In a climate where digital learning content is more diverse than ever before, this session looks at  how content should be deployed to ensure learning sticks, discussing the latest research and rules of content strategy.  

The host Michael Strawbridge, the Global Head of Community at The LPI, was joined by panellists James Frappell, EMEA Customer Success Director at Go1 and Joe Hill-Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer at Learn Amp. The webinar opened with a survey asking the audience how familiar they were with a decentralised L&D strategy, discovering that the majority were unsure what a decentralised L&D strategy looked like and what makes one successful.  

Before diving further into the relevance of a decentralised L&D strategy, the panel spoke of how we’re living in an exponential time of change, due to new emerging technology, hybrid working models, as well as a shift in employee work and culture values. Michael stated that L&D leaders are struggling to keep up with this pace, without solid systems and dynamic approaches in place. Businesses are having to work harder to translate old workplaces into new environments that align with employees’ personal beliefs and expected digital experiences. Research from a recent Microsoft report supported this growing disconnect between teams and their leaders, with 87% of workers stating they are more effective when working remotely, whilst 80% managers disagreed. 

Joe told the panel that with mounting pressure from senior leaders and teams, as well as macro trending concerns of retention and engagement, a role change for L&D departments is vastly needed. Instead of solely being the deliverers, L&D teams need to become product owners, ultimately building capability for product deliveries across the business by using tools and approaches that encourage self-serving behaviours. By acting as a guide and facilitator, time is then freed up for L&D leads to deliver on higher value work with the aim to greater impact and ROI. 

Joe spoke of the importance of a balanced approach when it comes to centralising and decentralising in order to create a self managing culture of learning and encourage individual progression. The learning journey is not linear, and although the employees' progress, as well as company-wide requirements, need to be centralised and structured, the creation of specialist content and the delivery within teams can be decentralised, providing a more fluid approach.  

This balance can take some of the responsibility away from the L&D team, filtering into other departments through practices such as peer to peer learning - with research from the Fosway report revealing that 50% believe this is the most effective way to drive learning adoption.  

So how can businesses ensure their content is engaging and effective across departments? The panel spoke of four pillars central to delivering such key strategies including: in-house, third party libraries such as Go1, user generated and web curated content. 

They then delved into some practical examples from organisations such as Specsavers who utilised a decentralised L&D offering. By using Learn Amp, Specsavers were able to prove ROI on learning, saving $62K in costs within their L&D team, which amounts to a 67% return on investment in year 1.  

James feeds into the discussion, sharing insights on the shift in L&D across the EMEA market and how integrating digital learning content to reduce cost is no longer paramount. Now, 70% of L&D leaders across EMEA deem upskilling and reskilling agendas as critical to supporting cultures and hybrid working.  

Touching on the evolution of technology, the panel discussed the emergence of augmented reality as well as virtual reality providers to create a fully immersive experience for learners. The quality and breadth of digital learning content are at an all time high, and as budgets grow, established players in the field are doubling down on high quality content that can be used in a decentralised format. With such a vast selection, James said we will see organisations work both with content aggregator partners as well as more niche learning providers to suffice all customers needs. 

Rounding out the seminar, Michael referred back to the opening question and the key topics James and Joe addressed throughout: namely the importance of balance and flexibility between integrated centralised and decentralised systems.  

To conclude the webinar, Joe advised that technology is not a silver bullet, and it ultimately boils down to how you apply it. They reiterated that learning outcomes need to be closely aligned with a businesses’ overall expectations in order to be effective in employees’ professional development. 

Check out the full presentation in full here:

Tackling the biggest issue in L&D

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Digital learning is more diverse than ever. This session looks at how content should be deployed, discussing the latest research and rules of content strategy.  

Go1's time at Learning Live Digital: The Rules of Content Strategy

If there’s one thing we’ve all had to realise over the last few years, it’s that the world is changing faster than ever, whether we like it or not. And the world of work is not exempt 

As a result, no one wants to be caught out and left behind if their workplace hasn’t been able to keep up with these changes. Especially not Millennials. 

With the youngest Millennials turning 26 in 2022 and the oldest of the bunch turning 41 in 2022, Millennials are in a crucial phase of their careers. Many have already established themselves in their career beyond entry- level positions, but they’re certainly not ready to retire just yet. 

They’re well aware of the crucial nature of skill-building in order to keep up with the changing workforce. In fact, a new study conducted by Amazon found that 74% of Millennials and Gen Z are planning to quit their jobs in 2023 due to a lack of skill-building opportunities. That is a staggering statistic and one that workplaces simply cannot afford to ignore. 

Luckily, we’re here to help, talking you through how upskilling is the key to attracting and retaining Millennials at work. Let’s get started.

Workplace leaders may be thinking: what’s the point of putting in so much effort to upskill Millennials if they’re just going to leave the company anyway? 

While it is true that Millennials are more likely to jump ship and leave a company if they’re unhappy, if a company’s values of match their own and companies show interest in their professional development, they show even higher levels of loyalty than other generations in the workplace. 

Millennials also tend to be confident in the workplace. They are keen to prove themselves and succeed. What business wouldn’t want employees that are driven to consistently improve? 

By this point, we know that Millennials are keen to learn new skills and better themselves in the workplace.  

While they do view learning as essential, they’re not asking their workplace leaders to drop absolutely everything to provide a classroom and a fully structured environment in which to learn. However, they do need to be motivated to complete the learning. 

How can workplaces do that in a way that helps Millennial workers shine without taking away from other areas of the business or from workers of other generations? The answers are right under our noses. 

Millennials entered the world during a boom in video game popularity. Older Millennials likely have fond memories of playing Nintendo NES and younger Millennials will remember begging their parents for the latest PlayStation for Christmas. 

Okay, where is this going and what could it possibly have to do with the workplace? 

Millennials’ love for games has extended well beyond their childhoods and, although it may sound strange at first, this love of games can have positive effects on their workplace learning as well. Enter, gamification.  

Whether it be as simple as animated party streamers that go off whenever a learner reaches a certain milestone or a competitive leaderboard, gamifying learning can be an absolute game-changer (get it?) when it comes to motivating Millennial learners. 

Similarly, while Millennials that are happy in the workplace tend to be more dedicated to their role, they are still big fans of good work/life balance. They know that work is important but also value fun. Gamifying learning for Millennials can help bridge the gap between working and having fun. It is possible to have the best of both worlds. 

What role can workplace leaders play in upskilling millennials?

Having learning material available for Millennials to use is an essential step in upskilling that generation. But, remember, it is just that: a single step. There’s a lot more for workplaces to do if they wish to see optimal results from their upskilling. As always, workplace leaders play an essential role. 

Millennials are massive fans of workplace communication. While they value autonomy, they expect frequent communication from leaders. When it comes to workplace learning and development, this could be things like checking in to see what they’re enjoying/not enjoying about the learning they’re completing.  

Another way to help your Millennial workers thrive through communication is by updating them on their progress towards a bigger goal. For example, congratulating them on the completion of a course module before reminding them that they only have X number of modules left until they complete the full certification for that course.  By doing this, you’re not only encouraging them to continue and reminding them of how far they’ve come, but also allowing workplace leaders to prove that they really care about the career development and goals of their team members. 

With support from their workplace leaders and content tailored specifically to suit their generation, Millennials are far less likely to be part of the 76% that are planning to change jobs in 2023. In other words, when businesses provide their workers with the opportunity to progress and move in meaningful career directions, it actually prevents them from moving to other companies. It might sound ironic, but it’s true! While upskilling is essential to retaining Millennials at this critical stage of their careers, it’s not just Millennials that benefit from upskilling opportunities. The positive knock-on effects of upskilling can benefit members of all generations in the workplace. 

For more insights into how you can use generational skills to help benefit your workplace overall, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

The world of work is changing faster than ever! Join us as we explain how engaging upskilling is the key to attracting and retaining Millennials at work.

Why upskilling could be the secret to attracting and retaining millennials in the workplace

Another insightful webinar with GO1, as part of the World of Learning series, delving into the most effective ways L&D professionals can empower busy managers when driving learning impact. 

Hosts James Frappell, Customer Success Director of Go1, and Laura Overton, Co-Founder of Emerging Stronger, explored how high performing learning teams are enabling busy line managers to support learning in the workplace, especially as teams find themselves more geographically dispersed. Laura begins by encouraging an open discussion with the audience around words that come to mind that sum up their experiences dealing with managers so far. Results included ‘challenging’, ‘hard work’ and ‘frustrating’.  

We learn that despite L&D investment in new programmes, platforms, and content - supporting learning in the heart of the workplace is the key to delivering business impact. And it’s by engaging and enabling line managers in the first instance, that will then lead to an increase in bottom line success. This is supported by the fact that ‘managers don’t make time for learning’ being named the number 1 barrier to L&D progress in 2022.

In support of this, Laura shared that when conducting research with learners, it was extremely surprising to see the people whose opinion mattered the most when it came to them engaging with learning in the workplace. 50% said the individual’s manager, vs the 4% who answered L&D teams, amongst other responses.

James, as a manager of a team himself, delved into the reality of working with managers and covered the various factors that managers have to account for in their day to day workstream, in addition to team learning and development. For example, challenges around hybrid working as well as employee retention and engagement. He suggests that it is key for L&D professionals to work to managers’ timeframes and priorities, as opposed to the other way around.   

Additionally, he emphasises that managers are relied on to drive business outcomes and output and therefore it is easy that they become bombarded with multiple business priorities at any one time, and are across different work streams that the business needs their team to work on. As a result, managers will often seem disengaged at points.  

With so much on their plate, is it realistic to expect them to prioritise learning and development? Laura suggests that perhaps it is on L&D teams to reposition their mindset. Laura begins to share results from her studies as well as wider studies as to why managers are so critical in this learning process. 

Results from a survey of high performance learning teams reveal that managers in these teams are 13x as likely to make time for their team’s learning, and 32x more likely to help their teams learn collaboratively.  

But how can we equip managers to build and support a culture of learning? The answer is to work smarter with them.  

At this point, James shared an example of this in practice through a case study with Go1’s customer, Lumanity. Lumanity looked to bring together their entire business, which was initially made up of fragmented tech stacks, onto one platform - Microsoft Teams. At this point, the hosts proceeded to share their insight on how an L&D team is able to use this as an opportunity to develop a culture of learning across the business.  

Lumanity were able to successfully utilise a platform that already existed within managerial work streams which meant that this business shift was not going to take up further learning time. Along with Go1, it was ensured that each business unit had a tailored approach as well as open and constant communication to ensure any problems were able to be fixed in real time. As a result, managers remained engaged throughout the process which ultimately resulted in successful, effective output and adoption. 

Laura then rounded out the session, turning the discussion to Go1’s L&D playbook and multiple plays that are included in this. One of the plays mentioned, reiterated that it is crucial any L&D plays fit in with the flow of manager’s work. More specifically, the ‘Go to Gemba’ strategy which recommends L&D leads spend an hour a week just sitting with a manager’s teams to observe and absorb their ways of working.  

There was then an opportunity for the audience to download the L&D playbook through a QR code.  

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Part of the World of Learning series, this webinar delves into effective ways L&D professionals can empower managers when driving learning impact. 

Go1's experience at the World of Learning Webinar

Picture this. It’s Friday afternoon, and you have an important presentation due first thing on Monday. You’re about to put the finishing touches on your work, but you’re feeling a bit unsure ​​⁠— you’ve never given a presentation this big before. Have you done enough? Should you add an extra slide? Will people be engaged? 

Who do you turn to for advice? Your boss has already left for the weekend. Your colleagues are keen to help but are just as unsure as you. And your partner has already heard you practising every night this week. Time to turn to your mentor to ask for their perspective. After all, they have plenty of experience with this sort of thing! 

This situation is tailor-made for workplace mentorship. Despite this, workplace mentorship has gone out of fashion in many industries recently. Currently, only 37% of professionals worldwide say they have a workplace mentor. We think it’s high time that number increased, allowing everyone to enjoy the full benefits of workplace mentoring.

With this in mind, we’ll shine a light on workplace mentoring, defining both formal and informal mentoring, before analysing the benefits of both mentoring styles. But first, let’s examine six benefits of workplace mentoring to set the scene. 

70% of Fortune 500 companies have formal mentoring programs, while 67% of businesses saw an increase in productivity due to mentorship. 

Nine out of ten employees with a workplace mentor say they are happy with their job.

More than 40% of employees who don’t have a mentor have considered leaving their job to seek greener pastures. In contrast, retention rates for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) are significantly higher. 

Research shows that employees who have been mentored receive promotions 5x more frequently than their peers.

Despite these benefits, only 37% of professionals worldwide currently have a mentor. Women are disproportionately missing out, with 63% saying they have never had a workplace mentor. 

According to eLearning Industry’s 2022 State of eLearning Report, 58.2% of L&D teams plan to increase funding for coaching and mentorship programs over the next year, representing a positive step forward. 

Accordingly, workplace mentoring is vital for many reasons, such as increased productivity, retention, and happiness. So, the question becomes, which type of mentoring is right for my business: formal or informal? 

Formal mentoring usually involves a business creating an explicit, structured mentorship program, where mentors and mentees are paired up and assigned to one another. From there, the business will typically allocate time for mentors and mentees to meet and discuss any questions or concerns, as well as set goals and targets for upcoming projects. 

As Together explains, “Formal mentoring is when an organisation starts a program where employees and leaders can opt-in as mentors or mentees. The administrators of the program then pair up mentors and mentees. With formal mentoring programs, a schedule is set up for both mentor and mentee to meet up regularly and discuss factors affecting the growth and understanding of the mentee.” 

Therefore, the key characteristic of formal mentoring is that it is a highly structured, organised approach to mentorship. Accordingly, there is no risk that anyone who wants a mentor will miss out, as mentors are assigned to anyone who signs up for the program. As mentioned above, women disproportionately miss out on workplace mentorship opportunities compared to men, so this level playing field is a significant benefit of formal mentoring. 

On the other hand, there is a greater risk that a formal mentoring relationship won’t be a good match, as it is assigned, rather than developing naturally like an informal mentoring relationship. This can potentially lead to mentors and mentees not seeing eye to eye, and the mentee having to have an awkward conversation where they ask the program administrator for a new mentor. 

To avoid this pitfall, we recommend asking screening questions, where both mentors and mentees define what they want to get out of the relationship. By getting a clear picture of both parties’ goals beforehand, organisations can create better, more informed mentorship matches.

In contrast to formal mentoring, informal mentoring relationships develop naturally in the workplace, rather than being assigned. Informal mentoring can either be intentional (i.e. a junior employee seeks out someone they trust to mentor them) or unintentional (i.e. two employees befriending and learning from each other). 

Often, informal mentoring can be as simple as a friendship blossoming into a mentorship. Common scenarios include a junior employee befriending a senior employee, with the senior employee eventually taking them under their wing, or a junior employee finding a senior employee who they feel is safe to ask important questions.

As Together explains, “Informal mentoring is when employees find a leader or peer they learn to rely on and want to share the experience…when this happens unintentionally, an employee may learn that they can get good advice or guidance for personal and professional growth by going to a particular leader…In this way, a mentoring relationship develops naturally, and they may never call themselves mentors or mentees.” 

This final point is an important one. With informal mentoring, you can get all the benefits of mentorship without necessarily labelling the relationship as such. 

Unfortunately, the primary downfall of this approach compared to formal mentoring is that the onus is on employees to seek this relationship out, leading to a greater risk that someone who wants a mentor will miss out, as they lack the time or opportunity to find an informal mentor. 

Now that we have defined formal and informal mentoring, let’s examine the critical differences between each mentoring style.

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) contrasts formal and informal mentoring, explaining, “in an informal environment, mentees set goals, but they are usually not measurable and the relationships are unstructured. For a formal mentoring relationship, there are actionable and measurable goals defined and set with determined requirements.” 

An academic review of mentoring styles from the Journal of Leadership Education expands on these ideas, adding, “informal mentoring is the natural coming together of a mentor and protégé. This is done in friendship, through personal and professional respect and admiration from each to the other. It is usually a long-term relationship. Formal mentoring differs from informal mentoring in that the organisation develops a program and process for mentoring to take place.” 

As such, determining whether you are in a formal or informal mentoring relationship is primarily a question of structure. Formal mentoring is a highly structured relationship, while informal mentoring is an unstructured, naturally-developing relationship.

With informal mentoring, you are more likely to develop a natural, open relationship. However, you may also be less likely to find a mentor in the first place. With formal mentoring, no one who wants a mentor will miss out. However, the highly structured nature of this relationship may feel creatively stifling for some, or lead to situations where mentor and mentee don’t see eye to eye.

It is also worth emphasising that formal and informal mentoring don’t have to be mutually exclusive ​​⁠— you can have the best of both worlds with an assigned, formal mentor and an informal mentor who you naturally seek out.  

Ultimately, both formal and informal mentorship have advantages and drawbacks, so it is worth evaluating your organisational structure, business goals, and employee needs to determine which mentoring style is best for your team. 

To get started, check out Go1’s vast array of mentorship content, including this world-class Mentoring Module. 

Or, for more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter today to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. 

We’ll shine a light on workplace mentoring, defining both formal and informal mentoring, before analysing the benefits of both mentoring styles.

The benefits of formal vs informal mentoring

Blended learning is the use of both online and classroom-based education, so students can receive training using a variety of methods. By using blended learning it allows students with varying learning styles to retain information and it’s more cost-effective than traditional training and education. Blended learning is fast becoming a common strategy used by businesses to train and upskill employees.

However, while blended learning uses classroom-based education, that doesn’t mean students have to attend a physical classroom. Training can be delivered via webinars or videos, particularly if employees work remotely. This can also be a more cost-effective method of a blended learning approach.

By using blended learning it enables employees to retain more information and is a convenient way to develop your people.

Blended learning advantages and disadvantages

Blended learning has plenty of advantages - as well as some disadvantages to consider.

Scalability - because blended learning doesn’t always require students to be present (and sometimes not at all with remote employees), it can be scaled easily and is suitable for a large number of students

Best of both worlds - there are eight learning styles, and blended learning enables students who have varied learning styles to get the most of their experience

Feedback - because part of the learning process is independent, it’s useful to have classroom-based sessions to develop what was learned and provide feedback to aid with retention

Self-directed learning - with at least half of learning usually done online via eLearning, employees are free to learn as and when it’s convenient for them

Cost-effective - because eLearning materials have already been produced and don’t require input from a tutor or teacher, it’s a much more cost-effective way of training employees - materials can be accessed instantly from anywhere, too

Increased engagement - training isn’t always exciting, but blended learning ensures that engagement levels are high, and students get much more out of the process

Disadvantages of blended learning include:

Higher costs - while eLearning is cost-effective, blended learning does still require some input from a teacher or tutor, which can mean slightly higher costs

Can cause extra pressure - while the online learning part of blended learning is self-directed, the classroom-based sessions require time away from day-to-day responsibilities at a set time, which can lead to added time pressures

Motivation - for some, finding the motivation for blended learning can be a challenge, particularly for those who struggle with self-directed tasks

While there are some disadvantages, the benefits of blended learning by far outweigh the disadvantages. But what is the best way to approach blended learning within your organization?

There are several blended learning models that can be utilized, with each having slight variations that depend on what your business needs or what you’re looking to achieve by developing your people.

The flipped model works by providing students with the training materials ahead of the classroom session. This way, students can learn independently beforehand, then ask questions and participate in discussions after the self-directed introduction.

Similar to a traditional school education mode, the face-to-face driver model features tutor-led sessions which are usually finished with the students being set assignments, or tasks - similar to homework - except they’re completed during work hours, rather than at home.

Completely self-directed, students predominantly learn via online materials and can choose to attend webinars or face-to-face sessions. The enriched virtual model is flexible and ensures students can learn at their own pace.

The purpose of blended learning is to provide a varied learning environment so students retain information and can put their new skills and knowledge into practice. To do this there are several types of blended learning.

Commonly used in schools, station rotation focuses on a single subject, such as math, science, or English. It uses a combination of classroom sessions, tutoring, homework, tests, discussions, and projects.

Lab rotation is another academic type of blended learning, which involves students rotating on the campus to work at different stations while learning one specific subject. Often one of these stations is online.

This uses a combination of classroom-based learning and self-directed learning (similar to the flipped model referenced above).

Mastery-based blended learning allows students to work at their own pace, and not feel any pressure to complete their learning by a set date. This more flexible approach enables students to get a higher level of understanding of a specific subject.

This focuses heavily on the online aspect of blended learning, while still allowing for some classroom-based sessions. It’s to encourage additional engagement with self-directed materials. However, this does mean workloads can increase.

Instead of using online and classroom learning throughout the process, outside-in front-loads digital learning and ends with classroom sessions to share their learnings and ask questions.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more businesses have seen the benefits of remote and hybrid working. Because of this, they’re also seeing that blended learning is a highly-effective way to train employees.

Just as when practiced in a school setting, blended learning works exceptionally well for businesses. It allows employees to get the best of both forms of learning, which helps with retention and is more flexible. The digital aspect of blended learning is self-directed, and can be accessed from any device as and when students have the time.

By using a blended learning strategy you give your employees everything they need to excel in their roles, which in turn provides a better service to your customers. As a result, your business can expect more revenue, happier employees, and lower staff turnover.

Creating a blended learning program doesn’t need to be a long and complex process. There are plenty of tools and resources available to make it simple - including using Go1’s wide selection of online courses as part of your strategy.

To create a blended learning program, you should consider the following steps:

What do you want your employees to get out of the training that will benefit your business? Is it a new skill to increase productivity, or knowledge that will help them advise customers? By understanding the objectives you’ll be able to build a program around them.

Step 2: Which model/type of blended learning suits your business

Do you want to front-load employees with eLearning courses, followed by a webinar or in-person session? Or have a balance of digital and classroom sessions throughout? Once you know how you want your employees to learn you can arrange eLearning and other training materials/sessions.

A key reason why blended learning is successful is because it’s interactive, so helps students retain knowledge. Because of that, make sure your training program has plenty of interactivity to keep employees engaged.

To make sure employees are engaged with training, there should be an end-of-module assessment. A learning management system (LMS) can be used to set and monitor assessments.

What is blended learning and how can it benefit your business and your employees? Find out from the experts at Go1

What is blended learning? | Go1

Cross-industry upskilling falls under the same workplace umbrella as reskilling and upskilling. However, it is still unique. Where upskilling and reskilling usually involve increasing abilities within the same industry or team, cross-industry upskilling goes one step further, encouraging  employees to learn new skills that would typically be seen in another department or industry. While these new skills might fall outside of their explicit job description, they can be incredibly valuable.  

Why might you specifically want to incorporate cross-industry upskilling rather than traditional upskilling or reskilling in their current role? We’ll take a look at just some of the many ways cross-industry upskilling can add value to your workplace, including improved employee versatility, employee retention and reduced business costs, and even encouraging continuous learning. 

For one, cross-industry upskilling can broaden the scope of your staff’s industry knowledge, and when you know more, you can do more. To be clear, we don’t mean those that have completed cross-industry upskilling should suddenly take on tasks for a team they’re not even in. We just mean that with more insight into how the business operates, everyone can complete their work in a way that considers the business overall, not just their specific team. 

Similarly, it can be tempting to stick within your own department and only reach out to other teams when required. However, when this happens, misalignment between departments is a serious risk. Cross-industry upskilling opens up the doors of communication between departments, encouraging them to interact with each other. When various departments better understand each other, it’s easier to understand what work that team might currently be undertaking, and therefore what capacity they may or may not have to complete additional tasks. 

Employee retention and reduced business costs

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, you’ll be keenly aware of the competitive nature of the job market. Employees and potential employees know what they want and are willing to jump on the opportunity of a new job if it aligns with their goals and values. At the same time, employees know that the job search process can often be long and arduous. Accordingly, if they can complete work that aligns with their goals and values at their current workplace, they're more likely to stay there, thereby boosting employee retention. 

Furthermore, 79% of L&D professionals believe it is less expensive to upskill a current employee than it is to hire a new one. Even from a purely financially motivated standpoint, cross-industry upskilling makes sense. 

That being said, if you, as a workplace leader, add new tasks/responsibilities to an employee’s workload in light of their new skills, you must ensure their pay accurately reflects this new workload, and that they have the capacity to complete this workload without impinging on their work-life balance.

Picture this: an incredible opportunity has opened up for your workplace that needs input from your talented design team. It has a tight deadline, but you know that the team is up to it. You can’t wait to brief them, only to discover that some of the design team are out of work sick.  

While in some situations, that could mean it’s time to panic, for a workplace with employees that are cross-trained across industries, it’s no sweat! A problem like this could be solved by temporarily bringing over an employee from another team that’s cross-trained in graphic design to help pick up some of the work left by the regular design team while they recover. 

While completing a few short courses about graphic design as part of workplace learning and development certainly isn’t the same as hiring a fully qualified and experienced graphic designer, what it can do is form a base level of knowledge that can be used to build a deeper understanding of the work that a graphic design team would complete. Therefore, emergency situations, like the example we mentioned above, no longer seem like emergencies.

Many of us, whether part of the learning and development industry or not, are well aware of the benefits of continuous learning. It keeps employees’ brains active and helps them to perform at their highest potential. 

Giving employees the option of expanding their knowledge outside of their current field of work is one extremely effective way to encourage learning in the workplace beyond simply ticking a box. 

When employees don’t feel restricted in terms of what they can learn about, they’re far more likely to enjoy the learning itself, rather than viewing workplace learning as something to dread. 

Moreover, while some employees may be long finished with their formal education journey, that doesn’t mean there’s not more that they want to learn. When workplace leaders encourage employees to pursue learning outside of their current field of work, it gives employees the freedom to explore a new industry in a more digestible way than formal education. 

You never know what incredible talents you could unlock with just some simple encouragement and an employee with the desire to try. It could allow the employee to move into a field they’re truly passionate about or even create a brand-new position in the workplace that may not have existed before. 

For more insights into upskilling and reskilling, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter and stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.   

Let's look at some of the ways cross-industry upskilling can add value to your workplace, including employee retention and encouraging continuous learning.

The value of cross-industry upskilling

There’s always going to be a demand for web developers as their skill, knowledge, and experience heavily contributes toward your online presence, and ultimately, how much money your business makes online. But are the essential web development skills enough, or should employees have more advanced knowledge?

Developers need a combination of hard and soft skills, and should constantly be developing their own knowledge by undertaking frequent training. Web development is such a fast-moving industry, with changes occurring almost weekly, that upskilling and refresher training is imperative. 

In this post, we’ll take a look at the eight most common skills your web developers should have (on top of the basics, of course).

What skills are essential for web development professionals?

Before we take a look at the most common skills a web developer should have, we first need to consider the basics, regardless of their deeper understanding:

Without these basic web developer skills, even the most technically-gifted developer will struggle to work as part of a team. Teamwork should be the focus of any web developer who wants to succeed.

On top of the above key skills, which any employee should look to develop regardless of their role, web developers should focus on the below eight important skills. With these skills, web developers position themselves as invaluable members of your team and put your business in the best position possible to deliver the best service to your clients and customers.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the bread and butter of any web developer. CSS and HTML complement each other in the creation of web pages, with HTML working as a foundation and CSS adding style.

JavaScript is used in the creation of visuals, such as images, graphics, and videos. This helps make your website engaging, which greatly increases traffic and conversions.

For anyone looking to start a career in the industry, upskilling in coding is one of the first web developer skills you should learn.

Libraries and Frameworks: Bootstrap and jQuery

Libraries are helpful because they’re valuable, time-saving resources. Why write code every time when you can borrow parts of what you’ve already written? JavaScript and CSS are both frequently used with libraries. Frameworks is similar, and provides a more standardized option.

However, it’s important to note that these tools aren’t designed as a shortcut or workaround - they shouldn’t be used as an alternative to learning to code. They exist to help make a web developer's job easier and faster.

Code versioning tools such as Git and GitHub can help restore order when changes made to your website don’t quite go to plan. They’re also great tools for collaborative working, which can be invaluable as more and more businesses embrace remote and hybrid working.

Because your developers will be making regular changes, having the ability to revert to previous versions will save your website from unnecessary downtime, and therefore stop you from losing revenue.

In an age where people can view your website on a variety of different devices, responsive design is critical. Not only will people visit your site using a desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet, but they could browse via a games console, smartwatch, or even their refrigerator.

Because of this, your website needs to adapt to any screen size, because if it doesn’t your bounce rate will be high which will cost you revenue.

Testing and web development go hand in hand - it’s how developers identify whether pages contain any errors. It’s also up to the developer to fix any potential errors, and ensure everything works as intended. A web developer should strive to be a perfectionist so they can ensure your website is fully functional.

Similar to how your site needs to adapt to screen size, developers also need to make sure the site is responsive to all browsers with cross-browser development. This doesn’t just include popular browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, but other lesser-known and uncommonly used browsers (and those used on smart devices too).

Many sites will be centered around a CMS (content management system) or e-commerce platform. Having CMS developer skills is especially important, as it enables the site to manage and publish content - such as blog posts - quickly and easily. Using a CMS also allows for multiple users to work on the site at any one time.

One thing a web developer is guaranteed to face is problems. That’s why all web developers must have strong problem-solving skills. From figuring out implementation to fixing errors with the code, there are many problems faced by developers on a daily basis - all of which require creative thinking. That means resilience and determination are also important, with some problems requiring far more effort than others.

Go1 has an extensive library of web developer training courses

Go1 offers a range of online web developer training courses to upskill your web developers. For more information on how Go1 can help your business provide cost-effective training for your employees, book a demo today.

If you’re looking to get into front-end web development you’ll need to build these 8 foundational skills to succeed. Get help from the experts at Go1

The 8 most common skills for a web developer | Go1

The 8 most common skills for a web developer

What is learning governance, and why is it so important 

Businesses across all industries are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of learning and development in the workplace. They know they need to do it, and they may even have an idea of some of the subjects they want to cover  

However, what they may not have considered is how best to implement this learning, who will be responsible for this learning, or what ‘good workplace learning’ should look like. 

That’s exactly the goal of learning governance. When businesses implement a solid framework around workplace learning and development decisions, they set themselves up for success. With effective governance, workplace learning and development not only increases efficiency but also often leads to improved overall business metrics. 

At first glance, learning governance may not seem like the most ‘fun-filled’ part of learning and development. However, making learning governance a central focus of your L&D program can streamline everything that helps that workplace learning run smoothly. As such, you will have much more time to spend on the learning itself. That’s way more fun! 

How can businesses recognise when they’re on the right (or wrong) track with their learning governance? It can be easy to get swept up in other aspects of the learning and development process, which is where good governance habits can slip.  

By repeatedly asking a few simple questions, workplaces can stay on top of their learning governance and prevent avoidable issues before they arise. 

Accountability is non-negotiable when it comes to learning governance. Whether you have one person who is responsible for learning governance or a whole team, those responsibilities must be clearly defined.  

Everybody should know who to ask when they have a question and who to raise any concerns with. 

By doing this, businesses eliminate any potential middlemen that arise when conversations of “I’m not sure. Maybe x person knows” seem to repeat themselves. 

Don’t get us wrong, asking questions when you’re unsure is not a bad thing. However, it’s much easier to ask one person rather than going through a whole chain of people. 

Following this process also benefits the person who is responsible for learning governance, allowing them to make decisions without worrying about seeking additional approval. 

Just like knowing who is responsible for learning governance is non-negotiable, so too is knowing what is expected procedurally.  

Ensuring everyone is on the same page when it comes to procedures means you will set a consistent standard with little room for confusion. As we know, confusion is the enemy of workplace productivity. 

Whether they like to admit it or not, many workplace leaders have a soft spot for their departments and may push those in charge of learning governance to expand the budget for that department just a little bit (or a lot) further. The reality is, having a budget, sticking to that budget, and having clear allocations for where money is going can help avoid potential arguments.  

It also helps to set expectations so that when a change or update is requested, people understand the likelihood of that request being approved. 

If you’re unsure where to start with general learning governance procedures, here are a few ideas that accurately set procedural and responsibility-based expectations: 

When naming your learning material, make it something that is both descriptive and easy to understand. Using complex language in the title (even if it’s accurate) may make it more difficult to find. 

Every piece of learning content should list the version history, version creation date, the person who owns the content, and the audience for which the content is designed. This can help clear up any confusion about who to ask if something goes wrong with the content. It also helps L&D teams determine when content is due for an upgrade. 

Develop a content creation template. By doing this, workplaces ensure consistency and ease of use across their learning materials. A content creation template can also prove extremely useful to future learning content creation. In particular, a good content creation template will always have a way to monitor the consumption of that content, as well as information reporting regarding that content. Having access to tangible data can ensure learning is on track with the goals of the business. Moreover, this data can also tell learning content creators which courses learners are or are not enjoying. 

What is the business trying to achieve? 

Having solid procedures in place and knowing who is responsible for those procedures will always be essential for best practice learning governance. However, neither of those things can play their role effectively if those responsible for workplace learning aren’t asking themselves one very important question: what is the business trying to achieve? 

When everyone involved in workplace learning has a clear idea of the overall goals of the business, it’s easier to make decisions regarding learning that most people are likely to agree with. 

Furthermore, when your learning content accurately reflects the goals of the business, everybody in the workplace becomes more familiar with what the business is trying to accomplish, not just those working in learning and development.  

When everyone has the same understanding of their workplace’s goals and has been educated on those goals through workplace learning, the positive ripple effect throughout all departments is immeasurable. 

The most effective models of learning governance for businesses are as unique as the businesses themselves. What works for one business may have varying results for another. 

So, how can businesses begin the framework to create their version of learning governance? 

An excellent starting point is to look at the three main models of learning governance: centralised, decentralised, and federated.  

Effective learning governance helps set businesses up for success. Learn about how you can make it happen for your workplace.