Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

Workers fired for surfing the Web

A new survey I came across has found that more than a quarter of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and one third have fired workers for misusing the Internet on the job.

The 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey, conducted by the American Management Association (AMA) and the ePolicy Institute, polled 304 companies of all sizes in the United States. The vast majority of bosses who fired workers for Internet misuse (84 percent) said the employee was accessing porn or other inappropriate content.

While looking at inappropriate content is an obvious no-no on company time, simply surfing the Web led to a surprising number of firings. As much as 34 percent of managers in the study said they let go of workers for excessive personal use of the Internet, according to the survey.

Here's my question... 

Are organizations keeping up and changing their policies with the many evolving ways that the internet is being used today?

Today, people use the internet is quite different ways than they did, even three years ago.  For example, as What constitutes "excessive use" today?  Is it legitimate use of sites that might have been considered "personal" in the past?  With the explosion of Web 2.0 technology, savvy users have discovered that new technologies provide easy ways to "stitch together" business solutions from technology currently available in the Web 2.0 world.

A report I was reading conducted in late 2007 by the Pew Institute, entitled "How People use the Internet, Libraries, and Government Agencies to Find Help", delves into the many different ways that people use the web today.  It illustrates how dramatically different web usage patterns are among different classes of internet users.

The ePolicy Institute also provides assistance to organizations trying to help organizations keep up with the rapidly changing profile of how people use the internet more effectively.  Their website has a free 13-page guide you can order on how to do effective e-mail management entitled "How to Implement Strategic E-Mail Rules & Policies"

Likewise, RedVector has an excellent and well-respected course on "Business Writing: E-Mail techniques" that goes a step further by helping users of email make the most of this popular communications tool.

Question to readers...  How do you see your use and colleagues use of the internet today different from 2-3 years ago?  Would today's use according to the standards and definitions of "appropriate use" be considered illegitimate?

Do You Understand the Four Principles of Adult Learners?

Adults bring their life experience with them
They draw upon an accumulated wealth of knowledge, and relate new information to what they already know.  They may need to debate or express an opinion about new information

• How this affects the Learning experience you provide - Those providing instruction should a) acknowledge the expertise of users, b) relate new business processes to old ones, c) respect users by listening to what they have to say and by answering questions

Adults are self-directed learners
They need to control their own learning, and must be treated as "co-learners", and must have a desire to learn.  Adults are task and/or problem oriented

• How this affects the Learning experience you provide - Those providing instruction should a) communicate the learning objectives and benefits of course, b) ask about their expectations as learners, c) keep the learning content job related and d) indicate additional learning references that they can utilize

Adults are "now-oriented" and need appropriate practice
Adult learners need hands-on experiential opportunities, and need to be presented with the “Big Picture”.  They also need feedback andpractice to be realworld oriented situations

• How this affects the Learning experience you provide - Those providing instruction should a) not just show and tell – but provide means for adult learners to do!, b) use real life examples during training and c) help users troubleshoot what they are doing wrong

Adults need to feel comfortable in their learning environment
Todays learners need to feel that their psychological needs are being met, and that means that their physiological needs are being met.

• How this affects the Learning experience you provide - As you craft learning solutions, make sure that you a) use praise and encouragement, b) explain that no question is a silly question and that mistakes are a necessary part of the learning process and c) schedule an adequate number of breaks.

These principles apply across the board and will ensure that the way you train adults is effective, and delivers the results commensurate with your training investment.

Myth Debunked = Learning Styles and impact on Learning

Guy Wallace, a really bright colleague of mine, and author of the "Pursuing Performance Blog"  has published an insightful article entitled  Learning Styles - A Bridge to Nowhere?

In his always clear and professional manner, Guy cites current research that while learning styles preferences may indeed exist - THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO RESEARCH PROOF THAT DESIGNING FOR LEARNING STYLES PREFERENCES HAS ANY POSITIVE IMPACT ON LEARNING.

In fact his proposition is based on what he's heard from researchers that it might even be beneficial and improve LEARNING if a motivated learner/Performer has to learn outside their preference. 

Who says that online learning can't be fun?

Have you ever taken a really dry and boring online course?

Most of us have at one time or another...

However the days where online learning choices are limited to boring and static "page turner" type of experiences. 

Take a look at some of the methods that leading eLearning course developers are putting into learner-paced instruction in order to more actively engage the learner in the process (not to mention helping reinforce important teaching points):

Flip book:

Matching:

Hangman:

Active Listening Techniques

Crossword

Learning Wheel

So if you're still learning the "old fashioned" ebook way, you may want to consider that there's a more engaging and fun way to learn "out there"

Make sense?

 

 

Classrooms are NOT where most learning happens

If you believe that the classroom / instructor method is the major way that adults obtain new information, you'd better take the blinders off.

There are  many other forms of learning that occur at the workplace apart from delivery of information in a classroom setting.

Examples of these alternative methods of instilling knowledge include

• the action learning method,
• 360 degree feedback technique,
• active listening,
• simulations,
• live-case method,
• learning through teaching,
• using theatre,
• collaborative inquiry,
• the learning log,
• conversation,
• self-direct learning, and
• project-based learning.

Take a look at the way you approach educating adults today.  Are you using any of the above "alternative delivery methods?"

Not even sure what some of them are? 

Suggestion : check out this blog in the weeks ahead, as I will be discussing each of these methods and the practical application of these techniques to educate today's adult learner. 

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