For many professionals, the start of a new year is the perfect time to map out career growth and development plans. We look ahead and seek out learning or re-skilling opportunities while considering how our current employer lines up with our own career plans.  

If an organization wants to retain its best employees, this is the time to align with each team member's plans for growth.  

When an organization focuses on recognizing and developing in-house talent, they have a competitive advantage. Creating solid (and personalized) leadership pathways for employees is no simple set and forget task, but rather requires collaborative and invested participants and programs.  

Deloitte recently emphasized the need to seek to apply rigorous, structured, scientific approaches to succession planning and development, aiming to identify potential leaders earlier and fast-track them into leadership positions. 

With successful leadership pathways in place, an organization attracts many positive impacts, three of which are highlighted here, Retention, Diversity, and Engagement. 

A lack of career development has consistently been a leading reason employees quit. The Work Institute reported it as the primary reason people left for a consecutive nine years up to 2019 and Deloitte’s 2020 Talent Report identified it as the main reason respondents begin searching for new employment.  

A staggering 87% of millennials also cite access to professional development as being very important to their decision to stay or go in their current jobs. Considering millennials now make up the largest generation group of employees in the U.S., whatever is crucial to them should be considered crucial to any organizations wishing to retain them.  

This isn’t a case of ‘promote anyone who is considering leaving’, but rather a longer-term involvement in each employee’s career progression plans, then mapped against clear leadership pathways.  

Much of this will often fall on direct managers, and their ability to hold regular conversations around career and learning goals. These conversations are then best supported by larger learning and development, mentoring and internal recruitment structures.  

Developing a diverse leadership cohort in-house has widespread positive organizational impacts, from engagement and innovation to employee feelings of belonging and inclusion.  

Unfortunately, many barriers remain in place to encouraging leadership equity within an organization. Namely, a lack of mentors and role models, stereotyping and preconceptions of roles and abilities and exclusion from informal networks of communication have all been identified as significant barriers to career advancement for women and people of color.  

Even within companies with diversity plans in place, there is often bias and stigma affecting career progression. 88% of surveyed diversity and inclusion managers see bias in their organization’s career development and promotions.  

This identifies a need for structured and empathetic pathways that support career progression for current staff of diverse or traditionally marginalized backgrounds. This goes hand in hand with any external recruitment's diversity plans, and together help address the attraction, retention and development of a more diverse workforce and leadership panel. 

The American Psychological Association notes that the identification and development of diverse talent is a critical intervention to the chance that women and people of color will find work environments inclusive, fair and be willing to stay and progress.  

In 2017, Gallup research found that only 33% of American workers were engaged at work, with another 52% just showing up and 17% describing themselves as actively disengaged. Scary numbers to say the least.  

Boosting your employee's engagement will always be a complex and ongoing process, as was discussed in a recent webinar where Go1’s David Hastings was joined by Lauren Waldman, Chief Learning Scientist, and Alex Bailey, CEO of Bailey & French. You can catch up on the recorded version of this insightful webinar here.  

Two of the greatest impacts on employee engagement, as identified by Quantum Workplace research, are: 

The leaders of the organization value people as their most important resource 

The organization makes investments to make employees more successful 

When employees see their future selves prioritized at work, they show up more authentically and engaged. Your investment in each employee’s career says a lot about your culture, fostering trust and increased innovation within teams. 

Wharton similarly state that employees want to be invested in. Providing formal growth opportunities shows that you value your people. 

So, as many of your employees consider their future career progression, ensure your organization has suitable leadership pathway structures in place. You will retain and develop more engaged, diverse and innovative employees and will stabilize future organizational growth with established leaders.  

For more insights into training and developing your workforce, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter. Or you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

You may also like to read, L&D's role in addressing the Great Resignation.  

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What happens when organizations choose to focus on developing leaders in-house.

Finding organizational magic in leadership pathways

2021 has been a year like no other. Not just for the Learning with Go1 Podcast, but for the entire world. We have seen and experienced so much this year in the world of L&D, so how can you recap a year like 2021? 

Well, if we take a look back at the catalogue of podcast episodes released in 2021, you may notice many similar themes running through them. From hybrid learning to upskilling & reskilling to closing the skills gap, there are many commonalities between our various guests who have shared their perspectives on how the L&D industry has evolved over the last 18 months. 

If you're ready to take a trip down memory lane and explore some of the best bits from the Learning with Go1 archive, keep on reading below!

What is hybrid learning and what's its impact on L&D? 

In this episode of the series, Craig was joined by the founders of Quantum Rise Talent Group, Erica Farmer and Hayley Bird, to talk about how hybrid learning can drive digital transformation. 

As businesses look to adopt new approaches to workplace learning with varying degrees of flexibility, hybrid learning allows L&D teams to rise above and reshape their learning experiences, as Erica explains below.  

How can hybrid learning drive digital transformation?

The skills gap is increasing faster than we are educating people  

As the flow of work changes, learning will change with it. David Blake, former CEO & Cofounder, now Executive Chairman of Degreed joined us to discuss whether universities need to do more to support the lifelong career of their students.  
 

The need for lifelong learning

In this episode, Global Head of Learning Design & Technologies Josh Novelle, joined us to discuss the experience and challenges of launching digital learning for the first time.  

L&D calls for people who challenge the status quo, who can dig deep to get to the root of a problem and understand it to its core. This requires a skill that is not often thought about but is essential when it comes to building a successful L&D strategy - and that is, curiosity. 

Listen as Josh explains the growing role of curiosity in L&D below.   

Developing a practice of curiosity

What skills do L&D teams need to succeed? 

With the evolution of technology, organisations are starting to diverge in the way they operate. The skills that were once needed may not be as relevant anymore, and we’re seeing a shift of focus onto developing future ready skills so that L&D teams can stay up-to-date.  

In Episode 12, Head of Learning & Development at Vitality, Seb Tindall discussed the skills L&D teams need to deliver high performing L&D programmes in 2021 and beyond. 
 

Are your team's L&D skills still relevant?

The future of skills and learning technology 

Only 1% of L&D believe learning will go back to what it was before the pandemic. 

Considering this, Fosway's David Perring came on to discuss how L&D can choose the right digital learning solutions and get more involved in directing the talent development of their organisation, as well as measuring learning success with increased data points. 

Measuring the success of L&D

We’d like to give a huge thanks to our amazing guests this year for helping us make this podcast happen. And to our listeners for your support and overwhelmingly positive encouragement and feedback. We will be back next year to continue the conversation about how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape of L&D.

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe!  

2021 has been a year like no other. If you're ready to take a trip down memory lane and explore some of the best bits from the Learning with Go1 podcast, keep on reading...

Learning with Go1 Podcast - taking a look back at 2021  

Professional development is not only beneficial to your employees, it also has many advantages for your business overall. By boosting the professional skills of your people, you help them achieve their career goals and enable them to provide a better service to your customers and clients.

There are many factors that go into being a good employer, and one particularly important aspect is professional development. But what is professional development, and how can you ensure you’re allowing your employees to learn, grow, and achieve job satisfaction?

Professional development can take several forms, but all have the same purpose: to offer employees training and development to upskill them, increase their confidence, and keep on top of ever changing technology and business landscapes.

With the right professional development training, it will help your people to:

Progress through your business and achieve their goals

Balancing learning with day-to-day duties

It can sometimes be difficult to find a balance between professional development and ensuring employees can continue with their daily tasks and duties. Finding times that suit multiple employees can be almost impossible to arrange - especially as people spend more time working in a remote or hybrid environment.

However, there are solutions to this which means employees can receive the training and development they want while ensuring they don’t fall behind in their duties. We’ll discuss these options below, along with types of professional development and how encouraging it benefits your business.

Why is professional development important?

The importance of professional development shouldn’t be underestimated. From an employees point of view, those who are career driven and have set goals will want to make sure their employer is helping them to achieve them. Allowing employees the ability to grow and improve their professional skills will be rewarding not only for them, but for your company as well.

We’ve explored why professional development is important from an employee, but it can also be an invaluable tool for your business for a multitude of reasons.

So, why is professional development important? If you encourage professional growth, it will benefit your business in a number of ways.

A business that encourages training and development is one that’s going to appeal to professional, career-driven people. Nobody is going to produce their best work knowing that their career is stagnant - so by training your employees you’re putting them in the best position possible to reach their goals.

As a result, not only will you improve employee retention, but also entice some of the best and brightest talents your industry has to offer. Recruitment is expensive and comes with a certain degree of risk - so it benefits employers to upskill their existing, trustworthy teams and attract the right people.

If employees feel that their employer values them then they’re far more likely to have boosted motivation and feel fulfilled in their roles. And when an employee is motivated, they’re going to produce better results for your customers and, ultimately, you.

Build confidence and encourage collaboration

When teams have confidence in each other, they’re far more likely to collaborate. Only when they collaborate and have trust in one another will teams produce their best work.

When employees are provided with the right training and development, they’ll be given all the skills and knowledge they need to do their job well. As they learn new skills, procedures, and ways of working, when these are put into practice they’ll have higher levels of efficiency. That means better results in a shorter amount of time.

With their new skills, your employees will even be in a better position to offer suggestions and improvements to your business as a whole.

By encouraging professional development you increase the credibility of your business in two ways:

You’ll be known as a strong employer within your industry, and that you care about your employees, and

Being able to showcase to your clients that your people are highly trained will improve their trust in your business

These points will help you to attract both new clients and the best talent to fill new roles.

Improve the succession planning process 

By training multiple members of your team on skills that are crucial to the business, it enables your business to run smoothly as team members leave or retire. Upskilling current employees is far more cost-effective than recruiting, especially management and senior-level staff.

Due to workloads and the difficulties involved with organizing for office-based, remote, and hybrid employees, e-learning is becoming the preferred method for developing employees’ skills. There are two main types of development and learning:

Synchronous learning means each student is taught together, in a tutor-led online or physical environment. It requires students to come together to learn as a group at set dates, times, and locations.

Asynchronous learning is self-directed, with all the material provided to the student who can learn as and when they have the capacity.

Our post on the benefits of self-directed learning goes into detail about asynchronous learning, as well as the importance of self-leadership in adult learning.

Asynchronous learning is an increasingly common option for many businesses, as it allows employees to learn consistently, even if they’re unable to do so at the same time. It’s also cost-effective and reduces pressure by being self-directed.

There are numerous courses employees can take across many areas of development. It’s up to employers to devise a staff development plan, and it’s important to listen to what employees themselves want to learn. Most courses can be completed over a number of days, weeks, or months (depending on how much they can do alongside their day-to-day tasks), while others can take a number of years.

Below are some examples of staff development:

With industries, technologies and processes always changing, it’s vital that your teams keep up to date. It’s these skills that contribute toward providing the services your clients are looking for. Whether it’s digital or physical, ensuring your people are fully trained and upskilled allows them to make your clients happy.

By offering training to managers, it increases the productivity of their teams as they’re given the skills and knowledge to apply strategies, delegate, deal with conflict and offer training of their own. As managers learn new skills, this will filter down and improve productivity and motivation.

As previously mentioned, if a team is confident working together they’re going to produce the best results and understand the overall goal the team has. This helps teams to come together as one, and dissuade any dysfunctionality or cliques.

Some e-learning providers offer the opportunity to take part-time higher education qualifications. However, these types of courses will take a number of years to complete.

Providing access to a professional development program is just one of the ways you can provide training to your employees. Helping teams to create their own professional development plan is the best way to encourage growth.

However, this is not purely down to you as the employer. There has to be drive from the employees, and the desire to work on their own goals.

When working on a plan either for yourself or a colleague, consider the following:

Self-assessment - what do you do well, and what could you do better?

Goals - where do you want to be? What skills do you need to get there?

Timeline - where do you want to be in 3, 5, or 10 years?

Regular learning - undertake training to improve your skills and knowledge. Frequent periods of learning helps you to retain information

Opportunities - keep proactive and grab opportunities as they arise

Manage distractions - Give yourself time and space to learn, ensuring minimal distractions

Keep track - make regular notes, evaluating your progress so you can keep developing

Remember, it’s not possible to achieve a status whereby you feel you know “everything”. Everyone is always growing, learning, and improving - a plan will help you get there.

As previously highlighted, a good employer will provide career development opportunities to their people.

One cost-effective way to provide this is by allowing employees to take courses in the areas they’re looking to develop, which are offered by e-learning platforms. At Go1, we provide access to thousands of different courses developed by thought leaders and experts around the world from a multitude of industries.

Check out our resources section for more information on professional development resources.

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.

By boosting the professional skills of your people, you help them achieve their career goals and enable them to provide a better service to your customers and clients.

How encouraging professional development benefits your business

You take care of your physical wellbeing by eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep. You take care of your mental wellbeing with meditations, self-care, and reaching out for support in times of need. However, given the average Australian now spends 6 hours and 13 minutes online per day — a 10% increase from 2020 — how often do you think about taking care of your digital wellbeing? 

Taking care of your digital wellbeing has become increasingly important since the start of the pandemic, as many of us have spent more time working from home and grappling with the associated fatigue and isolation. You’ve probably heard the phrase bandied around in meetings and chatting with colleagues —  ‘don’t forget to look after your digital wellbeing.’ But what does this actually mean? 

To help get to the bottom of this, we’ve decided to take a closer look at digital wellbeing. We’ll start with 6 need-to-know facts about digital wellbeing, before asking ‘what is digital wellbeing’, and finishing with how to combat Zoom fatigue.

6 need-to-know facts about digital wellbeing 

Before we get into the crux of what digital wellbeing means, it’s worth contextualising this phenomenon with 6 need-to-know facts about digital wellbeing.  

Digital wellbeing is becoming increasingly important. 84% of people say they can’t go a day without using their phone, while an estimated 210 million people experience internet and social media addictions.

25% of people have changed how they interact with technology to improve their digital wellbeing, such as deleting apps and altering notification settings. 

When people make changes to their technology consumption, 80% say these changes have a positive impact on their wellbeing. 

Experts are split on digital wellbeing: 47% of experts predict that individuals’ wellbeing will be more helped than harmed by digital life in the next decade, while 32% say people’s wellbeing will be more harmed than helped.

Due to excessive internet use, 48% of us neglect housework, 47% lose sleep, and 31% miss out on spending time with family and friends.

Digital overload decreases productivity by up to 40%, while also negatively impacting our stress and anxiety levels, analytical skills, memory, and even heart rate and blood pressure.

Now that we understand how significant digital wellbeing is — and how damaging a poor sense of digital wellbeing can be — let’s dig a little deeper and explore the ins and outs of digital wellbeing.

At first glance, digital wellbeing seems relatively self-explanatory. It is simply the act of taking care of your wellbeing online. However, the nature of today’s online world adds several layers of complexity to this endeavour. For example, you may recognise that you spend too much time on a particular app to the detriment of your wellbeing, but feel like you’re unable to disconnect. Or, you might feel burned out from too many Zoom meetings, but the calendar invites just keep piling up. In today’s online age, taking care of your digital wellbeing is far easier said than done. 

According to the Building Digital Capability blog, digital wellbeing means “the capacity to look after personal health, safety, relationships and work-life balance in digital settings; to use digital tools in pursuit of personal goals (e.g. health and fitness) and to participate in social and community activities; to act safely and responsibly in digital environments; to negotiate and resolve conflict; to manage digital workload, overload and distraction...an understanding of the benefits and risks of digital participation in relation to health and wellbeing outcomes.”

The Digital Wellbeing organisation builds on this, providing two succinct definitions. Firstly, they explain that digital wellbeing simply means “finding a balance with technology, that feels right for you.” Secondly, they add that digital wellbeing is “the mindful balance between digital connectivity and digital unplugging.” As such, digital wellbeing is all about balance. While most of us now spend a significant amount of time online for work, leisure, and study, you can always have too much of a good thing. Finding a balance between connectivity and unplugging is the key to taking care of your digital wellbeing. 

However, as mentioned, this can be far easier said than done. How do you unplug and find the right balance when 84% of people use their phones daily, and a massive 210 million people are estimated to suffer from internet and social media addictions? 

To help break these damaging habits, experts suggest taking some of the following steps to care for your digital wellbeing:

Leave your phone or tablet in a different room while focussing, to avoid temptation and reduce distractions.

Disable distracting or tempting notifications on your phone.

Limit the amount of time you spend on social media each day. Research shows that people who spend more than two hours per day on social media have significantly lower self-esteem than those who spend less than two hours per day on social media. 

Try deleting the apps that you feel are damaging your wellbeing. If this feels like too big of a leap, start by setting goals to slowly reduce the amount of time you spend on these apps. 

Remove colour filters from your phone to only keep shades of grey, as brightly coloured LCD screens stimulate parts of our brain that can trigger addiction.

If you feel overwhelmed by technology at work, try completely disconnecting from technology after work or on weekends. 

Build the habit of not checking your phone for an hour before going to bed to promote healthier sleep habits.

If you feel like your digital wellbeing is suffering, reach out to friends and family and prioritise real-life relationships.

Avoid overload by taking regular breaks at work.

Protect your ‘focus time’ by setting clear boundaries with your colleagues about when you will and won’t be available. If necessary, block this time out in your calendar. 

Zoom fatigue is real. Here’s how to combat it. 

With the prevalence of remote working, Zoom fatigue has become one of the most common issues leading to poor digital wellbeing. Many of us are probably familiar with the feeling. The calendar invites keep piling up until it starts to feel like you live on Zoom. 

According to research by staffing firm Robert Half, 38% of workers have experienced video call fatigue since the start of the pandemic. That’s not all, as respondents also say they spend 30% of their workday on video calls on average, with 24% of people adding this is an “exhausting and inefficient” use of time. 

Similarly, Tech Republic finds that 27% of people are "trying to pay attention, but often zoning out" while on Zoom meetings — a clear sign of fatigue. 

Other figures suggest that nearly half of remote workers (49%) experience high levels of exhaustion due to attending daily video calls. 63% add that they now attend more meetings online than they would have in the office. 

Digging deeper into these numbers, women and introverts suffer the effects of Zoom fatigue most acutely. One survey found that approximately 1 in 7 women (13.8%) reported feeling "very" or "extremely" fatigued following a Zoom call, compared to just 1 in 20 men (5.5%). According to the researchers, this is because women “feel more trapped by having to stay in the camera's field of view, tend to have longer meetings than men on average, and typically take fewer breaks.” Similarly, 58% of introverts say they have experienced on-camera exhaustion, compared to 40% of extroverts. 

As such, Zoom fatigue is a real and impactful phenomenon that can weigh heavily on our digital wellbeing. So, what can we do to combat Zoom fatigue? Occam’s Razor tells us that the simplest answers are often the best, and in this case, that wisdom rings true. According to research by Microsoft, the best way to combat Zoom fatigue is by taking regular breaks. 

Microsoft's in-depth analysis found that taking breaks between meetings is the most effective way to reduce Zoom fatigue and increase productivity. Their study showed that taking breaks between Zoom meetings significantly reduces stress while increasing focus and engagement. In contrast, when people participate in back-to-back meetings, their stress levels spike in the transition period between meetings. 

We break down this research in detail in our recent article on why our brains need breaks to maintain productivity, so to learn more about how to combat Zoom fatigue, continue reading here. 

For more insights, be sure to 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.

we’ve decided to take a closer look at digital wellbeing. We’ll start with 6 need-to-know facts about digital wellbeing, before asking ‘what is digital wellbeing’, and finishing with how to combat Zoom fatigue.

How to take care of your digital wellbeing

We’ve decided to take a closer look at digital wellbeing. We’ll start with 6 need-to-know facts about digital wellbeing, before asking ‘what is digital wellbeing’, and finishing with how to combat Zoom fatigue.

David Hastings, Head of Content Partnerships at Go1, moderated an informative and honest discussion on learning in the hybrid world with an esteemed group of panelists: Alessandro Giacobbe, Head of Learning Transformation Practice at Microsoft, Lauren Waldman, Chief Learning Scientist and Founder of Learning Pirate, and Bill Pelster, Co-Founder of the Josh Bersin Academy.  

These thought leaders came together to discuss how we can, and should, learn to humanize our workforce when it comes to people development.  

Humanized learning in the hybrid world

The conversation opens as Bill unpicks qualities of leadership, showcasing that one will only be a great leader if they teach the next generation to be leaders themselves. Alessandro agrees and follows-up by saying that learning experiences have evolved three-fold since he began his career at Microsoft where he now sees much more collaboration and motivation between individuals than ever before.  

In our hybrid world, accelerated by the pandemic, we see that barriers have been kicked down - people are willing to share and ask questions and the penalty for a wrong answer has been minimized. Lauren Waldman connects these thoughts by saying that employees and leaders have finally allowed human beings to be “human beings,” and that we must continue to teach people how to learn as this will be the ultimate key to our own success.  

When surfacing the challenge organizations face with delivering learning to a hybrid workforce, Alessandro outlines the beneficial properties of technology, explaining that we have gone from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. With these advances, it is easier to learn from each other thanks to evolved video conferencing and other online mediums that should be embraced even outside of a pandemic context. One way that Microsoft believes these learning delivery goals can be achieved is via Microsoft Viva Learning, a platform Go1 integrates into to surface learning within Microsoft Teams. 

The panel unanimously agrees that we must all move from formal learning, to enable informal learning into the flow of work, where one can get knowledge and be productive at the same time. It is in social learning environments that companies see the most success and career growth, even from a scientific standpoint. Lauren, a learning scientist, spoke to the chemicals that keep brains functioning and how we can ensure to avoid cognitive overload, stress and burnout. With workforces stretched, Lauren believes strongly that leaders must identify each individual’s limitations and capacity when it comes to learning: “We can’t buy resilience, we need to grow it.”  

When the panel was prompted to discuss failures they have seen organizations make in delivering training, all unanimously agreed that there aren't really failures, but rather, learning experiences. Alessandro takes the example of data science - if a hypothesis turns out to be false then, it refines the engine. The idea of engineered failure in a business is critical to evolve.  

Alessandro claims that all learning needs to be personalized to the learners style in order to have real impact. He applauds platforms such as Go1 which enable this in a seamless manner. Lauren jumps in to remind the audience that, people tend to look at tech and see the solution but we need to remember it is the tool. She reminds the audience and panel that we still need to see more intentional and strategic courses in learning programs.   

To wrap up the seminar, Bill takes the floor and concludes that to deliver transformation in the learning space, we should empower employees to develop by offering them the right tools, choice and personalization. We should stop mistaking ‘upskilling’ with trying to resolve systemic issues that can be found within a business and focus on individual needs to ensure real growth.  

Interested in finding out more about Go1 and Microsoft Viva? Visit go1.com/go1-microsoft-viva 

Insights from a discussion that takes a look into learning in a hybrid world.

In the context of learning today, why is upskilling and reskilling essential for talent development? … And how does it affect employee retention and workplace productivity? 

In episode 20 of the Learning with Go1 podcast Mark Weston, Talent Development Manager from Colas, joins our host Craig Hamill to chat about the world of upskilling, reskilling and career development. Together, they provide insights and advice on how L&D and HR professionals can improve their upskilling and reskilling efforts to increase retention and engagement and best support talent within their organisations. 

Check out some of our favourite highlights below. 

What is the role of digital in supporting reskilling in L&D? 

When it comes to L&D and digital, selecting the right learning solution for the right occasion is key. 

Digital gives organisations the ability and confidence to assess and pick the right solutions and think outside the box. Whilst organisations can indeed learn a lot from others, Mark encourages L&D professionals to not be afraid of changing things up. Use digital as an opportunity to pave a unique path that aligns with your individual business values. 

“Make sure that you're just not doing it because everyone is doing it. Your people are your people and just because Company X does it in one way, doesn't mean that your company should do it the same.”  

Pick the right solution for the right occasion

What are the key takeaways for reskilling and supporting talent? 

Learn, listen and understand your people

In order to understand the why and the what in terms of the things you're trying to solve, you must first understand your people. 

Whether it's a problem or just something that's missing within the organisation, by adopting the “learning, listening and understanding” approach and allowing employees to be heard, organisations will gain a deeper perspective when it comes to building their talent and career planning strategies.  

Don't discount anyone's opinion...

Upskilling and reskilling is a key component of long-term growth and organisational change. We hope that you enjoyed the podcast and could take away some strategies to implement in your own organisations.  

If you haven’t already, listen to the full podcast here to learn more. 

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series, with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Cyprus, Egypt, Oman, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, and many more. Stay tuned!    

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D and hear how other organizations are navigating this ever-evolving landscape.   

The importance of reskilling and how L&D can best support talent right now 

Episode 20 of the Learning with Go1 podcast out now! We're joined by Mark Weston, Talent Development Manager at Colas to discuss how L&D and HR can improve their reskilling efforts to increase retention and engagement and best support talent right now. 

In this high tempo seminar, Go1's David Hastings is joined by Lauren Waldman, Chief Learning Scientist, and Alex Bailey, CEO of Bailey & French, to discuss supporting employees on their l&d journeys as cognitive and emotional loads increase.  

The conversation kicks off with a broad mission and question: what is it that makes us human? Both Alex and Lauren share their thoughts, exploring how our consciousness and our surroundings make us ever evolving creatures; empathetic and understanding beings who grow when confronted with the unknown and the uncomfortable. They conclude that the skills we need, in life as well as in the world of work, are those that make us human. 

Boosting engagement and performance through an agile approach to L&D

Alex Bailey provides the audience with a list of skills they should be harnessing to develop their emotional intelligence, including: Inclusivity: being open to others and different schools of thought; Curiosity: constantly looking ahead and stepping into the unknown; Resilience: always remaining open and challenged. 

David Hastings makes an interesting comment, stating that, for a long time, none of these skills were ever a focus in the workplace. He asks: why now? Why are we now encouraging people to be their true authentic selves at work? 

Here, Alex answers that any company is driven by efficiency and that we are just now understanding that in order to be truly efficient, we need to reduce our cognitive overload. The pandemic has made this even more evident, highlighting the flaws in ‘traditional’ ways of working, demonstrating that we must be open to new channels of communications and learning environments in order to give people the right space in their brains to continue on working. 

Lauren Waldman provides scientifique context to the question, bringing the audience in with short experiments and discussing the energy and positive/negative state of our brains and how one can avoid cognitive overload. 

The conversation progresses as David brings the workplace back into the fold. He states that people spend a great part of their time at work making it a perfect place to learn about being human. David believes that we are more socially and morally conscious now than ever before and, though companies have seen a ‘Great Resignation’ in recent times, he champions the ‘Great Reassessment’ where businesses now have the chance to evolve by inspiring and upskilling their workforce in a way that is meaningful.  

During the session, Lauren is in full agreement and stresses the importance of learning more human skills at work but, she cautions that this cannot be rushed or there won’t be any long term effects. Learning takes time and genuine curiosity which is why any course should also allow time for people to think for themselves in order to properly embrace their learning journey. Lauren believes that some companies over parent people, telling them what they need to learn instead of letting them establish things on their own.  

Creativity and innovation in the space of learning is important. Even if there are boundaries, pushing people in traditional routes means they may shut off and forget to be human. The seminar wraps up with a final, unanimous statement: We are all at our best when we are human selves.  

You may also like to read Lauren Waldman's article on how joining forces with our brains can help us to be more emotionally intelligent and empathetic in the workplace.

Insights from a discussion into how to boost engagement by taking an agile approach to L&D.

Boosting engagement and performance through an agile approach to L&D 

Once you’ve overcome the hurdle of finding a time that suits everyone so you can provide training for your teams, you’ll face another challenge that many don’t consider: learning styles.

Just as people have different personalities, they also have different learning styles. That means, while one person can absorb through reading, another won’t retain nearly as much information. Some learn while getting hands-on, while others prefer to listen.

Below, we’re going to take a look at the most common learning styles, and how you can approach training and staff development to make sure what’s being taught can be put into practice. Doing this will create a strong culture of learning within your business.

People absorb information differently, and what works for some people won’t work for others. Think back to your school years - when the teacher was standing at the front of the class speaking, some students seemed to zone out. However, those same students would read their textbooks and learn much better than others.

There is one theory, known as VARK, which puts learners into four categories: visual, audio, reading, and kinesthetic. However, this model has been criticized, as it overlooks several other learning styles, and doesn’t consider that some people can span multiple styles.

Just like at school, different learning styles in the workplace - and specifically in training - also need to be considered. These are:

Every student can fit into at least one or more of these styles. Let’s take a look at what these learning styles mean in a little more detail.

Visual learners absorb information when it’s presented in a visual form, such as video, images, and graphics.

Aural learners learn through listening. Whether this is in person or a recording, when they’re being told information they find it far easier to take it in.

Kinesthetic learners retain information via experience by using their senses. When they’re able to dive in and get hands-on, using touch, sound, sight, and even taste and smell, they get much more out of the learning experience.

Logical learners, also known as mathematical learners, appreciate logic and structure. This type of learner is usually good at understanding complex mathematics and statistics.

A look at the most common learning styles, and how you can approach training and staff development to make sure what’s being taught can be put into practice. Doing this will create a strong culture of learning within your business.