rewards such as promotions in the future.

However, the critical detail here is to make sure that any goals you do set are achievable or your efforts are likely to backfire. You can always re-evaluate the goals further down the line if you think they are not challenging enough for your teams.

How the best leaders use persuasion and influence

Inclusion and opportunity are serious driving forces in the United States.

It is the job of human resource managers to adhere to the laws set in place against inequality and to protect the privileges of their employees. This includes, but is not limited to, workplace discrimination against Gender, Race, Sexual Preference, Age and Disability.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was put into place to protect the fair working rights of disabled individuals. In order to abide by this mandate, companies must comply with a variety of different terms and policies.  Many HR managers, however, don’t have proper knowledge of what that compliance really means.

Protecting yourself from being non-compliant

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is not merely a suggestion, but a legal necessity. It’s essential that HR managers have a thorough understanding of what their company should be doing to comply, but many are confused by its terms.

Thankfully, there are many free online courses available that cover the overall terms of the ADA.

These digital platforms contain detailed information not only about what compliance looks like and entails but also what the penalties for non-compliance are.

Before discussing the course any further, however, you should be aware of just how important an accessible, non-discriminatory, work environment is to your employees.

The fight against workplace discrimination has made great progress in the past decade. However, while Americans have come farther than ever before to obtain the fair treatment they’ve been hoping for, this doesn’t mean that the hard work is done.

It often seems the case that business owners do not understand what true ADA compliance consists of, and all too often, it is simply ignored.

In addition to the detrimental legal and monetary penalties that can occur, owners and managers that ignore ADA compliance policies are also disregarding the civil liberties of a large group of individuals. No matter what form a disability takes, protecting the rights of this group is an absolute necessity.

The term “ADA Compliant” can cover a lot of territory.

Here are some of the guidelines that define which types of companies and facilities are responsible for workplace compliance:

Various state and locally run facilities i.e. public education, police departments, court systems, etc.

Commercial establishments, including:

 	Shops
 	Restaurants
 	Museums
 	Plus many more


Knocking down boundaries: general compliance and individual-based concerns

In terms of workplace compliance, there are generally two types of accessibility “barriers.” The term barrier, in this case, represents the problem areas that must be overcome to achieve equality and fairness for disabled individuals.

General compliance barriers tend to represent things like entrance points and staircases that can be difficult to use for some individuals. Individual compliance lends itself to more specific needs that have to be handled independently to accommodate unique circumstances.

It should also be noted that workplace ADA compliance does not solely benefit disabled employees.

Cluttered store aisles or narrow hallways

Abiding by ADA rules does not have to cost a company tons of time and money. In fact, there are several easy fixes that can make your working environment more inclusive of individuals with disabilities.

How can a free course in ADA compliance help?

Taking advantage of a free course in ADA Policy like the one offered by Go1, called The Americans With Disabilities Act: Being in Compliance, is a great way way to help HR managers understand what’s expected of their company.

Not only does this online courses provide the flexibility of completion in your own time and space, but it also covers everything you need to know about staying compliant.

Courses like this one provide a variety of strategies to help make your workspace and policies compliant, and it also provides you with critical information to help you understand the intricate details behind what ADA act.

Simply having an accessible entryway does not mean you’re providing a compliant environment for employees and customers. Compliance also requires leadership—which means help from management to ensure disabled employees are provided with the tools necessary for personal success and the opportunities needed for professional growth.

In is program from Go1, you’ll learn about different aspects of compliance, such as:

The rules of serving and assisting disabled employees

Understanding how the hiring and interview process should be handled

These lessons are a vital component in navigating ADA compliance and ensuring your disabled team members do not feel discriminated against.

Don’t leave compliance to chance. For HR managers, there are a lot of things to juggle in order ensure a proper and safe working environment for all employees. Rather than letting things slip through the cracks and risking costly mistakes (and even legal trouble), you should consider the use of these free ADA compliance lessons.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

How to comply with the Americans with Disabilities act - Go1

What you should know about the Americans with Disabilities Act and compliance

How can online community help build team culture, especially for remote teams?

If you’ve read our article on being a successful remote worker, you’ll know that remote work has become increasingly common in the modern workforce, with more companies supporting and encouraging the idea of employees working from home.

As the world continues to grow smaller through technology, geography has become less important for employers. Companies have the ability to hire new talent with the right skills, knowledge and experience, regardless of location. And for individuals, remote working provides the freedom to choose where and when they work, with the opportunity for more flexible hours and a greater sense of autonomy.

We’ve also talked a lot about work culture and the importance of hiring employees that are a good cultural fit for your organization, with many clear benefits for both parties. The concept of culture often comes up when discussing remote work, with some people suggesting that co-located teams have an easier time building culture, compared to remote teams.

How can you successfully build team culture when team members are spread out across different cities and continents? The answer is in making sure you’re running an effective online community.

Create an online community for remote teams

Establishing an online community is essential for building team culture, particularly for distributed teams.

Remote workers in different geographical locations either don’t have a team culture they can be part of, or find they can’t really identify with it. When you’re working from your home office miles away from your employer, it can be difficult to feel like part of the regular office team.

As this article on building community and culture for a distributed team says, “you may be able to chat on video every single day with a remote colleague. But they still may not be a part of the company culture, which plays a major role in shaping the employee’s engagement to the organization.”

By creating an effective online community for remote workers, you can help foster connection, collaboration and culture within your distributed team.

One of the biggest challenges with remote work is ensuring smooth communication. Being isolated from their managers and colleagues, remote workers need to know that they have reliable communication channels to stay in contact with their team. This will help them feel more connected, particularly for those working in a different time zone.

Using a community platform is the most effective way to build cohesion in distributed teams. An online community allows remote workers to interact with each other in a more informal online environment than email. Team members can chat, share ideas and info, celebrate each other’s achievements and team wins – all the things that would happen in a more regular office environment that help build a cultural connection.

Choosing the right platform for your online community is important. A good Learning Management System (LMS) will provide you with greater customization than using social media, allowing you to control the look and feel of your community and how it functions. Social media channels may also impose restrictions on certain content, unlike an LMS which will give you full visibility and control.

Create engagement between remote employees

Now that you’ve provided your employees with the right tools to connect, you want to build a positive work culture through encouraging team engagement.

Friendly competition (with the emphasis on friendly) between remote workers can help build engagement and a sense of team culture. Collaboration and healthy competition are positive behaviors for work teams, generating cooperation, connection and inclusion. 

Focus remote workers and encourage them to engage with each other by reinforcing your shared vision. When people know that they’re working for managers or employers who share the same goals and values, the geographical distance really doesn’t matter. The best way to foster engagement, loyalty and culture is to connect team members through aligned organizational goals.

Communicate the team’s shared goals through your online community on a regular basis, relating them directly back to team results and deliverables. This will help each individual worker feel that they are part of a greater unit, connected by the same vision.

As Paul Spiegelman, Chief Culture Officer for Stericycle, a global public company with 25,000 employees, says, “a successful virtual culture is more than selecting the right online tools or letting employees sleep in as long as they want… create an environment that allows employees to achieve their personal visions as well as the company vision.”

With a successful online community, you can build a positive, collaborative and fun team culture for your remote workers and organization.

Online community and building team culture

The quality of a company's employees has always been a major factor determining how successful this company will be. In order to have the best employees possible, you have to first hire them and then retain them while your competitors trying to get them to defect.

While attracting top talent has never been the easiest thing in the world, retaining has definitely become the major HR concern for most companies as of lately, especially those in highly competitive fields. The main reason for this is that the employees have been getting less and less loyal which has mostly been caused by the employers themselves, if we are being honest.

Considering that, according to HBR, almost one-third of new employees start looking for other opportunities within the first six months and that it usually takes companies eight months to receive full productivity from their new hires, it becomes painfully obvious that a great onboarding process is a must in the modern world of business.

With an easy and efficient onboarding process, companies can both improve their retention rates and get more productivity from their new hires, especially early on.

In order to achieve this, however, a company needs to know how to do this.

One of the worst things you can do for your company's onboarding process is to try and wing it, hoping that you will stumble upon the winning formula.

At best, it will take you years. At worst, you will never stumble upon it.

Your onboarding process needs to involve a clearly defined approach that can be easily implemented. A big part of this will be developing an onboarding strategy that is more comprehensive than just a day or a week.

The onboarding process should start as soon as the hire is made, continued throughout their first day and few weeks all the way to the first few months. No, onboarding does not end once they have been with you for a month.

A good onboarding strategy will also take into consideration the resources the company has at its disposal, as well as the professionals who will be able to provide insights and help to the new hire. Of course, as part of this strategy, you will also ensure that the management is being involved in the onboarding process as this can truly make a difference.

One of the best things about New Onboarding is that companies nowadays have a ton of great software that can help them onboard their new hires more easily and efficiently than ever before.

For example, whereas in the past the new hire had to wade through and sign a mountain of paperwork before they even set foot in their new workplace, today this can all be handled with some kind of digital signature software. Other software solution can dramatically cut the time needed to take care of legal and benefits stuff which used to take hours and even days.

Another great technological breakthrough has been learning management systems (LMS) which have made it possible for smaller companies to provide early training and education on par with what only the biggest corporations could afford in the past.

With a comprehensive LMS solution such as Go1, you can come up with the best possible early training system for your new hires, a system that will help them get their bearings in no time. Moreover, you can even start before their first day, sending them short introductory material on your company and their future role.

Thanks to new communication and collaboration software solutions, it is also much easier for managers and higher-ups to stay in the loop when it comes to how their new hire is performing. Furthermore, this allows new hires to ask questions and voice concerns more directly and efficiently.

If you really want to onboard your new hire easily, efficiently and successfully, the most important thing will be to make them a true part of the team as quickly as possible.

You can start off welcoming them to the team by sending them a welcome kit once they are hired. This is a great way for them to learn that you care about your new hires strong enough that you will think of them before they even set foot on the company property.

When they come in for their first day, ensure that everyone is pleasant and that they are introduced to their team and their immediate superior. If you as an owner can find the time to take them out to lunch on their first day, this might not be a bad idea.

However, you must never overdo it. Sometimes companies go out of their way to be all chummy and friendly and it comes off as strange, even passive-aggressive. Your new hire knows they are there to work and going all Michael Scott on them can produce the opposite effect in them. For instance, they should be able to do some work on their first day, which would mean hooking them up with all the equipment they need.

There is nothing worse than sitting around for 8 hours, twiddling your thumbs while your new team members are breaking their backs working. Being a member of a team means contributing. If your company uses a staff shift maker, for example, make sure their name appears there on their very first day.

This will let them know they are a true member of a team and it will go further than any pleasantries.

The crucial ingredient of every efficient onboarding process will be abundant feedback that goes both ways. Your new hire needs to hear from their immediate superior, their teammates and you as the owner. This does not mean only praises. People want to know if they are doing something wrong. This is the right time to point out their mistakes and to let them know how they can get better. They will not resent you for it. They will welcome the input.

Similarly, they also have to feel free to provide feedback of their own. They need to know that they can come to you or their immediate superiors if they are having troubles with their tasks and responsibilities. If they run into interpersonal problems, they have to feel confident about telling you about this. Encourage them to give you suggestions both about their onboarding process and the company in general.

A lot of onboarding comes down to common sense. Put yourself in the shoes of your new hire. What would you like to happen to you when you join a company such as yours? You will find that much (or even everything) of what is mentioned above will be something that you would like to experience when you get a new job.

Establish an inclusive, communicative and tech-enabled onboarding process and before you know it, your retention rates will skyrocket and you will be getting amazing results from people who have worked for you for only a few weeks.

AUTHOR: James D. Burbank has spent almost 20 years in the trade show industry and he has seen companies all over the world treat their new employees in all kinds of ways. With a couple of friends, he runs a business-oriented blog called BizzMarkBlog. 

How to onboard your new hires easily and efficiently

In today’s workforce, a high proportion of workplace learning occurs through informal learning.

In the past, many organizations carried out the majority of learning and development through formal learning channels such as training courses, workshops and seminars. These days, however, knowledge sharing is occurring more organically and through less traditional methods, as employees absorb and share information through social media and online learning communities.

With this shift in learning, employers and managers need to take note of the importance of informal learning, embracing it as an effective tool that can be used alongside their regular formal channels.

Read on to find out more about how informal learning works and what benefits it can bring to your organization.

Learning in general is an ongoing process, with the world around us providing an endless source of inspiration, knowledge and experience.

In this way, the type of learning that we refer to as ‘informal’ is very natural – it’s not something that’s planned, or scheduled. It’s something that occurs spontaneously, as you’re casually scrolling through Facebook, reading an article online, or chatting to a colleague over IM.

In these cases, you didn’t plan to become more educated on a certain subject, or sit down to explore a specific topic. Informal learning just happens as a part of everyday life.

Informal learning allows knowledge to be shared through an organization much faster than formal learning channels, which is advantageous for both employers and employees. 

With social media delivering information both constantly and instantly, employees don’t need to wait for a set training day or team meeting to be aware of company updates or organizational news. From a business perspective, these channels mean knowledge can be disseminated to all staff in an instant, making communication more effective.

As an employer, informal learning can also be a very economical option for your staff’s learning and development. While most companies spend a huge part of their L&D budget on formal learning methods, such as training courses and workshops, informal learning will cost your organization far less as it uses channels that most employees will already be using – such as social media.

Social media channels, namely Facebook and Twitter, are where most workers are turning to informally seek knowledge. In this way, social media platforms can be very effectively harnessed for informal learning.

They deliver instant, relevant and mobile-friendly information to users, making them perfect for informal learning. With social media easily available on the go, individuals can choose to digest information in a way that suits them, absorbing knowledge organically at a suitable time and in a suitable format.