E-learning blog: Learning re-imagined

An E-learning Foundation for Quick Service Restaurants: Introducing SkillBuilder

By Jack Nelson

 

Today, we bring you a guest post from Jack Nelson, SkillSoft VP of Global Business Development.  Jack and his team are the driving force behind our exciting new SkillBuilder offering announced today.

 

Few training challenges are more difficult than those faced by operators of fast casual or quick service restaurants (QSR). The workforce tends to be young and inexperienced. Turn-over is high. And there’s never enough time, or even adequate space, to train employees on everything they need to know. Still, well-trained employees are the key to delivering a consistent, high-quality customer experience, so providing training isn’t optional.

 

Over the past eight years, SkillSoft has provided web-based e-learning courseware to the fast casual and QSR customers like Dave & Busters and Subway.  Our experience in the development of e-learning for both franchisor and franchisee led us to the creation of Service Industry Professional (SIP) SkillBuilder, a targeted high impact, low cost learning solution for the QSR sector, which we announced today.  The SIP SkillBuilder program is designed to help chain operators quickly develop high-impact training for all of their restaurants, at a lower cost than building training courses completely from scratch.

 

We formally introduced the seven-course SIP SkillBuilder Foundation Curriculum at the Council of Hospitality and Restaurant Trainer (CHART) event in July in New Orleans.  SkillSoft engaged industry subject matter experts in the development of the SkillBuilder Foundation Curriculum.  Each course is structured as a template and QSR customers provide course-specific objects to create customized learning courses for their franchisees.  SIP SkillBuilder solutions also include SkillPort hosting and experienced QSR implementation support services.

 

Each Foundation course is developed in an instructionally-sound, e-learning course template with a duration of approximately 30 minutes. Foundation courses cover the essential knowledge and offer practical knowledge application in each topic area:

1. Customer Service
2. Creating a Professional Atmosphere
3. Security
4. Handling Cash
5. Cleaning Customer Service Areas
6. Hand Washing & Customer Illness
7. Shift Leader Orientation

 

As the screen shot above shows, clients pro­vide text, graphics and photographs to uniquely customize each course to be consistent with their organization’s branding and service guidelines. SkillSoft builds the final course and clients provide their review and approval through the SkillSoft Enhanced Reviewer Tool.

 

We hope to able to share with you information from some of our SkillBuilder early adopters as part of our Innovations in E-learning series.  In the meantime, for more information, e-mail our custom solutions team at customsales@skillsoft.com.

 

Social Learning to the Next Level with New Features in inGenius

By Pam Boiros

As you've read in earlier posts, we’ve shared regular updates about our social learning product, SkillSoft inGenius on Books24x7.  The feedback and reviews have been great, and we now have over 60 clients deploying inGenius, covering a potential audience size of 500,000+ learners.

 

A few weeks back, we released a number of important new feature enhancements to inGenius.  I would classify them all as “participation” features.  With more opportunities to engage with their community, connect, share, recommend and rate content, inGenius becomes an even stronger enterprise collaboration tool – and we expect participation levels to grow even more.   Here is an overview of the major enhancements we just rolled out.

 

Interests and Expertise: You can now declare, self-rate and share your areas of interest. There are three levels of expertise that you can declare: Learner, Experienced, or Expert.   This helps you find other community members with relevant interest areas – and help community members connect with you, too.

 

 

Recent Activity list Enhancements:  The Recent Activity list has been enhanced to provide information on other activities and the Recent Activity can now be tracked via RSS. The following are the new activities in the list:

• New users as they create a profile and join
• Recommendations (Person X recommends Title Y)
• Following activities (Person A is now following Person B)
• Who found community Notes and Comments "helpful"

  

Notifications Page:  There is now one place to go to view notifications of inGenius activities that directly affect you.  Notification also can be tracked using RSS, and each community member can decide which activities will generate notifications.

 

 

 

Ratings of Notes and Comments: You now have the ability to "rate" the Notes and Comments posted by other community members, by indicating if you found a Note or Comment "Helpful" or not.

 

 

Sharing Recommendations of Titles: You can now recommend titles and share specific reasons for your recommendations with your community.

 

Discover community members:  Part of the value of any social site is knowing who’s part of the community.   Is there anyone there worth collaborating with?  A “Browse People” option has been added to help with the discovery process:

 

 

Are you intrigued by these new enhancements?   Do you want to experience inGenius for yourself?  The inGenius “Early Look” Program still is available for learning leaders.  There is no cost or obligation associated with participating in “Early Look”, but we do solicit feedback from all participants via an online survey.    Interesting in checking out inGenius?  Drop me a line.  You also can check out our online inGenius tour or download our social learning infographic.

 

Leadership Development Channel Lessons with Australia's Leaders

By Shawn Hunter

We recently had the honor to learn from some of Australia’s leading thinkers, authors and executives, all offering unique insights on leadership, on the challenges of change initiatives, on the power of socially responsible efforts, and even the positive effects of waking up each day with a smile.

Untitled from G. Shawn Hunter on Vimeo.

Nick Kugenthiran, CEO of Fuji Xerox Australia, described the importance of allowing, even encouraging, risk taking on teams of high trust. He strongly believes positive team environments attract like-minded people. And like minded people feel more enabled in taking constructive risks to further innovation. A leader’s role is to make sure risk-taking is considered safe within the shared values of the team.

Lincoln Crawley, Managing Director of Manpower Australia, told a wonderful story about the power of the expression, “If it were possible” when wrestling with new challenges. That simple phrase – if it were possible – gives the team permission to speculate, and opens a whole new conversation around potential, without being loaded with accountability. It’s an invitation to dream.

John Grant, Managing Director of Data#3, had a great line about how he believes we should abolish the phrase, “people are our greatest assets,” because of course, who wants to be thought of as an asset. As he likes to say, “people are our greatest people.” And the culture certainly reflects it. The people of Data#3 are at the heart of their growth and innovation. As Lindy MacPherson, General Manager People Solutions, understands very well in the competitive Australian labor market, “Understanding what drives your employees is critical in addressing issues that may lead to increased turnover.”

We also sat with David Penglase, a fantastic speaker, writer and entrepreneur based in Sydney. He introduced the phrase Intentionomics to describe how our intent drives all results in life interactions. Our customers, colleagues, (certainly our children) and pretty much everyone we interact with have keen detectors of our intent. If, as a salesperson, your primary intent in prospect interaction is to maximize a contract value instead of honestly solving a client puzzle, they’ll recognize it. Even if that recognition isn’t immediate, your later actions by either conscientiously adding superlative value, or not, will come back in spades. This is the karma effect, the what-goes-around effect.

Let’s not forget our interview with Sue Langley, who has been a student and mentor in the world of emotional intelligence. I’ll never forget her simple advice to start each day with a smile. Because studies reveal smiling releases serotonin and dopamine in your brain, which make you more relaxed and happier, and because Gretchen over at the Happiness Project, knows from experience that the best way to be happy is to make other people happy; and the best way to make others happy is to be happy yourself.

10 Proven Ways to Become a Good Leader

By Kevin Young

In a survey carried out during last year’s Campaign for Learning Adult Learning Week, 90% of respondents said they weren’t being offered enough leadership skills training in the area of managing people. Unlike the ‘hard’ skills, such as IT certification or financial management, which are often given greater priority and budgets, the ‘soft’ skills, which include people management, team building and leadership, are often treated as an afterthought and way down the priorities list.

This is puzzling, considering most business experts say that building a strong and motivated team is a key success factor.  Some 88% of respondents to the same survey felt so strongly about this shortfall that they said they would be prepared to develop people management skills outside their working hours.

They say it’s tough at the top – so it’s hard to fathom why the topic of leadership is not given more priority; of all the people management issues, it is the one that newly-promoted managers often find the most difficult.

Mindful of the time pressures on those called to lead, I’ve assembled these top ten tips from  SkillSoft’s e-learning courseware – including the Leadership Development Channel, the SkillSoft Leadership Knowledge Center and our extensive Books24x7 online library of digital books.

Understand the difference between management and leadership.  Leadership is about having a vision and steering your team on course towards it; management is having the organisational skills and control to carry it out. Good leaders can transform fear of the future into enthusiasm for what is ahead.

Know what your employer expects from its leaders – don’t operate in the dark.  UK creativity expert, Nigel Barlow, says: “One month into a job and you grow blind,” meaning you stop looking for different ways to do things.  Know the parameters, but don’t be afraid to venture outside them.

Leadership isn’t about power – it’s about giving power away; about being open to influence from your staff and helping them achieve professional growth. To paraphrase Harry Truman, it’s amazing to see what can be accomplished when you don’t care who gets the credit.

Value every member of the team that contributes to the outcome. Remember that when leaders begin to attribute successful outcomes to their orders rather than to their team’s abilities, employees lose intrinsic motivation and begin to do only what they are told.

Recognise that the 21^st century business environment brings new challenges (think mobile working, 24x7 access to information, globalisation, e-business and so on).  This demands a revision of the traditional leadership roles.  Be flexible and open-minded to change.

Improve your listening skills. Learn how to stay focused on what people are saying and work to interpret the real meaning behind their words. Innovation comes more from listening than from telling.

   

Never undervalue integrity and trust.  Leaders who demonstrate that they trust and respect their team will always be rewarded with higher quality work and loyalty.

Forget the adage that leaders are born and not made.  You can learn leadership skills; it may take time and a commitment to personal development to do so, but it can be done.

Make time to lead.  Use time management skills to free up regular periods for thinking, planning and keeping up with new ideas.  Ideas come from anywhere – a walk down the street, on the college campus, in the kitchen, at home, in the choir at church – take time to harvest them.

Have courage!  Be prepared to take calculated risks – and occasionally to fail, seeing it as a learning process.

We’ll leave the last word to oft-quoted management guru, Peter Drucker: “Where you see success, someone once made a courageous decision."

The Mismatch Between Skills and Jobs: E-Learning To The Rescue!

By Julie Ogilvie

This week the Wall Street Journal has a front-page story about the difficulty some companies are having filling key positions, in spite of high unemployment (Some Firms Struggle to Hire Despite High Unemployment).  This was a surprising fact from the article:  “Since the economy bottomed out in mid-2009, the number of job openings has risen more than twice as fast as actual hires.”

The article focuses primarily on the plight of manufacturing firms that are struggling to find workers with the right mix of skills necessary to operate machines in the new high-tech manufacturing world.  But a similar situation exists in areas such as business services, education and health care.

Numerous reasons are offered for the shortage of workers with “the right stuff,” from the availability of extended unemployment benefits to the shortcomings of our educational system.  But an even bigger factor may be the dramatic changes that have occurred in the manufacturing realm over the last couple of decades.  Today’s production floors are filled with complex, computerized equipment and production processes are governed by principles like Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing.  It’s just not a place where workers with poor computer or math skills can be successful.  

It’s unlikely that our educational system is going to be able to respond to these market needs, so the job of developing these specialized skills is going to have to fall on the employers.  Since employers are the ones who stand to benefit from having skilled employees, this makes sense.  But with today’s economic pressures, the idea of adding “expensive” new training programs may not seem practical for many companies.  What’s a manufacturer to do?

For one thing, they need to modernize the approach to training.  Companies have upgraded their manufacturing floors, but often still rely on a 100% classroom approach to training their workers.  E-learning courseware on Six Sigma and lean manufacturing can be blended with specialized classroom or hands-on training that pertains to the specific equipment in use.  Environmental Safety and Health (ES&H) topics can also be effectively covered through online courses, and compliance record-keeping is simplified with a Learning Management System (LMS).

Manufacturing companies have so much to gain from e-learning, so it’s hard to understand why some have been slow to adopt this approach.  SkillSoft customers such as Gilbane, Unisys, Koch and TRC are seeing the benefits of e-learning for their workforces.  And that’s something that other manufacturers, large and small, could learn from.