Every business owner wants their venture to be a success. Whether you run a small, medium or large enterprise, there are a couple of common steps you can take towards your goals. Strategy, marketing, skills development – all powerful elements of a successful business model. But, are you paying enough attention to accountability in the workplace? This crucial element is paramount to a high-functioning company, yet often under-utilised.
Your team is the backbone of your business, the driving force of your success. Without a solid sense of responsibility, your employees are less likely to give it all they’ve got. Not only has fostering a culture of accountability in the workplace shown to increase employee dedication and capability, but it also boosts morale and job satisfaction. It’s all about taking ownership of your role within the company. Employees who are accountable for their actions are more invested in their job, taking responsibility for the end results. If your team aren’t held accountable, your well-oiled ship loses its efficiency. But don’t worry, it’s not too late to develop a sense of staff responsibility. Implementing a strategy geared towards improved accountability is easier than you think. Even easier if you have OnRamp!
There’s no better place to start than right at the beginning. As part of every employee’s onboarding process, you should voice your expectations. By encouraging a sense of responsibility from day one, accountability in the workplace becomes second nature to your employees. To streamline this process, OnRamp provides the tools to set up introductory documents to help integrate every new hire. You can create training manuals introducing new employees to the business, as well as digital policy documents outlining company regulations and procedures. Presenting your culture of accountability in this manner allows new employees to process the information, confirm their understanding with a test and sign off their acceptance. Furthermore, they can access the document at any point to refresh their memory.
Micromanaging your employees will only leave them feeling stressed and doubtful of their ability. To encourage accountability, you need to establish an environment of trust and empowerment. Give your employees the freedom to control their schedules. A team responsible for managing their daily tasks and projects are more likely to seek solutions when problems arise. The more confidence you show in your staff, the more certainty they will have in their ability, and this will show in their output of work.
Employees also feel empowered when provided the opportunity to further their knowledge and skill set. By using OnRamp, you can develop relevant training and ensure your team has access to enriching content at all times. The flexibility of OnRamp’s online platform gives your team the means to schedule time for training whenever and wherever suitable.
You know what they say – communication is key. Clear lines of communication between your employees are vital to your business. From top to bottom, accountability in the workplace depends on open interaction. If everyone keeps in contact, fewer misunderstandings will throw spanners in the works. With our new system build, we’ve introduced memos to our online platform. These provide the perfect opportunity to increase communication between departments. With the click of a button, you can share information with one, some or all your employees. Handy!
If your employees don’t know what they are working towards, how will they excel at their jobs? To be accountable for your actions, you need to know your end goal. A company without clear goals becomes disjointed and dysfunctional. Establishing a collective of core values and making them available to your team will help keep everyone on track. When outlining your company objectives, make sure accountability remains central to your message. To ensure your team have access to these goals at all times, make them available on your OnRamp platform. Create an online policy document for your team to sign to make them accountable for understanding these values.
Are you ready to ramp up accountability in the workplace? Pop us a message and one of our consultants will be in touch.
New year, new system. Not only does 2019 offer you a fresh start to develop and upskill your people, but we’re launching an updated training platform to make all your management processes easier. Yes, you heard us. OnRamp is getting a make-over. In fact, some of you are trying out the new system as we speak. You love it – right? With a streamlined new look and even easier to navigate features, the new build epitomises convenience. It’s everything you want from an online training platform and more. So much more!
Have you discovered all the nifty features geared toward optimising your business management? We’ve already dropped a few hints about some of our newest additions (read all about policy documents in our compliance training blog), but a few of the smaller benefits often slip under the radar. That’s why we’re highlighting some of the handy features you might not have noticed that help make our training platform the ultimate tool.
Have you ever painstakingly had to upload a database one individual at a time? Tedious, time-consuming and the polar opposite of fun. Don’t worry – the OnRamp training platform won’t bore you to tears. Whatever the size of your business, adding users in bulk is a quick and easy process with CSV uploads. Now, instead of typing in all 101 employees one by one, you can put together a CSV document (we’ve added a sample spreadsheet to make your life easier) and click ‘Upload CSV’. And just like that, your database of users appears on the system. Easy-peasy!
Our online training platform also makes document sharing a breeze. Whether you want to send a training manual, test, policy document or memo (yes, we’ve added those too), all you need to do is select the content and assign it. Simple! You have the option to allocate documents to single users, groups of users and the whole database. So if you have a memo that only applies to HR, you can narrow down your selection to that department. The best part? You can also un-assign content. If a document is no longer relevant or was sent to the wrong user by accident, you can recall it at the click of a button.
Rushing off to a meeting and don’t have time to finish creating a training manual or document? There’s no need to stress you’ll lose all the content you’ve completed so far. With OnRamp, our training platform allows you to edit your manuals at a later stage. As long as you save your document as a draft, you can go back and add more information.
To ensure your team completes their tests in a timeous manner, the test details include time limits. There’s a timer on tests which indicates the allocated time a user has to answer all the questions. If a user doesn’t finish within the time limit, they will have to start again. You can also allow up to three attempts for any given test, so if any of your employees fail, they have a chance to try again. It’s also possible to set an expiry date, giving your team a time-frame to complete their online training.
In a busy company, it’s often difficult finding the time to set up meetings for content creation. Our training platform enables you to put your heads together without being in the same room. With the collaboration button, you’re able to share the draft you’re working on with other content creators. Everyone can log on when they have time and add their input. As long as those users have administrative access, they will be able to contribute to their heart’s content.
Not only have we made it easy to collaborate with your administrative users, but we’ve also given your team the tools to communicate their opinion. Next to every document is a feedback content box. If any of your employees have questions or suggestions, they can send them immediately, within the training platform. All the feedback remains in the system, attached with the document it pertains too, keeping all your data in one place for future reference. Neat!
We don’t want any of your users to miss a thing. They don’t need to keep logging in to discover if they’ve received any new training manuals. Assigned a new test? Sent out a memo? Updated your policy document? Whatever it is, SMS and email notifications will make sure your team gets the news straight away. Ping!
We could go on, listing all the many benefits of OnRamp’s online training platform, but it’s way more fun when you explore for yourself. Excited? Ready to ramp up your staff development? Get in touch today and let one of our OnRamp consultants get you started.
Another year, done and dusted. Phew! As the festive period gathers momentum, everyone in the office has one eye on the holidays, except, perhaps, the top executives and human resources. For them, the end of the year is the time to review employee performance and plan for a bigger and better 2019. After all, it’s no secret your employees are your biggest asset. Investing in their development can only ever boost your business. Regardless of how well your 2018 panned out, there’s always room for improvement in the corporate world. So, how can you prepare your team for a prosperous new year? By ramping up your training with 2019’s hottest learning trends! We’ve even upgraded our system to give you an improved user experience.
There’s no denying. In a high-tech world that’s changing every second, it’s crucial to keep your training methods ahead of the curve. Nowadays, most people source their information online, making the most of present-day technology. Incorporating technology and personalised training in your skills development is the way to go to grow employee skills and engagement. Luckily, with OnRamp’s online training platform, developing your team is a piece of (Christmas) cake. Use our favourite learning trends below to set your 2019 training up for success.
At the start of each year, you have a plan for your business – your goals and growth. The same should apply to your employee training. Proper planning and commitment to staff development are necessary if you want your team and company to grow. For your team to reach its full potential, management and HR need to work together to develop an effective strategy. Not planning would be a waste of resources and opportunity. By coming together, leaders can define the practices most beneficial to the organisation’s performance. This learning trend is the first step to creating the foundation of your company’s learning culture. We’ve made it easier for you to plan your training with the introduction of templates. Simply add your content to an existing outline and send. Couldn’t be easier! And, for those who like to start from scratch, you can still build your own.
If you want your company to flourish, you need to cultivate the talent within your ranks. It’s never too early to identify future leaders and grow their skills. Design training focused on building communication and problem-solving skills targeted for leadership candidates. It’s a cinch with our platform. After you create your training, you can assign it to specific members of your team. By implementing this type of training from the moment new employees arrive, you’ll be building forward-thinking teams capable of tackling challenges head-on. Not only that, we’ve added the extra convenience of Policy Documents. These help you roll out and track your compliance training, making sure everyone knows their responsibilities from the start. As learning trends go, this one is crucial to maintaining a healthy business.
A well-rounded team is not only tech-savvy, but they also have a good repertoire of soft skills. Increasingly, the generation entering today’s workforce comes armed with technological knowledge, but lacking the level of soft skills seen in previous generations. You can boost your business in 2019 by developing your team’s social skills. It’s a valuable investment, promoting collaboration and negotiation. Not to mention, soft skill training also helps encourage employee retention and company culture. There’s a great new feature on our system to help your team communicate – Memos. Whether it’s a quick note, question or handy nugget of information, anyone using your platform can send a memo out to other users. So straightforward and effective.
Did you read the heading and picture training in the form of a video game? You wouldn’t be the first. But no, gamification does not mean you have to turn your compliance into something resembling Minecraft. It’s the term for a progressive reward system, like that of modern video games. Gamification offers an incentive for employees to strive harder and ace their online training. With OnRamp’s online tests, a reward system is easy to put in place. When a member of your team passes the test after a training manual, they get awarded a digital certificate. Even better, this happens immediately – no waiting around to get certified.
Have you’ve ever asked yourself how to make your company more attractive to new talent? The answer is training. Skills development is often a deciding factor when employees are determining whether to stay or jump ship. Individuals hold personal and professional growth to high regard across all industries. If you haven’t already done so, 2019 is the year to include training as part of your benefits package. It’s easily managed with OnRamp’s online platform. You can create, send and track all your staff training all in one place. Simple!
One of the biggest learning trends to get behind is engagement. Specific training directed towards the individuals in your team has more impact than broad-based content. You want your content to hone in on the work environment and practices. There’s no point sending the accounting team training created for the IT department. Content should also be diverse, incorporating various multi-media to maximise engagement. Videos, pictures, audio clips – make it interesting. We even give you the option to customise your platform, further enhancing user experience and involvement. Now, you can include a welcome video on your homepage, as well as a message at the bottom of the page. Welcoming, motivational, instructive – make it your own with that personal touch.
Be pro-active and flexible with your training. Finding time to fit skills development into the workday is one of the biggest challenges your team faces. But, don’t worry. There is a simple solution. Go digital. Storing and delivering your training on digital and mobile platforms makes it accessible at any time of the day. Your busy team can log in and scroll through training when it’s convenient for them – especially with OnRamp. With our platform, all your training and data sits on the cloud, making it available to your team anywhere, at any time. Convenient!
Now that you’re armed with these learning trends, you can tailor your training to make an impact. Think personal, engaging and accessible. Are you ready to make 2019 the year you boost your skills development? Get in touch to discover how OnRamp can help!
Let’s talk about the dreaded ‘C’ word – compliance. The very thought of it puts your employees to sleep within minutes. Snore! But, it’s unavoidable. Compliance training is a must for every workplace. Without it, your employees won’t know the policies and regulations that apply to their position. Unfortunately, 90% of the time, compliance training is met with a sea of unenthusiasm.
Manuals are text heavy, long-winded and complex – hardly content to get the juices flowing. And what happens when employees slug through page after page of rules and laws? Nothing. The information barely gets through the front door, and within a few weeks (possibly even hours) it’s all but forgotten. So, how do you make your content engaging and enthralling? Easy. Follow our five easy steps!
The key with any training is to keep it interesting. No member of your team wants to feel like they are back in school, slogging for exams. If you follow these five steps, your employees are sure to love your compliance training.
There’s nothing more daunting than information delivered in bulk. Providing all your training in one go, while you may think it’s saving time, ends up being counterproductive. With too much to focus on, your employees will only retain a fraction of the information. Instead, to ensure your training is easy to digest and remember, break up the content into smaller sections. Delivering small, bite-size manuals will allow your team to learn parts at a time without getting flustered. And ultimately, this will lead to better knowledge retention and understanding.
It’s no secret – people respond better to information that is relatable and relevant. When creating your compliance training, do so with each department in mind. Build and deliver training that is division specific to ensure it’s applicable to the workers reading it. If your employees are reading through information outside of their role, they are more likely to lose interest. Another sure way to make your manuals more engaging is by adding real-life examples. This way, your employees can relate and empathise with the training. After all, it’s easier to apply knowledge when you fully comprehend its importance.
Use technology to your advantage. Traditional training methods can be quite the rigmarole. Trying to align a venue, instructor and your staff is more hassle than it’s worth. Not to mention the dread your team feels when they have to put aside the task that was due five minutes ago to attend a (boring) seminar. Luckily, you can save yourself the trouble, and keep your employees happy at the same time. Two birds with one stone and all that. E-learning is the answer. Give your staff the flexibility of completing their compliance training when it suits them. So, instead of rushing through the content to get back to work, they can work through the information when they are free and relaxed. These days, they can even access the training on their mobile devices (read about the rise of mobile learning). So convenient.
There’s no way around it – rules and regulations are boring. While your employees may understand the importance of complying with compliance, the task of learning the dos and donts is less than appealing. It helps to make the content exciting. Here is where you can utilise the versatility of electronic learning. Include visuals in your compliance training. The brain retains and recalls visual information easier and for a lot longer than text. By adding pictures and videos to your manuals, you’ll not only be making your training more interesting, but easy to remember as well. Compliance? Nailed it!
Now, you may be asking yourself how you achieve the first four steps. Easy. With OnRamp, of course. Our online platform provides all the tools you need to redefine your compliance training. We’ve been cooking up an all new and improved user experience, with some exciting additional features. The NEW Policy Document feature, in particular, is ideal for rolling out company systems and procedures.
With this feature, you can add all your content into a digital policy and send through to your staff online. Videos, images, and various other forms of media are all compatible with this training – that’s right, there are no boring PDFs here! The feature also allows for a digital sign off, so your team can acknowledge they have received, understood and accepted the policy. There is also the option to add a test at the end if you want to double your employees grasped the content.
Then, upon completion, management can pull reports to keep track of who is compliant. What’s more, the documents can be amended or updated at any time, making your compliance training highly adaptable. So convenient. And, what’s even better – you can use OnRamp for ALL your staff skills development. Great!
Are you ready to take you compliance training up a notch? Get started with OnRamp today. Pop us a message, and one of our consultants will be in touch.
Does your staff training need a refresh? We all know that a skilled team is the key to a successful business strategy. (Read further to discover the connection between training and employee performance). But, are we providing our employees with the right tools to develop their skills? These ‘tools’ need to be engaging and informative. They need to make an impact, and there’s no denying the impact of a good instructional video. Whether it’s a how-to guide or motivational message, we’ve got some tips for creating stand-out online training videos for your workforce.
The key to creating successful online training for your staff is to keep the content short and manageable. Bite-size manuals, focused on a specific topic, are easy to absorb and retain (read our blog about microlearning in the workplace to learn more). The same goes for your instructional videos. Keep them brief and emphasise one section of information at a time. Use two to six minutes as your guideline. Long online training videos run the risk of going off topic and losing the viewer’s attention. If you keep your content short and to the point, your videos have a higher chance of keeping your employees engaged and attentive.
Equally important is the quality of your videos. When putting together content, make sure your videos are well produced. Don’t worry this doesn’t mean they need to be the next Hollywood blockbuster, but the sound, image and acting should be of high standard. If you’re using animation instead of people acting, ensure you have well-drawn graphics. Videos with poor sound quality and clumsy presentation will only distract your employees and hamper their concentration. You want your staff to be concentrating on the message, not laughing at the bad quality. Pair a well crafted visual with powerful content to create engaging online training videos.
Producing engaging online training videos doesn’t end with good quality production. A crystal clear, articulate delivery won’t have the same effect if the video is dull and uninspiring. To pack a punch and inject your staff training with the wow-factor, you need to be creative. A person standing in the centre of the screen rattling off instructions is hardly enthralling watching. You don’t want your employees’ minds wandering to their next meal when they should be concentrating on your training manuals. Keep them glued to the screen with a touch of creativity. Think about camera angles, lighting, dramatic background music and an emphatic script. Not only will this captivate your team’s attention, but it will make sure your training leaves a lasting impression.
A great way to further involve your team in their training is by making it interactive. An interactive video enables viewers to click on links within the video, allowing them to access additional information. Interacting directly with the content helps employees stay focused and involved in what they are learning. Don’t worry if you can’t make your online training videos interactive. You can also provide tests and quizzes at the end of your training to help your staff retain the information. With OnRamp, you can create and assign tests to your manuals for employees to complete once they have been through the training. Our platform also stores all this data in the cloud, making it easy to track staff engagement.
Not only is the content of your video important, but the positioning within your training as well. The placement of your online training video determines how employees receive the information. A video included at the beginning of the manual serves as a compelling introduction. It shows commitment to the objectives that follow. While videos placed in the middle of the segment are better suited to delivering information, such as ‘how-to’ demonstrations. Lastly, ending off with a video is a useful way to summarise the content and leave a memorable impact.
There’s no doubt about it, the use of multimedia can only enhance your workplace skills development. Tools, such as online training videos, help your staff connect with the information on a deeper level. This dynamic medium is both visual and auditory, speaking to a wider variety of learning types. In turn, this makes the content easier to recall for a longer. Not to mention how simple it is for employees to go back and watch a quick video to refresh their memories.
If you’re looking to enhance your staff training, look no further than OnRamp. Our training platform provides the tools you need to deliver online content to your staff anywhere, at any time. Contact us today and let one of our friendly consultants will help get you started.
Are you aware of the importance of cybersecurity training for your employees? We live in a world that is advancing every day. In our personal and professional lives, we are now more reliant on technology than ever before. It’s true – the digital age has revolutionised how we do business. Information is now readily available at the drop of a hat. Signed documents can go from one side of the world to the other without ever printing a page. Instantly. Even the signature is digital!
Thanks to the internet and cloud technologies, everyone, everywhere is connected. While this is convenient for business, it does come with its drawbacks. With all your information stored in cyberspace, there’s more risk. Computer hackers can break through weak firewalls in minutes. Phishing scams convince you to part with personal details without question. Software viruses can take out your systems at the click of a button. In this day and age, no business is completely protected against cyber attacks. Indeed, many of these attacks happen right under our noses, sometimes without us being none the wiser. Creating awareness of cybersecurity attacks is one of the first steps your business can take to minimise the risk. With ongoing cybersecurity training, vigilance will become second nature to your employees.
While we’re all aware that cyber attacks exist, we don’t always recognise the signs. Can your employees identify a phishing email? Do they know not to click on unsafe links? The unfortunate fact is that most security breaches are accidental due to lack of knowledge. By utilising cybersecurity training, businesses can work towards preventing valuable data from falling into the wrong hands. With the right procedures in place, employees have the tools to detect and respond to cyber threats.
Engaging cybersecurity training should be mandatory for all staff members working with computers. Not as a once off, but as a continuous process. As hackers and scams evolve, so should your training content. Don’t merely instil security habits. Instead, create awareness and a sense of responsibility. Include security protocols the moment a new staff member joins the team, and reevaluate them regularly. It’s never too late to introduce cybersecurity training into your workplace. Use these three tips to get started:
As with all staff training, cybersecurity awareness needs to be relevant and interesting. Boring content won’t leave a lasting impression. Challenge your employees with engaging content without making the material too difficult or too easy.
The key to maintaining security is tracking your data. Keep track of how your employees interact with your training material. Monitoring their results allows you to adapt and improve your training as and when necessary.
Make an impact with your training material. Make your content unique to your company and use a variety of multimedia.
With OnRamp, you can implement cybersecurity training across your business with ease. Our online platform provides a secure system that can be accessed by your employees on all devices. From here, create engaging training manuals for your team and track their progress. It is also easy to update, making it simple to maintain relevant training.
Discover how you can get your company started with online cybersecurity training. Learn more about the OnRamp features and let one of our consultants answer all your questions.
It’s a digital world out there. Gone are the days of overflowing filing systems and overhead projectors. These days, the corporate environment is all cloud rooms and high-tech equipment. If your conferencing and company management is all taking place in a digital space, there’s no reason staff growth shouldn’t join the party. The time has come to take your employee training online. Online corporate training is versatile, flexible, and convenient – perfect for the modern age employee. Are you ready to take your staff development to new heights? With well thought out content and a great online platform such as OnRamp, you can boost your team without ever organising another seminar again.
So, you’ve got the OnRamp platform, but now you need to create your training. Where do you start? The secret to successfully upskilling your staff online is with engaging content. Merely putting information into a template and sending it to your team is not going to achieve the desired result. To make the most of your online corporate training, you need to create material that is both informative and interesting. If you avoid these common mistakes, you can build well-designed training manuals that genuinely engage your team.
One of the first mistakes all companies make with online corporate training is trying to cram too much into one manual. Bombarding your staff with a mass of information all at once will only overload their brains. And when that happens, it’s difficult for employees to retain and understand the content. New employees, in particular, feel overwhelmed and stressed when asked to learn too much, too quickly.
To get the most of out your training, deliver content in manageable blocks. Skip the broad-based training manuals and be specific with your information. Smaller, bite-sized modules focusing on one topic at a time are easier to digest and remember. Also be realistic with your timelines. Asking your staff to complete too many manuals in a short space of time won’t do anyone any favours. Don’t forget they have their daily duties to perform.
You can never provide too much training. But, creating content willy-nilly and releasing it to all and sundry won’t be effective. Unclear content without a definite focus is unlikely to convey a coherent message. The best way to ensure your training has maximum impact is by clearly defining both your target audience and purpose. Delivering information irrelevant to a team member’s role won’t enrich their work experience.
Before putting together company training, first establish who you are creating it for and why. Once you know your audience and the purpose for your training, you can build tailored manuals. This way, employees will learn the skills they need without having to sift through unrelated information.
The beauty of online corporate training is the freedom and creativity it allows. Content can be engaging and interactive, helping employees remember the information for longer. Often, companies forget to make full use of this aspect. Copying and pasting plain text into your online manuals will most likely put your team to sleep.
With OnRamp’s online platform, companies can include various forms of media when compiling staff training. The use of videos, pictures and audio caters to all learning types and helps to make the content memorable and learnable. By including quizzes and tests, companies can further increase interaction with their content.
One of the last things to remember when creating your training is to revise your content. With the world changing at the pace it does, there’s always new information to be learnt. You should also give your employees the opportunity to voice their opinion. Did they find the training informative? Was it helpful? Gathering valuable feedback will help you improve your content. With OnRamp, your interactive data sits in the cloud, making it easy to track and evaluate. Businesses can analyse the interaction with their training manuals, and adjust where necessary.
If you avoid these common mistakes and put together high-quality content, your online corporate training will give your team the competitive edge. Do you want to move your skills development online? Get started with OnRamp today.
Here at OnRamp, we have a passion for empowering people in the workplace by developing their skills and knowledge. A business is only as strong as its people and every business owner wants their company to be at the top of its game.
In South Africa, a crucial element to boosting your business is BEE compliance. Your BEE rating marks you as a contributing member to the formal South African economy and comes with benefits and incentives. BEE compliance also has a priority focus on skills development, our favourite aspect. A skilled taskforce can only ever be an asset to any business. Is your company BEE compliant?
Firstly, it’s important to understand what BEE is. Once you know the basics, you can set your sights on a BEE compliant company. BEE stands for Black Economic Empowerment and is now known as Broad-Based Black Empowerment Equity (B-BBEE). It’s a positive movement to upskill and empower previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa. A company aiming for BEE compliance must fulfil the required criteria, depending on it’s size. The size of your business contributes to the level of your compliance. There are three primary levels your company can fall under:
An Exempted Micro Enterprise is a smaller business with a turnover that is less than ten million rand a year. A start-up company, one that has been running for less than twelve months will also fall under this category. These enterprises are not measured on the BEE scorecard.
A business is classified as a Qualifying Small Enterprise if the annual turnover falls between ten and fifty million rand. If your business is in this category, it needs a rating for all five elements on the B-BBEE scorecard.
If a business makes more than fifty million rand annually, it falls into the category of medium to large enterprises. These companies are required to comply with all five of the B-BBEE scorecard elements.
If your business is classified as a Qualifying Small Enterprise or Medium to large enterprise, it must comply with the B-BBEE scorecard. The B-BBEE scorecard highlights five key areas to calculate your company’s score. The level of your BEE compliance is determined by your rating. The higher your company scores within each criterion, the better you BEE level. We’ve highlighted each pillar below:
Ownership is one of the priority elements on the scorecard, contributing 25 points. The score is based on the voting rights and economic interests within the enterprise’s shareholders. The scoring takes gender and age-groups into account.
This element refers to the control of an organisation. It looks at the number of eligible participants holding top management and director positions. Management Control contributes a maximum of 19 points to your scorecard.
An enterprise can earn 25 points through skills development, five of which are bonus points. A business must reach the 40% minimum target, as this is a priority element. Skills Development measures the extent to which a company invests in employee training and growth of skills.
Enterprise and Supplier Development is the largest priority element. It contributes a whopping 44 points to your scorecard. It measures the extent to which your company supports the development and sustainability of qualifying enterprises.
Socio-Economic Development contributes 5 points to your BEE compliance scorecard. It measures the company’s social contributions towards employees and communities. This element is aimed at encouraging access to economy and income.
An enterprise which has received their BEE rating can participate in the formal South African economy. Regardless of the size of your business, BEE compliance can only ever be beneficial. While there are no penalties if you fail to comply, you will risk losing out to organisations that are BEE compliant. The higher your BEE score, the better your chance for securing business from other companies. The Public Sector favourably considers BEE compliant enterprises for procurement. You will also be able to bid for government tenders, apply for licenses and get permits. Additionally, a business can benefit from a number of tax incentives and financial grants.
Becoming BEE compliant doesn’t necessarily need drastic changes within your company. In fact, you may already be hitting the mark without realising. If you do want to boost your BEE rating, Skills Development is one of the easiest elements to target. Not only can you achieve the full 25 points, but you will also improve your bottom line. But how do you upskill your staff and capture all that data? With OnRamp, of course. Our online training platform provides your business with the tools to roll out training programmes with ease. And, because all your training data sits in the cloud, it is easy to gather and submit for BEE auditing. (Read our previous blog for the full details of how staff training can affect your BEE rating).
Do you want to develop skills in your business and boost your BEE compliance? Let one of our friendly consultants give you a hand. Complete the contact form on our BEE page, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
Time is a hot commodity in today’s fast-paced lifestyle. Mastering the art of multi-tasking is the name of the game if anyone wants to get ahead. There’s no time for sleeping when every second is potentially costing you money. This turbo-charged generation we live in leaves little time for staff development. How will your business keep running if your employees are sitting in training seminars all day? And let’s face it, do they even retain any of that information? Listening to a monotonous voice drone on for hours is hardly riveting. The words go in one ear and straight out of the other. To get your employees attention, without wasting any time (or money), you should be looking at microlearning.
What is microlearning? Glad you asked. Microlearning is the way of the future. It’s an approach to employee development that delivers short, bite-sized bodies of content, focusing on a specific topic. And, it’s not just the content, it’s the delivery. The ability to access these short bursts of training on mobile devices such as tablets or mobile phones makes microlearning both convenient and apt for the workforce of today.
There is no end to the ways your business can use microlearning. Employees, millennials, in particular, have a thirst for knowledge. With the internet at our fingertips, today’s society can access information at the click of a button. Strategising your training in this way allows it to fit into employee schedules. Here’s how you can start implementing microlearning into your training strategy:
Instead of dense, printed employee manuals, create an online employee manual. This way, you can break your manual up into short sections for employees to peruse at will. You can even be creative and put the information into a video format. Create a test for the end of each section to track your staff’s engagement with the material. Presenting information in this manner makes it easier to absorb and retain.
Whether there’s a newbie on the team or staff members needing to brush up on their skills, there’s always a need for a library of training material. Tasks, office processes, equipment manuals, how-to guides – compile your company’s training into online manuals. Employees, new and old, can access the training quickly, many times if need be. Microlearning ensures your staff always have access to information. Keeping training modules short and content-specific allows employees to learn what they need as they need it. If one employee is sick and there’s a task that needs completing, another staff member can be up to speed in a matter of minutes.
Microlearning is useful in your business to release updates. Roll out any upgrades to the system or changes to staff process at the click of a button. Create short videos or instructions and send to the relevant employees online. This immediate distribution of information saves time and ensures everyone has access wherever they are.
Microlearning works for employees because it is flexible and delivers small sections of information at a time. It also makes use of graphics and videos, which helps staff engage with the material, making it easier to process. With OnRamp, implementing microlearning is a piece of cake. The cloud-based platform gives you the tools to create and distribute training to employees online. It is compatible with mobile devices, making your training accessible via mobile phones and tablets. Convenient! You can also create tests with each training manual. All your data is recordable.
Any company can take advantage of microlearning. All you need is a platform to build your training. Contact us to get started with online training today.
There’s no denying, a well-trained workforce is an asset to any business. Skilled employees boost sales, inspire confidence, and give the company a good name. Here at OnRamp, we’re enthusiastic about upskilling through online platforms. Providing staff training online is a quick, efficient way to ensure your employees are at the top of their game. With OnRamp, there’s no limit to the diversity of content you can use in your training manuals. Creating online training resources that are dynamic and engaging is a breeze with the wealth of the internet at your fingertips. From videos to powerpoints to images and text. You can put together information in a way that’s easy to absorb and remember.
Did you know you can use colour to influence your employees’ learning and retention? Colour plays a role in many aspects of our lives, from warning labels to traffic lights. Even your corporate identity is associated with a colour scheme. The careful use of colour in your online training resources will elevate your content and inspire engagement.
From your online platform to training material, colour can be incorporated in all aspects. Start by making your training platform cohesive with your brand. With OnRamp, you can customise your platform with your company’s colour scheme. This makes your training immediately associable with the business.
Colour can be powerful both visually and mentally. Think about the use of colour when creating your online training resources. Use colour to evoke emotion, inspiration and concentration. Try use colours cohesively – clashing colours will distract your employees and affect their focus. Bold colours can also be overwhelming. Limit the bold colours, using them only to draw attention to key elements.
Different colours can create a variety of moods. They can be inspiring, calming and exciting, invoking a willingness to learn. Or, your chosen colours may distract and detract from your online training resources. Using the correct colours can affect your employees’ learning experience. Here are some colours you should use when creating your training manuals:
Green is a relaxing, calming colour that is both refreshing and tranquil. Reminiscent of nature and easy to look at, this colour promotes concentration and focus. Green is a restorative, balanced colour that will help your employees relax. Use green in your online training resources for fresh, revitalising content.
Lift your employees’ mood with welcoming orange. Orange is optimistic and mentally stimulating. Playful and enthusiastic, this colour both inspires and encourages learning. Use orange to enhance complicated subject matter, making it inviting and relatable. As a vibrant colour, however, it can be overwhelming if over-used. Use to highlight key points.
Blue is a stable, serene colour choice. In fact, blue rooms increase productivity. The calming presence of blue helps with concentration and is considered an intellectual colour. Use blue for complex topics to make them seem less overwhelming. Always try to balance shades of blue with warmer tones.
Intellectual, cheerful and full of optimism, yellow is a mentally stimulating colour. Ensure your online training sources are exciting and memorable by using yellow. This colour aids knowledge retention but can be too bright if over-used. Opt for warmer shades of yellow and use it as an attention grabber.
Stimulating and passionate, red is intense and exciting. Red is an emphatic colour and should be used to draw attention to key points in your training. Be wary of overusing red in your online training resources. It can be overpowering.
Colour can be a powerful tool in your online training. Ensure your online training resources are engaging and stimulating with the right choice of colour. OnRamp’s platform offers flexibility in the creation of your staff training. The perfect balance between content and colour will ensure your training material is successful. Do you want to develop your staff? Get started with OnRamp. Contact us for a quote.