04 Apr 2022

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How can management encourage a culture of continuous learning?

Companies are working hard to make their employees work hard to attain goals. But it’s not so easy because only continuous learning can make them the best. The companies can ensure that employees put their energies into learning, which is not an easy task, especially with remote employees.

Why is continuous learning needed?

For companies to get extraordinary performance from their employees, it’s paramount that they are always learning because innovation can only happen then. For example, a company may want to add a better structure to its work, implementing new production rules and the accompanying software.

And this process upgrade happens occasionally; hence the companies must encourage continuous learning which is available on-demand for employees and happens when they are free from their scheduled duties.

Remote employees don’t come to the office, and it’s a challenge to stay in touch with them. Employees also don’t like to follow up on industrial trends because they consider them a waste of time. Hence, they have to be made to realize the importance of such news. They can be sent a digital newsletter informing them of the most contemporary happenings in the form of summaries of their sector. The remote employees can also be sent birthday cards and welcome letters to new joiners. There can be weekly Teams call where the employees are congratulated for their exceptional performance and areas where there is scope for betterment.

The remote employees might not have time to access the training modules. They might be traveling a lot, especially in a target-based job. Hence, make sure that they can access the training modules offline or get them better mobile data packages to get a signal wherever they are.

Sometimes, continuous learning becomes a problem when the employees hesitate to ask questions. It’s not a good company culture when the employees have such apprehension because it can affect their performance. Such shyness comes when it gets revealed to the whole group that a particular employee has asked a question. And when all the team members know that a certain employee has problems, they start answering his question simultaneously. The solution, in this case, is that the remote employee with a query must get someone working from within the office(mentor) to support him. Such queries by remote employees can be simple, like how reports have to be prepared, but their delayed resolution can be troublesome.

However, this mentor can also support the remote worker by providing him with help on how to use the LMS for his continuous learning because the latter might face problems frequently. This is how the management can foster a culture of continuous learning in a company:

The job of managers

Managers have to encourage employees for them to pursue their learning activities. If an employee is taking time out for his work, his manager should not take it as abstinence from work. The employee can better contribute to the job with his improved skills. By making a role model of such an employee, you can inspire other employees to do the same. A lot can be achieved in a culture of continuous learning through collaboration. The managers should popularize the belief that sharing is caring. So if an employee knows something, he should share it with others.

Knowledge hoarding is a dangerous phenomenon because it does not help when employees conceal crucial information from others to get ahead. So, it is the manager’s job to see that knowledge sharing is given its credit and that such employees are acknowledged. Employees should not follow a practice of knowledge hoarding because they feel important when everyone asks them about work. A company should ensure that team victories are more important than personal success. This way, a worker hoarding knowledge will share it with the team.

Sometimes, some employees have better access to resources than others because of their education or academic contacts. Moreover, the employees should be privileged to get a paid subscription to professional magazines. The management can pay for such magazines and hold discussions about what employees have learned during lunches. The employees can also be paired in groups (task-force) to share their queries with others and get competent answers through investigation.

Social learning

Social media groups are essential to continuous learning, but they can start veering from the topic. Hence, it’s the job of a moderator to see that no one posts irrelevant memes on Facebook. Also, when any can’t answer back a question in two hours, it must be directly reported to the seniors to provide correct answers. The learners who share the most strategic posts like simulations, podcasts, or an article must be rewarded for their efforts. They could have contributed such content themselves or got it through somewhere. But a worthwhile article link can solve the problems of employees who get a reliable resource. However, there must be a schedule by which employees share such information, like once every week. If every employee posts something every day, there can be cognitive overload, and employees might miss something. Again, a moderator must approve such posts.

Weekly webinars

After an expert has conducted a webinar, the next round ensures that all the solutions are crystal clear to the attendees. There can be a moderator in their webinar-based question and answer(Q&A) session who has ample knowledge and can shortlist the important questions. Send emails to the employees about the time and the meeting link of the webinar. The script of such a webinar containing questions and answers can be given to the employees who didn’t attend the event.

In the same way, when any online discussion gets started, the moderator should inform all the employees about it. The new employees might be getting solutions to their problems, like how to tackle a tough client. When a discussion starts about an online post, the other employees should be notified about them. The employees become aware of any ongoing discussion when they click on the “Join” button. The employees who have started their jobs from home sometimes feel left out when they are not given a proper introduction. They can be given a virtual training session through an experienced manager, who can also listen to their problems online. Later, the employees can be sent an online MCQ questionnaire by the LMS admin, in which they can fill in their responses about the quality of the lecture. This survey can also contain a Likert scale where employees can rank the lecture from a rating of 1-10.

The employees also feel that providing feedback about virtual sessions is not so time-consuming in such a way. When the employees give the questionnaire results, the reports can be prepared in the form of charts and then shown to the manager, who can be given access to better resources to be a superior trainer for the juniors.

Ensure that if you have implemented an LMS for continuous learning, it sends notifications to employees as soon as an article or a video is published. If the employees have a Facebook group, as soon as someone posts a query on it approved by the moderator, he must send email notifications to all the group’s followers.

14 Mar 2022

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Can an LMS be hacked? Make sure that does not happen!

Online learning has become a crucial part of our lives in the pandemic. Cyber awareness training takes so much of a company’s time, but is it worth the effort when the LMS gets hacked. E-learning is happening all the time, but sometimes that can cause problems when your security details are shared with unwanted people.

Issues arise when the company’s LMS gets hacked or when a MOOC’s website is compromised.

Hence, these organizations must ensure that the users cannot log in without providing an OTP. It will prevent unauthorized users from accessing the accounts of learners. This can be the adverse consequence when an LMS gets hacked:

Hackers can take loans and steal mail

Hackers can get access to so much valuable information through login credentials. This can include the user’s bank details, which can be further used to take credit. But this can be stopped through a credit freeze, where the users can ensure that no one can apply for a credit card or a loan when such a freeze has been imposed. When you need a loan, you can unfreeze your account.

Apart from that, the unsuspecting users of such e-learning sites can also have concerns when someone gets access to their house address and pays a visit. He can check the mailbox and steal all kinds of items, such as passport numbers included in confidential mail.

The learners must make sure that they do a follow-up whenever they have not received any mail from an organization. They know if their mail has been stolen by someone else in such a situation. When they are not in the house, they must ensure that their mail is received by someone else so that it does not go into the hands of fraudsters. If someone is not available to collect your mail while on vacation, it’s better to ask the sending organization to delay it until you arrive. Apart from passport numbers, thieves can get access to all kinds of information through your mail, such as school records, utility bills, etc.

Solution 1: Limited number of login attempts

The e-learning companies USA must ensure that the users are given an extra layer of protection when they log on to the LMS through their business’s website. Any user must be unable to access the LMS after three attempts to log in. His access must be blocked because, generally, a user can’t enter an incorrect password three times. It could be hackers trying to get into an account using brute force algorithms.

Solution 2: Anti-spam feature in the LMS

The users must also be given a reCAPTCHA option so that no bot can access the LMS. Also, the user data must be protected on the server’s end. Only specific LMS administrators must have access to this server so that no one can steal this confidential data. The company getting an LMS from the e-learning vendors must ensure that it has features such as anti-spam. It makes sure that no one can access the LMS through spam email accounts. Once any spammer creates an account on an LMS, he can install ransomware on the server and access all user details. They can then ask for a hefty ransom to get back access to all its LMS files. Even if such spammers don’t install ransomware on the server, they can still send learners phishing emails and access sensitive information like banking details.

Solution 3: LMS access allowed through specific IP addresses

It’s the job of the e-learning vendor to check that anyone cannot register on the LMS. The permitted users should only be from certain specific domains, like the corporate website or an e-learning portal created for this purpose. Anyone else logging from his email ID should not create an account. Furthermore, the company should ensure that no one has access to the e-learning portal except the employees. But even if the URL gets known to others, its access must be allowed from specific IP addresses. Hence, the businesses must ensure that the LMS security is taken care of properly by the e-learning vendor.

Solution 4: Automatic Backup

An LMS vendor must also have backup support if the servers get hacked. In the absence of a backup, the e-learning content is also lost apart from user details. Hence, its LMS software must have the capability to create a backup every night on the dedicated server of the LMS vendor. When a backup option is there, companies are saved from the hassle of recreating all the e-learning content from scratch.

The LMS vendor must ensure that the users’ systems don’t get hacked by fraudsters. Hence, the LMS must come bundled with antivirus software to scan the users’ computers and alert them about any virus installation.

Solution 5: Access through OTP only

The LMS vendors must also ensure that the software is compatible with the mobile phone. It’s because any app can be hacked quite easily; hence it’s the job of the LMS vendor to check that the users can only log into the app through the OTP protocol so that anyone who has downloaded the app can’t log on to it. Also, all the data transferred through the app must be encrypted to protect it from hacking.

This is how an e-learning vendor can prevent an LMS from getting hacked.

04 Feb 2022

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What should be the essential components of leadership training?

When a leader takes on this role, he has to ensure an excellent performance from his team members. Leadership training is essential because leaders need to encourage employees. The employees need to have the proper motivation, which can make them reach their highest productivity levels. This kind of motivation is instrumental to success when the company has to start a new business, project, product line, or take in a new client.

A leader must provide his team members with the right resources. For example, if the sales team is making sales, but the numbers are not right, they must be provided with the course to find apt prospects. This way, employees can get an idea about increasing their sales by pitching in the product to the interested prospects.

How should employees be trained for leadership?

The employees should be taught through games like drag-and-drop and labeling for leadership training. The managers can also give audio reviews about what is lacking in the employees’approach as a leader. The learning materials can also be created to take care of different prospective leaders. Leadership training is needed for the following skills to be ingrained in leaders:

Soft skills: empathy, and coaching:

Coaching:

Leadership training can also teach managers how to provide coaching to their employees.

For this, training professionals can provide simulations to managers to help an employee who needs their advice. Once all the managers have provided their responses, the training professionals can check which manager has included all the critical points while helping the employee.

Empathy:

Leadership training can help managers handle situations that involve consoling an employee who has faced the death of someone in the family, or pacifying someone facing problems at work. The managers should understand how to deal with each of these situations. Managers require skills such as communication and empathy to become influential leaders.

But, measurement of these learned skills is an implausible task and the managers have to be taught how to use these them. And the training cannot replicate every situation a manager might face and prepare him for the skills required.

Setting up team norms:

Handling teams is also challenging for a leader. Team management is a critical task, ensuring that the members collaborate. The team members should also follow some discipline which involves adhering to the team norms. There must be some rules established for team members to communicate to get the work done. Establishing some ground rules is necessary to know how they are supposed to contribute to a project. When such rules are clear to everybody, there is no scope for miscommunication resulting in delayed deadlines. Such team norms have to be specified by the team members, and the team leader has to make sure that they are not unambiguous.

While setting such regulations, the team members have to jot down their experiences of working with the worst and the best teams to know what they should expect from their current team members. Creating the team norms should be a trust-building session so that every member knows what his colleague has encountered in the past and won’t like to see repeated. When all the team members have agreed that specific behavior isn’t permissible, it’s time to decide some acceptable behavioral team norms with mutual consensus.

There could be genuine problems with why this member is flouting team norms. Although a team norm was agreed to, this member can’t follow it, e.g., he can’t attend the conference call because he is a member of different teams, which takes up his time. When the team norms are decided, a unanimous decision is a must because any rule that can’t be adhered to must not be brought into existence.

Making team members more efficient:

The primary responsibility of a team leader is to ensure that the team members are effective and are contributing their best. Hence, he has to encourage them to expedite the job by following time management and prioritizing. The job of a team leader is to ensure that the members feel satisfied with their work and feel important, even when they are encumbered with more duties.

In leadership training, the leaders get the right idea about how to help the team members in establishing these norms. For example, there can be a deviant team member who does not go by the norms. In that case, there must be a protocol established to rectify this team member’s behavior. The team leader’s responsibilities are minimized in this situation, since there is a procedure in place for dealing with such team members.

Dealing with surprising situations:

Team leaders also face challenges when an unanticipated situation arises out of nowhere. For example, the business might lose a significant employee, or a worldwide situation affects the finances due to low sales. So such situations create roadblocks for companies to attain their goals, and the leaders must have strategic plans to ensure that everything is restored to normal. Hence, when such situations arise, the major task before a leader is to ensure that the goals are followed. Set these goals beforehand so that the outcomes are not modified despite the contingencies.

Handling delegation of tasks:

A team leader has to delegate his task correctly and ensure that it is carried out rightly. Therefore, he has to take feedback from his juniors about the tasks delegated to them. A leader has to take the responsibility of delegation quite seriously because otherwise, the desired results won’t be there. So anybody selected for delegation must have the requisite skills and knowledge. Also, the same person must have an impetus to carry out the task delegated by the leader because doing the task can lead to the former’s personal growth.

Creating a positive image for his team:

A team leader must ensure that he has created a favorable image for his team members in the company and different departments. Thus, he can get the senior managers and other departments to contribute when a situation warrants.

27 Jan 2022

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How can companies provide training for using smart machines?

There has been a major upheaval in the manufacturing industry in recent years. It is because customer expectations have been growing rapidly because of the coming up of the startups.

Reshoring is causing production to shift at home

Also, companies face increased pressure of reshoring, i.e., bringing the production back home. Thanks to the pandemic, it became tough to hire workers in other countries. The demand has also considerably reduced due to which it’s no longer feasible to operate production facilities everywhere. In 2022 reshoring will be a norm rather than just a response to the pandemic. Also, due to the pandemic cutting down production in different locations, companies can no longer choose offshoring and hence want to produce close to home. Hence, the companies have to keep pace with such changes accordingly. The manufacturing sector is largely driven by demand, due to which sometimes urgent hiring needs to be done to pace up with such changes. The companies have to adopt machines installed with sensors because competitors use the same. Hence, simulations will be needed to teach employees how to use such machines. A major use of such smart machines is happening in inventory management because, due to the pandemic, companies have been facing a precarious situation.

Smart mining

Mining is also an industry where smart machines play an important role because the human entrance into the mines is eliminated. Smart mining is one concept where no humans enter the mining area, and robots and autonomous vehicles are left to do the job. Such machines reduce the fatalities to nil, and carbon emissions are null.

A smart machine is getting used popularly in companies now. They include devices such as cars and robots, which don’t require any assistance from humans to finish anything delegated to them. These machines impart a lot of competitive advantage to businesses because they allow a cut in operating costs. Smart machines are also getting used because of the high access to systems such as the internet, due to which large data transfer is possible between different manufacturing facilities. Also, the data storage capabilities of businesses have multiplied over the years.

Unlike ordinary machines, smart machines have better cognitive capabilities and can be programmed with artificial intelligence-based algorithms to make decisions. These machines are endowed with special capabilities such as voice recognition, natural language processing, etc. They can analyze human instructions.

Scheduling of preventive maintenance

Smart machines can help humans by minimizing the downtime caused due to equipment failure. When companies get the privilege of predictive maintenance on machines, they can eliminate downtime and prevent material wastage caused due to it. They can help schedule their maintenance so that no harm is caused to machine breakdown. Since these machines have sensors, they can collect and share data with a control system, leading to faster decision-making. They also reduce the need for human intervention and help take timely action in circumstances where a delay can cause losses. Hence, any production stoppage is handled in time.

Lack of accidents

Smart machines are built with security considerations in mind, and hence they can prevent operators’ accidents. Such machines minimize the risk of accidents because they ensure complete adherence to the safety norms.

Since these smart cameras are empowered with AI-enabled video analytics, they help businesses ensure maximum employee safety, such as workers wearing PPE kits while handling dangerous chemicals. Such cameras help detect smoke emanating from a machine on time so that no fire-related accidents are there. These cameras are even faster than the traditional fire detectors in discovering a potential fire because they use thermal imaging technology.

With the pandemic playing havoc, companies have to use such machines due to the nonavailability of labor. The companies can do remote monitoring without anyone present on-site through such machines. The operator can check the entire site’s operations through these machines, allowing a safe work routine mandated by the pandemic.

With such machines increasingly used by companies, the new hires have to be trained quickly in using them so that they don’t face any issues. Hence, using an LMS is mandatory for companies to train such employees. Besides learning how to use such machines, the recruits also learn about the vision and policies of the company. The companies can’t afford any delays in the onboarding training of such employees because that means a delay in fulfilling customers’ demands.

How can employees be trained to use such machines?

Employees should be given proper training to operate such machines. Training in Artificial Intelligence skills can address skill shortage in this sector. The companies have to understand that the employee has to be trained in using such smart machines. A large majority of companies agree that there is an absence of skills in employees for handling such machines. The companies can’t impart such training because employees don’t have time for it and the former also lack a budget. But they can’t avoid any more delay if they want to stay in the race. Companies also have to understand that reskilling employees to use such machines has to be done on a large scale throughout the enterprise, rather than only for a smaller workforce section.

Data literacy must be essentially taught to the employees when working with such machines. Since such machines generate a lot of data, the employee must analyze such data based on their requirement. It involves concluding data as per the company policies.

The employee also needs to convert data into a usable form so that there are no errors. Raw data is generated by the machines and hence employees have to ensure that it’s free from any errors. It’s because when any erroneous data is uploaded to the control center,it can lead to wrong conclusions.

It is the companies’ job to ensure that all AI-based training is properly given to interact with smart machines.

Although humans can work with autonomous machines like driverless cars, there can be accidents, and to avoid them, they have to be trained.

The employees have to be trained on how to use machines like maintaining a distance from them during certain tasks, and animations can help them get a better idea. Simulations by the machine manufacturers can be given to employees prepared to have a clear idea about how to react in certain situations with the machine.

The companies can use screencasts for simulations, but they are no longer handy when the software changes. Hence, the employees should be given practice sessions on the real software of the machine. During these sessions, the hardware must not be attached to the machine so that no accidents are caused due to the operator’s faults.

Hence, companies can impart training to ensure employees learn how to work with smart machines.

25 Jan 2022

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Why a company must have an LMS? 

With time, companies have started focusing on providing employees with work from home opportunities because employees want a perfect work-life balance. Companies have started providing all kinds of easy options to employees when they are working from home, which includes online meetings and training also. The need for working from home options has been necessitated because of the pandemic and the ensuing travel restrictions. These are the reasons why a company must have an LMS to manage employees’ training needs continuously:

Hire employees through an LMS

Nowadays, companies have no option but to use an LMS to empower employees with knowledge, however, such software can also be used for filling up open positions.

Companies have a lot of opportunities before themselves through an LMS when it comes to hiring candidates for new roles.

They can organize live events which ensure that the employees participate in them, and recruitment costs are saved. A company can use the LMS to advertise the event so that no employee misses them. But make sure that after such events, a survey is also sent out to the employees through emails, so anyone absent from the event is still considered for the role.  

Provide help to job candidates 

Companies can also use LMS in another way to retain talent on board by adding new resources for them in a timely fashion. This is a one-time job to create such content. The recruits can consult the LMS, instead of turning to their seniors for answers, which takes time.

This kind of LMS content covers everything related to onboarding such as company policy and how to finish crucial tasks. When candidates have access to such a pool of resources even before they are hired, they can give better performance during job interviews and tests. These kinds of resources can also include quizzes that can be attempted by shortlisted candidates and show how they are a fit for their new role.

Provide VILT based mentoring to employees 

The employees benefit when a company has an LMS because there are simulations and games in its content which allow them to imbibe concepts through learning by doing. The LMS has different tools which can allow companies to include senior employees as mentors, provide one-to-one coaching to employees through VILT sessions. The best part is that since the mentor has ample experience for the job, he knows how to train new hires.

The company can also establish some guidelines for such VILT sessions so that employees don’t take much time with the mentor. When employees have the confidence that they have someone look into their performance so that they don’t lag, they have the incentive to not leave a company.

Employees can discover their hidden potential 

With such mentoring, they can address all loopholes in their performance and grow further. The company employees might get better opportunities to detect talents when they are given simulations in which they can participate and realize that they are good at things like negotiation. This way, they can opt for reskilling and opt for specialized roles. Companies have to provide the proper learning and development opportunities to employees so that they are not taken up by competitors. Through the right kind of training only, employees can meet their career expectations. Companies can also organize meet and greet events for scouting talent for employees, including the public.

How can an LMS ensure a better customer experience?

Prepare employees for handling critical situations 

The employees must be trained to face specific situations, which is necessary as every time they can’t ask managers for approval because that might mean losing clients. So, companies must explain the emergency protocol to employees and allow them to take decisions on their own. For example, if a client places an order through a phone and can’t access his email, then it should be approved and sent. In this situation, the employee should not wait to get an email from the client before dispatching his order.

So, a company should explain methodologies to employees how they can adhere to the compliance rules without endangering sales.

Employees have to be taught how they must take customer orders on the phone rather than on the website. It can happen in situations where the customer might not have a stable internet connection. The employees must understand the customer and if his situation is real, then jot down all his information and explain the repercussions of placing an order on the phone. For example, there might be a late delivery of the product in this situation.

The employee should also not make any false promises to the customer in any situation, and convey realistic possibilities to him.

Measure Net Promoter Scores  and then develop better training

Companies can take feedback from customers to gauge whether their employee training program is a success or not. Net promoter scores can be effectively used in this regard because they can let you know how many customers will stick to your service/product or not be lured by competitors. After a purchase, the customers are asked the possibility of them referring your product/service to a friend/relative on a scale of 1-10. So, if the customers are pleased with your offer, then they will give you a score of 9-10. Such customers are promoters who are not going to stop buying your brand and advising others about it.

But those customers who give a score from 7-8 have a possibility of moving away from your brand in the future. If the customers have awarded scores between 0-6(detractors), then they will not buy from you in the future and will also damage your reputation. Companies must ask reasons from the detractors as to why they have given low scores and hence develop training material for CSR on the loopholes as pointed by the former. Moreover, a company can get a net promoter score (NPS) by deleting the percentage of detractors from that of promoters. A low NPS is a cause of concern for companies.

Hence, employees can be trained effectively when a company is using NPS because it is a true measurement of customer experience. 

When employees are asked why their performance is not up to the mark, they can pinpoint loopholes in training, which leads to rectification of training materials. Hence, companies can develop reliable training programs which yield expected results in terms of employee performance. Managers can continuously track employees on their use of the LMS through analytics, which lets them know whether it is just one worker who is unable to perform assessments or many of them. 

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