How and Why to Use Blended Learning in the Workplace

How and Why to Use Blended Learning in the Workplace Did you know that a limited career path is the second most common reason why employees leave a job? Learning is one way to open up that career path for all employees, but workplace learning programs aren’t always successful for a number of reasons. According to the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, three of the top five learning challenges include: Engaging learners Delivering consistent training Skills application If these challenges sound familiar, it’s time to consider blended learning as a new approach. Find out why this style of learning may be best for your workforce and get a few tips for implementing within your business. Blended Learning: The Why Blended learning is a concept that’s been popular in schools, as technology makes its way into classrooms. It’s also a valuable technique for learning in the workplace for a number of reasons. Here are a few ways blended learning can be valuable for your employees. Boost Your Learning ROI In, Blended Learning: A Training Strategy That Fosters ROI, Lisa Burke asks the question: “How do companies reduce training expenditures and boost employee performance while at the same time realizing ROI goals?” This is arguably one of the most important questions to ask if you’re investing in education for your employees. Burke says the answer is blended learning because of two important qualities: learner retention and economies of scale. She explains how blended learning makes these two elements possible: Learner retention: “Blending online instruction with in-person interaction results in a more dynamic learning experience and helps employees retain the information much faster than if they were presented with solely a two-hour lecture or two-hour WebEx video,” says Burke. The hands-on experiences solidify what your employees are learning better than if they’d just practiced online or listened to a lecture. Economies of scale: The benefit of online learning is the ability to scale as employees learn, allowing everyone to find a pace that suits their learning style. In this way, you can use in-person learning, QA, and training to answer questions as they come up. Personalize Training Traditional, in-person training may be most familiar for most Learning and Development Managers, but this one-size-fits-all way of learning is not conducive to learning for everyone. While some people may be visual learners others learn better by listening or taking a lot of notes. Luckily, the advent of technology has made it easier to personalize the learning experience. With online training programs, employees can use the best learning best modality and speed for their abilities. However, blended learning doesn’t just personalize the learning in terms of pace. When it comes to interest and genuine learning needs, a blend of online and offline training is best. “For example, if they [employees] would like to develop their customer service skills, they can log into the training platform and participate in a customer-based scenario or simulation. If they need to learn more about a particular product and its features, they are able to access the product demo and tutorial instantly,” suggests eLearning Industry. This pick-and-choose style of learning may be most effective for a group of people who need to place their focus in different areas. Improve Employee Interactions It’s easy to go an entire day without talking to a single co-worker, with emailing and stressful deadlines as the new norm in the modern workplace. In fact, 269 billion emails are every day, but only 24 percent of busy employees are even opening themâ€"so even this form of communication may be lacking for most employees. Blended learning encourages employees to interact more, both online and offline. For many online courses, employees are often required to communicate via chat, while in-person training offers face-to-face contact that employees may lack on a day-to-day basis. Blended Learning: The How If you’re ready to implement a blended learning strategy, it’s time to address a few different strategies. In-person classroom plus online practice: With this format, employees spend a certain amount of time learning in classroom sessions and then test their knowledge with an online training platform or portal afterward. In-person follow-ups give employees the chance to have questions answered. Lecture training plus team goals: For this technique, lecture training can be online or offline, but the other side of this method is the team goal setting. Goals should be tied directly to the training, which encourages employees to put their new knowledge to the test right away while supporting one another as they learn new strategies and ideas. Online learning plus in-person hands-on practice: With this strategy, employees do most of their learning online and come together for the hands-on practice. For example, your customer service team takes a course throughout the week and you end by practicing with “live calls” from one employee to another. The team leader can then be there to critique and offer suggestions. Bring Blended Learning to Your Workplace Learning is critical to the success of your employees and retaining the ones who want to improve and take their career further. If you’re investing in workplace training, consider how a blended approach could improve retention, offer more in-person connection, and allow you to personalize for each individual employee. About the author:  Jessica Thiefels  has been writing for more than 10 years and is currently a professional blogger and freelance writer. She now owns her own business and has been featured on Forbes. She’s also written for StartupNation, Manta, Glassdoor and more.  

How to Write a Targeted Resume

How to Write a Targeted ResumeThere are a number of steps in writing a targeted resume. A key to a job is getting to know what the employer requires and then writing a resume that highlights the skills you possess in abundance. You want your resume to be focused, so do the following tips before writing your own.First, think about what you hope to achieve by creating a resume that is focused on skills in the real world. If you are interested in helping a company succeed, think about how much time you will need to spend working with them. Some positions require more than one person to perform the tasks you want.Second, consider what kind of skills are most important to you and your company. Are you more interested in completing tasks and working within an organization or are you more interested in being creative and innovative and working for yourself? This will help you decide what your strengths are and what specific type of skills are needed to meet the needs of the company.Third, m ake sure you understand the skills required. A recruiter or hiring manager will require you to demonstrate your abilities in the specific position. Make sure you have all of the necessary skills to prove that you can do the job. This is especially true for technical roles or positions where there are certain details to check.Fourth, consider the companies you have worked for in the past. The position may not be what you want right now, but it is always good to have a list of previous employers that you can refer to when it comes time to create a targeted resume. If the position was a lower paying job with no benefits, you may still have some experience under your belt.Fifth, if you are looking for more technical jobs, be sure to know the industry that the position is in. One job may be classified as a technical position but other positions in the same industry might have different specialized skills. Find out what those skills are and how they relate to the job opening.Sixth, if you have applied for a new job already, find out what the requirements are for the job. This is a great way to prove to the employer that you have all of the skills they are looking for. You will be able to show that you are well versed in the specific role and not someone who do not have the potential to meet the employer's expectations.Finally, get feedback from the employer. Even if they reject your resume and ask you to reapply, you will want to see what they expect of you. This will give you a great idea of what they are looking for and how to create a targeted resume that will meet their needs. Your resume will be a tool that shows employers how you can help them achieve success.

You Already Have All the Motivation You Need

You Already Have All the Motivation You Need Michael V. Pantalon, Ph.D., is the author of Instant Influence; How to Get Anyone to Do Anything Fast. The book outlines six steps to persuade people to make changes in their work, their lives, or for themselves. You may want to master the steps as outlined by the author in detail, but what was interesting to me is why they work. Pantalon spends some time talking about the science of motivation, and his conclusions may surprise you. One of his most important premises is that everyone already has all the motivation they need to change. If you’re like me, that statement makes you stop to think. Everyone already has all the motivation they need? Really? That puts us all out of the motivation business â€" bosses, speakers, parents, bloggers…  Pantalon’s point is that people already know the reasons they’d like to make a change, and they may have nothing to do with why you’d like them to make the change. His influencing strategy allows people to tap into their own motivation through skillful questions. Let’s say you have a teenager at home who refuses to clean his room. He has refused despite threats, bribes, or cajoling. Here’s how you can find out what motivates him and tap into it. “I understand that you don’t think it’s important to clean your room and keep it orderly. But, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that you did clean and organize it just once. How might that help you? Not me â€" you.” The technique calls for you to wait patiently and redirect your teen back to the question until he answers it himself. “Well, I guess I’d spend less time trying to find my equipment before baseball practice. I’m late at least twice a week and coach yells at me and makes me run extra laps when I get there. I hate that.” Your job is to reflect back his own motivation and probe for more. “Fewer laps and less yelling from the coach is good. What else might be better for you?” “Well, last week I wanted to wear my blue shirt to take Ashley out, and when I finally found it in the bottom of my closet, it was dirty, and I had to wear something else.” Now, he’s admitting that his lack of organization is actually annoying him. You have an opening that will allow you to suggest a small change â€" the smallest change you can suggest, and ask him how ready he is to make the change. “What if I bought a bin that holds your sports equipment and put it in the mud room? How willing would you be to use it â€" to stow your equipment there and keep it organized every day? That way, you could just grab your bag and bat and head off to practice. If I put a basket there for dirty uniforms and put the clean ones right next to your equipment, you’d only have to stop for a second on your way in or out the door.” You see where this is going. Pantalon says that the way to tap into motivation â€" even your own â€" is to forget talking about what you “should” do. What do you want to do? What might happen if you make that change? “If a lose ten pounds, I can fit into my favorite interview suit â€" the one that makes me feel incredibly confident.” “If I lose ten pounds, I’ll feel confident enough to go back to yoga class.” “If I get my contacts organized, I’ll be able to create a plan for who I should call next, instead of just staring at the pile of paper on my desk.” You already know why you want to make a change. Focus on what you want, not what you think you should do.

How to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Next Job - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Next Job - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you’re in transition and looking for a job or you contemplate changing jobs, there’s nothing more powerful than learning how to be efficient and effective at using the power of LinkedIn. Being listed on LinkedIn is a must. A study by Microsoft revealed that 70 percent of employers have rejected job candidates because of information they found on those candidates online. Yet the same study suggests that 85 percent of employers say a positive online reputation influences their decision. Those are pretty convincing numbers. Here are some facts: Recruiters and employers prefer dealing with applicants they can check out and trust. People spend more time on social media than on e-mail. LinkedIn is in the social media for business. The Internet can make or break your image. The power of LinkedIn lies in the fact that you can connect with people who influence decision making regarding whom to hire. In turn, you, too, can research the company you’re targeting, the hiring manager there, and also the culture of the company. Sixty percent of the hiring decision is based on the candidate’s fit into the company’s culture. By joining professional and alumni groups on LinkedIn, you can participate in online discussions as well as answer questions, thus becoming prominentâ€"and even, possibly, viewed as an expert. Companies love hiring experts! Additionally, recruiters scour professional groups in search of experts. You should join active groups to become visible online. When you’re in transition, it’s important to know the right people but also important that they know you and that they get reminded of what you’re looking for. Therefore, it’s advisable to invite people to connect with you on LinkedIn. When you send an invitation, personalize your message. Address the person by name, include a reminder about the commonality between you or mention how you came across the person’s name, state your intent, and then ask whether the person would be willing to connect with you. When looking for opportunities, go to the home page, and type in the search field the name of a company of interest.   Perform an Advanced search via the filters available on the top. Then customize the screen to your circumstances. From that list, select and invite the people you want to connect with.

The Cost of a Resume Writing Service

The Cost of a Resume Writing ServiceIt is estimated that the cost of a resume writing service is going to be very costly for a lot of businesses. It would be a great idea for your business to outsource this sort of work, rather than having it done by someone you've never even met. This will make sure that you are getting the best services and the right people to do the job.A resume writing service should be able to write a resume for you, while also giving you an outline of what you should include in there. You should get to see an example before you hire them. You should be able to ask questions about things such as layout, grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, style, organization, and so on.They should have a copy of the contract for you to read. It should clearly state what they are doing and that you are signing a contract for it. It should include details such as the fees, compensation, or just the fee. It should be up front and clear about the fees and agreement they may b e charging you.Make sure that the resume writing service has copies of your work samples. These will be used in the process of creating the resume for you. Any sample resumes that are provided to you should include your name. If possible, get a digital copy of your resume so that it can be easier to give to the person who will create the one you have written.You need a copy of the perfect resume so that you can make alterations to it later. It is always easier to change the resume after you get it from them rather than having to send it off to several companies to get their opinions. You need a copy so that you can see how it will look before it is printed and shipped.Resume writing services are now able to take care of all of the back and forth e-mailing between the two of you. There is no longer a need to keep sending and receiving resume samples. You can get several different resumes from one company at a time, making it easier to see how the copy and how the resume is coming tog ether.Having a resume that has been professionally done will be more accurate than a resume that has been sent by you. It will be done by someone who is very good at what they do. This means they will have spent a lot of time putting in the proper information into your resume. It is not a random sample that someone just randomly got off the Internet.The cost of a resume writing service is much less than having it done by yourself. There are a lot of benefits to using a service and this is one of them.

The simple way to say no to people at work and make it stick - Debut

The simple way to say no to people at work and make it stick - Debut The workplace can be a treacherous place sometimes. If youre not careful, the politics and the social dynamics of the office might just swallow you whole. This kind of thing can be especially difficult if youre a new starter. I remember me on my first day at Debut HQ bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and as nervous as BBC News interviewee when naptime is over. My new peers were good to me and took me under their collective wing like the baby bird I was. But since I was an intern at the time, I felt awkward turning down anything. This led to me taking on a whole load of tasks when I was already swamped with things to do and drinking nearly every cup of coffee offered to me out of sheer self-destructive politeness. Eventually, with practice and a caffeine detox, I became the Content Creator you all know and love. But had I known this indispensable life hack, I could have gotten there a lot sooner. I dont want you, our dear sweet Debutants, to suffer. So Im gonna let you in on it. How to say no in the workplace and mean it As much as being a helpful intern or being the offices shoulder to cry on is a good thing, it soon starts to take a toll on your mental health and performance. Research has shown that offering to help your co-workers too frequently can actually make you worse at your job. Thats why a little word like no can make such a giant meaningful difference. But how do you find a better way to say no at work? According to Mental Floss, its as simple as having the right semantics. Choose your words carefully. Are you saying no and then finding yourself easily budged? Trying using dont where you would use cant. Why does this work? Well, it goes back to a 2012 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, which found that the way a statement was framed had an effect on how well people thought they could stick to it. When you tell yourself that you dont eat junk food as opposed to you cant eat junk food, you trick yourself into thinking that its a hard and fast rule. Dont, semantically speaking, is unbreakable. Cant implies that that you would do it if not for something like your own force of will getting in the way. The same goes for when youre talking to other people. Next opportunity, try telling someone you dont work during your lunch break because you need your space. Theyll probably respect you for it rather than try and talk you out of it. So take heed, friends and make your refusals powerful. As you go on with your work, start telling people that you dont say yes to things you should say no to. It might save you a lot of time and sanity. Download the Debut app and connect with top graduate employers in an instant. Connect with Debut on Facebook and Twitter

Filling in the Blanks on My Resume - CareerAlley

Filling in the Blanks on My Resume - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Having a consistent employment history can boost employment chances, but not everybody is lucky enough to stay employed continuously since they start working. However, gaps of unemployment on a resume are considered a red flag by many employers. If you have been unemployed for considerably long periods of time throughout your career, you can make yourself more marketable by learning how to fill in the blanks on your resume. Provide an Honest Explanation Being unemployed is nothing to be ashamed of, especially if you have a good reason for it. Many people lost their jobs between 2009 and 2012 due to the economic crisis, including very capable and experienced professionals. If you are one of these people, your interviewer will not see your failure to get a job during those years as a serious flaw. However, if you are unemployed at a time when the economy is booming, it can significantly affect your chances of getting the job. Whether you were unemployed because of a recession, severe illness or family responsibilities, you should provide an honest explanation in the employment section of your resume. Indicate Career-Related Activities during Unemployment If you participated in certain activities during unemployment that can have a positive impact on your career, you should include them in your resume. Examples of such activities include working part-time, becoming a volunteer or consultant, and attending classes, workshops or seminars that are related to your career. By mentioning these activities in your resume, you are letting your potential employers know that you did not waste your time while you were unemployed and you have a constant desire to improve yourself. De-Emphasize Employment Gaps Although you cannot hide employment gaps on your resume, there are things that you can do to make them less apparent. Instead of listing your previous jobs in the traditional chronological order, you can list the greatest achievements and most relevant experiences in your career first. The companies you worked for and the dates of employment can be listed further down the page. Another way to de-emphasize employment gaps on your resume is to write employment dates in years, rather than months and years. For instance, if you worked for a company between September, 2009 and February, 2010, just saying you were employed from 2009 to 2010 will make your resume look better. Be Positive Having employment gaps in your resume can make you feel anxious and not confident during an interview. Instead of trying to make excuses for being unemployed, you should focus on the experience and skills that you have gained during unemployment. When the interviewer asks you to explain the gaps on your resume, just give a brief explanation and try to draw his or her attention to the things you have learned while you were unemployed. Due to widespread unemployment resulting from the recent economic downturn, many job seekers have gaps on their resumes. As a result, employers tend to be more lenient with employment gaps these days. You will still stand a good chance of landing your dream job if you have a positive attitude. About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, ranging from employment tips to biographies of famous entrepreneurs, such as Steve Wynn. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif

Negotiating salary and benefits what you need to know -

Negotiating salary and benefits what you need to know - Its probably not a surprise to learn that most employers hold information close to the vest when it comes to negotiating salary and benefits. The onus is on the job seeker to have as much information as possible when its time to talk about money. Recruiters walk a precarious road between the hiring managers at the companies who pay them and the candidate they hope will win the job. What do you need to know about negotiating salary and benefits? Janine Truitt, chief innovations officer of Talent Think Innovations, LLC, knows these difficulties all too well. She notes that benefits are very difficult to negotiate. Your benefits are what they are, she says. In rare instances, candidates may be able to negotiate being grandfathered in at a higher accrual bracket for vacation and sick time, but this is very rare and largely dependent on individual circumstances. In other words, special treatment is saved for very key hires a company wants to recruit, and only if the desired candidate asks for it. However, when it comes to negotiating, Truitt notes, there are several things employers dont want you to know: 1. The employer will be very happy to hire you at your previous salary or at the low end of your range. If two candidates, equally qualified, interview for a position, the company will choose the applicant who is asking $30,000 over the more expensive, equally qualified job seeker listing a $50,000 salary requirement, Truitt explains. If the less expensive candidate would do an equally good job, the company finds a bargain. Truitt explains: This is what employers see as a win-win. 2. The company includes benefits as part of overall compensation. According to Truitt, Your base salary is the combination of your benefits plus your base salary. In rare cases, a company will pay you what you were hoping in base salary, in addition to offering a terrific benefits package. However, more times than not, benefits will be counted as a certain portion of your overall compensation package. 3. Your salary offering may be dependent on something called internal equity. In some cases, companies strive for equity in a department, or even in an entire company. Truitt adds: There are companies that will create compensation inequities without regard to their current employees, but responsible companies pay attention to equity issues, and its important to be aware of this practice when negotiating. 4. Complexity of job duties matters. Another factor an employer considers when negotiating is the complexity of the jobs duties and responsibilities. 5. Read the benefits booklet. There is no simple way to ask about benefits during the interview process without it seeming like you are too focused on what you will get out of the deal, Truitt says. Employers often wait until the last minute to provide information about benefits if they are not particularly competitive. Truitt suggests job seekers take note and adjust their expectations accordingly: If benefits are a selling point for the organization, youll learn about them once the hiring manager decides he or she wants to woo you. Otherwise, you may assume coverage isnt impressive. Read the entire post at U.S. News World Report photo by 401(K) 2013