Welcome to this month’s edition of “What’s Trending in Learning?” We took a bit of a hiatus last month, but we're back! Coming out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the US, and with cyber breaches and phishing at an all-time high, there's no better time to talk about cybersecurity. And as the digital landscape continues to evolve, so do these threats that organizations face. Ensuring your team is well-versed in cybersecurity best practices is more important than ever, so join us as we explore the importance of awareness and action. We'll highlight relevant courses, introduce new content providers and the best of the best for cybersecurity awareness, then share additional insights to keep your organization secure.

Here are five expert-recommended courses available on Go1 to help you train your teams on cybersecurity protections and awareness efforts:

1. What is Cybersecurity and Generative AI? by Simon Sez IT (Video, 10 mins)

This video forms part of the course Generative AI and Cybersecurity and is perfect for those with a basic foundation in cybersecurity. With an expert instructor who gives you a solid grounding in generative AI and cybersecurity, they'll guide you toward becoming more confident integrating AI with cybersecurity. Tailored for employees worldwide, suitable for intermediate employees, and optimized for a mobile experience.

2. Cyber Security Incident Reporting by mybreeve (Ineractive, 6 mins) 

Discover our comprehensive online training for detecting and reporting cyber security incidents. Learn to quickly identify potential threats, develop effective reporting strategies, and enhance your cyber resilience. Get prepared to protect your business from digital risks. Tailored for employees worldwide, suitable for all levels, and optimized for a mobile experience.

3. Information and Cybersecurity Awareness by Bob's Business (Interactive modules, 60 mins) 

What's phishing? What's malware? How can these things impact the security of personal data held by my organization, or lead to me becoming the victim of identity theft? In 60 minutes, this interactive course will teach you everything you need to know about how to keep you and your organization's private information protected.

Employees will learn about some of the biggest risks highlighted by the National Cyber Security Centre. Includes content from the following Bob's Business modules: Perfect Passwords, Mobile Working, Phishing Fears, Social Media, Web Woes, Mastering Malware, Identity Theft, and Keeping it Clear.

4. Cybersecurity: Remote Working Module - "Any day but a Saturday" by Cyber Eclipse (Video with quiz, 5 mins) 

Cyber Eclipse's video training modules are designed to be short and sweet. This short microlearning module teaches employees skills to help them work safely when working remotely.

In this module, Jim and Naz hijack a meeting while Samantha shares her top tips on how to work from home safely and securely. All employees need to do is watch the video and complete the short quiz at the end. Each module should be done in less than 5 minutes.

5. Your essential guide to cyber-risks and what to do by The Security Company (Interactive, 15 mins) 

Essential information about cyber-risks and what to do. The learning is interactive throughout, with real examples, scenarios, engaging visuals, and feedback at key learning points. Each module concludes with a short quiz. This course contains seven modules that are suitable for all employees within any sector or industry.

Have an effective training module to support your wider security culture program

Have a module that brings security to life

Increase your employees awareness of the risks

Increase its ability to identify and mitigate risks

At Go1, we’re constantly growing our content offering. From new content providers to returning favorites updating their offerings, here’s what’s new to Go1 in November.

Cypherworx is a new Content Partner and has introduced 383 courses to Go1 customers! Cypherworx is a US-based CP offering content for teachers and education professionals, including K-12. Their team of instructional designers follows best practices as outlined by IACET, ensuring that our high-quality courses are assessable and meet rigorous educational standards.

Courses feature interactive elements that keep employees engaged and actively participating; they can't simply play a video and passively watch it — they must interact with the content to progress. Each course includes assessments designed to evaluate competencies, ensuring employees are meeting their goals.

Topic coverage: Professional development, compliance, and industry-specific training, with a strong focus on corporate businesses, payroll providers, child care, school districts, and nonprofits

383 courses available, ranging from 30 - 120 minutes in duration

Top courses: Incident Command System (ICS) Overview for Executives and Senior Officials, Scaffolding Safety, Supporting Growth Mindset and Self-Efficacy, Supporting Self-Awareness and Self-Management, Ergonomics

Academy for Health and Fitness provides a wide range of online courses aimed at improving skills and knowledge across the health, fitness, and professional development sectors. They're new to Go1, and have introduced 43 courses to our customers! Their courses are perfect for both beginners and advanced learners, offering flexible, self-paced learning that fits into any schedule. More details here.

Topic coverage: Injury Management & Nutrition, Transport, Postal & Warehousing, Construction & Real Estate, First Aid & Financial Compliance, Manufacturing

43 courses in Premium, ranging from 60 - 240 minutes in duration

Top courses: Nursing Assistant Diploma, Business Ethics In The Workplace, Back Injury Prevention, Key Account Management, Introduction to Project Management 

PaleBlue is a new Go1 Content Partner joining the crew! With 39 courses available, PaleBlue is dedicated to enhancing company efficiency and performance through top-tier courses. PaleBlue is all about helping employees experience safer, more productive work environments. Their gamified content transforms traditional learning into engaging experiences that drive real results.

Topic coverage: Health and safety, fire safety, fall prevention

57 courses in Premium, ranging from 15 - 30 mins in duration

Top courses: Working at Height, Confined Spaces, Hot Work, Work Permit

Three content providers that we’re loving this month

Bob’s Business is a leading provider of cybersecurity awareness and compliance training courses. Based in the UK and established since 2007, they make courses that people actually want to take.

Designed for organizations of any size and across every sector, the secret behind their engaging courses is their use of compelling, relatable narratives and light-hearted animations. Combined with simple, actionable advice across a diverse range of cybersecurity and compliance topics, their courses are truly effective.

Topic coverage: Technology, Programming & Coding, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity

5,000+ courses in Premium, some shorter videos to comprehensive courses. The catalog includes eBooks

Top Courses: Introduction to Internet of Things; Data Visualization with Python: The Complete Guide; What is IoT?

Cyber Eclipse specializes in cyber security awareness training to address the "human error" element of cyber risk. This is training - but done differently. Cyber Eclipse uses short, engaging and, some would say funny, micro-learning modules to effect real behavior change. The courses are all cinema quality with real actors. Deploy Cyber Eclipse's micro-learning modules regularly to turn all your employees into your strongest line of cyber defense.

Topic coverage: Business Skills, Communication, Leadership, People and Communication Skills, Time Management

21 courses in Premium in 7 languages (147 LOs total) ranging from 15 to 30 minutes in duration

Top courses: Choose to Simplify; Boost Daily Simplicity, Identify New Business Opportunities; Ignite Disruptive Thinking; Turn Threats into Opportunities

mybreev is an internationally operating eLearning studio and specialist for innovative eLearning formats. The focus is on providing employees with knowledge libraries on a wide range of topics to further their education in a targeted manner. Under the heading "The Modern Company", the topics include both future-oriented issues relating to safety, communication, sustainability, and diversity as well as typical mandatory topics as defined by statutory regulations, all of which are made available via various product worlds.

Topic coverage: Leadership & Management; Sales & Customer Service; Communication; Teamwork; Business Skills; Personal Development; Mental Health & Wellbeing; Health & Safety 

Approximately 100 courses in Premium, the majority of which are 60-minutes in duration

Top courses: Anti-Bribery 101; Five Customer Service Parables; Health & Safety 101; Data Protection 101

We hope you've found valuable insights and resources to enhance your cybersecurity awareness training programs in this month's edition. Remember, staying informed and proactive is key to protecting your organization from cyber threats. Be sure to explore the courses and content providers we've highlighted, and stay tuned for more updates and resources from Go1.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, our team is always here to support your learning and development journey every step of the way. See you in the next edition!

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Want to dig deeper into Cybersecurity and its importance in employee training? 

Watch our recent webinar: How to build an agile cybersecurity training curriculum

How to build an agile cybersecurity training curriculum

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This month is all about futureproofing. Read the full article to find course recommendations and new content providers to help your employees prepare for what's to come.

What’s trending in learning? Futureproofing in November 2024

Discover the latest trends in cybersecurity awareness training for employees. Learn about essential courses, new content providers, and expert insights from Go1.

What’s trending in learning? Cybersecurity in November 2024

The key to effective cybersecurity training is employee interaction. When you incorporate real-life scenarios and hands-on activities that allow employees to apply what you're teaching in real time, you reinforce the messaging, making it stickier. To make the training accessible and easy to understand, as not all employees may have a technical background, use a variety of teaching methods, such as videos, quizzes, and group discussions that are applicable to their daily work.

In our recent webinar, cybersecurity and learning experts, Stefanie Drysdale, Gaurab Bhattacharjee, and John Trest discussed how to build the most agile cybersecurity training for your employees. They provided a deep dive into the nuances of crafting effective cybersecurity training programs that cater to the needs of a diverse workforce, especially in the context of increased remote work.

So let's break down the biggest takeaways and key points, and be sure to catch the recording at the end of this article.

Most L&D professionals know that if your employee training isn't personalized, it's not going to stick. Stefanie Drysdale, Senior VP of Cyber at Prescient, stressed the significance of tailoring cyber training programs to the specific roles and responsibilities of individual employees to ensure maximum retention and impact. 

By personalizing the learning experience, organizations can increase engagement and ensure that training is directly relevant to the work being done. She also emphasized the importance of keeping up with evolving cyber threats and updating training content accordingly. This approach, especially with compliance topics, makes the content as relevant and customized as possible, even for large enterprises.

While tailoring training to individual roles is crucial, Gaurab Bhattacharjee, who leads cybersecurity at Go1, also stressed the importance of fostering a broader cybersecurity culture within the organization. He emphasized the importance of maintaining consistent and engaging training across all departments, not just IT. He introduced the concept of "cyber buddies" as a strategy to foster continuous communication and personalize the training experience.

Gaurab explained that cyber buddies are designated individuals within each department who act as mentors and advocates for cybersecurity awareness. This approach helps to create a network of support and promotes a culture of accountability and responsibility for cybersecurity within the company. By involving all employees and assigning roles in training and awareness efforts, the organization can better protect itself against cyber threats.

But when it comes to any type of compliance training like this, data is everything. Gaurab stressed the importance of using metrics such as completion rates and susceptibility to phishing attacks as tools to measure the effectiveness of your training programs. These metrics, he noted, are crucial for demonstrating the value of cybersecurity initiatives to executive leadership and securing their support.

John Trest, CLO at Inspired eLearning also pointed out the significance of using metrics to quantify risks and justify budget allocations for cybersecurity initiatives to organizational leaders as well.

In addition to tracking metrics, regular evaluations and updates to the training program are essential for staying ahead of constantly evolving cyber threats. This can include regularly reviewing and updating training materials, incorporating new techniques and strategies, and staying up-to-date on industry trends and best practices, which Stefanie highlighted in the webinar. 

By continuously improving and adapting your training programs, employees can identify and respond to potential cyber threats, ultimately strengthening the company's overall cybersecurity posture.

How to create memorable cybersecurity training

With tactics, threats, and new technology changing so quickly, all the panelists agreed, employee cyber training is best when it's year-round. By reinforcing cybersecurity principles throughout the year, these critical and time-sensitive topics stay top of-mind for employees, which builds retention and awareness. But how do we keep it interesting enough if the training is ongoing?

John highlighted that storytelling supports memory retention far better than quizzes, as stories naturally engage and stick with employees, making training more memorable​.

Stephanie suggested using a mix of macro and microlearning to cover essential topics in varied depth. While microlearning offers quick, digestible lessons, macro-learning sessions provide the depth needed for complex topics.

Gaurab shared the need for bite-sized, "nugget" learning that employees can engage with over a short break or lunch. He emphasized that this approach not only respects employees' busy schedules but also supports frequent reinforcement, which enhances retention.

There are clear benefits to elevating cybersecurity awareness across the entire organization, and in a way that focuses on employee awareness, engagement, and retention. With practical guidance on how to source high-quality training content that's both consistent and finely tuned to the specific needs of each role, you can ensure your team is prepared to identify and report risks, avoid threats, and be an advocate for cyber safety at work.

By championing storytelling and continuous reinforcement, compliance and training officers can direct a clear path to maximizing the impact of cybersecurity training. Ultimately, this approach empowers your organization to proactively defend against the ever-increasing complexity of cyber threats.

Watch the full webinar to hear from our expert panel on the best practices for developing memorable cyber training programs.

Explore key insights from cybersecurity experts on making cyber training memorable through storytelling, real-life scenarios, and practical strategies in this webinar recap.

Traditional teaching models typically use a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach, meaning that employees are taught uniformly. In essence, everyone receives the same curriculum regardless of their individual background, culture, or experiences. 

One-size-fits-all training programs often operate the same way. Instead of treating employees as individuals, L&D programs — particularly in global organizations — typically only cater to the majority, delivering static content and measuring outcomes based on more homogeneous metrics. But while this approach is fairly common, it can exacerbate learning disparities and even lead to high employee turnover.

In this article, we’ll cover Gloria Ladson-Billings’ 1995 theory of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP), which offers a contrasting approach to one-size-fits-all learning. Plus, we’ll explain how any team can leverage her findings to create culturally responsive learning initiatives that work.

What's Gloria Ladson-Billings’ theory of culturally responsive pedagogy?

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) is an educational approach that recognizes and leverages students' diverse cultural backgrounds as a strength in the learning process. 

Coined by researcher Gloria Ladson-Billings in response to the United States' education system's failure to serve culturally diverse students (mainly Black students), CRP recognizes, respects, and incorporates students' varied experiences to enhance educational outcomes.

While CRP has roots in K-12 education, the model is relevant for deploying inclusive, equitable, and successful L&D programs in organizations for professionals, too.

CRP, though, can help employers meet individual employees’ learning preferences, backgrounds, roles, and goals.

Empower employees: Not only can CRP inspire instructional designers and learning leaders to acknowledge diversity and inclusion in their programs, but they can also make diversity and inclusion the core strengths of an organization, creating a culture of empowerment. 


Engage employees: One-size-fits-all programs fail when they aren’t relevant to the employees partaking in them. A CRP model, however, encourages L&D programs to be tailored to individuals, which in turn can motivate employees to actively engage. 


Educate employees: CRP incorporates sociopolitical consciousness as a key part of learning success, which encourages employees to question and understand societal structures and inequalities. In L&D, this can translate to training programs that not only focus on skill development but also emphasize social and political responsibility in and out of the workplace.


Connect employees: The CRP model, which has been shown to improve empathy in students, can achieve the same results at work, creating greater understanding among employees. 

How to create culturally responsive training initiatives, in five steps

Incorporating CRP into your organization can feel a bit overwhelming. But with the right tips and tools, you can get set up for success in no time.

The only way to develop a culturally responsive L&D program is to first understand exactly who your employee base is and how they’re performing in terms of skill development — and why. 

To do this, you’ll need to collect both quantitative and qualitative data by conducting a learning needs assessment:

Qualitative data: Survey employees to gather information about their cultural identities, language preferences, and prior learning experiences. Likewise, interview stakeholders (employees, managers, or community leaders) to understand cultural factors that may be hindering learning.


Quantitative data: Analyze workforce demographics to identify patterns of cultural diversity and inclusion gaps (completion rates, career advancement, etc).

Regardless of the learning objective, your training program should resonate with employees no matter their background.

To accomplish this, ensure your content is:

Diverse: Ensure that the training software you’re using offers a highly diverse course offering for training content. With a content aggregator like Go1, you can give your employees access to a range of culturally relevant courses, relatable scenarios, and imagery that reflect the lives of your employees.


Inclusive and accessible: All of your training material should avoid stereotypes or cultural assumptions. Instead, it should incorporate culturally sensitive and diverse language. Likewise, courses should include visual content and audio and follow accessibility guidelines like WCAG.


Hyper-relevant: Successful CRP incorporates the current sociopolitical climate into the learning environment. The content you deploy in your L&D program should reflect not only the lived experiences of employees but also real-world news and updates. 

Real learning thrives on social interaction — and so does fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable organization. When employees interact and cross-collaborate, they’re more likely to understand and value one another and build cultural competence, all of which create a more equitable workforce for everyone.

To build a culture of collaboration, be sure to:

Use peer-to-peer learning: Leverage training software that facilitates real-time and asynchronous dialogue so employees can discuss topics with one another, ask questions, and learn from each other.


Encourage leadership: A key component of CRP is fostering and nurturing individual strengths. Encourage your employees to conduct workshops or learning sessions for other employees about a topic or skill they’re well-versed in.


Encourage cross-departmental collaboration: Just because an employee is on one team doesn’t mean they don’t have a particular skill set that could benefit another. Encourage employees to assist in cross-departmental projects where they can leverage their unique skills.

Just like Billings discovered, a one-size-fits-all curriculum can leave certain employees behind while others advance ahead, creating major learning disparities. 

To accommodate differences and foster a genuinely inclusive and diverse learning approach, be sure to:

Adapt formats: Offer employees various ways to learn (visual, auditory, hands-on) so that they can choose the method that works best for them.


Offer tailored material: Give employees the ability to access a personalized learning path that’s custom-fit to their goals and challenges. It should be relevant to their roles, strengths, backgrounds, and skill gaps.

One-size-fits-all programs tend to measure employee learning outcomes against one homogeneous evaluation criteria, which doesn’t account for individualism. 

For a CRP approach to be successful in any employee training environment, people development teams should reimagine their evaluation practices. Metrics to consider looking at could include:  

Career progression for underrepresented groups

Improvements in cultural awareness and sensitivity

Bringing cultural responsibility to employee L&D

With the right tools and best practices, any organization can create a culturally responsive employee training program and ensure that diversity and inclusion are the strongest parts of their operation.

With Go1, organizations can access a diverse offering of compliance, training, wellness, and upskilling content that can be paired down to meet the unique needs of individual employees — inclusive of their learning preferences and cultural backgrounds.

Ready to see Go1 in action? Book a personalized demo to discover how our platform can transform your L&D strategy.

Customize training, encourage collaboration, and improve learning metrics for a more equitable workplace with inclusive L&D programs inspired by Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP). 

Building a culturally responsive employee training program

Gen AI leaves many professionals in one of two boats: you either love it, and spend all of your time in it, or you're completely perplexed. To help sharpen your skills, or start from the bottom and build, we brought in AI expert Michelle Lentz to demonstrate practical applications on generating personas and building more structured prompts. Michelle's guidance, tailored to a design thinking approach, emphasized the importance of strategic building and empathy in AI use.

By understanding and aligning with user emotions and needs, you can provide AI with specific, context-rich information that enhances interaction quality. The stages of design thinking — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test — can transform your experience with AI prompting into a more engaging and relevant one. This structured approach ensures that each stage contributes to developing prompts that aren't only functional but also innovative.

To dive into the practical application of AI prompt design, watch Michelle's step-by-step exploration of how design thinking can be a powerful tool in the realm of AI, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in digital interactions.

Watch the full webinar to hear Michelle's step-by-step guide on using design thinking as you build AI prompts that have a lasting effect on your training programs.

Master AI prompts using design thinking

Sharpen your AI prompting skills through design thinking frameworks with this step-by-step recording with AI expert, Michelle Lentz.

A lack of comprehensive compliance training can cost organizations millions. In fact, in a single non-compliance event, organizations lose an average of $4 million in revenue.

Despite how important compliance training is, this type of learning is often a sore subject for companies that have competing priorities. For highly regulated industries like financial services, technology, and manufacturing — where rules and regulations change frequently — keeping employees compliant can be challenging. Not only are business leaders tasked with staying up to date themselves, but they’re expected to teach and engage employees too, all while navigating the challenges that come with it.

Compliance training is more than a checkbox. Staying up to date with changing compliance is not only a requirement but an essential strategy for staying relevant and competitive within saturated industries.

Risk management and legal protections: Compliance training prevents various threats by teaching employees the potential risks and proper procedures. This includes financial risks (fraud, embezzlement), operational risks (data breaches, safety incidents), and strategic risks (loss of license to operate). Compliance training also provides organizations with a crucial legal shield, reducing the likelihood of inadvertent violations.

Reputation preservation and competitive edge: Compliance training helps maintain a positive corporate image with the public and external stakeholders like investors or shareholders, by ensuring ethical practice and regulatory adherence. Plus, in highly regulated industries, robust compliance can set an organization apart from its competitors. 

Safety: Comprehensive compliance can prevent disaster for both employees and the public. Forklift safety/operating heavy machinery protocols, for example, safeguard manufacturing employees from bodily harm, while compliance with anti-money laundering policies protects the financial services industry.

Employees who are well-versed in compliance and regulations are likely to be more productive and efficient in their day-to-day work as well, as opposed to employees who are working with outdated knowledge.

In highly regulated industries, finding compliance training that is both effective and engaging is difficult. Compliance training today is often:

Ineffective: Gallup reports that of those who have participated in a compliance or ethics training session within the past 12 months, only 23% of employees would rate that compliance training as "excellent." And nine out of ten employees couldn't tell much of a difference between their workplace pre-training versus post-training.


Outdated: Inadequate resources were one of the top three factors cited in a survey by our content partner and compliance expert, Reuters, as obstacles to a team’s confidence in addressing compliance risks. For highly regulated industries, this is even more of a pressing issue: With compliance regulations changing so often, it’s hard to find accurate or updated content.

Time-consuming: Regulated industries tend to have extremely time-poor employees. It can be hard to ask teams to dedicate hours of their days to training for compliance when they’re bogged down by so many other tasks.

How to implement effective compliance training and enhance employee knowledge retention

Employers can use several different techniques and strategies to bring in compliance training that shows results and resonates with employees, like leveraging:

Evaluation tools: Organizations often invest in and deploy training only to quickly find out that it’s ineffective. Before disseminating company-wide compliance training, evaluate if a course meets your employees’ needs by previewing learning outcomes, course summaries, skills covered, and course ratings. 


Hyper-prevalent content: Choose a provider that consistently updates course offerings to reflect the latest regulatory changes so employees aren’t engaging in content that will be outdated in just a few weeks, and you don’t have to keep track of changes in programs. For organizations with ever-changing compliance requirements, a content aggregator like Go1 is a great solution. With thousands of compliance courses from industry-leading providers to choose from, you can worry less about shifting strategies. As regulations change, so do the courses.


Employee autonomy: Employees are incredibly busy and often don’t have time to sit in a physical training about compliance — especially if they're remote or hybrid. Instead, offer mobile-friendly sessions that can be completed asynchronously.


Gamification: One of the best ways to increase knowledge retention when it comes to compliance training is to include gamification. In fact, 72% of professionals say gamification inspires them to work harder. 


Interactive training: Provide engaging and applicable training through the application of compliance knowledge in simulated or controlled environments, or use content that references real-world scenarios and case studies. The more that organizations can connect learned material to actual, everyday circumstances, the better. If you’re looking for ideas, check out this virtual engagement cheat sheet to get started.


Continuous assessment: Employees want to feel listened to. They want to have a say in the assigned compliance training. When disseminating materials within the company, be sure to constantly consider whether the material is engaging and making a difference in your workforce. And always remember to ask for feedback. In doing so, you’ll be able to address knowledge gaps, improve content, and try different approaches if needed.


Personalized learning paths: Instead of asking every employee within your organization to review the same compliance material, tailor training content to specific roles and departments. A more targeted approach ensures employees receive relevant information and reduces cognitive overload. With tools like Go1 AI, L&D teams can create playlists or programs based on the unique goals and parameters for each team, and curate highly relevant and personalized learning in seconds, for any employee. 

Take the challenges out of compliance training

Though plenty of organizations struggle with compliance training, deploying the right tools and strategies can lead to success. Mandy Rutherford, Wave Utilities’ L&D Manager, knows that to be true. Since using Go1 for compliance, her training now has a 98% completion rate. She says that Wave finally feels like they’re “At the forefront of learning.”

Though compliance training is often not the most glamorous part of working in a highly regulated field, the benefits of disseminating and reinforcing compliance within your organization are priceless. When your team is up to date on compliance, your company can mitigate risks, save money, and create a company culture where everyone feels in the know.

With Go1, organizations can take the challenges out of compliance training and deliver high-quality, relevant, accessible, and engaging content that sets your company up for success. From creating custom learning paths to accessing 100+ pre-curated playlists aligned to a broad range of skill development needs, your organization can make compliance training a simple and effective part of your everyday operations. 

Experience the future of learning with one, easy-to-integrate subscription. Schedule a demo

with our team to explore Go1's innovative features and benefits.

Learn effective strategies to create engaging compliance training that captures your employees' attention and fosters a positive learning experience in your organization.

How to design engaging compliance training

Effective learning and development within organizations can lead to greater productivity and retention. However, most programs aim to develop hundreds or thousands of employees at once, failing to integrate equity into learning to mitigate disparities in opportunity and outcomes.  And when learning and development programs don’t uplift and empower every individual employee — or rather, create a gap in learning among specific groups of employees — organizations can quickly be at risk of high turnover.

In this article, we’ll explain what equity in L&D looks like, how one-size-fits-all approaches fall short, and how to choose and implement the right tools and techniques to improve your learning culture. 

Equity in L&D initiatives ensures that every employee, regardless of their background, identity, or role, has equal access to relevant learning opportunities.

Unlike one-size-fits-all training programs, which cater to the majority and disregard individuality — like competing priorities, learning habits, cultural background, and more — equity in L&D ensures that learning opportunities aren't only relevant, but custom-fit, too.

How do one-size-fits-all L&D programs contribute to inequitable learning outcomes?

One-size-fits-all training programs can exacerbate learning disparities, resulting in inequitable development: certain groups can be left behind while others advance much faster. 

While every workforce is different, one-size-fits-all programs tend to overlook individual obstacles and necessary context around learning, like:

Job roles: In global enterprise organizations, employee roles are incredibly varied. For example, one-size-fits-all L&D programs often focus on office workers, and don’t create time for frontline employees to learn.


Learning preferences: A standardized training program usually deploys learning material in just one format, leaving some employees to struggle while others thrive.


Skill levels: Every person comes to their role with different skills. Most programs, though, don’t account for that, leading some to feel bored with content and others overwhelmed.


Culture and language: Most standard L&D programs aren’t suitable for a variety of different languages and don’t speak to a breadth of employee cultural experiences.


Personal constraints: From competing priorities like caretaking or mental health conditions, one-size-fits-all programs tend to ignore individual hurdles to learning, offering little flexibility in time, format, or pace.  

How to choose the right training tools for your employees

Technology can play a critical role in closing workplace learning disparities. When looking for the right L&D software for your organization, look for tools that support: 

Access: Choose technology that can create greater access to learning materials and a variety of formats (i.e., bite-sized modules, self-paced modules, asynchronous and synchronous learning, etc.), to accommodate any kind of schedule.


Inclusion: Tools in your tech stack should have the capabilities to create custom training that matches each employee’s unique learning preferences, skill level, language, and goals for more equitable outcomes. 


Cross-collaboration: Look for tools that facilitate peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing, and mentorship to connect employees across locations and skill levels for greater cultural competency.


Continuous improvement: Built-in analytics are critical for tracking employee progress, identifying gaps, and measuring the effectiveness of training programs — and iterating where needed.


Scalability: Your software should be capable of growing and changing as your organization does. When comparing tools, be sure they offer regular updates, flexible pricing, and optional add-ons.

How to implement equitable L&D software into your organization   

Selecting and Implementing the right tools to mitigate disparities in learning outcomes can be overwhelming. To make the process simpler, follow these few best practices.

To choose the best technology for your organization, you’ll need to first understand your organization's learning gaps. To do this, try:

Diving into data: Conduct a thorough analysis of your organization's L&D data, including filtering outcomes by demographics like age, location, job level, and more. You might even drill down into gaps in engagement, like completion rates, knowledge retention, skill acquisition, and career advancement.


Talking to employees: Survey employees and conduct focus groups. Encourage anonymous feedback through specific channels to understand any criticism, complaints, or concerns about accessing and benefiting from current L&D programs.

Managers are crucial agents for developing employees, including promoting and facilitating equitable learning and development, especially in global organizations. 

Mainly, managers can act as on-the-ground proponents of equitable learning. With the right tools, managers can monitor their teams’ learning outcomes and recommend relevant learning opportunities to their direct reports for more detailed oversight.

Your workforce is ever-changing, so your employee training programs should be too. 

To make sure your program is consistently meeting employee needs and closing learning gaps, regularly survey employees about their experiences, use real-time reporting, or create focus groups with underrepresented employees. 

If your organization is moving from a traditional one-size-fits-all program to a more personalized one, the adjustment can be hard on the L&D team and the employees they serve. 

To help employees adapt to a new learning program, develop a strategy, like a change management plan, for rolling out new L&D technologies. And for even more success, identify and train "champions" from diverse backgrounds to promote adoption across the organization, too. For L&D teams looking for support, lean on your LMS, HRIS, or content providers for resources and tools that can help with the transition.

Training and support are crucial. When rolling out your new L&D tools, ensure that all employees, especially those who might be less comfortable with technology, have the resources they need to fully utilize the software and onboard appropriately. This might include one-on-one training, comprehensive guides, tutorials, or “office hours” with people leaders.

Understand that L&D is just one tool for equity

L&D technology is a tool to enable equity, not the solution itself. 

It’s important to remember that in order to create more equitable learning programs and outcomes, your organization needs to have a broader strategy for equity, too. That might mean establishing policies for equitable career advancement, pay transparency, and parental leave.

Moving toward a more equitable L&D future 

Fostering equity in learning can dictate not just the success of individual employees but an organization as a whole.

With the right tools and implementation, any organization can ditch the one-size-fits-all programs and finally close learning gaps for good — and foster a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce for everyone.

Experience the future of learning with one, easy-to-integrate content subscription for all of your compliance, training, and upskilling needs. Schedule a demo with our team to explore Go1's innovative features and benefits for learning and development.

Learn how generic employee development programs create unequal opportunities and what to look for in your training tools to promote equity, boost employee growth, and improve retention.

Choose the right employee training tools for equitable learning

Welcome to this month’s edition of “What’s Trending in Learning?” This month, we’re diving into the idea of futureproofing your employees.

In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and shifting market dynamics, ensuring your workforce is well-prepared to navigate new changes in skills and technology isn’t just a competitive advantage — it’s a necessity. With the rise of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the job market is constantly evolving, and employees are tasked with continuously adapting and acquiring new skills to stay relevant.

In this edition, we’ll explore top Go1 content providers for futureproofing, courses to assign to your employees, and introduce you to new providers you can dig into today.

Here are five expert-recommended courses available on Go1 to help you futureproof your teams:

1. Business Continuity: A Cautionary Tale by Mind Tools for Business from Emerald Works (Interactive, 10 mins)

Business continuity management is concerned with how organizations guard against unforeseen disruptions. This short animated video explores what you can do to help your organization ensure it has business continuity covered.

2. ChatGPT Basics and How to Get Better Results by FutureThink (Video, 29 mins) 

Guided by senior futurist and expert Garry Golden, you'll explore the basics of ChatGPT and its impact on digital fields. Learn how to use ChatGPT effectively by creating good prompts, using plugins, and applying GPTs for your goals. Garry will also offer practical tips to improve how you use ChatGPT, solve common problems, and fully leverage its capabilities for different uses. Get ready to change how you use this powerful tool in your work!