It's customer service training month at Go1. This month, we're focusing on all things customer service training - so keep an eye on the blog over the next few weeks to read more about Go1’s relevant training content!

FISH! content takes a unique approach to its eLearning content, by teaching its philosophy with energy, passion and hint of FISH! fun.

FISH! is known for their philosophy, to improve organisational culture through four key elements. Filmmaker John Christensen was in Seattle when he discovered a business that pulsed with enthusiasm and commitment. It was the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market, where large crowds come to watch the fishmongers work—and buy lots of fish. 

“Every company could benefit from that kind of passion,” John thought. So he made a film about the fishmongers. It’s called FISH! and it explores four simple practices anyone can use to be successful. These practices, known as The FISH! Philosophy, are the foundation of our training solutions. Read more here. 

Go1 has FISH! on board as a Go1 Premium content partner, with three courses available in your subscription. The courses are about customer service - fitting for this month's focus. 

In Go1 Premium, you can find a US and AU version of the course: Improve your Customer Service Culture with FISH! This course will take approximately 60 minutes to complete and will include video, situational activities, workplace and personal assessments, and action planning. 

Use this course to solve the problem of uninspired and robotic customer service within your team. Great customer service is more than a “technique.” It comes from the heart. FISH! content puts forward tools for your staff, so they can develop a new mindset to see opportunities to make the customer’s day that they have never seen before.

There are four modules in the course and at the end of the course you will have generated your personalised action plan:

Learn how to be there when people need you - this is the first element of the philosophy. No one wants to work in a place where everyone is out for themselves. Be There starts with being present—emotionally and physically—for the people who need you.

Turn routine interactions into Make Their Day moments - You can’t always fall back on money to make the day of your employees. But you can let them know how much you value them. Simple gestures go a long way.

Be accountable for your attitudes - You can’t control everything life throws in your path. But you do get to choose how you deal with it.

Increase enjoyment and creativity: It’s important for everyone on the team to be clear about what the team is trying to achieve. Once you know what your “playing field” is, give people freedom to play within those boundaries in a way that boosts energy and enthusiasm.

Try out FISH! training and let us know what you think!

From the Search Results page -> use the provider filter to find FISH! Philosophy courses

Want to access FISH! courses but don't have Go1 Premium? Enquire here!

False

The spotlight this week is on Go1's customer service training provider: Fish! 

June customer service: spotlight provider 

Think about an average day in your working life.  Your work might be diverse and include a variety of activities, but, no matter how spontaneous you are, there are some things you will do every day without fail.  Some of us enjoy getting a coffee from the same place every morning, while others always like to wake up with a shower. 

Whatever your day looks like, rituals are proven to help shape your day and provide structure. You can also use them to improve your productivity or even make you feel more relaxed (1). When you know what to expect and when to expect it, your brain expends less energy and becomes more efficient, leaving more time for problem solving and creativity.

So, why is it that rituals benefit us, and how can we use them to our advantage?  

In human civilisation, the use of rituals can be found across history and continents. Many religions recognise the importance of ritual and structure to organise daily life, and to mark important occasions. Athletes are also known for their interesting, repetitive quirks; Rafael Nadal brings two drink bottles with him to every tennis match, and places each of them in the same, specific position to help find his competitive mindset.

Rituals differ slightly from routines in that they have a meaningful intention behind them. When you need to complete something quickly or you have a goal to achieve without too much thinking, you are completing a routine task with little awareness behind it. You might be on autopilot and strive to get it done as quickly as possible. 

When you are completing a ritual, you will likely be more aware of the intention behind it, feel internally motivated to complete the task and focus on how you are performing. Of course, we don’t need to pay this level of attention to everything we do, but awareness can help to make tasks more enjoyable and easier to complete. 

Legendary tidying expert, Marie Kondo, brings ‘the magic of tidying up’ to our screens on Netflix, and the rituals she follows (such as thanking her home before beginning to tidy it) are rooted in the Shinto beliefs she was exposed to growing up. Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan and built upon ritual-based practices to create a connection between the Japan of today and its ancient past.

Creating rituals, particularly to help with the boring but essential tasks you would rather not do, can also reduce stress and anxiety levels. How often do you find yourself thinking about the mountain of emails you need to reply to? If you have a ritual in place for when you look over them and keep in mind why you are doing it, you save time and energy for crafting responses. 

A great place to begin when establishing rituals for yourself is to target aspects of daily life which you find more challenging. Once you have picked an area to focus on, choose a time in your schedule to work on it.  Like dealing with the ever-growing mass of unread emails, if you say to yourself when you are going to work on a task, and then allocate the time to do so, you are much more likely to succeed. 

The next step is to make sure you include an intention behind completing the ritual.  An intention could be to reduce your stress levels, or to ensure you are doing your job to the best of your ability.  Understanding the purpose of a task is key, as you will then be able to see why it is beneficial for you, another colleague or your team, and you will naturally be more motivated to do it. 

It is also good to make sure you include a reward for yourself once you complete the task, especially if you don’t enjoy doing it much.  Your brain will then learn that completing this task results in an activity you enjoy afterwards, which will give you an incentive to tackle it in the first place.

When you are trying out new rituals, it is important not to overload yourself or to take it too far at the beginning.  You want each ritual to become a habit, and once it becomes ingrained you will hardly have to think about it, which is the desired effect! However, if you try to do too much at the start, you are unlikely to keep your rituals going and lose interest altogether quite quickly. Aim to try out one new ritual each week, and see how you go from there. 

A particularly good ritual to start your day with is to ensure you have a tidy workspace. Having a clean desk makes us work more productively and ready to tackle the other tasks ahead. Most of us wouldn’t consider allocating time for this every day, yet it can significantly reduce stress levels knowing that the space around you is organised. Minimising stress means more mental energy for unexpected problems or difficulties which might come your way during the course of the day.

It is important to mention that there is a spectrum of personality types, and, although there are those who prefer to plan their lives out a little more, and those who love to go with the flow, rituals can help everybody to flourish. 

If you are more spontaneous, you can use rituals to facilitate your more creative and adventurous moments - it doesn’t need to be stifling. If you love order and like things organised, the chances are you’re already way ahead of us, but you might need help connecting with tasks on a more meaningful level. 

In the week ahead, think about a new ritual you could include to make your time flow that little bit easier. 

Hobson NM, Bonk D, Inzlicht M. 2017. Rituals decrease the neural response to performance failure. PeerJ 5:e3363 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3363

How rituals at work can help us perform better

Whether they are known as your customer support, success or service team, they are your employees that interact with and manage customers. Customer service teams directly communicate with customers, problem solve for them and these are often the interactions that leave the lasting impression in your consumers mind. We've dedicated the month of June to look at how Go1's Premium training for your frontline staff can drive sales and give businesses a strong competitive advantage. 

With the evolution of customer service towards tech, it only makes sense to take your customer service training online as well. Generally customer service training is the training employees undergo to improve the soft skills most used during customer interactions and learn the tools needed to better support customers and their satisfaction. Any employee that interacts and deals with customers needs customer service training. 

Taking your customer service training online can strengthen your team's skills.

Through training, employees improve their customer service skills, knowledge and competencies whilst acquiring new ones. Training gives customers a more consistent and professional experience - which greatly increases customer satisfaction and leave your customers feeling respected. Of course, no training is as cost-effective as eLearning. Online training is easy to deliver to employees no matter where they are based. 

Where to begin with your customer service training?

Let's start with your understanding of customer service, and how it can influence you workplaces customer service strategy. This week we've suggest two Go1 courses created by experts in customer training. 

Introduction to quality customer service - by Interaction Training. 

This course underlines how, irrespective of what industry you are in or what function your team performs, you are in the business of providing a service and this means learning to go above and beyond the call of duty as a matter of course. This is a great introductory course for managers and training coordinators to understand how to approach customer service training. 

Create a Culture of Great Customer Service - by Creative Live. 

This is also useful for managers to help you identify the key aspects of optimal customer service so you can teach it and instill it in your teams. This course emphasises how customers should come first, and how you can learn how to ingrain those ideals into your company culture to ensure that they’re heeded each day by all of your team members.

Want to learn about more Go1 courses to support your customer service training? Come back to the blog next week!

Find out how Go1's Premium training for your frontline staff can drive sales and give businesses a strong competitive advantage. 

Course category of the month - June: customer service

Australia's CEO Challenge (ACEOC) is an organisation that provides domestic and family violence (DFV) training for companies all across Australia. Their aim is to make sure workplaces are aware and responsive to domestic violence, and have in place a strategy to raise awareness and support their staff who may be living with violence, abuse and control at home. 

The organisation's Workplace Prevention Program empowers and educates businesses to recognise the signs of domestic violence, respond appropriately and refer employees affected to professionals who can help. By recognising that business and industry have a role in social change, we can create responsive workplaces and become part of a ‘whole of community’ solution.

We recently sat down with ACEOC's Chief Executive Officer, Jacque Lachmund, to talk about the importance of DFV training and how the organisation is working with Go1 to deliver a Workplace Domestic and Family Violence Training Package.

Case Study: CEO Challenge

Your workplace partner against domestic violence

Australia's CEO Challenge is a recognised, award-winning non-profit organisation that supports the business sector to help break the silence surrounding domestic violence. They work with businesses – of all sizes and from all sectors – to become more aware and responsive to DFV, ensuring greater support for staff directly impacted. Through quality education, policy development, expert training and partnerships, they provide organisations with the tools they need to better respond to DFV in their workplaces. 

Workplaces can play a critical role in responding to DFV. These days, the reality is that many of us spend more time with our co-workers than with family and friends. These are the people who see us day in, day out, five days a week. So, it’s often our managers or workmates who will notice the first warning signs of DFV or get a sense that something is not quite right.

ACEOC's Workplace Domestic and Family Violence Training Package helps to ensure that organisations get a succinct message, and a succinct way on how to respond to colleagues and to others.

The very first touch point of ACEOC's engagement with Go1 was when the Queensland Government made a commitment to work with workplaces, starting with their own, to address DVF. 

As Jacque explains, "they were doing face-to-face training and realised that other training options were needed," and so a natural partnership was formed to roll-out across government - ACEOC's eLearning. 

"The challenges we faced and the journey we went on was fantastic. The team behind the scenes worked with us with each agency to ensure that we got it right. We didn’t always get it right- some of our agencies in government had different learning management platforms we had to work around. But at each point, Go1 provided us with a solution-based focus which helped us jump those hurdles." 

Since partnering with Go1, ACEOC's clients in the private sector have also jumped on board with their eLearning solution, providing "a whole organisational response to DFV." 

At Go1, we love working with companies who are all about positive impact – so we are very happy to be working together with Australia's CEO Challenge. 

And as Jacque said, she is pleased with the level of support ACEOC has received from the Go1 team and looks forward to continuing the journey.

"We couldn’t have asked for a better team to work with. An organisation who’s professional, who is engaging and who have delivered on our commitment and contract with government and our organisations that we work with each and every day.

We are thankful that we have an organisation that gets it. That is socially responsible. That wants to give back and has partnered with a not-for-profit organisation. It's fantastic and we look forward to continuing the journey."

We thank Jacque for sharing her time and thoughts with us and encourage you to check out the Workplace Domestic and Family Violence Training Package from Australia's CEO Challenge, available in Go1 Premium now. 

You might like to also read our earlier article on our partnership with ACEOC, which includes some helpful advice from ACEOC on how managers can respond to Domestic and Family Violence in the workplace including specific responses you can use to someone who is confiding in you.

Note: Freecall 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) is a 24-hour counselling line available to all Australians who have experienced, or are at risk of, DFV. 

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.

Australia's CEO Challenge - providing domestic and family violence (DFV) training for companies all across Australia

You have an important report due at the end of the day and have blocked out the entire day to focus on it. Your morning routine was relaxing; the journey to work went without a hitch.  After reading through your emails and having a chat with your colleagues, you feel ready to make a start. Suddenly, out of nowhere, your boss asks you if you have time to help with another urgent task due by lunchtime, which has come in unexpectedly.  Do you say ‘no’? Or do you offer up your time, knowing you will be hard pushed to get your report done in an afternoon? 

Setting boundaries, particularly saying ‘no’ to your boss, can be a difficult thing to do. We are empathetic creatures, and our survival as a species has depended on helping each other. We are biologically wired to work together in order to achieve more than we could individually. This means traits such as selflessness and compassion are valued highly in our society, and focusing on our own needs can feel unnatural or have a stigma attached to it. 

In a work context, setting boundaries is essentially making sure you can negotiate for yourself and ensuring you have plenty of energy to get on with your daily tasks. Although this might sound obvious, when you are juggling the competing demands of customers, team members or clients, as well as your own needs, it can become difficult to find time for everything. It is important to give both yourself and those around you the appropriate amount of attention, and even more important to ensure you feel energised yourself first. 

Although occasionally taking on more work than you can manage won’t do a lot of harm in the short-term, over time this will increase your stress levels and take its toll on your body.  Whereas a little stress is necessary for getting things done, excessive stress can lead to poor physical health, difficulty relating to colleagues and underperformance.  Striking a balance is crucial, and carefully setting boundaries is one way to work towards this. 

In recent years, there has been a huge shift in work culture, with ‘work-life balance’ becoming the phrase of the moment. Although it initially appeared to be a trend bad managers could pay lip service to, millennials are now demanding opportunities for balance from their roles, and employers have had to step up.  Many companies now go beyond empty reminders that employees need to take care of themselves, and offer structures to facilitate self-care and mental health.  

There has never been a better time for taking care of yourself in the workplace, and setting boundaries more frequently is an effective way to begin. 

If you have difficulty setting boundaries with your colleagues, particularly around your available time, these are our top tips to help you navigate each situation and communicate with others appropriately.

Time management: Blocking out your time carefully can be hugely helpful for setting clear boundaries for yourself and with others.  You might prefer to organise your time weekly or daily, but whichever approach you choose, having a visual of the amount of time you have available can be helpful. If somebody asks you for help with a project, you can quickly say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ based on how much time you can allocate. 

Communication: Letting your team members know how you are feeling or whether you need support is crucial.  If you are stressed or feel like you have reached your limit, communicating this well and offering an alternative path forward can help to take the pressure off. If you need to reset, make your colleagues aware of this.  If you are a leader and have a tendency to take on work that others could be doing, don’t be afraid to delegate, especially if you are under the pump trying to complete a task that requires your level of skill and experience. 

Regularly checking in: Mindfulness is now a widely respected and hugely popular tool for managing stress at work. While there are many apps out there to guide you through practice, this approach isn’t for everybody. Mindfulness can simply be tuning in to where you are and how you are feeling in a given moment.  Our thoughts are constantly on the go, and regular practice, however you choose to do it, can be beneficial for keeping our active brains in check. If you feel like your thoughts are racing, take a break and go for a walk.  Focus on your breathing while you do this for extra benefits.  Finding a moment of calm during the day can be rejuvenating.

Focus on the task at hand: On the Go1 Blog, we recently discussed the best ways to maintain your focus at work. Your ability to concentrate can be an indication of whether you have taken on too much, or set yourself too much to do that day. If your mind is darting around to the other activities you need to complete, it might help to review your scheduled activities and make adjustments. Over-committing yourself can be a huge source of stress and it is important to be realistic about what you can achieve. 

Be wary of traditional ‘to-do lists’: Recording everything you need to do in a long, never-ending list may offer you temporary relief from racing thoughts, but it could leave you open to feeling unsatisfied and frustrated with your work when you are unable to check off every item you have recorded. You also run the risk of accepting more work without considering the amount of time you can spare.  

Remember, setting boundaries is a constant balancing act, not something anybody can perfect. It can also feel as though you are letting others down by saying ‘no’, but ultimately they will be more grateful if the quality of your work isn’t impacted by lack of time or stress. By making it a priority in your life to set limits, you can realise when you need to reset or look after yourself. If you can do this, you will be well on the way to feeling healthier and happier in your work and daily life. 

Why setting boundaries at work is essential for mental wellbeing

Stress: it’s all about how you deal with pressure

Why do some people thrive under pressure, while others fold? 

What’s different is how different people manage stress, and meditation is an effective tool to help everyone manage stress. 

Stress causes a range of problems from minor discomfort, to poor work performance and in the worst cases, serious health issues. The temptation is to avoid stress, but we can’t get away from stress because it’s a fact of life. But what we can do is that we can get better at dealing with the negative effects of stress. Meditation is a proven method to quickly move our bodies from an unhealthy flight or fight response, into a rest and repair mode. And in the longer-term, meditation builds resiliency to stress for better mental health.

Log in to your Go1 portal to see this example of a stress release meditation. 

What's your stress score? Find out over here.

Because work is a significant source of stress, this article covers what you need to know about stress in the workplace for you personally and also for business owners and managers.

People hear the word stress and think it’s a bad thing. The thing is that stress is just pressure. When we stress ourselves, we grow in response. That’s how exercise works, that’s how we grow personally, this is called eustress or healthy stress. The problem is when we suffer unhealthy forms of stress or don’t have effective methods to deal with everyday stress. That’s when stress turns into distress and has disastrous effects of our health, productivity and work

Distress is bad for your mental and physical health

When we are suffering from stress, our bodies produce stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. This is an automatic reaction that happens in our autonomic nervous system. We can’t control this part of the nervous system. These stress hormones are bad for your health because these hormones increase blood pressure, increase blood sugar, suppress your immune system and stop digestion.

Negative mental health effects of stress include depression, anxiety and irritability. And the negative physical health effects include heart disease, fatigue, indigestion, insomnia and more. 

As you can see suffering from stress causes a lot of health problems. While we can’t directly control our autonomic nervous system, meditation works like a bridge by calming our nervous system which then turns off the unhealthy parts of our stress response. This is why managing your stress with meditation will help you to a healthier, happier life.

Most of the time a little pressure helps us to perform better. But pressure can also make us worse at our jobs. Clearly, when stress makes our mental and physical health worse that’s going to reduce our productivity, but stress also makes us perform worse in other ways too. We all have a limit when it comes to our capacity to work while under stress, but before we reach that tipping point, these are the sort of things that start to slide:

Poor decision making: When we are stressed, our decisions are rushed, driven by irrational emotions and lack planning & rational thought,

Lack of Focus: When there’s too much going on, we don’t know where to focus. We can get pulled from one task to another and we don’t prioritize work effectively. Struggling to focus is one of the symptoms of bad stress

Taking a few minutes to do meditation can stop you from making silly mistakes and can increase your focus. To find out how to use meditation to increase focus, see this short video.

If you’re a business owner or a manager of a team then you need to be aware of the impact of stress on results and what to do about it. Employee productivity is a careful balancing act of being demanding and supportive at the same time. Great leaders know how to inspire their teams to give their best, but unmanaged workplace stress is bad for business. Clearly, if individual productivity falls then this is going to be worse for your results but here are some other ways that stress costs you in business:

Stress leave: 25% of workers take time off each year for stress related reasons ( based on a survey of 5000 workers(1)). And stress-related workers compensation claims are growing

Stress leads to disengaged, low performing, employees

Stress leads to higher employee turnover 

But on a philosophical level, good business comes from creating a workplace where people want to work. Creating an environment where people are challenged and can grow is a good thing, but make sure you balance that out with employee wellbeing.

Now the tricky thing is that your employees are all different and one employee can thrive under pressure while another could have a totally opposite reaction. That’s one of the reasons I recommend that bosses have a weekly one on one meeting with their employees. Weekly one on one meetings will build up familiarity with your employees. You’ll know when you can push for better results and when you need to give your employee more support.

Questions to ask your employees in One on One meetings include: 

Always start with “How was your week?” It’s an open question, over time you’ll build a sense of when your employee has had a tough week, even if they don’t explicitly say something.

“Is there anything coming up (work or personal) that I need to know about?”

Give your employees the knowledge and skills they need to manage their own stress. Ask them to take the Stress Assessment so they know what signs to look for. Use the Go1 course assignment feature to assign them Desk Meditation for Stress Management before they end up calling in sick.

"It's important to differentiate between good stress and negative stress. Good stress is motivating. But as an employee's stress level increases, it reaches a tipping point where it starts to be detrimental and has a negative impact on an employee’s work. That tipping point will vary person to person based on personality attributes, such as the ability to cope with pressure, as well as job factors and aspects of the work environment,” Craig Bosworth, Medibank Private Industry Affairs Manager

If you are feeling fatigued, struggling to focus, feeling overwhelmed, experiencing indigestion these could just be your body’s natural response to the stresses of everyday life. And if you’ve experienced a setback such as personal trauma, conflict or career challenges you can be sure that distress is going to be weighing heavily on your personal health and workplace effectiveness.

To get back to being your normal, happy, healthy self you have to manage stress in your life. This may include seeking professional help. But an effective, easily accessible method is to establish a regular meditation practice to manage stress and improve your focus. Take the 30-Day Meditation Challenge to see what meditation can do for you.

PS: This does not constitute medical advice. Stress can cause significant health issues. If you feel like you may be suffering from stress, please seek professional medical assistance. This article contains information from the Go1 Online Course Desk Meditations. Find out how to establish a convenient meditation habit right at your desk. 

1. Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) survey as cited at – Workplace Stress (2008)

Keith Tatley CA(SA) founded Manager Foundation and Karm.Academy to help people with the soft skills they don’t teach you in school. This includes skills such as Effective One on One Meetings, Performance Communications and Delegation. If you would like to start your journey to become a better boss, then find out your BOSS Superpower now.

Stress management: how to use meditation to manage stress

In this month's webinar, Go1 gave you a sneak peak of some platform features we are working on right now and we were also joined by Craig Jensen (CEO of LearnNowOnline) talking all things IT training.

GO1 Webinar catch-up: May

[00:00 - 15:00] Go1 Content News, this month we had a chat to Craig Jensen (President & CEO of LearnNowOnline) about IT Training. 

Craig discussed the value of IT training for a workplace and how LNO supports learners from beginner all the way to advanced with their IT training. Craig recommends if you are going to have a look at any of LNO's courses these are the ones to checkout:

Cyber Security Awareness : Valuable for every office-worker, as it helps them to be able to identify risks online and how to be careful online. 

Microsoft Office Suite Courses: These are important courses to help all staff become more efficient with the Microsoft products. 

You can read more about LearnNowOnline here.

[15:00 - 27:00] Go1 Platform News, we gave you a sneak peek of whats to come to the Go1 platform in June!

Personalised recommendations for learners

This feature is designed to support better user engagement with their training programs. We have supercharged the current data model to provide enhanced topic-based content recommendations. 

Part of this feature will also include fortnightly emails sent to Learners on every portal. This is the first time Learners will also be able to receive emails, which will help to re-engage and remind them of their training. These emails will feature content relevant to the Learner's chosen topics but only include content available on the portal.  

Admins will have control at a portal level to turn off the fortnightly emails for Learners. 

This feature will be rolled out in June. 

We gave our viewers a sneak peak of the new Insights tab on the webinar. 

The Insights table is designed to support your content discovery. The page features key user statistics, which you can click-through to view specific reports for. 

Excitingly it also offers Admins a view of their employee engagement (as a %) with content topics that are popular in your portal industry. You can compare your portal engagement with that of the industry average. The tab also highlights specific courses most popular for other Go1 customers, who are in your industry and region. 

This Insights page is helpful for customers who use portal custom selection, as it makes it easy to view popular content and add the recommended courses direct into your selection. 

The insights depend on you having your portal information up-to-date; location and industry. For location you only have the option to submit one location - we suggest your use your business headquarters location. 

The feature also includes a monthly email to wrap-up your portal insights - which will be helpful if you want to keep a record of your portal data.   

New Explore dashboard, a better gateway to content

We walked you through the new Explore Dashboard in our previous webinar. It was in early access but now is ready for a final release to all portals. We anticipate to release it the week of the 10th of June.

When you select Explore you will arrive at a page with 5 content blocks displaying:

Top content based on what others are learning in your industry and region by topics. You can select to View More for each blocks - where you will see a list of content matched to that topic in order of popularity.  

New content in your collection/portal (great way to see new content providers now on the portal). 

Admins can define the topics (and hence the content) you see on this dashboard. To do that, head to Portal Settings > Recommendations to choose your topics of interest. 

Important: This dashboard will be available to customers who have all Premium subscribed content on their portal or users of custom selection with more than 100 items selected. If you don't meet this criteria you will continue seeing the search results page. 

Comments or feedback? Email us at product@go1.com

Missed the webinar? You can watch the recording here!

When we hurt ourselves in the office, we find our friendly First Aid Officer who has a helpful kit full of band-aids, wraps, ointments, and remedies. But what about the pain caused by anxiety? Unfortunately, no such kit has previously existed — until now.

For the final workplace wellbeing course for the month of May, we've chosen to review a ViaUp course called Stress, Anxiousness and Anxiety. 

This course is highly recommended, firstly, because it takes an engaging approach to training staff on what is often a complex and misunderstood issue: Mental Health.  

This course empowers an organisation to be able to identify and address the causes and symptoms of anxiety by providing the tools they need to make meaningful and positive progress. After completing this course you will have a much clearer understanding of anxiety and how you can support your own mental health, plus useful strategies to support colleagues who may be suffering.

This course is also recommended, because ViaUp content is delivered via rich and interactive video format. Immediately upon enrolling in a course, you experience interactive learning of a quality unlike most other animated e-learning videos.  

The course is approximately 30 minutes, and breaks down the ViaUp Mental Health First Aid Kit into 6 different parts:

A Dose of Understanding: The beginning of the course looks at the symptoms of anxiety and offers a self assessment to review your own mental health.

Self-Care Manual: This part of the course contains a useful toolkit for you to manage your anxiety.  

Empathy Boost- Through Their Eyes: This section looks at how to support someone with their mental health. 

Talk The Talk: Walk through real conversations to determine how best to talk to your co-workers who you think might need help with their mental health. 

Support For Life: The course concludes by providing different resources to support anxiety conditions. 

The ViaUp Mental Health First Aid Kit is designed to benefit businesses and organisations of any size.

Each ViaUp courses is created in collaboration with relevant leading subject matter experts, to ensure the learning material is accurate and at the forefront of discussions on the subject. This course has been created based on Beyond Blue material (Australian independent non-profit organisation). 

ViaUp is an Australian eLearning creator who specialises in crafting engaging learning experiences through their eLearning content. They bring their content to life, to create corporate learning that resonates.  

You can now find this ViaUp course, plus more in Go1 Premium and it is accessible in all regions, with the content created for an Australian market.

Want more details about employee wellbeing?

Getting started with your Mental Health First Aid Kit

Course of the week: Stress, Anxiousness and Anxiety

Learning more about your personality can be a huge advantage at work, both for your own benefit and for your colleagues. At some point, most of us have been asked to complete the hugely popular Myers-Briggs indicator tests, but implementing changes afterwards isn’t always easy. 

A key part of the testing process is knowing where you are placed on the introversion-extroversion spectrum.  Understanding this aspect of your personality can help you to make simple changes to your working day, and ensure that you are getting the most out of your environment.

Celebrated psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, Carl Jung, introduced the terms introversion and extroversion to the scientific community in the early 20th century, but their meaning has been simplified over time. Those classified as extroverts are thought to be more outgoing, talkative and energetic, whereas those who are introverted are more solitary and reserved in nature. 

A main difference between the two groups is that they are re-energised and motivated in different ways. Current research indicates that the reason for this could be linked to the way individuals process rewards. Those who are more extroverted respond more strongly when a risk pays off, which means they are driven to engage in adventurous behaviour, such as making themselves the center of discussion in a large group.

In the general population, extroverts are estimated to make up 50-74% of people, and dominate social situations.  This puts the responsibility with leaders to ensure introverts are also given the opportunity to thrive. From working environment to meeting set up, carefully considering personality types is crucial to getting the most out of yourself or your team. 

Supporting different personality types in the workplace

In her book, Quiet, author and proud introvert, Susan Cain, discusses the fact that so much potential for collaboration is being lost in the modern workplace, which is organised in favour of those who are more extroverted. She argues that this imbalance extends back to the school classroom, which is open-plan and involves a significant amount of group work and class discussion. Introverts generally prefer to be alone more often and spend a lot of time thinking.  So, what can employees and managers do to make working environments more suitable for a wider range of people and harness new ideas?

Use of space: Think about how your workspace is set up. Do you work mostly from home, or are you in a busy, open-plan office? If you are more introverted, think about ways you can find time for quiet during your working day. Perhaps there are meeting rooms you can book, which will allow you two hours of uninterrupted time to focus.  Of course, depending on the kind of work you do, this isn’t always possible, but look for opportunities throughout the day.  If you are more extroverted, you could organise more collaborative work sessions to boost energy and creativity.     

Communicate your needs: Once you have an idea of where you lie on the introversion-extroversion spectrum, it is important to communicate what you need to those you work with.  If you are in an open-plan office, it might be the norm for others around you to interrupt for a quick chat.  If you need to focus on the task you are doing, it is important to set boundaries and organise an alternative time to talk about a project.  If you set boundaries, your colleagues should respect this, and will most likely appreciate some quiet time to themselves when they need it! 

Respect your colleagues’ time and space: It is important to remember that this works both ways.  If you need to ask a colleague or manager a question, be mindful and ask them when they have time to talk.  Try to be specific and action-oriented when you are asking for a colleague’s time; they will appreciate your efficiency. 

Thinking time: Introverts often work best when given time to think and respond to a question.  Engaging an introvert in quick decision making can be anxiety inducing, and won’t result in the best outcome.  This doesn’t mean that introverts are unable to manage thinking in this way (just as extraverts are able to sit quietly and think through responses). It means they will function best and more naturally when given the time to process their answers. If you are more introverted, you can use this knowledge to your advantage, and where possible ask for more time to respond if you need it.

Meeting set up: Meetings are an important time for your team to come together and work through issues that need to be tackled. However, they are notoriously unproductive, with as many 92% of people multitasking whilst attending a regular team catch-up. This is particularly true for introverts, who are less likely to speak up in front of a large group of people. As a leader, being aware of this is particularly important when communicating in groups. Is every person present at the meeting given the opportunity to speak or put forward their ideas? How is this organised? Is it absolutely necessary to have a meeting? These questions will help you to guide the different members of your team and bring them together. 

Option to work remotely: The option to work remotely can also be a great way to keep the more introverted members on your team happier.  If it is possible in your workplace, think about offering it, while ensuring that your employees remain engaged and productive.  You will soon know if a team member isn’t pulling their weight if their assigned tasks don’t get done! 

Respect your employees’ time and space: Although sometimes as a leader it is necessary to interrupt your employees to ensure everything is running smoothly, if you can respect their time where possible this will go a long way, particularly for those on the more introverted end of spectrum.  Catching people off guard to discuss an issue, particularly if it is sensitive, is unlikely to produce the best outcome. Set up meeting times with your employees where possible and they will thank you for it. 

Introverted or extroverted? How to make the best of your working day

As of July 1st 2019, the New Aged Care Quality Standards will be in place. The Aged Care Quality Standards will apply to all aged care services including residential care, home care, flexible care and services under the Commonwealth Home Support Program. 

With eight new standards, a stronger consumer focus and clearly articulated care and service expectations, now is the time to familiarise and educate yourself with the new standards. To help you prepare and meet the new standards, Go1 has partnered with Australian training provider Aged Care Learning Solutions to bring you all the online training courses you need to be ACQS compliant. 

Subscribe to Go1 Premium and you’ll get instant access to high-quality training content from Aged Care Learning Solutions, including a series of new learning resources which reflect on each individual standard from the point of view of the consumer. 

You’ll also have unlimited access to a range of training materials from other top content providers, offering courses on topics such as nursing, infectious diseases, and mental health, plus soft skill training including leadership, communication, and more. As a one-stop training shop, Go1 Premium provides you with everything you need to help employees to improve their skills and provide quality care to residents. 

If you're interested in finding out more, come chat with us in person at the following events:

Governance in Aged Care: 29th-30th May, Sydney

Strengthening the Aged Care Workforce: 4th-5th June, Sydney

Aged Care Tech Forum: 18th-20th June, Melbourne

Quality in Aged Care: 27th-28th August, Sydney

Remember, all Australian aged care providers will be monitored and assessed against the new standards from July 1st 2019.

Are you ready for the New Aged Care Quality Standards?

Helping you reach your training goals with the latest insights, trends, and advancements in L&D

Blog

petrol_green

Have you caught the latest episode of L&D in 20? Don't miss an episode. Subscribe now!