You can hear your customers, but are you really listening?

Never underestimate the power of listening. In the business and corporate world, a lot of people think that talking is the best skill that you have. You can negotiate, discuss and share ideas with colleagues and surely this must be your best tool for success, right?

Sure, communicating is crucial for good interactions with other colleagues and customers. But the best skill you can possess is listening. For example, you won’t be able to perform critical tasks like negotiation without listening to the other party first.

So, what is active listening? Well, it’s just how it sounds – you’ve got to make the effort and conscious decision to listen to another person. In business this means listening to the small details, understanding the numbers or engaging with the facts.

It may sound obvious, but you’ve got to listen to obtain information. But you’d be surprised how many people rush through meetings and speaking to customers and then suddenly make mistakes because they aren’t listening and understanding what has been said.

Many of us are guilty of passive listening. This is when you’re not giving someone your full attention and where you only really hear half of the story. This is a sure way to make mistakes and start conflict later down the line.

On the other hand, active listening is key to success in any interaction. You can find out what the other person is thinking or wants from you, as well as understand how you can engage with them. Plus, active listening will earn you  trust and enhance overall communication.

Why is active listening important in business? Well, in a nutshell, you can come up with better solutions when you know what the problem is. It’s not all about being heard and the loudest person in the room. In fact, what we’re saying is it’s the exact opposite.

Online learning is taking over and this means your employees can learn all about active listening to further their communication skills. E-learning courses are a popular way for employees to learn since they’re engaging and use popular media for relaying important information.

Plus, from a business’s point of view, online learning is more cost-effective and requires less resources to run than traditional styles of training.

It’s crucial that active listening training is engaging and interesting in order for your employees to pay attention to the techniques and tips that the e-learning courses offer.

Through online learning videos, games and quizzes, your employees are make sure they’re practicing active listening to use with clients and other colleagues. It’s going to improve your job effectiveness, as well as boost your relationship with the people around you.

Online e-learning is the new way to learn and since we could all do with some active listening training, it’s worth the investment. In fact, active listening is important whether you work in a social working environment and face customers or not. It’s a skill that has to be worked on, which is why online learning should be used frequently. It’s going to help generally in everyday life too, so your employees will be thankful for it.

One of the best things about online learning is the freedom it offers your employees. Everyone learns differently -  some people are night owls and concentrate better later on, while some employees learn best after an early rise.

But what’s more important is that you provide them with the best materials that suit their schedule and this is exactly what online learning does. It’s available 24/7, which means employees can logon and complete their training whenever they like and whenever they learn best.

What’s more, online learning can be accessed from anywhere. Whether you are on the train to work or relaxing on the couch, you can access the active listening course from your own laptop or tablet and complete your training.

Now you don’t have to sacrifice vital working hours in the office and dedicate it to training – it can be completed anytime, anywhere. But, it also means there is no excuse either!

So, why not try out some active listening courses from Go1 today? there’s lots to choose from and you can make sure that your employees are fully equipped with the skills they need to make your business successful.

It’s about time you jumped on board the online learning wagon. Active listening is one of the most important communicative skills you can have – so why wouldn’t you want to train your employees to do it?

Investing in quality training materials always pays off. With e-learning courses, it’s all there literally in the touch of a button. You can leave your employees to it and allow them to progress their skills in their own time and at their own pace.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s never been easier now with online learning to learn all about active listening, which means you can get started today and introduce training to your team tomorrow.

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Are there just not enough hours in the day for you to get everything done on your urgent to-do list?

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at work sometimes – especially when you’re always running behind schedule.

Here’s the thing: everyone gets the same amount of time in a day and there’s a reason that another employee might be accomplishing more than you in a day. Why? Simply because they’re managing their time better.

Time management is the key to success – not just in your professional life, but your personal life too. When you know how to prioritize your workload and actually get things done, you’ll notice you have a lot more time for the activities that you love.

Not only will you get more done, but you’ll also find that it requires less effort. Once you know how you can control your time and realize that it’s you that has the ability to focus and be more productive, everything will start to slot into place.

Plus, time management allows you to make better choices and decisions at work. When you’re stressed out and can’t think clearly, all those bright ideas and wise decisions go straight out the window.

But, when you’re being more productive and efficient, you have more time to think about everything. You won’t jump to conclusions or make bad decisions and you’ll be a lot calmer about the whole process, whether it’s designing a new product or finishing a project.

At the end of the day, time management is a skill that will allow you to accomplish more, rise through the ranks and become more successful.

E-learning Courses are the New Way to Learn

If you’re currently struggling with time management, don’t worry. Sometimes you can do with a little help, especially in a modern world with lots of distractions. There is where online learning can help you!

Time management is a skill you can learn and improve on, which means that everyone can master it with some training. Before you know it, you’ll be acing your way through that urgent to-do list with time to spare.

Online learning has become increasingly popular in the last few years and it’s easy to see why. With a huge choice of e-learning courses you can choose from, it’s no surprise there is a variety of time management courses that you can choose for your employees.

E-learning courses are more cost effective and means that you don’t have to bring in professionals for training and it ends those expensive and time-consuming training weeks.

Time management courses are available anywhere, anytime, which means that employees can learn at home, on the bus or even when they are on vacation. Training no longer has to interfere with the productivity of business. Instead, it can boost productivity.

Employees will love this freedom that you offer and generally allowing employees to learn at their own pace will lead to results. Your workforce will be better at time management in no time!

Master Time Management with Online Learning

It’s been found that the most effective way to learn is about time management is through online learning. Employees find it more engaging than more traditional styles of training. So, let’s have a look why and how this can improve your workplace training.

Online learning uses an engaging style and use of popular media, which means that employees are now starting to enjoy training. Who knew that was possible!

For example, gamification is a hit with everyone since it’s a fun way to learn new facts and information. Especially in a generation where 75 percent of employees play games in their spare time.

In addition, time management videos are a popular way to learn new skills and techniques. This cuts out the boring and uninspiring lecture style training and opts for fun and colorful videos with interesting stories and visual effects.

The key to remember time management tips is to make the online learning resources enjoyable for everyone. It’s well known that people retain and learn new information better if they have fun to begin with.

You can use time management training to let your employees learn new ways they can become more efficient in the way that they work and generally perform better on a daily basis.

You’ll be able to learn how to prioritize your tasks, get more things done and generally be more productive at work than you ever have been before.

Again, time management is a skill, which means everyone can learn how to become better at it. Online learning will provide you with an entertaining and effective way to achieve goals and maximum productivity in the workplace.

So, why not give an online time management course a try? At Go1, we have a tone of fun and informative e-learning courses you can use for your employee training.

Of course, this means that you can get started on time management skills today! With courses designed by experts, you can make sure all of the best techniques for staying calm, collected and creative when the work starts to pile up on your desk.

Always remember that it’s never too late to learn – so, join the online learning community here at Go1 today and learn new time management skills tomorrow!

Improve your time management with eLearning

So, new software has come out – but do your employees know how to use it?

When it comes to technology, everything is constantly changing. From new computer systems to software that your team uses every day, something is always being updated, changed and modernized.

Of course, this is a great thing! We obviously want technology to keep moving forward since this can lead to more efficient systems and better tools for our businesses. But, software updates are only going to be beneficial for your organization if your team knows how to use them properly.

Let’s be honest, not everyone is tech savvy. This is especially true in the workplace and this means that when there’s new software updates coming out, it’s important that there are support and training provided so that your employees can learn how to deal with it.

After all, you want everyone to perform at their best in the workplace, right?

So, we’ve figured out that new software updates require training in order for your team to know how to adjust to the new system properly and use the modern technology to its fullest. Yet, this leaves the question, how exactly do you do this?

Well, the easiest way to keep on top of software updates is through online training using e-learning courses. If you’re not familiar with online training in your workplace yet, now is the perfect time to learn. In fact, online training is also the perfect way to learn!

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits online training can offer your business when it comes to software updates:

Courses are constantly being updated and there’s literally training for everything. Whether you need help with the new Microsoft Word or learning about new formulas for Microsoft Excel, there’s a course that will help you with the latest software.

This will make sure the new software updates you’re bringing to the office won’t affect the efficiency of your business when they’re introduced. Instead, the updates can help your organization grow and your team becomes more productive.

When some just talks at you and you’re forced to listen, it’s not easy to learn. In fact, it’s pretty boring and not memorable enough to make a difference.

The best kind of learning is practicing the new skills yourself. Through online training, employees can learn all about software updates by running through them on a course and attempting it themselves.

E-learning courses are designed to be engaging and will even make employees enjoy learning. New software updates no longer have to be confusing and stressful. Who knew that was possible?

Let’s face it, training can be expensive. It’s even more costly when you’ve already paid for software updates. You’ve got to hire trainers that are skilled and even hire out venues or take days off the normal working schedule.

But, not with online training. E-learning courses are the cost-effective way to learn that provide your employees with the same skill-building material but at half the cost.

Since they can be used again and again, they’ll save you money and can be used with multiple employees whenever you like. Plus, you don’t have to arrange training weeks anymore – the content is at your fingertips!

The great thing about online training is that it’s accessible anywhere, anytime. Employees can access the learning materials on new software updates on their own devices from home, as well as if they’re traveling.

This means that employees can learn when it suits them and when they’re liked to be most engaged with the content. Plus, training doesn’t have to cut into working hours anymore.

You can leave your employees to their own devices – literally!

Instead of learning on the job and seeing if employees understand the new software during actual work hours with customers, you can give them practice first and monitor how they perform.

After all, the last thing you want is for employees to not understand the new software and make mistakes that could cost you customers and affect the efficiency of your business.

There’s special tracking options with online training that means you can see which employees are performing well with the new software updates and see who might need a little more support before they use it in the office.

It’s all about learning and when you’re able to monitor how your employees are doing, you can give them the help they need to improve for the future.

So, are you ready to invest in amazing online training to keep on top of your new software updates? The last thing you want is for changes to affect your business performance and productivity.

With online training, you can get your employees up to speed in no time and make sure they are comfortable with the new updates. They will be able to learn in a way that best suits them since the content is fun, accessible and flexible.

Software updates don’t have to cause chaos in the office. When you have the right training and support for your employees, you can make sure the transition is simple and easy for everyone, as well as quickly so that your everyday business is not disturbed.

Most importantly, online training makes sure that you are using the software updates to your business’s advantage!

The easiest way to keep on top of software updates: online courses

Did you know that 70 percent of all business projects fail?

There’s no doubt this is a shockingly high percentage. In fact, it’s way too high, wouldn’t you say? The three main reasons for this business project breakdown are lack of direction, failure to stick to the budget and not meeting deadlines.

This all results in a sub-standard project that doesn’t meet its goals and these problems can easily be prevented by introducing one major player into the game: a project manager.

Project management is like the glue that holds your team together. It doesn’t matter what industry or field you’re in, whether its scientific research or business consulting - a project manager is critical to delivering successful and efficient projects.

Project managers are also the ones that will oversee the whole project and navigate others in your team through the good times and definitely through the bad. So let’s have a closer look at exactly how project managers do this and what benefits they’ll bring to your business.

Project managers are planning the final result from the very beginning. Their role is to create briefs and objectives so that the whole team knows what they’re trying to achieve and how they should achieve them.

After all, clients will have certain goals they want you to achieve through your project, so it’s important that everyone sticks to these guidelines at all times.

The project manager will find the best way to achieve these goals and make sure the right strategies are followed to keep everything on track. Plus, this guidance isn’t just at the beginning – it’s through the whole project lifecycle.

When disaster strikes, it’s easy to throw in the towel and give up. This is what leads to 70 percent of business projects eventually failing, right? Well, with the help of a project manager, any issues or problems that arise will be dealt with effectively and efficiently.

Sometimes you can’t stop something from going wrong in a project. The most important thing is how you react to it. Your project manager will make sure everything stays on course, whether your budget is suddenly cut or there’s a change in direction. They’ll work on adapting the team strategy and make sure nobody gets lost in the fog.

When you’ve got a team of people, there always needs to be someone in charge that leads everyone and keeps everything on track. In business projects, this is the role of the project manager.

They’re the captain of the ship and make sure the project is steered to success. Using their leadership skills, project managers will inspire the team vision and motivate others to deliver.

Plus, project managers make sure the right people are in the right places during projects to best utilize everyone’s skills and knowledge to the fullest potential.

Every project has a budget and certain resources. Of course, the most important thing is that the project uses the budget wisely in order to meet its goals.

A project manager will provide the continuous oversight that’s needed to monitor everything that’s included in the budget so that nothing runs over. This is HUGE.

Without someone leading the team, it’s hard to stick to the schedule and meet the deadlines that clients expect. But a project manager’s role is to ensure that tasks are accomplished efficiently and on time.

They’ll create milestones, reviews and timelines to make sure that everything runs its course. This ensures clients are happy with delivery of the project.

Of course, these are the benefits of a project manager when they know what they’re doing and take their role seriously. In other words, project management is only good when it’s done properly.

How can you make sure project management is successfully implemented into your projects? It’s easy, through effective online training. After all, you don’t want your project to be like an episode of The Apprentice!

Project management may sound easy, but when it comes down to it, there’s certain skills and knowledge that a project manager needs in order to start and finish a project successfully.

From the planning and organizing of the project and the team to maximizing available resources and ensuring a quality end result, project managers need to learn how they can complete their role successfully first before they’re launched into the deep end.

E-learning courses are one of the best ways to provide project management training for your employees. They’re designed by experts and provide some of the best project management techniques from professionals around the world.

Plus, they’re available 24/7 and can be accessed in your employee’s own time. You can even track how your new project managers are doing to make sure they’re ready to take on the next big project.

At the end of the day, you reap what you sow. If you provide your employees with project management training, this is going to pay you back when it comes to successful project management.

So, make sure you choose to invest in your project managers today so you can be part of the 30 percent of businesses that succeed in their projects!

Project management training: help your team be more efficient

The Go1 team are please to announce the release of the following capability in April 2018, including the My Team Dashboard, Improvements to Notifications and Alerts, and Improvements to Search and Tag Filtering.

Please remember if you have an suggestions for improvements or new features, please email them to product@go1.com

Managers will now have access to a dashboard called "My Team". This dashboard summarises the activity of a manger learners so to enable better tracking of learner activity against their goals.

The ability for a Manager to view, search and sort through a list of the Users they manage.

The ability for a Manager to view a tally of their users progress against the goals associated with that learner, including whether a users enrolment status for a standalone LO/LI is; in Progress, Upcoming (which means the completion due date is within the next 7 days) or overdue.

The ability for a Manager to click to see a report of the data used to calculate their User's progress.

Importantly for the My Team dashboard to work, you must ensure you assign yourself as a manager for your learners (Refer to the last video).

Based on your feedback, the platform has been improved to better alert users about key learning milestones. This feature includes in-app portal notifications and email notifications to act as reminders of scheduled due dates, events and expiry dates.

The features of the addition of notifications are:

Enable/disable in-app and email notifications for Learners, Managers & Assessors.

Dependent on the portal administrators selection, it will mean:

Learners may receive an in-app & email notification:

When they are scheduled a standalone learning-item

When a due date is scheduled for them and/or that date is edited

When an external learning record created by a learner is edited and/or passed by someone else

Learners, Managers and Assessors may receive an in-app & email notification:

Prior to, on the day of, and 2 days following the expiry of a scheduled due date if the enrolment is NOT completed.

3 days prior to and on the start date of an event in which they are enrolled or are the assessor, with the details of that event

When 75% of the duration of the award enrolment period has passed and when the enrolment expiry date has passed

Changes to the tag and filtering functions will now allow for learners to more easily search, filter and sort through available content to find what is most relevant to them.

The features of the search and filters changers for learners are:

The ability to see the content in explore sorted by the latest published date

The ability to search for content and then sort the results by the option Ranking/Most relevant.
before you see the and Premium tags.

When filtering search results for scheduled content, as a learner you can filter based location or date.

Learners previous enrolments will be visible, allowing their competition history to accurately reflect the work they have completed.

Awards can now have tags showing items mandatory for completion 

Improved card display for courses with multiple events
 
 

Fixed an issue where continue button on course overview did not work.

Resolved issue where assessor feedback did not show on occasion

An issue was fixed that stopped users from saving updates to learning items.

Fixed an issue that applied a discount to only 1 course when trying to apply to many.

Fixed issues where assignment resubmissions didn’t appear for assessors.

Resolved an issue where completed Awards did not appear as complete.

Resolved an issue where seats decreased across multiple events when assigning a seat for a single event.

Resolved some intermittent course completion issues.

An issue was resolved where an Iframe in a text resource would not save.

Sign up for a free trial today and try it out for yourself!

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please let us know

Throughout April the Go1 Team have been working on a range of new features and improvements that will help to improve the learning experience of all of our customers and their learners.

We understand that not everyone is always able to make it to our webinars, so we have recording available below so that you can catchup on all of the details, and share with your team.

In our April update, we walk you through all of the updates below:

We have a new dashboard called my team which allowed managers to improve the ability to track the learning of their team

Updates to search and tag filtering to allow for learners to search for and find training content relevant to the requirements of their organisation more easily

Improvements to Notifications and Alerts to be used to alert users of the upcoming important dates relating to their training and qualifications

A closer look at our new Zapier integration tool

There is also information on visibility on a learners previous enrolments, tags on Awards, improvements to course cards for courses with multiple events, and more.

Our Go1 Update webinars take place every month and covers everything you need to know about the latest updates to our platform, including a Q&A session where you can ask any questions you might have around anything to do with Go1.

Want to be involved in our Early Access Program? Contact us today!

Webinar catchup: Go1 Platform end of April updates

A study by University of Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) researchers has been circulating online recently.

The study titled 'Discrimination in high degrees: Race and graduate hiring in Malaysia' was published in the Journal of Asia Pacific Economy. The paper discussed the problems of discrimination in hiring and promotion in the country's labor market.

"This paper investigates racial discrimination in hiring fresh degree graduates in Malaysia through a field experiment," the abstract read.

"We send fictitious Malay and Chinese résumés to job advertisements, then analyze differentials in callback for interview attributable to racial identity, while controlling for applicant characteristics, employer profile and job requirements." (Read the full article here)

This article is not a critic directed towards the research above, instead, this article will be directed more towards diminishing all the negative perception towards our future colleagues and leaders.

Have anyone really consider the feeling of a fresh graduate who have studied for at least 5 years since secondary school when they enter the workforce?

I am sure they feel it’s time for them to give back to society after everything that they have learned. Such a positive attitude, and we’d expect nothing from a degree holder.

Imagine the surprise when they are crushed after their resume goes unanswered. Imagine the surprise when interviewers belittled them in the interview.

More importantly, imagine their surprise when they start working - a clerk without proper qualification has the ability to work more efficiently than them.

Furthermore, their parents have drummed into them that education is the ticket to a better life.

They may even avoid family gatherings or interacting with people, for fear of being questioned repeatedly about their current status. This can be emotionally challenging.

The struggles of a fresh graduate are real.

They are approaching the new world unprepared. What they studied in the universities is largely academic, with little application in the real world.

Without any work experience they struggle to get a response to any job applications.

If only there was an added quality they could highlight, such as Microsoft Word 2013 Advanced Level (Course produced by Microsoft Certified Trainer Christina Tankersley) or Microsoft Excel 2016 (Intermediate Level).

They enter the interview not knowing what they will be facing.

If only they are able to prove their application of knowledge to real world scenarios, such as on how to keep a customer informed and engaged using key information, progress and status updates. (for a Customer Support position), or, preparing business documentation, which includes from simple emails to formal letters and composing documents that suits the business needs.

The above are simple short courses which will provide fresh graduates with the knowledge that they need in breaking down the barriers that have been blocking over 200,000 unemployed local graduates in Malaysia.

The failure to secure a job results to people blaming either the graduates themselves, or some even goes to a degree of blaming it on cultural discrimination.

Let’s make a change to finding ways to improve this situation from a different perspective.

Why not WE all decide to get them prepared before they leave the University?

Help them to develop their skills, and provide them the knowledge to help them standout in the eyes of employers.

I am not saying that the current subjects in universities are irrelevant or outdated, but just to consider a different approach nearing the end of their course.

Technology continues driving change where this graduate needs to have a much broader range of skills towards emotional intelligence.

Our education industry must take this step in ensuring these future leaders are given the opportunity in the Malaysian workforce before the fire in them dies out.

Online learning is the best acquirable mode of knowledge that is best suited to implement these changes. Make online courses a part of your syllabus in their final semester.

Go1 have a valuable and inexpensive platform which enable a student to find, filter and even share the content accordingly to their needs. Go1 Premium is the answer to learning those real world skills that you need!

Online courses covering everything you need from professional development, leadership, Human Resource, IT, sales skill and communications are available through Go1, and all courses are created by experts in their field from across the world.

Helping Malaysian graduates learn the skills needed to enter the workforce

Did you know that only 13 percent of customers feel that salespeople understand their needs?

We can all agree that this is a shockingly low number - one you wouldn’t want to be associated with your company, right?

Yet, with 55 percent of employees lacking basic skills they need for effective sales, it’s no wonder that businesses are struggling to satisfy customer needs and are not fulfilling their sales goals.

It’s common knowledge that sales are the most important part of business. That’s why most companies have a dedicated sales team that spends every day trying to grow their customer base, generate more leads and convert them into a return.

But despite the crucial role that the sales team play in a business, companies are ignoring the importance of sales training for their employees. There’s often an assumption that people working in sales already know what they’re doing…

You can even have the best products or services in the world, but they won’t sell themselves. It takes more than just an extroverted personality to sell – it’s about making a connection with customers and understanding their needs, as well as asking and answering the right questions.

Sales aren’t easy and the whole process requires skill and technique. No basic script that you provide your employees with will make sales happen. It’s all about salespeople knowing what they’re doing, talking and listening to customers.

In a competitive business world, it’s more now more important than ever to make time for sales training. There’s no point in rushing your employees into contacting and dealing with customers – they’ve got to know what to do first for effective sales.

It’s important to remember that customers buy from your sales team – they are the face of your brand. So, why wouldn’t you want to invest in sales training to make your business better?

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of sales training for your company.

Sales are all about the numbers. Every company wants to boost productivity and increase leads and their return. So, what the best way you can have higher win rates? Well, it’s through training your staff in sales.

Using successful sales techniques that are common in the industry, you can make sure that employees are beating the competition and growing your customer base.

Training will provide your employees with the skills they need and learn how they can use these techniques themselves.

You want to get your new products and services out there and the better trained your employees are, the more success you’re going to have.

Sales training leads to higher win rates - it’s that simple.

There’s no point in trying to sell products and services to customers that don’t need them. This is a waste of their time and yours, as it will likely result in no sales.

Thus, sales figures will be higher when you are aligning the solutions that you offer to those that your customer needs. Through training, you can make sure that your employees understand customer needs and are able to identify what they want through recognized sales techniques.

At the end of the day, customers don’t want a generic sales pitch. They want someone to listen to them and understand what they want, rather than simply pushing a product or service on them. You can make sure your sales team know how to build meaningful relationships with customers through training.

In return, you not only generate sales, but you also build foundations of loyalty that mean customers are more likely to buy from you again and even talk about their experience and recommend your company to other people.