Training your way out of the recession

Great to see it's not just me harping on about the need to keep training up even when the economy is down..

I came across a fantastic article on UK Edition of Times Online in favour of upskilling current staff and utilizing online training tools, not cutting the training budget as some may suggest.

The article "Training your way out of the recession" centers around a recent study conducted by Cranfield School of Management which has concluded that 'investing in training not only saves money but is more effective than shopping around for talent.'

The report is the first to compare the pro & cons of developing current employees vs. bringing in new recruits. Here are just a few results:

'Three quarters of the 1,189 companies involved in the study felt that training their own staff was more beneficial to their business than recruiting people from outside.

Half the companies discovered that training staff made them more likely to stay. One-third found it increased staff motivation, and almost half actually saved money in the process. '

It can't really be said enough at the moment - hold on to your staff, show them how valued they are by investing in their future and you will be rewarded. This also ties right in there with our invaluable Gen Y'ers and the need to keep them interested through on-going learning.

Many of Britain's business leaders are urging employers to follow suit:

“Now is precisely the time to keep investing in the skills and talents of ourpeople. It is the people we employ who will get us through. When marketsare shrinking and order books falling, it is their commitment, productivity and ability to add value that will keep us competitive. Investing now in building new skills will put us in the strongest position as the economy recovers.”

To read the full article (and I recommend you do!) click here

(I'm going to spend a bit of time picking through the report, aptly named "Nurturing Talent", and will make sure to post the interesting - yet unsurprising - results I'm sure find...)

Latest Litmos FAQ's

How can I unlock an assessment so a trainee can re-sit it? How can I set it so the trainee only has to re-sit incorrectly answered questions?

To unlock an assessment for a trainee just go to the Reports section, then go to the Report called Assessment Results. Choose the course you want from the drop down menu and then click Run Report.

You will see a list of trainees assigned to the course, view their results and be able to unlock, re-assign courses/questions at this point.

Can students pay my course fee through my own site which uses Pay Pal? Then receive an instant username and password?

Yes, this feature is already available, it just requires a little configuration of your Paypal account which we can help you with.

Your fee is a set $/month amount per user - are there any fees additional to this?

The only additional fee applies when your video storage exceeds 1GB (that equates to approximately 10 x 30min videos). After you exceed 1GB we charge $5/month flat rate per extra GB.

Should the student's system crash, is work they have done to that point saved somewhere for them?

The Litmos system is backed up daily. If a student's own computer crashes during an assessment they will be able to resume from the last question they answered, likewise with the training modules they may have viewed.

Telnet Shares Their Litmos Story

One of our contact centre clients, Telnet, has been getting creative with Litmos.

In a busy contact centre, trainees need to update their product knowledge constantly using online training. Recently a large client asked them to field overflow calls during a new upgrade roll-out, on a public holiday weekend, with less than 3 days notice! Telnet had to get the word out fast to their trainees and with shift working staff, it's not easy. Instead of building a text-based course, they decided to set up a mock newsroom, film a quick, entertaining announcement about the last minute workload change, and upload it in to Litmos. Start to finish it took them 30 minutes and they had their video in front of their trainees.

Videos work quickly to actively engage, educate and entertain trainees, especially if they are Gen Y'ers.

Top 5 Litmos Tips

1. Our Litmos blog is updated regularly with new feature information, course design tips and articles relevant to online training and learning so check back here on a regular basis to stay ahead of the game
   
   
2. We are now very excited to be able to offer a Course Building service. If you don't have time to build your courses, or need a hand putting your material together, please send us an email here and we'll be in touch to discuss your requirements



3. Litmos offers support via email or phone 24/7. We're here to help you and endeavour to respond to all emails within 12 hours
   


4. There is a Help menu on every Litmos screen that is tailored specifically to the content of that page. To activate the help menu just click on 'Help' in the top right corner of any screen
   


5. Litmos How-To demo videos offer step-by-step guidance on utilizing Litmos features to their full potential:

Online Education is a Winner

As the technology industry heads into recession we're left to ponder who, exactly, will be hit the hardest. According to Economist.com "Firms that provide enterprise software as a service (SaaS) over the internet, such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite, have been growing steadily", and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.

The goal of SaaS vendors is to provide low-cost, monthly subscription services that work to replace traditional heavy software solutions. Therefore, they aim to reduce company spending.

With the inevitable collapse of some business and the redundancies that follow, an affordable online training framework provides specialists who may find themselves out of work, in a unique position to start monetizing their IP (intellectual property) through online courses.

Similarly, those non-specialists who find themselves unemployed may look to upskill in an affordable way through online training. It has all appearances of being the winning solution.

Edufire has recently published their "6 Reasons Why Online Education Will Boom in the Bust":

1. Many people will re-tool in a downturn.



2. In a down economy, many people will head back to grad school.



3. People will be more price sensitive in the coming years.



4. Rising gas prices become more of a concern.



5. Larger number of highly-qualified teachers.



6. Relative strength in foreign economics and/or weakness in the dollar will allow the US to export education to the rest of the world.