Having a mentor is one of the most valuable opportunities for professional development, allowing you to improve your individual work performance and boost your career.

Mentoring presents many benefits for employees, both professionally and personally, including increased knowledge sharing, improved skill sets and the opportunity for constructive feedback and support.

In mentoring relationships, you’ll meet or talk regularly with your mentor to exchange ideas, discuss work progress and set goals for professional development. Your mentor doesn’t necessarily have to be someone you report to – they may be your manager, but they could also be a co-worker or someone from an entirely different industry. Regardless of who your mentor is, they’ll be someone who knows how to succeed and is passionate about sharing this knowledge with others.

Let’s look at why 86% of executives say having a mentor is important for career development.

The role of a mentor is “to encourage the personal and professional development of a mentee through the sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience.”

Knowledge sharing is an incredibly important part of the mentoring relationship, as a mentor can provide you with real world knowledge on how to advance your career, based on their own professional experiences.

He or she can also help to identify gaps in your skill set and push you to learn new skills. For example, you may have always been terrified of public speaking and shied away from challenging yourself in that area. Having a mentor’s encouragement can make you feel more motivated to develop your public speaking skills and achieve new personal goals in the process.

Online learning provides a convenient and effective way to bridge those gaps in your skill set – ask your mentor what online courses or training they’ve completed to build up their knowledge. You’ll find thousands of eLearning courses for professional development available and free of charge.

One of the best things a mentor can do is empower you with a newfound sense of confidence in your work.

As successful leaders, mentors offer regular support and encouragement, helping you to maximize your potential so you can get where you want to go in your career.

Having a mentor can also help you to stay motivated and focused on your goals. When there’s someone else you’re accountable to, who has placed a lot of time and energy into your career, you’ll want to deliver your best work possible.

Your mentor can act as a good sounding board for your work experiences, allowing you to consider certain interactions or situations in a different light.

Things that go wrong in the workplace, whether it’s interpersonal relationships or problems with a project, may not seem so dire to someone with more experience. Your mentor can offer you a more objective perspective on the situation, helping you to keep your focus on things that are more important.

Mentors can help you to navigate career challenges, through sharing insights from their own past successes and failures. They can also provide you with exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking that can help you to further grow.

Through the lens of experience, your mentor can help you to view your mistakes in a more positive way.

Successful leaders often see mistakes as an opportunity for professional development and positive change. Everyone makes mistakes at work from time to time – the important thing is to learn from these mistakes and become more resilient in the process.

As Sally Blount, Dean of Northwestern University’s School of Management, stated in an article about the benefits of mentorship, “we may gain confidence from our successes, but it’s our failures that develop our leadership muscle and offer the most powerful insights.”

Another benefit offered through mentorship is the opportunity for both parties to grow their professional network.

Mentoring isn’t just a one-way street. Your working relationship with your mentor can also bring benefits to their career, offering them professional development in their leadership skills and recognition as a mentor and subject matter expert.

Through your mentor’s introductions, and vice versa, you can both develop positive working relationships with new contacts that you may not have had the chance to meet otherwise. This also provides you with an opportunity to build your personal brand, through a wider audience of social media contacts and greater levels of exposure.

When choosing a mentor, you’ll want to look for someone whose experience and success is greater than your own, although they don’t necessarily need to be from the same industry. Someone from a different organization or sector can still provide valuable insight into areas of leadership and professional development.

People who have used strategy to get where they are make great mentors, as they can share their experience and help you to build your own roadmap to success. You’ll be able to learn firsthand how they got to the role and position they’re in today.

As well as experience and strategy, mentors should inspire you by their values and character traits. If empathy and honesty are important to you in your career, align yourself with a mentor who understands the importance of these values. Look for people who are passionate about their work and love what they do. You should admire the life and work of your mentor, as they exemplify the skills and success you want to achieve yourself.

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Have you got a mentor? Why having a mentor is important for your career

The Go1 Team are very excited to announce that we have just been listed as one of the top 500 companies in the 2016 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific!

Coming it at 439, this is an outstanding effort from the team in what is a very competitive region when it comes to technology, and being one of only 4 companies from Queensland to make the final cut. The Go1 team are very proud of this achievement, and are already looking forward to improving on this ranking for the 2017 awards.

Awardees are selected for the Technology Fast 500 ranking based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth over three years.

This year has also seen the rise of a number of Australian companies in the Asia Pacific region, with 88 companies making the top 500! 

Go1 listed in 2016 Deloitte Technology Fast 500

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If you are planning on training your team on legal compliance, then you will need to get organized and come up with a proper plan. You will need to know and understand the goals that you are trying to achieve and be able to come up with a plan that will help you to achieve those goals. If you don’t have a plan in place then it will be difficult to meet your targets, making any training less effective than it otherwise could be.

Every company is different, with its own dynamics and requirements meaning that any game plan should be tailor-made to that company’s specific needs. It’s important to do research into just how the company operates to help ensure that any training plans put into place are relevant to them. Certain individuals within the company may also have specific roles that require specific training.

More importantly, it could help prevent instances of wrong doing happening in the first place.

One key aspect of building a legal compliance game plan is to know exactly which laws need to be abided, and who needs to abide by them. Below are some of the main topics that staff will generally need to be trained in if they are to comply with rules and regulations.

Some necessary areas that the workforce needs to be trained in are:

Safety: Where possible, an employer should always provide safety training to their employees. If a member of the workforce picks up an injury or illness as a result of their job and they had not received adequate training, then the employer could face serious consequences. This ranges from everyday issues such as obstructing walkways and avoiding slippery surfaces, to more specific instances such as handling toxic chemicals and operating heavy machinery. It is often also necessary to ensure that certain personal have certain equipment to help keep them and others safe in the workplace.

Emergency Training: In addition to training staff to help them recognize potential hazards in the workplace, it’s also necessary to train them in what they need to do in the case of an emergency. If there is a fire in the building then having staff that knows how to deal with the situation best could literally help to make the difference between life and death. Emergency training will often tie in with safety training to help ensure it is easy to vacate a building if needed and to help emergencies from occurring in the first place.

Discrimination: Discriminating against certain people based on their race, religion, gender and other demographics is against the law. Employers that have been found not to take necessary precautions and/or act accordingly when issues arise are liable for potentially severe penalties. Management, in particular, should obviously receive anti-discrimination training but the whole workforce should have some training also. The company should also make sure that the whole workforce is aware of procedures to make a complaint if needed.

One of the more serious inequality issues that occur in the workplace is sexual harassment. According to the American Association of University Women, the definition of sexual harassment is “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature”. Not only must the employer put into practice training that helps to recognize and prevent sexual harassment, they must also take very seriously any complaints that are made.

Compliance with the Law: Depending on which particular business you are in, there will be various laws that must be abided by. For example, in the case of a financial services company, this could mean making sure that only qualified people are giving financial advice. In a catering business, it could mean storing food in certain conditions. Depending on which industry you are operating, audits and inspection will be carried out and penalties may be imposed if legal requirements are not complied to.

Whenever introducing new staff to the company, it’s important that they all go through the appropriate orientation procedure as soon as they join. This should cover the basics such as pointing out emergency exits and other essential locations and facilities, as well as making sure they are supplied with any essential equipment. Any necessary documentation should also be provided and signed, including information on policies relating to legal compliance. In many cases, a new employer cannot legally begin to work before they have taken necessary training programs.

Instructing staff on what the rules are and how to obey them is an excellent and necessary start. Self-audits not only help to pick up on any unintended errors but also help to keep the staff on their toes as they will be well aware that their actions will be audited at some point in the future. These audits can often be carried out by in-house compliance staff--although some businesses may prefer to recruit a third party for the audit for a genuinely transparent and impartial audit.

If you are unsure of what you need to do to comply with necessary rules and regulations you could hire a business to do this for you. A team that is experienced in providing compliance training will be aware of what rules and regulations need to be adhered to and how to make sure that individuals are meeting expected requirements. They can also design a training program that you can adopt, helping you to train your workforce yourself in the future.

How to build a legal compliance game plan

 A new study of local Australian government agencies has revealed a systemic problem affecting staff training processes. The study—which was conducted by online training provider GO1 and incorporated data collected from 55 Australian government organisations—cited budget constraints and a lack of technological resources as the primary reasons for a recent setback in training productivity.


Completed during the first quarter of 2016, the study paid close attention to the learning management solutions employed by each of the surveyed government departments as well as the methods used during training and the types of training courses that were preferred. The results were somewhat staggering.

The findings suggested a downward trend in the cultivation of properly trained staff members and signalled that:

Only around 43% of Australian government agencies use online training solutions to help prepare their staff to meet the needs of the public (which implies that over half of the government sector still uses traditional, non-digital methods for staff education)

Fewer than one in three departments use mobile devices to facilitate eLearning among personnel

Approximately 46% of agencies are still hoping to reduce their training budgets despite these issues

The GO1 Local Government Study 2016 [which can be accessed here] exposed a range of obstacles that currently stand in the way of more efficient training program delivery, GO1 co-founder and chief technology officer Dr. Vu Tran said. “Local government is failing to switch over to eLearning despite the huge benefits it offers. The reason being given is that many agencies don’t have access to the technology required to be able to run an online solution due to budget limitations. [The agencies] also don’t have sufficient time to move to a new system [or] learn how to use and manage it,” Dr. Tran observed.

For the uninitiated, this means that, though online training courses such as those provided by GO1 offer comprehensive one-on-one solutions to help prepare personnel for the workplace, in many cases the technology simply isn’t there. It’s impossible, for example, to design an online class for new employees when your Internet is unreliable or your budget limits you to one computer for every five staff members.

Beyond the issue of limited technology, the survey results indicated further challenges facing the public sector. These included:

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the general technological deficiencies that were uncovered, the GO1 study suggested government departments were lagging behind when it came to mobile use. Though the world has entered an unprecedented digital age, fewer than one in three agencies reported providing their staff with the tools they would need to learn on the go. This discovery runs entirely contradictory to GO1’s experience in the field of online learning and education. “Having access to learning material on mobile devices and tablets lets people train when it’s more convenient [for] them. There are usually many higher priority tasks to complete when [staff members are] sitting at their desk. Mobile learning means they can access courses anywhere, and it’s far more convenient,” Dr. Tran said.

The survey likewise showed that time was another pressing issue. Nearly 50% of respondents admitted spending no more than two hours on training each month, while only around 10% could claim they dedicated more than four hours per month on staff education.

And yet almost 20% of participants complained of having to devote as much as 24 hours a month to the management of training programs. This statistic is dramatically disproportionate to the number of hours spent in active training. As Dr. Tran sees it, such a disproportion provides a strong argument for a more widespread use of online learning solutions. “ELearning makes training easier and less time consuming and it’s much more cost effective,” Dr. Tran remarked, adding, “Half of the government departments surveyed [were] anxious about budgets and would consider a switch to a learning management system if it could cut training costs by half — which it would [, so therefore] it’s an opportune time for local government to start ditching legacy systems and invest in newer, more efficient training processes.”

In addition to actual training time, there was also the issue of time devoted to the creation and management of training courses. Many organisations pointed to maintenance of training systems as being a genuine concern and also suggested that more traditional methods of staff education were difficult to monitor for industry compliance. These government departments seemed to crave the advantages of a flexible, reasonably priced platform—a solution that would afford managers the opportunity to build their own customised courses and administer these classes in an online environment that could track user progress and offer compliance reports.

As is the case with so many agencies, the government departments surveyed by GO1 also disclosed a very real tension between the desire to increase staff proficiency and a desire to protect the bottom line. Close to 50% of study participants indicated they’d be quite likely to implement a learning management system (or LMS) if such a system could provide accredited courses for free. A cheaper LMS solution would no doubt free up valuable resources, which in turn could be diverted toward the acquisition of applicable technology such as desktop monitors, laptops, cell phones and other mobile devices. And more technology, of course, would allow more employees to be on-boarded more swiftly and efficiently.

Finally, the GO1 Local Government Survey 2016 revealed that the challenges mentioned above were all infinitely compounded by the fact that employees must be trained in a wide variety of subjects.

To get a better sense of exactly which topics Australian government agencies would consider to be the most important fields of study, the GO1 survey asked respondents to specify their choices for the most essential training courses within two separate spheres: professional development and industry compliance.

According to the survey, “leadership” emerged as the most crucial course in the area of professional development. This topic was then followed by “workplace health and safety” and “customer service.” A clear majority of respondents listed these courses among their top three most sought-after classes. The entire top 10 list was as follows:
1. Leadership – a look at the ultimate “roles and responsibilities” assumed by business leaders and an analysis of how the actions of these individuals can help foster a communal culture

2. Workplace Health & Safety for Contractors/Supervisors/Employees – an overview of the hazards that may be encountered in the workplace and an introduction to techniques for emergency response and disaster prevention

3. Customer Service – methods for improving customer satisfaction and sustaining a positive attitude during person-to-person interactions

4. Report Writing – thoughts on streamlining your writing style and ideas on how to structure work reports that are both clear and easily digestible

5. Supervisory Skills – a look at enhancing leadership skills to promote a safe, friendly and productive environment

6. Resilience – tips on learning to adapt when met with new challenges or faced with an unexpected business catastrophe

7. Team Building – an overview of the primary features and functions of a team and thoughts on boosting group morale while promoting maximum output

8. Time Management – methods for simplifying daily tasks, minimising procrastination and building effective communication skills in order to use your time as wisely as possible

9. Problem Solving/Reasoning/Creativity – ideas for approaching industry challenges with a careful line of reasoning that yields uniquely impactful results

10. Systems Training – the “dos and donts” and “hows and whys” of educating those you supervise

When it came to compliance, “workplace health and safety” also made it to a top three spot among popular training courses. Still, the curriculum identified as the most vital/most highly utilised among the 55 surveyed agencies was “traffic control.” The finalised list of top 10 programs for compliance education included:

1. Traffic Control – tips on creating a safe work space, maintaining appropriate levels of professionalism and keeping the lines of construction communication open

2. Codes of Conduct – a look at upholding legal and ethical standards in a professional setting

3. Workplace Health & Safety – an overview of the hazards that may be encountered in the workplace and an introduction to techniques for emergency response and disaster prevention (with an eye towards meeting exacting government and industry requirements)

4. Bullying & Harassment – guidelines for employee behvaiour that will prevent incidents of mistreatment and malpractice

5. Building Regulation – thoughts on remaining up-to-code when working on a construction site

6. First Aid – methods for providing emergency care to your co-workers

7. Induction Training – ideas for introducing new employees to their workplace environment, especially when said environment poses potential risks or heath hazards

8. Drug & Alcohol Awareness – a review of the ways in which drug and alcohol abuse can inadvertently affect a community of co-workers and thoughts on how best to protect yourself and your company against such effects

9. Confined Space Training – preparation guidelines for completing work within a designated “confined” space and thoughts on how to stay safe in these enclosed areas

10. Leisure Centre Compliance – methods for meeting legal safety requirements when working in multi-purpose leisure centres, particularly those with pools (such courses should instruct employees in fundamental lifeguarding techniques)

Dr. Tran feels these lists are extremely telling. “These are [the types of] training courses that government organisations can’t afford to skip,” he said, adding “Keeping up with compliance is one of the most critical components in training. When you’re setting the standard for the community, it’s paramount that you yourself are well trained and informed in all of the areas that you deal with on a daily basis. ELearning can really help simplify this and track all the critical courses that have been completed.”

Indeed, the results of the GO1 survey seem to support Dr. Tran’s observations. It would appear as though government organisations would be best served by the employment of a digital learning management system—a solution that could simultaneously roll back costs, save time and keep agencies as honest and compliant as possible.

View the full GO1 Local Government Study 2016 here.

Survey finds local governments face significant challenges when training staff members

When hiring new staff, it’s important to find employees who are a good cultural fit for your organization, as well as qualified and experienced for the job.

This means taking the time to find people whose core values are aligned with your workplace culture, to support your company’s mission, vision and goals. You’ve no doubt worked hard to establish the culture of your business and each new person that you bring on board has the potential to contribute either positively or negatively to that culture.

With many of today’s workers looking to use their skills for companies that share their own values, hiring an employee that is a good cultural fit is beneficial to both parties.

Here are some strategies and points to consider, to help you find new hires that are the best fit for your business.

With recruitment and onboarding costing companies significant amounts of time and money, you don’t want to bring someone on board only to have them leave a short time after.

Employees who are a good cultural fit for their job show greater work satisfaction, higher performance levels and are more likely to remain with the same organization for a longer period of time. Happier staff are more productive and engaged, making it a win-win situation for both parties.

By spending time in your hiring process to find the right fit, you’ll reduce staff turnover and save money on further recruitment and onboarding.

Just because an applicant has the right experience doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right person to fill the role.

So-called soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking and emotional intelligence are highly valued in the modern workforce and should not be overlooked when deciding on a new hire.

While traditionally, companies focused more on an employee’s IQ as a measure of potential success, today’s workforce is paying a lot of attention to emotional intelligence. In fact, with 90% of top performers showing high EQ, emotional intelligence is considered the strongest predictor of performance. Employees with high EQ are also seen to be happier, more resilient, better at conflict resolution, continually learning and more effective at leadership.

Personality traits such as empathy, compassion and honesty are also important, particularly for recruiters in the health, social justice or non-profit sectors.

As a recent article in Business News Daily says, “although the right skill set may seem like the most important factor in whether a candidate is a good fit for a particular role, the truth is that skills can be acquired, but personalities cannot.”

Potential employees should already have a sense of the way your organization is run from your company’s brand strategy, mission and values. This gives people a sense of knowing what’s “behind the scenes” before they even interview.

Company values should be apparent in the way you do business, every day. You can also use social media as a channel to express these values and make your corporate culture clearly visible to your audience. Show people what your brand is passionate about, what inspires company goals, what you live and breathe in your workplace.

This realistic preview of the job helps attract candidates who are a better fit for your organizational culture. You want people to feel that your company is a good fit for them, as well as vice versa. These new hires can become your best brand ambassadors, as staff who feel aligned with their work culture can contribute to growing your brand, achieving organizational goals and sharing your company values.

Interviews are the best opportunity to see if there’s a good fit between your organization and an individual.

You can use questions about how candidates have handled certain work situations in the past, to reveal how important values are in informing their behavior and actions. Interviewers can then determine how each response aligns with the culture and values of the organization.

Interviews also allow candidates to ask questions about the company and what it’s like to work for. You can get a good sense of how important work culture is to someone by the questions they ask and where their attention is focused.

Don’t Confuse Cultural Fit with Discrimination

When discussing cultural fit, it’s very important to be clear that we’re talking about finding a good fit for your corporate culture – the culture of your company or organization. Cultural fit has nothing to do with age, gender, race, citizenship or sexuality. Hiring, or not hiring, people based on these factors is discrimination, which is never a good thing.

In fact, as well as being discriminatory, in organizations where staff are too similar in personality, background or thinking styles “the resulting lack of diversity will often manifest in poor creativity and undermine a company's competitiveness.”

When selecting new hires, look for people who can help you build a diverse, positive and respectful work culture. Finding an employee who is the right fit will be worth it.

Are you hiring employees that are a good cultural fit?

While some people are very comfortable in supervising and guiding a team of people when things are going smoothly, few are as comfortable when things begin to go wrong. It’s when things are difficult that we can begin to tell just who the great leaders are as we get to see what they are really made of. Many of the greatest names in history have shown attributes that help to make up the profile of a truly great leader.

Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work… – Albert Einstein

Even when Einstein began to emerge as a scientist he made some key errors that could have caused many other people to give up, but not Einstein. His determination and tenacity to prove to people that he was right eventually came through and his theory of relativity and other work is now a cornerstone of modern physics.

I never worry about action, but only inaction. – Winston Churchill.

The decision made by Winston Churchill to challenge Hitler which led to Britain going to war with Germany in WWII was perhaps one of the most difficult decisions that any leader is likely to face. Still, Winston Churchill made the decision and not only did he make it, he did so with conviction.

Throughout the war, Churchill continued to make difficult decisions, making himself a leader that the nation could rally behind in such a difficult time. If it were not for Churchill’s willingness to make such a difficult decision then Britain’s resistance may have been weaker, and the world as we know it could be a very different place.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -Thomas Edison

Mistakes happen and even the greatest leaders are not infallible. When something does go wrong, and regardless of who is at fault, one sign of a great leader is to learn from the mistake and use it as a valuable lesson to help ensure similar mistakes are not made again in the future. A great leader might even recognize that making mistakes can be considered to be a positive because it gives the opportunity to learn something valuable.

If the chips are down and there are problems that need to be solved then a great leader will know how to delegate certain tasks to certain people that are best suited to get the job done. In the right circumstances, it might even be best to appoint certain people to a supervisory role so that they can pass on their knowledge and experience to help get the job done. Delegating correctly helps to increase man-hour efficiency as it helps to make sure that people are doing the roles that suit them best. It also helps to make sure that all resources at their disposal are put to their best use.

Any team is likely to have some people that have something positive to contribute so in addition to delegating, it can also be very important to listen to what others have to say. Any one of your team could have a solution that will make and difficult task easier to overcome.

One essential attribute that helps to make a great leader is to look for ways to fix things even when times are tough. Being able to keep a calm head and think things through properly rather than panicking and losing composure can help a great leader to come up with solutions to a problem. Composure can also help a great leader to persevere, while also inspiring those around them to keep on going with a positive attitude no matter how tough it may be.

Another great aspect of remaining composed is that when others see that the person in charge is calm, it is likely to help them to keep calm also. With a composed leader and a calm team behind them, productivity is likely to remain high, helping problems to be overcome.

One of the most valuable resources available to any leader is the manpower at their disposal, and a great leader will know how to get the best from those that are following them. When things are challenging it is easy for some people to begin to doubt themselves and a great leader will be able to offer them encouragement to help them perform to their best. With a team that is working at their best difficult circumstances can be tackled much more effectively.

Great leaders speak on how to address and overcome difficulty

The Go1 November release is here and we're excited to share our latest updates with you to make sure you and your team get the best learning experience possible! Over the coming weeks and months we have a lot of very exciting updates to share with you, and there are a few in particular that we think you'll especially enjoy.  In our November release you’ll find updates to the navigation in the administrator interface, allowing managers to enroll students in free courses, and more!

Find out more about all of the updates below:

Enroll Students into Free Courses From Course Cards 

Now that there are more and more free courses available on the Go1 Course Marketplace, we want to make it easier for all of our users to be able to access this content, and share it with their teams. This update allows managers to enroll their team members into free courses listed on the Go1 Course Marketplace by simply visiting the course home page and clicking "Enroll another User", entering the email address of the team member, and clicking the "Ok" button. This makes is easier than ever to share great free content with your team with the click of a button.

Navigation Updated for Administrator Interface 

To make it easier for you to manage your learners, we have refined the information displayed in the 'Administer' section of your portal to ensure you can access the information and features that you need as quick and easily as possible. This includes having less categories listed in the menus, but by providing more relevant information under each menu item.

Only existing portals can be found entering domain names

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!

One of the greatest problems in addressing gender equality issues in the workplace is recognizing that they even exist at all. A lot of gender equality issues in the workplace can be quite subtle, making them easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. What might appear to be a little fun between colleagues, for example, could actually be quite distressing for somebody that is involved. What’s more is that somebody who is a victim of gender inequality in the workplace may not feel as though they are able to speak out. Many others are not aware of the procedures are should they wish to make a complaint.

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality, and this can mean training your whole workforce. While management should clearly be well trained in identifying examples of gender inequality among the workforce, the responsibility can lie with everybody. If you don’t take necessary steps to clamp down on inequality in the workplace, especially instances of sexual harassment, then you could potentially be facing serious consequences.

Make it Known That Inequality is Not Tolerated

One way to help tackle gender inequality can be to make it clearly known to the whole workforce that it will not be tolerated. If necessary, you can offer regular reminders of your company’s stance on gender inequality by including it in newsletters or maybe in the occasional team meeting. Posters and signs will also help to make regular reminders to everybody that gender inequality will not be tolerated. As already mentioned, education will play a large part in this and training sessions should be held whenever possible. It is possible that if a policy on non-tolerance on inequality is not pressed home regularly then a culture of inequality could begin to develop, even if not intended.

The procedures for tackling gender inequality should also be made clear for everybody to understand. It should be made absolutely clear whom to approach when making a claim, and that making a complaint will not have any adverse effect on the career prospects of the person making the complaint. Too often, cases go unchecked because the victim is unsure of what to do, or is concerned that their position within the company may be adversely affected if they do make a complaint.

If one gender in your organization is being paid significantly more than the other, then this could be an indicator of inequality. A difference in wages alone does not confirm that there is an issue with inequality as there are other factors to be taken into consideration, although a significant gap could be worthy of investigation.

If something doesn’t add up, then you may need to address the recruitment process along with an investigation into other practices in the workplace. It could be that the environment within the workplace does not encourage women to try and progress. It may also be that one gender is being favored over the other, and this could be happening subconsciously.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly half (47%) of the US workforce is made up of women. Despite this, some sectors, such as Tech and IT, are still very much male-dominated. This is despite the fact that women can be, and often are, just as able to perform well in the industry as men are.

It also works both ways as men can be overlooked for positions that are traditionally female dominated such as secretarial roles. This can lead to better-qualified candidates being overlooked for reasons that have not relation to their ability to do the job.

One way that can help to avoid this can be to remove names from application forms along with anything else that may reveal an applicant’s gender. In doing so, those reviewing the applications will be doing so based on nothing but the applicant’s ability to do the job. Make sure that the interview process is also fair and focuses only on the candidates’ qualifications and ability to do the job at hand.

Friendships are often struck up in the workplace and people will often choose to socialize with colleagues outside of working hours. Even though an individual may genuinely try to be impartial when it comes to making decisions in the workplace, it can be very difficult for them to select an individual they don’t know personally over one that they do. Meeting socially can also help to reveal characteristics that might favor a person when it comes to applying for jobs that might otherwise go unnoticed. This will give an applicant an unfair advantage when applying for a job in which somebody they know personally will be part of the recruitment team.

While it would be wrong to tell your workforce who they can and cannot socialize with outside of working hours, you could still encourage all members of the workforce to get involved to some degree. Team-building exercises and other social functions to which the whole team is invited can help to encourage everybody to make more personal connections, helping to address the balance of social exclusion.

Create the Right Balance Between Life and Work

If there is a culture of working long shifts within your organization then this is something that could be helping to contribute to inequality in the workplace. Many people have demanding family commitments that mean unsociable working hours just are not feasible for them. Such a working environment means that many people are not able to take advantage of the same opportunities as those with fewer commitments away from work, and this can help contribute to an issue with inequality.

Once you are able to identify issues they may be leading to inequality issues in the first place then you can begin to focus on how to fix them. Make sure that your staff receives adequate training on inequality issues and you are taking a step closer to a fair and productive working environment.

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.

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality. Here's what you need to know.

Addressing gender equality in your workplace

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality. Here's what you need to know. 

Being an introvert in an extrovert-dominated world can often be challenging, particularly in the workplace. In many organisations, introverts can become misunderstood and undervalued, overshadowed by their more extroverted colleagues.

For managers, this presents one of the more difficult aspects of leadership – trying to get the best out of the many different personality types in their teams. A good leader will want to make sure everyone in their team is treated fairly and given the same tools and opportunities to develop their career. So how can you make sure you’re helping the introverts in your team to succeed?

If you’re a manager or team leader, it’s important that you know how to empower the introverts in your team, to achieve organisational goals and help each individual reach their full potential. Here are some practical steps you can take to help introverted employees succeed at work.

Many introverts have an intense fear or dislike of public speaking, often feeling more comfortable and articulate when presenting their ideas on paper, rather than verbally. Having a meeting – or worse, a presentation – sprung on them at short notice can be quite terrifying, which may be hard for extroverted people to understand.

However, in most workplaces, team meetings are a part of everyday life. Having time to prepare for meetings or presentations will help introverted employees greatly.

By scheduling meetings in advance and letting teams know what’s on the agenda, you’re giving everyone time to think about the topics being discussed and process their own thoughts. This will also benefit the business by ensuring that employees are given the best opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with the group.

It’s not about pandering to the introverts in your team – it’s about showing your employees that you respect their individual work styles by running an effective meeting that will generate the best ideas and outcomes.

Once you have your team gathered together in a meeting or brainstorming session, how can you be sure that the introverts in your group will share their voice?

For introverts, speaking up in group situations can be hard, especially when there are a lot of big personalities in the room who are more outspoken. Introverted team members will often sit back and listen, letting the extroverts run the show while keeping their ideas and opinions to themselves.

Susan Cain, author of bestselling book ‘Quiet’, believes that modern society dramatically undervalues introverts, losing much by doing so. She suggests a strategy for encouraging introverts to participate called the think-pair-share technique, which is more commonly used in classrooms but is very effective in the workplace.

Introduce a topic for discussion and ask team members to take some time to themselves to think about it, writing down their thoughts if they’d like to. Then divide the group into pairs to discuss their ideas one-on-one. After a few minutes, ask each pair to share their thoughts with the group.

Having some alone time to think and prepare before being asked to share with the group will make introverts feel more comfortable, prepared and ready to share their ideas with the team.

It seems that most modern workplaces are set up with extroverts in mind. Open plan offices, brainstorming sessions, constant collaboration, self-promotion… all of these things feel opposed to an introvert’s authentic self. Pushing against this every day can lead to many introverts experiencing burn out at work or low mental health.

It’s important to empower introverts by creating a safe, positive work culture in which they feel comfortable and supported. Even if this means doing things a little differently in your office. This will help bring out the best in introverted staff members, allowing them to contribute their best work for your organisation.

The most effective managers are those who take the time to understand how each individual works best. These leaders have the potential to change how we see introverts in the workplace and how they see themselves.

While these team members can sometimes come across as aloof or a little awkward at times, the introverted mind is responsible for many wonderful inventions, ideas and innovations in our world. They are often very hard-working, creative and loyal employees – they just need to be given the space and supportive work culture to show that.

How managers can help introverts succeed at work

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