Employee performance feedback - who wants it?

Giving your staff negative feedback can be stressful for both you and them. Let’s face it no-one likes being told what they’re doing wrong. And who likes confrontation. 

What if you could use positive feedback to fix an employee performance problem? Sounds a little crazy I know, so I’m going to tell you a little motivational story. 

Giving effective feedback is one of the essential manager skills. If you’re a manager looking to improve employee performance with better communication find out more here: 

This is the common scenario many managers face: Carol, a receptionist, has recently been late for work. 

So this story starts with a minor performance infraction, are you a manager who has experienced something similar? I know I have, and I know that when this happens, I start evaluating my options. Some of the things that go through my head include:

This is a minor issue that doesn’t justify a long performance discussion. I’m busy enough as it is, so I’ll wait and see if it becomes an issue,

Carol already knows what her start time is, she doesn’t need me to remind her and

I don’t want to seem petty, get into an argument and end up with Carol disliking me

In this story what happens is that Carol's manager hesitates to address this (minor) employee performance problem. The “reasons” above become excuses to avoid dealing with the issue. As a result, someone else must stop what they are doing and cover the front desk until she arrives. Her behavior affects members of the team. 

Worse, by not addressing her tardiness, this manager is sending the message that they condone this behaviour.

In a parallel universe, Carol’s manager does something different. No, they don’t undertake the unpleasant task of calling Carol into their office for a serious talking to about punctuality. Instead they does something incredibly easy and simple. They starts giving a particular type of positive feedback when Carol does something right:

“Good morning Carol. I like seeing you at the desk when I arrive because then I know there is someone here to greet our      customers.”

“Good morning Carol, I’m glad to see you on the desk. I want you to know that your work on reception is important to the whole team to keep everything running smoothly. I appreciate that. Can you please keep that up?” 

“Good morning Carol. I’m glad to see you here before start time – now I know I don’t have to worry about covering      reception. Can you please continue with that?”

Hasn’t said anything unpleasant or got involved in an unpleasant confrontation,

Hasn't delayed their feedback until annual performance review and

Hasn't even spent a long time giving performance feedback.

They is using secret ninja manager skills to fix a problem. 

Effective performance feedback. The power of words:

These simple words have a very powerful employee engagement and job satisfaction effect:

Feeling Valued & Acknowledged: The manager has let Carol that they are aware of the contribution that Carol makes, they appreciate the work she does and she is valued, 

Doing Important Work: The manager has told Carol how her work is part of a larger whole. Even though many people might think that a receptionist is a low-level role, the manager is helping Carol to find the value and meaning in her work

A Sense of Belonging: The manager has shown Carol how she is an important part of the team. They have shown her that she has a role that others rely on her to do. This helps people to feel like an important part of a community and to feel accepted,

Increasing Performance: And if you look carefully, you’ll also see that the manager has asked Carol to commit to coming in on time in the future. This isn’t just praise because effective feedback motivates employees to make a positive future change


So what do you think will be the result of these words of encouragement. With that sort of consistent performance feedback, do you think it’s likely that Carol will be late in the future? Based on what other managers have experienced. This sort of positive feedback doesn't just fix individual problems. This positive feedback increases employee motivation, increases employee engagement and employee retention. This is because acknowledgement, feeling valued, doing meaningful work and having a sense of belonging are strong drivers of employee satisfaction, employee engagement and staff retention. 

And by improving employee engagement all aspects of performance improve, not just the little things.

Managing by exception is a management excuse

The “Manage by Exception” management technique is where the manager keeps an eye on things and only performance manages problems. But the problem is if you only give feedback when your employees do something wrong then the only feedback that you give is negative.

All this negative feedback is destroying your employee relations. If you are consistently negative and critical, no wonder employees don't like you or want to listen to you. Dr Gottman's magic ratio for healthy relationships is 5 times as many positive interactions as negative. Healthy employee relations doesn't mean making your employees like you as a friend, Healthy employee relations means respect and good communications. Positive feedback builds employee engagement.

“About 90% of the things in our life are right. Make sure you don’t overlook the 90% of things that are right because you are focusing on the 10% of things that aren’t.”

Positive feedback isn't only for positive performance

There is a misconception that positive performance feedback is only for good performance. But as I’ve shown above, you can and should use positive performance feedback to also fix employee performance issues. This works for employee performance issues large and small. And regular performance communication is one of the tools that successful managers use to get results. In fact the real technique isn’t just to use feedback when you have a performance problem. As a manager if you communicate regularly and frequently about performance your employees will be more engaged.

Are you a manager responsible for the performance of your employees? Is there a performance issue that you wish your employees would pay more attention to? Find out How to Use Positive Feedback to Fix Performance Problems here. 

I hope that you have enjoyed this motivational story and that you are inspired to use positive feedback with your staff. 

Manager Foundation specializes in the skills that managers need to know to create a healthy, productive and satisfying work environment. Giving effective performance communication is an essential manager skill because it supports you to be an effective manager in your other management duties:

Use performance communication when you delegate to your employees: See the Ultimate Guide to Delegation to find out more

The best place to give performance communication is in your One on One Meetings with Employees

Use positive feedback to keep your employees on track when you are coaching them to improve their skills and abilities

Effective communication is as much listening as speaking. Find out how to use Active Listening Skills to coach your employees to fix their own problems

False

The APAC conference is hosted by Totara Learning Solutions, and runs across two days. You will hear from the Totara Team, as well as able to attend Partner-run workshops on day two. Go1 will be hosting a workshop at the Conference with special benefits for anyone who attends! 

The Go1 team will run a workshop that deep dives into how to use the Content Marketplace plugin, and how L&D professionals can create effective learning plans with the e-learning courses available. Go1's workshop is at 9.00am March 19th. 

Filter and curate relevant off-the-shelf content for your learners.

Create multi-activity and single-activity courses from multiple providers

Update existing courses with new content.

Configure gradebooks and then view learners’ outcome on Totara Learn.

Identify courses that allow unlimited free preview

Source niche courses and instructor-led trainings via Go1 Training Assist

Get recommendations from Go1 experts on the best courses and vendors, that meet your training needs

Configure your 1st custom course collection with Go1’s course experts.

If you’re on Totara Learn v10.15 and up, v11.9, register and attend our workshop, you can enjoy the following benefits:

1:1 session with a consultant who helps configure your Content Market Place to meet your specific users training needs.

Redeem your $5000 Totara Content Marketplace Premium Library coupon that is valid for 90 days. 

Secure your spot at the Totara User Conferences in Melbourne  

Event date: Monday, 18 Mar 2019 8:30am to Tuesday, 19 Mar 2019 4:00pm

Event location: Cliftons Freshwater Place, Level 18/2 Southbank Boulevard , Southbank 3006, 

Join the Totara Community and collaborate and learn from each other's experiences. 

We're excited to announce Go1 will be at the APAC Totara User Conference!

The content spotlight this week is on Mind Channel's course called Communication Skills (Part 1 and 2). 

The Communication Skills course might be bite-sized but it offers a variety of practical communication tips. In a total of six minutes, your staff can take away five CLEAR tips to improve communication skills in both their professional and private life. 

Mind Channel has effectively structured their course to focus on a handful of common examples of workplace communication skills, that generally any staff member will need. The importance of these skills are outlined alongside a good example of how to display the skills effectively within the workplace, to help provide a clear learning outcome to put into practice. 

Course highlights: Mind Channel's content will help employees become more impactful communicators and build better relationships through communication. They do this by structuring the course around an acronym - CLEAR. Five skills that lead to great verbal communication. 

Learning takeaway: Make your requests powerful. You can do this by providing clarity in your request, whilst ensuring you give your employees an avenue to choose. 

Mind Channel is one of Go1's providers who specialise in bite-sized microlearning. They create short, fun, bite-sized microlearning videos for the modern employee - perfect for mobile, tablet and desktop.

With more than 60 soft skills and professional development microlearning videos in the Go1 Premium library, Mind Channel is a great provider to rely on if your looking for short and sharp videos. Mind Channel is highly recommended for its production and animation quality and is well received by learners. Mind Channel content comes in English and Portuguese!

*Mind Channel content is available to all Global Go1 Premium content subscribers. 

Want more details about Communication courses?

Take just six minutes out of your day, and improve your communication skills!

Course of the week: Communication Skills 

Although adopting and following good ethical practices is vital regardless of the industry, it’s particularly critical for the finance industry. If you have a company that handles investments, banking, loans, or another aspect of this market, there’s no margin for error.

After all, not only does your company deal with people’s money but also their futures. Individuals and businesses that turn to you for assistance depend on the fact that you’ll make the right decisions on their behalf.

Although most companies in the finance industry follow strict internal policies along with government laws and regulations, you know as well as anyone that sometimes, things go very wrong. All it takes is for one employee to make an unethical move to send both the customer and the company spiraling out of control.

Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is a perfect example. He, along with other members of his staff, became greedy. As a result, they began to do unethical things that resulted in the theft of millions upon millions of dollars from clients, ruined lives, and sent he and his clan to prison. Of course, stealing is just one of the many unethical things that people in the finance industry do.

This story along with many others has created a perception among consumers that the financial industry is unethical. That means you already face an uphill battle in building your customer base and retaining clients you already serve. One of the challenges is this industry encompasses multiple sectors, including securities firms, investment banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, mutual fund organizations, and more.

With so many entities making up a massive market, whenever something unethical happens, it spreads like wildfire throughout different news organizations. The other thing to consider is that because the finance industry is so heavily regulated, people quickly identify and report unethical events. 

Before long, people around the world, whether a customer or not, know what happened. As mentioned, there’s no room for error within your organization in that one tiny slip up could prove disastrous. This is why ethical training for your entire staff is crucial.

As part of this industry, it’s imperative that you understand the most common pitfalls. Knowing the difficulties that happen most often will help you and your leadership team stay on top of potential issues, snuffing out fires before they engulf everything. In particular, five things stand out.

Selfishness and Greed – Taking from a quote in the Bible in I Timothy chapter 6 verse 10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil…,” nothing is closer to the truth. Sadly, some people are self-serving, meaning they go after what they want at the expense of others. Once these individuals take that first step toward doing something unethical out of selfishness and greed, seldom do they stop. For people in this category, the goal is to accumulate as much as possible quickly.

Demanding Clientele – Another area in which online training dramatically helps is by defining the responsibilities of your leaders and their staff members. That way, when customers become demanding and push for an employee to bend a little, there’s no temptation. You need a well-defined plan for your organization so that workers know who to turn to when faced with demanding clients. Because there’s a close connection between customers and employees in the finance industry, the goal is to build loyalty from the people who work for your company and gain respect from the clients you serve.

No Moral Compass – Whether lacking sound mentoring from parents or guardians while growing up or perhaps having the inability to look past one’s own perceptions, some people in the finance industry have no moral compass. In fact, some of these individuals are so good at convincing others, and they get away with doing unethical things without anyone questioning them.

Internal Conflict – For your company, it’s vital that you have a viable reward system in place. The reason is that if you give kudos that don’t bridge the gap between your staff’s responsibility and company demands, you promote unethical behavior. In simple terms, if your current reward system creates room for cheating, even a little, there’s a chance of someone acting unethically for monetary gain. Instead, you should implement a system that encourages honesty, perseverance, and integrity as opposed to dysfunction.

Moral Versus Legal Behavior – Do you know someone who always runs the yellow light, picks up the tip change left on the table for the server, or behaves poorly in some other way? While perhaps that individual’s actions are not a crime, they do equate to bad moral behavior. One of the benefits of setting up a training program within your organization specific to ethics is it stipulates punishment for illegal behavior. Without consequences, some people will continue to push boundaries.

Remember, unethical acts aren’t always about stealing large sums of money. This could be something as simple as padding an expense report, using a corporate credit card on a personal dinner date, stretching the number of hours worked, fudging on the truth about what your company can deliver, and so on. 

What it comes down to is you have the responsibility to take control over your company’s success by knowing where risks exist and putting a plan of action in place to address them.

Developing and Maintaining an Ethical Work Environment

Kathie Rotz, CPTM Director of Learning at Honkamp Kreuger might have said it best, “A major reason employees behave unethically is because they don’t value company ethics.” If you want people in your organization to stay on the right path, you need to develop and maintain an ethical work environment. By doing so, you foster positive attitudes among your staff.

The thing with training in the finance industry is it touches on every department. You can select the best courses specifically for your sales and marketing team, the HR group, compliance managers, and so on. Using online courses as the groundwork, you set the stage for what the company expects from everyone, including the consequences of unethical acts.

The goal is to change the mindset of your employees, so they focus on providing excellent customer care rather than the outcome of selling a product, solving a problem, or locking in a major investor. Training proves highly beneficial in this area as well. Through a trusted Learning Management System, you can create a customer-centric training program. 

However, for any training to work the way you want, it has to start with your leadership team. After they complete courses, your HR Manager, L&D Manager, Compliance Manager, and other executives can devise the right approach for their respective teams, as well as lead by example. Also, you need to make training an ongoing part of the organization, especially considering how fast things can change in the finance industry. 

One look at the housing market crash in 2008 is enough to understand the devastation that unethical practices unleash on innocent people. Handing out loans to buyers without the necessary qualifications eventually led to a bona fide recession, costing millions of people their homes and leaving them in financial destitution.

Do you remember the statement about starting with your leadership team? If you want an ethical organization, you have to develop ethical leaders. Although there are several different ways to accomplish this, one involves cross-training. Working as a check and balance system, it keeps people honest and makes them accountable.

Not only that but by cross-training the leaders within your company, you provide them with an avenue for identifying alternative solutions. Instead of believing there’s only one way to do something, they begin to see different perspectives. Over time, training helps them develop powerful thinking and processing skills that lead them to make ethical choices.

At the same time, your management team must develop trusting relationships with their staff members. Using various online training courses, your leaders improve on communication, which makes it easier for employees to come forward when they notice something unethical happening in the workplace.

Instead of getting scared of the consequences of being a whistleblower, employees begin to feel confident their managers will maintain confidentiality and handle the situation in the correct way. With so many incredible online courses, the sky is the limit as to the caliber of the program you can implement in your organization.

You want every employee to know that simply turning a blind eye to unethical behavior is never okay. While an issue may appear to affect just one department, the reality is it impacts the company as a whole. For that reason, it’s critical for every person to look beyond themselves and understand that preventing and correcting unethical actions requires the effort of the entire organization. 

The challenge is that in some instances, an individual who spots someone doing something unethical either feels frightened to come forward or like a disloyal friend. Building confidence in your employees will help give them the courage needed to report suspicious things as they happen. Fortunately, a trusted Learning Management System has a massive library of topics to develop people into strong, dedicated, and confident employees willing to protect the business.

As someone in the finance industry, you probably know all about the Chinese Wall theory. With this, you segregate different divisions within the organization to prevent sharing insider secrets that could shake the company to its core. Instead of having various professionals caught in the middle of a security breach, you protect different areas of the company.

You can think of the Chinese Wall theory as a virtual information barrier that separates employees who have and don’t have information unavailable to the public. As for training, you can provide the same opportunities for every employee, yet at the same time identify courses most beneficial to each separated division.

The last thing you want is for your company to become a headline. As the number of stories breaks about unethical practices in the finance industry, you need to do everything possible to prevent chaos. Because unethical behavior is often the result of a lack of education and knowledge, training is at the heart of the solution.

As an example, when you onboard new employees, not everyone has years of experience working in the world of finance. For that reason, those individuals create some degree of risk. Implementing a training program for all new hires is an excellent way to teach them the basics of finance. You can then rely on your leadership team to offer more training opportunities as the need arises.

With so many courses available on the right Learning Management System platform, you can provide training to every employee, regardless of current understanding and knowledge. While focusing on the fundamentals for your administrative staff, you would hone in on more complex topics for analysts, financial advisors, lenders, and so on.

When talking about the basics, both new and long-term employees should understand the meaning of non-public information. They need to know that sharing employee earnings, talking about bonus programs, and revealing products under development is not just a big “no-no,” but unethical. Keep in mind that people without any experience in the finance industry would have no idea unless you inform them.

A young woman went to work as a bookkeeper for an insurance company. Although she had never worked in this capacity before, she was intelligent and willing to learn. Her husband worked for an agency that did business with this company. While sitting down at dinner one night, the husband made a flippant remark that the wife’s boss should give her a good Christmas bonus because the company did so well that year. 

Keep in mind the husband never mentioned a dollar amount. Without proper understanding and knowledge of the finance industry, the wife shared the comment with her boss the next day at work. Within an hour, the company fired her. Although the husband didn’t lose his job, he came close. One simple comment that contained no hard facts did a lot of damage.

In addition to the wife becoming unemployed and the husband embarrassed, the agency and insurance company’s relationship fell apart. One innocent statement damaged the trust to the point of no return. Had this woman received proper training at the start of her new career about sharing non-public information, she would have laughed things off with her husband and never said a word. While unintentional, what the wife did was unethical in the eyes of her employer. 

For all the training material you need, visit the Go1 website. We offer a comprehensive library of information, prepared and often presented by experts on the topic of ethics in the finance industry.

Why ethics training is critical in the finance industry

Regardless of company size or industry, remaining compliant with current laws and regulations is imperative. At the same time, it’s essential for employees to stay compliant with internal policies and rules. With both, an organization runs smoothly, safely, and effectively. The best way to protect your business is by adopting the right corporate compliance program, one specific to your type of operation.

Compliance programs cover a wide variety of topics. For instance, implementing machine guards as part of a manufacturing process, using a properly rated fire suppression system in an internet data center, installing a ventilation system in a restaurant, or as in the case of Medicaid, saving a minimum of $5 million a year under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 are all examples. Regardless of the situation, an effective program accomplishes multiple goals, including:

Operating in accordance with current laws and regulations

Meeting high professional and ethical standards

Maintaining a culture of integrity and honesty

Identifying compliance issues early on, followed by taking prompt corrective action

Developing employee and customer confidence and trust

What it comes down to is corporate compliance programs ensure your company and workers follow all applicable laws and regulations mandated by the government, along with ethical practices and standards established in-house. 

By not meeting all compliance guidelines, your company could be at significant risk. Perhaps the most critical concern is it changes the legal status, making your business vulnerable to government audits, hefty fines, lawsuits, and even failure. Following are a few examples of how a non-compliant issue could severely compromise your company.

Not paying your staff minimum wage plus required overtime pay would put you at risk of violating your state’s compliance laws. Once someone reports it, you could expect an audit and possible lawsuit, not to mention losing valued employees and damaging your company’s reputation.

In recent years, the government has come down hard on businesses with unethical and even illegal hiring practices. As an example, you can’t discriminate a job interview or actually bringing someone onboard due to age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. Make sure your HR Director is up-to-date by visiting the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website.

For multiple businesses like law firms, hair salons, day spas, and automotive repair shops, staying compliant requires them to maintain all necessary business licenses and permits. For instance, a convenience store that sells alcohol must have a current license from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

One of your greatest responsibilities as a business owner is to provide your employees with a healthy and safe work environment. The great thing about compliance programs is they ensure everything is in order from the floor to the ceiling. Even one accident leading to an injury could prove catastrophic to your company. 

Often, the requirements to remain compliant are complex, which is why becoming educated and having the right leadership team in place is crucial. Thanks to compliance programs, which include training courses offered online through a reputable Management Learning System platform, you have a way to protect both your financial and legal standing.

Compliance programs are a formal solution based on current laws and regulations combined with your company’s policies, procedures, and actions. The ultimate goal is to prevent, detect, and fix issues. This type of program goes well beyond a standard “code-of-conduct” policy by focusing on specific risks within your organization and then addressing them by taking the appropriate measures. 

Even if you have a compliance program in place, it may not offer the maximum level of protection that you need. In fact, the wrong program could be wasting valuable time, money, and resources. Instead of a “hit and miss” system, meaning some things are compliant while others aren’t, you need to implement a comprehensive program. With that, your company leaders can detect all potential problems quickly. 

Whether you need to develop a corporate compliance program for the first time or fine-tune an existing program, it’s essential that you keep it focused and simple. After all, your HR Director, Risk Management team, and corporate trainers need to communicate the details of the program to their staff in a way that’s easy to understand and adhere to. 

From day one of bringing a new employee onboard, your HR Director needs to have information prepared to ensure that person has what he or she needs to follow compliance laws, regulations, and policies. Again, during orientation and training, it is imperative your leaders provide the same information.

As for your current employees, they need the same details. Any time a compliance law, regulation, or policy changes, the respective department’s manager should pass down the information to every employee. If you receive a fine, get audited, or face a lawsuit, ignorance isn’t going to help. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of videos, podcasts, and articles available online that cover a broad range of compliance topics.

Every corporate compliance program worth adopting consists of specific core elements. Knowing what these are will help you develop or refine a program that protects you, your business, and your employees. The benefits of building a successful corporate compliance program far outweigh the risks. 

The program works to develop a work environment based on accountability, starting with the top executive level and moving down. A well-developed program also makes it easier to identify and address issues, document all pertinent information, and evaluate the efforts made.

Have a credible Compliance Manager as part of your team. It’s this person’s responsibility to understand current laws, regulations, and policies, educate employees, detect potential risks, correct issues, and create detailed reporting. Overall, the Compliance Manager protects the company from fines, audits, lawsuits, and failure. This individual will lead the way in building compliance into your company’s operations.

On a periodic basis or as compliance laws, regulations, and policies change, it’s critical to identify both internal and regulatory compliance needs. At the same time, the program scope should properly align with responsibilities across the organization. 

For some people, the only way they will open up about a potential problem is if they feel comfortable going to their direct manager. For that reason, provide your leadership team with training resources that help them improve communication and build relationships with their staff. You want your managers to have an “open door” policy so that employees feel safe to bring up even sensitive topics.

Unless there are distinct and clearly defined objectives, your employees will struggle to achieve the set goals. As part of your strategic planning process, make sure to include a list of well-defined objectives based on both internal and external mandates.

Your HR Director, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager all play a critical role when it comes to identifying risks and probabilities. As trusted leaders within your organization, they need to develop their knowledge, giving them a keen sense of what to look for, how to report it, and what corrective measures to take. These three positions, in particular, need a clear understanding of their roles in relation to compliance.

Especially if you have a company with more than one location, it’s vital to provide training to ensure the culture matches across the board. In other words, your Compliance Manager might be on top of things at headquarters while at a remote site, non-compliant issues exist. This is a prime example of why education and training are crucial for all employees regardless of position or level of authority.

The last thing you want is to receive notification from a state or federal entity advising your company is being audited due to a possible non-compliant issue. To avoid embarrassment, risk, and fine, develop an internal monitoring system into the corporate compliance program.

You also need a place within the program for keeping your leadership team abreast of results, changes, and other pertinent information. Cross-communication about internal and external matters is of significant importance when it comes to compliance.

Remember, maintaining compliance requires a joint effort by many different people within your organization. However, it starts with the people you put in positions of authority. For the program to work, it must contain the following core elements. Even one oversight, whether intentional or not, could bring your entire company crashing down.

Designated Compliance Manager (and other members of your leadership team)

Quick response using appropriate corrective action for any identified problem

Enforce standards based on clear disciplinary guidelines

 As for the seventh core element, “enforce standards based on clear disciplinary guidelines,” you want your HR Director to work alongside your L&D Manager to create a set of internal policies and procedures. You need to provide this information to all new hires, as well as current employees. Your entire staff must understand the risks of being non-compliant and what their role is in reporting an issue. 

Not only does this give your staff better direction and expectations on what you expect from them, but it also helps them invest more in the company. In other words, understanding how critical their insight is into possible compliance issues will make them feel valued and respected. After all, you depend on them to report anything suspicious. In return, you’ll find your employees more dedicated to achieving the company’s broader goals.

Those three words are the epitome of what an effective corporate compliance program is all about. Prevention covers your written policies and procedures, having a qualified Compliance Manager on staff, and ensuring that everyone within the organization has the proper training and education. 

As for detection, this includes your manager’s “open door” policy for communication. Now, if you have a sizable company, you should consider setting up a toll-free hotline. That way, your employees can report an issue quickly but also anonymously if they choose to do so. Detection is also about internal auditing and reporting.

Then there’s corrective action. Included in this is the investigation process that commences after detecting a potential compliance issue, followed by determining the best remediation and taking action. Your disciplinary policy for failure to report or causing a compliance problem also falls under this category.

Of particular interest are the written policies that you include in your code of conduct or code of ethics policy. For this, you need documentation for two levels. First, your leadership team needs complete details about the program, how it works, and the implementation process. Keep in mind; this goes beyond your HR Director, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager.

Second, you want information compiled that goes out to every person working within your organization. These details should stress the urgency of staying compliant and what non-compliance could mean for the company and their employment. Again, recirculate information on both levels whenever laws, regulations, or internal policies change.

You also want the right person in the position of Compliance Manager. As a critical player in your company, this individual should have a bachelor’s degree at a minimum, experience, and compliance certification specific to your industry. A lot falls on this role, so having a qualified individual serving as your Compliance Manager is vital.

However, for your compliance program to work, your Compliance Manager can’t carry all the burden. This person needs an excellent support team. For this, consider establishing a committee that meets anywhere from two to four times a year. Along with other leaders in your organization, you can include outside experts.

During compliance committee meetings, the group would discuss trends, new and amended laws, regulations, and policies, reporting, grievance monitoring, additional employee training requirements, and any other topics of interest or concern.

According to LW Consulting, Inc., when it comes to leadership, “A successful compliance program is fully endorsed by senior management. In addition to support and endorsement by senior management, a company’s board of directors should also be involved in the process.” It went on to say, “When senior officers take compliance seriously, employees are more likely to follow suit.” Talk about spot on.

Allow us to help with your compliance program

For a broad range of compliance topics, as well as those covering leadership responsibilities such as communication, motivation, building morale, and more, we have a vast library of professionally created training courses available. Especially in today’s world, you can’t afford to have any non-compliance issue. Start developing or refining your program today for optimum protection.

How to establish or refine corporate compliance programs

At Go1 we're passionate about bringing the learning community together so that we can, collectively, address workplace learning challenges and share transformative learning experiences to help each other grow. Our meetups are for learning and development professionals who want to discuss best practices, strategies, and innovation in learning design, delivery and instructional technology.

We're very excited to announce our first meetups of 2019!

Please RSVP to reserve your free ticket here:

We will be bringing to you, Australia's best in learning and technology to speak about why HR & L&D managers should learn leadership skills in order to influence, impact and engage staff learning - how you can create a culture of learning.

We'll be holding the meetups in Brisbane on the 21th of February, Melbourne on the 26th of February, and Sydney on the 28th of February. All of them will run between 6pm and 8:00pm. 

Watch this space to find out who our presenters will be!

Our speakers will be holding an interactive conversation that will allow you to be involved in the conversation and walk away from this meetup with some solutions that you can start applying in your workplace straight away!

We're looking forward to seeing you all there!

Learning and Technology Meetup: Taking the Lead in Learning at Work

For a long time, first-aid training wasn’t even an option. Then, as the need for programs increased, various organizations began developing them but only for people working in the medical field. Today, virtually anyone can learn how to save lives. Even better, individuals can complete courses and receive a first-aid certification through online courses.

One of the best things you can do for your organization is to offer first-training to every employee. When you consider that courses are easily accessible and cost little to nothing, it makes no sense for you not to provide your staff with an incredible gift.

Keep in mind that for some industries, first-aid training is not merely an honor but also mandated. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, the requirements for this type of training depend on standards, regulations, and statute. For specific industries, companies must provide both first-aid and CPR training to their employees. Otherwise, these organizations become non-compliant. These include: 

Permit-Required Confined Spaces (1910.146)

Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution (1910.269)

Appendix B: Logging and Operations (1910.266)

Construction Subpart V, Power Transmission, and Distribution (1926.950)

According to OSHA’s laws and regulations, “The employer shall ensure the ready availability of medical personnel for advice and consultation on matters of plant health.” This means a company must have fully trained personnel on-site to provide medical assistance when needed to remain compliant.

Also, under OSHA’s laws and regulations as outlined in 29 CFR 1910.151(b), “In the absence of an infirmary, clinic, or hospital in near proximity to the workplace, which is used for the treatment of all injured employees, a person or persons shall be adequately trained to render first aid. Adequate first aid and supplies shall be readily available.”

However, even if you have a business whereby OSHA does not require first-aid training, this is something that everyone would benefit from, making it an excellent choice. Unfortunately, you never know when an accident will occur, or someone will become ill. Whether from a fall, heart attack, chemical exposure, or something entirely different, investing in online first-aid training is one of the best things you can do for your company and your workers. 

Although not always, it has become quite common for first-aid training to include CPR. When researching different providers with outstanding programs, you should seriously consider selecting one that has coverage in both areas. In fact, a lot of the programs also include information and guidance of using an AED in the event someone suffers a heart attack.

The best training providers have a comprehensive program, which typically covers the following:

Of all medical procedures used, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, is the most critical. This is why selecting a first-aid program that includes this is vital to your organization. After all, if a person suffers a heart attack during which time the heart no longer pumps blood, without CPR, that individual will die.

However, with CPR performed, or in some instances with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), an individual has an excellent chance of not just living, but after receiving proper medical treatment, living a long and healthy life.

Over the years, CPR has gone through several significant changes. For that reason, even if your staff took CPR training before, they should complete a new course based on current standards. As for an AED, if you don’t have one at your company, now is the time to purchase a device and provide your employees with training on its proper use.

For any wound, whether big or small, controlling the bleeding is an essential part of first-aid. In particular, more significant lacerations that lead to a lot of bleeding can cause a person to go into shock and even die. Especially if your company requires workers to handle sharp objects, this part of training is crucial.

The first thing a training course on treating burns teaches is to stop the burn as quickly as possible. Some examples include wiping off the skin of someone suffering a chemical burn, running cold water over a burn caused by heat, and turning off the source of electricity for an electrical burn. Through online courses, your employees will know the best way to respond based on the specific type of burn.

A qualified first-aid training provider teaches people what they should and should not do if someone breaks a bone. As an example, rather than straighten the limb, a fracture requires stabilization by creating a padded splint. Also, instead of placing a cold pack directly on the break to help with swelling, the limb needs to be elevated. 

While sprains are not as serious an injury as a fracture, they still cause significant pain and can leave a person immobilized. Because distinguishing one from the other is often a challenge, sprains receive virtually the same treatment as breaks.

Sadly, the latest polar vortex to sweep the country took the lives of several people. With online courses for first-aid training, your employees will learn how to recognize this problem and treat it. Without quick and appropriate action, frostbite can do severe damage to the skin’s tissue, causing it to die.

Along with the bigger problems, first-aid training covers an assortment of less risky incidents such as blisters, jellyfish stings, nosebleeds, bee stings, and more. Of course, depending on the injured party and the degree of the injury, even something minor can quickly become a major issue.

Regardless of your specific industry, it never hurts to know how to treat both common and uncommon injuries. 

Although you could set up a training program with a reputable organization like Blue Cross or the American Heart Institute, that would require you to pull several people away from their responsibilities to attend class. Even if people go to a designated location, you might receive some pushback because it takes time away from work and home.

That is not to say that your staff doesn’t want to learn everything that first-aid training provides, just that it can be difficult due to their schedules and responsibilities. For that reason alone, providing your entire organization with online training makes far more sense. 

Have your HR Director, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager review various courses, followed by selecting those that best serve your specific company. From there, you can have your employees complete the online courses during normal business hours or in the comfort of home.

Remember, the best providers have courses that usually take less than an hour to complete. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about disruption at work. As for your employees interested in completing the training at home, you might consider offering some type of small incentive or pay them for the time it takes to complete each course.

Without question, your best option for training is through a respected and trusted Learning Management System (LMS). That way, everyone has access to the best courses available, developed and often presented by qualified experts in the field of first-aid, CPR, and AED utilization.

Have your leadership team explore the possibilities with an excellent LMS and make sure they look for specific things to confirm that LMS has the first-aid training courses that you need and want for your organization.

While all first-aid training courses share similarities, preferably look for one with customized solutions. What that means is that beyond the more generic topics on the subject, you have the opportunity to use custom content that really drives the lesson home. Ultimately, this ensures your employees receive the precise training needed to comply with OSHA or your company policies.

When it comes to online first-aid training courses, the last thing you want is something so difficult that your staff absorbs none of the information covered. Therefore, select an LMS that is easy to access and use from virtually anywhere, even mobile devices.

Something else to consider is that because this type of training allows your workers to complete courses at their leisure, they can work through each topic quickly but without missing anything. If you offer your staff a platform that is hard to follow, it will take them significantly longer to finish the training. At the same time, they will begin to feel frustrated and disinterested.

Even for first-aid training, receiving detailed reports is essential. In fact, reporting is a key element of any LMS worth using. Focus on a platform that offers built-in training so that you can keep track of what each employee accomplishes. This is especially important if you choose an LMS without integration possibilities. 

If your company needs to remain compliant on multiple things, you could use the same LMS for first-aid training and other mandates by OSHA. That will help your HR Director know what each person has completed and will make it easier for your Compliance Manager to stay current on all compliance issues. 

Although not a “make it or break it” requirement, it would be ideal to use an LMS that you can integrate with your company’s internal systems. For example, this would make it easy to store information as to what courses each employee took and when. With that, your HR Director could formulate a plan to keep everyone current on training.

As with system integration, while not vital to your first-aid training, it’s highly beneficial. With a built-in assessment tool, your employees can perform an assessment whenever they complete a course. Considering they work at their own pace, this helps tremendously. Also, this eliminates the need to coordinate group assessment sessions, which would take time away from production.

Best of all, online assessments get pulled into the reporting feature automatically, again streamlining the overall training process.

Whether your company needs to meet strict compliance laws and regulations or you simply want to create a safer and healthier work environment, you don’t want to pass up the opportunity to provide your staff with online first-aid training. 