How Learning Initiatives Lower Recruiting Costs

Yet another reason to initiate a culture of workplace learning: recruiting costs will be lowered, perhaps dramatically. Companies pay for recruitment advertising — and commissions to inside or outside recruiters — to fill vacancies. Recruiting takes place in the open-job market because employees with specific skills are not available in a current employee population. It […]

Why Learning Initiatives Drive Employer Branding

According to Harvard Business Review, the term employer brand has been around since the mid-1990s. Employer brand denotes an organization’s reputation as an employer, as opposed to its more general corporate brand reputation. As the competition for talent has grown more intense, corporations have begun to apply the same focus and consistency to their employer […]

Dealing with WIIFM

Getting employees to embrace training can be as fun as herding cats. Adult learners often ask, ‘Why do I have to do this?’ or more likely, ‘What’s in it for me?’ This last question, abbreviated to WIIFM, is something learning leaders deal with quite frequently. Employees are resistant to participating in an exercise which they […]

Have Your Experts Tell Stories People Want to Hear

Cognota® was founded on the simple premise that all too often, companies fail because the collective knowledge of their in-house professionals goes uncaptured and unnoticed. Companies are well aware that the highest cost of doing business — employees — leave the office every night and at some point, leave the company. Wouldn’t it be great […]

When Employees Cry Tears of Joy for Training

As the L&D function is currently being redesigned and redeveloped — especially as there may soon be a Chief Experience Officer, as referenced in a previous blogpost — learning leaders are looking for more ways to engage their internal customers. Moving from nice-to-have to need-to-have, learning leaders can push for even further engagement from employees […]

Online Universities Get a C+, But You Don’t Have To

How You Can Thrive When Dealing with an Uncertain Market The news last month that the parent company of the University of Phoenix (UoP) was sold for $1.1 billion to buyout fund Apollo Global Management is no surprise: online universities have not provided the bottom-line results they’ve promised individuals and organizations. According to the editors […]

When Employees Are Trained to Set Goals, Profitability Results

Employee training is supposed to be all about helping employees get better at doing their jobs. But researchers at Harvard Business School have uncovered a startling fact: a mere 7% of employees today fully understand their company’s business strategies and what’s expected of them in order to help achieve company goals. This is alarming. Apparently, […]

Why ‘Watch and Learn’ Training Fails

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, ‘Is Your Company Encouraging Employees to Share What They Know?’, author Christopher Myers points out that while organizations invest significant resources in handbooks, protocols, formal mentoring programs, and knowledge management systems to share employees’ experiences for the purpose of creating in-house training programs, the Fortune 500 still lose […]