We believe in developing an organizational culture of continuous learning. We do our best to foster such a culture in our company, and we love to partner with organizations who are taking that approach, too.

Hi, I’m the lead product manager here at KnowledgeWave, and I wanted to share with you some of the rationale and expertise that is behind the design of KLS, the KnowledgeWave Learning Site.

Change is inevitable, but it can be costly to your organization—especially if it manifests in a revolving door of employees. Did you know, however, that you can decrease the number of employees that turn over each year by improving the way your human resources staff recruits and onboards new hires?

We’ve all had those moments with software or other technology where we just don’t get it. Sometimes adapting to new technology is hard. But it’s also critically important.

When you are in a position to lead an organization through technical change, it’s your role to help everybody on your team work their way through the stumbling blocks and adapt successfully to the new software platform.

"By its very nature, technology evolves quickly, racing to address the new situations and problems created by the implementation of previous technologies, so that even young employees who enter the workplace with advanced technological skills can find themselves quickly falling behind the technological curve," writes Edward Mercer in a contribution to Chron.

Productivity can be an elusive concept. Even if you feel you and your employees are working effectively, projects can still bog down and somehow, mysteriously, end up missing the je ne sais quoi needed to really contribute to your bottom line. But you can move the needle if you take a careful look at your strategic training methods. If strategic training methods are already in place, but they're solely focused on leadership development, you may be missing out on a key opportunity to increase productivity across the board.

In today's business environment, staffing can feel like a revolving door, which is especially frustrating when you consider the costs of turnover—both hidden and evident. What if you could alleviate the rising cost of employee turnover? Don't underestimate the importance of your onboarding plan.

For many, Microsoft Excel can be a bit intimidating in the breadth of its applications. Because of this, managers often find themselves watching their teams take up huge amounts of time trying to understand formulas and learn how to sort data properly. While it will always take time to analyze data, there are a lot of tools and settings you can take advantage of to make the process more streamlined.

As much as we believe in the benefits of initiating training programs, we know that sometimes it's easier said than done. Since no two employees are the same, it can be tricky to balance providing them with additional tools and giving them the personal attention they require. On top of that, you have budgets to consider and other tasks that need your attention, so you have to introduce a system in which you're not spending all of your time training. Self-training is often a useful solution to this conundrum, as growing and learning can provide a more impactful sense of satisfaction among your employees than money alone.

Micromanagement is a burden on everyone involved. It takes time away from a supervisor's day and only frustrates the person being managed. It goes without saying that the best-case scenario is for an employee to prove his or her ability to manage his or her own time, thus earning a degree of independence and negating the need for micromanagement altogether. In order to help you encourage your colleagues to take this initiative, we've gathered some tips for you to share with them.

Today, staffing can feel a bit like a revolving door. Employees come in and employees go out on a seemingly constant basis, which is especially frustrating when you consider the costs of turnover—both hidden and evident. An Inc. article estimates that the hidden costs, including those related to interviewing, training, lowered productivity and overworked remaining staff, can "run as high as 150 percent of an annual salary." It continues: "Turnover is expensive. Sometimes it cannot be avoided, but when it can, you should avoid it by doing the right things for your employees." The right thing, in many cases, manifests in added learning opportunities.

Gamification is the process of taking elements from real-life or video games and leveraging them within the corporate environment. According to Gartner Inc.'s Brian Burke in a contribution to Forbes, "When designed correctly, gamification has proven to be very successful in engaging people and motivating them to change behaviors, develop skills or solve problems." The trend has roots in employee performance, corporate training and personal development, though it has also expanded into customer engagement and innovation. No matter the end goal, gamification can add clarity and inject fun into your corporate-learning initiatives. 

Looking at the big picture, optimizing new-hire training is about minimizing ramp time. In other words, the quicker your new hires complete training and contribute to the work that needs to get done, the better. In order for key business objectives to be met and exceeded, however, you need to address the new-job learning curve. What can you do to shorten it?

If you've introduced an organizational software platform before, you've probably heard the associated grumblings from your fellow employees. There are several reasons why they could be on auto-disgruntle mode: taking time out of their already busy schedules, being treated as masses instead of individuals, not finding the interface adaptive, and more. The truth is if you operate with a certain mindset, however, you can encourage your employees to follow suit.

A corporate learning initiative is no small endeavor. There are, however, a few adjustments to your corporate learning system that can set you up for success in the long run. We've culled some tips to help you accomplish this.

You don't need us to tell you it would be great if new employees could learn your policies, procedures and software usage by osmosis. You also don't need us to tell you that this is a rather unlikely scenario. The good news is, however, that by coming up with an established plan for training your new employees, you're equipping them for success in both the onboarding process and beyond.