The Wyzed Product Roadmap

We’ve been listening to all your requests and are proud to announce our new (LIVE) development roadmap for Wyzed.

Simplicity and beautiful design is core to everything we do.

From day 1, we’ve been relentlessly focused on the friendly future of enterprise software where all tools are non-technical, immediately available and readily useable for people of any skill level.

We don’t believe that software needs to be complex.

And we have set out to build a platform that doesn’t just focus on packing in useful features, but also focusing on ease of use/simplicity, and the feeling of success you get when you learn a new skill easily or solve a major problem with ease.

Our language and design is friendly, bright and modern, and speaks clearly to people who have direct need/pain but are not technical in background.

We are professional in everything we do but we are NOT the blustery corporate juggernaut who knows more about your business than you do.

And on that, we want to put the power in your hands to help guide where we are going through in a transparent and open way.

And inline with other incredible softwares like Trello, Buffer, and many others, we are happy to publicly release our Product Roadmap

View the LIVE Wyzed Product Roadmap here

How features are chosen

While we would love to build every feature anyone asks for, it’s obviously just not possible.

But with that being said, we are constantly seeking feedback from clients, prospective clients, and focusing on the industry standard.

And from our list of feedback, ideas, and suggestions, we collated the data together and the most in demand features get actioned first.


Our Testing Process

With our clients experience always front and centre at all times, we make sure that we take pause at all the different development and testing phases to put it in front of a sample of our clients to see get their feedback.

This process goes back and forth until we get it right and the feature is then rolled out to all clients.

If you want to be involved in any part of this process, please feel free to reach out to our team and they can make sure you get to have your say!

[Guide] Integrate the Wyzed LMS with your Confluence account

Follow this guide to easily add the Wyzed LMS to your Confluence account (Includes Single Sign On)​


The Wyzed LMS and Confluence integration is one of our most popular integrations, and allows Confluence Users to add a powerful LMS to their Confluence account.

This integration only takes a few moments to set up, but allows your users to access all of your Wyzed LMS courses and training in a single click from Confluence.

The most important thing in any learning environment to be effective is that it is EASY for your users to ACCESS.

And If it’s not easy, your users won’t access it. Full stop.

To make things even simpler, we also incorporated SSO (Single Sign On) into this integration.

Which means your users can easily pass back and forth between Wyzed and Confluence without needing to remember login details or passwords.

[Watch Video] See how the Wyzed LMS Add-On works within Confluence

Editors NOTE: If you don’t have software to follow along and create your online course with, you can get started for free with Wyzed’s easy online training software.


Part 1: Integrating your Wyzed LMS with your Confluence Account

Watch and follow the video below to complete the Wyzed/Confluence integration

[Watch Video] Step-by-step instructions on how to integrate the Wyzed LMS with your Confluence account.


Step 1: Install the Wyzed LMS Add-On into your Confluence Cloud or Server environment from the Confluence Marketplace

Step 2: On your Confluence system, access your General Configuration page

Step 3: Navigate to either the Manage Add-Ons, or alternatively scroll to the bottom of your Confluence General Configuration Page and click on Wyzed Admin

Confluence General Configuration page where you can manage your Wyzed LMS Addon
Confluence General Configuration page where you can manage your Wyzed LMS Addon


Step 4: Next we need to copy the Login URL from your Confluence System and enter it into your Wyzed account.


Step 4a: Take the Confluence Login URL (see image above) and enter it into your Wyzed SSO tab as shown below.

To access your Wyzed SSO tab, click on the top left hand side of your screen (see image below)

To access your Wyzed SSO tab, click on the top left hand side of your Wyzed dashboard.
To access your Wyzed SSO tab, click on the top left hand side of your Wyzed dashboard.


Step 4b: Click on the Account Settings tab.

Access your Wyzed account settings
Click on the Account Settings tab.


Step 4c: And click on the SSO tab. (note that if the SSO tab is not present, you will need to contact us at info@wyzed.com for us to turn this feature on if not already done so)

The SSO (Single Sign On) in your Wyzed account.
Click on the SSO tab in your Wyzed account


Step 4d: And then entering in the Confluence Login URL in as well as taking the Secret Key and Login URL and entering them back in your Confluence system.


Great work!

You’ve now integrated your Wyzed LMS account with your Confluence account.

The next step is to configure how you would like the Wyzed LMS to display to your users in your Confluence account.

Part 2: Selecting how you want the Wyzed LMS to display inside your Confluence account

Next, we want to choose how your Confluence users will experience the Wyzed system.

The most common option is to select it to: Show your learning inside Confluence.

This will bring the Wyzed experience into the Confluence page so the Confluence User feels like they’re still operating in the Confluence environment.

Step 5: Access your Confluence https://www.wyzed.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/staffdevelopment-768×407-1.jpeg page and select the Wyzed Add-On. From here select which display you would like and be sure to click save.

Once you hit Save, confluence will then notify you that your integration has been successful.

Select how your users will view the Wyzed LMS inside Confluence
Select how your users will view the Wyzed LMS inside Confluence


Step 6: Next, we need to create profiles which will allow Wyzed to match the Confluence User’s group and automatically assign that Confluence User with tags, enroll them in courses, and other information in Wyzed when they click their My Learning button on their Confluence Dashboard for the first time.

Step 7: Before doing this, you will need to have course, tags, and other information already created.

To create your Profiles in Wyzed, click on the top left hand side and then select the Profiles tab.

 Create profile tab inside Wyzed LMS
Create profile tab inside Wyzed LMS


Step 8: Click “create profile” to begin creating your first profile.

Wyzed create profile modal


Step 9: Firstly, select the fields of information you want to track for your Confluence Users in Wyzed. I.e. Licences, qualifications, other misc information.


Step 10: Then, select the tags you want applied to your Confluence Users in Wyzed. This will allow you to easily track and sort by the tags in the Wyzed system.


Step 11: Then, we select the course we want the Confluence User to be initially enrolled into when they click the My Learning Button on their Confluence Dashboard for the first time.

Later on, you will enrol your Confluence Users in additional courses directly in the Wyzed system.


Step 12: Save that and then go back to your Confluence Wyzed Configuration page where you can match the Confluence Groups up with the Wyzed Profile.

Make sure you click the Add Assignment button got save that and you can repeat for as many profiles as you’d like.



How to save $17,568 using Free Online Courses to automate your marketing

It’s almost daily we get asked, “How are other people using their Wyzed account?”

So to answer this question we’re going to start sharing more about our awesome users.

In today’s post we’re going to show you in detail how Nudge Coach (a digital coaching and health tracking platform) are using Free Online Courses to automate 14.6 weeks of marketing and save over $17,568 every year.

Nudge Coach Co-founder, Phil Beene, had this to say…

“Creating a simple online course with Wyzed has allowed us to literally put the top half of our sales process on autopilot.

Instead of spending hours meeting one-on-one with new leads that we know very little about, we’re now able to see who’s the most engaged and set up one-on-one calls with only our most qualified leads.”

We’ve never been more scaleable”

This post covers the exact steps Nudge Coach took to implement this system. And shows you exactly how you can do it to!

What this means for their business (by the numbers)

Nudge Coach used to deliver information on health tracking and digital coaching through manual demos and over the phone consults.

This type of education is a great way to get to know your clients, but it also drains HUGE amounts of time and resources your business.

Which is why Nudge Coach recently set up a system using Free Online Courses that now has people spending over a whole week each month learning about digital coaching platforms ALL ON THEIR OWN.

This new system ensures that leads are highly qualified and well educated on health tracking and digital coaching.

It also allows Nudge Coach to easily collect lead contact details like Phone number and email.

Nudge Coach can easily track and identify which leads are most engaged, and then arrange follow up sales calls according to each individual’s interests.

Naturally this is resulting in a higher conversion rate, and creating more of the RIGHT customers for their business.

And they’re saving a HUGE amount of time and money in the process!

But before we dive in to see how they did it, let’s just look at this for minute – 6.3 days is A LOT of time to be saved each month.

Nudge Coach automated the delivery of over 50 hrs and 44 minutes of sales / marketing last month. That’s over 6.3 FULL work days per month!

As you can see from the screen-shot of their account analytics, Nudge Coach are automating the delivery of 50.4 hrs (6.3 FULL working days) of marketing and sales every month.

They used to pay someone an hourly rate to do this job manually, but now it’s happening automatically in the background and saving them 1.2 FULL weeks of work every month.

Which adds up to the HUGE total of over 14.6 FULL Work Weeks per year!

Completely freed up, and automated!

It’s a saving of $1,456 every month on wages.

Which again adds up to a massive $17,568 A YEAR – SAVED.

What would you do with all that extra time and cash??? Push the business forward, three day weekends, extended vacation? It’s up to you.

And the best part is that Nudge Coaches all important marketing message and sales process is still being delivered to both leads and clients whether Nudge Coach are there or not!

Ok, you get it – 6.3 days per month is A LOT!

 

So how did Nudge Coach “put the top half of our sales process on autopilot”?

 

They delivered free, helpful infomation that their audience loved.

“Boring, we all know this”, I hear you say.
 

BUT HERE’S THE SECRET
 

The FORMAT counts as much as the content.
 

And by simply changing the FORMAT of their content, they drastically increased engagement, trust, and the perceived value of their offering.

At the same time they also automated repetitive messages that they were manually delivering to clients and leads day after day, which saved HUGE amounts of time and money.

And they were able to easily see which leads were most engaged with their content, and then follow up with targeted sales calls resulting in HIGH conversion rates.


What are some of the things that you say OVER and OVER again day after day to both prospective, and existing clients?

These are the types messages that I’ll show you how to automate below.

Ok – so what’s this “magic” format?

 

The Free Online Course Format
 

Using Free Online Courses, Nudge Coach  “literally put the top half of our sales process on autopilot.”

By simply delivering their content through the ONLINE COURSE FORMAT, they hit the engagement and automation jackpot.
 

Let me explain.


Nudge Coach have a lot of content on their website in blog form and tutorial video pages.

They also have a ton of great knowledge stored in their heads that they deliver manually through demo’s and consults.
 

But even with all of this amazing knowledge and information, the time that potential leads were spending learning about their services was still relatively low.

The worst part was that they couldn’t even track which leads were interested, and couldn’t follow up with a sales call unless someone went to the effort of booking a demo themselves!

To add to this, they were spending huge amounts of time and resources delivering their message manually through demos and consultations.
 

They had great knowledge and content.

They also had the right target audience.

The only thing missing was the correct FORMAT for delivering their message.
 

And by simply delivering their content through a Free Online Course, the perceived value of their message drastically increased along with their customer engagement.

Potential clients that used to just browse their website have been converted into hundreds of hot leads, who can then be targeted with specific sales calls and messages.
 

The best part?

You can do it too!


It’s amazingly simple to set up, and we show you how step by step below.

 

Which Businesses do Free Online Courses work best for?
 

This type of marketing automation and lead capture works best if your business falls into at least one of the following three categories.
 

1. If you already have a mailing list and want to engage the potential clients that haven’t signed up for your services yet.

2. If you want to identify and attract more of your ideal clients with an offer that will set your business apart from your competitors.

3. If you’re always saying the same things over and over again to prospective and existing clients, and want to automate the process.

4. If you want to make intelligent marketing and sales calls based on know which content your audience actually cares about.


 

The Nudge Coach formula, step by step
 

By simply following the steps below you’ll be able to…
 

  1. Automate a portion of your prospective and existing client marketing

  2. Create an irresistible free content magnet

  3. Capture lead info like Phone Numbers and Email

  4. Track which content your audience likes best (HUGELY important to your business success)

  5. Track individual leads and the information that they’re interested in.

  6. Group SMS and Email your leads directly with new offers and content

  7. Have the tools and insight required to follow up with targeting marketing and tailored sales calls to increase your conversion rates.


It took Nudge Coach no time at all to implement this system, so follow along to see how you can too.


 

Step 1 – Create a University, Academy, or Free Online Course


To begin with, Nudge Coach created the “Nudge Academy”.

“Nudge Academy” is what Nudge Coach named their Wyzed account that they use to create and deliver their Free Online Courses with.

People who visit the Nudge Coach website can sign-up to Nudge Academy for free and access a range of free online courses on digital health tracking and coaching.

All courses consist of the exact information that Nudge Coaches clients come to them for, which makes Nudge Academy an AMAZING Content Magnet for capturing leads.

 

You can see the live Nudge Academy for yourself right here.


Now you’re probably thinking setting up an Academy or Free Online Course sounds like a lot of work – but it’s not!

As I mentioned, Nudge Academy is actually a Wyzed account which can be set-up, and completely custom branded to suit your business within 10 minutes.

Nudge Coach can easily create as many online courses as they want, and can manage their leads and track which content is best and which leads are hottest, all from the one area.

 

The eElearning Sign Up Page for Nudge Academy
The Sign Up Page for Nudge Academy

You can see the live Nudge Academy for yourself right here.


Now you’re probably thinking setting up an Academy or Free Online Course sounds like a lot of work – but it’s not!

As I mentioned, Nudge Academy is actually a Wyzed account which can be set-up, and completely custom branded to suit your business within 10 minutes.

Nudge Coach can easily create as many online courses as they want, and can manage their leads and track which content is best and which leads are hottest, all from the one area.

The Online Training Platform dashboard for Nudge Coach
What it looks like inside the Nudge Academy. As you can see there are a lot of awesome free courses to choose from.

You can create your own “Academy” or Online Course here. 
 

Creating the online courses in your “University” or “Academy” is really simple!


An online course can simply be a few small pieces of information that your clients come to you for everyday, just structured in a clear and simple way.

Or it can be an existing blog post, only broken down into actionable topics within a course.

Or it can be a series of short videos discussing important topics that your clients will be interested in.

It doesn’t have to be huge. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
 

Remember, it’s the FORMAT of the online course that is so attractive to people, not the size or amount of content.

I have included some examples of Free Online Course ideas in STEP 2 below.

 


Step 2 – Build your Free Online Course

 

Nudge Coach created their first Online Course using existing content from their website and blog.

This was a simple yet highly effective course. In Nudge Coaches case it involved simply embedding their existing video and blog articles into the Wyzed online course template. 

An Online Training Course for Nudge Coach Academy

Creating a course is really easy, and can be done using any combination of content including video, text, images, interactive apps, audio, online discussions, quizzes, and downloads.

Courses can be as simple or as extravagant as you need, and are built by simply clicking the content type you wish to deliver. (see image below of elements)

You can easily build your course by simply clicking on which type of content you want to use. It can be as interactive or as simple as you want.

If you don’t have any existing content to build from, you can ask yourself a simple question to get started.
 

“What do I tell clients / potential clients over and over again every day?”

Or

“What do my clients come to me for every day?”
 

Once you answer this, you can break it down in 2-3 small helpful pieces of information which you can use to build your course from.

 

Some examples of how we are seeing people use online courses are:

 

Doctors – Diabetes Info 101, Nutritional Advice, Free Health Advice, Easy Exercise Routines

Fitness Industry – Free workouts, 8 week weight loss program, Strengthening techniques you can do from home, Nutritional Advice

Sporting Groups – Martial Arts Home Practice, Best strength and stretching techniques, Sports Psychology 101, Free Aerobic Fitness Routines

Nutritionists – Nutritional Plans, Diet Programs, Free Meal Planners, Free 8 week weight loss program

Training Companies – How to fly a drone, How to take the perfect photograph, How to edit a video in under 10 minutes, How to improve your confidence

Financial Services – The most recent changes to lending, Borrowing pitfalls to be aware of, How to get your business funded, Investing 101

 

Basically anything that people come to your business for and would find value in can be turned into a simple online course.

It’s a great way to capture leads, and see who’s most interested in becoming a paying customer.

It’s also a great way to improve your business by offering 24/7 online services to existing clients as well.

We also have ways for you to sell courses online, which you can find out more in one of our free consultation right here.

Nudge Coach have a whole blog post that covers the actual mechanics of this course building step in more detail that you can access here.

 

Step 3 – Integrate the “Academy” with your website
 

Once Nudge Coach had finished their first Free Online Course, they let all their web visitors know about “Nudge Academy” by putting a big bold button on their website.

When anyone clicks this button it takes them to the sign-up page where Nudge Coach can collect their contact details in exchange for access to the free online course.

Nudge Coach and Wyzed Sign Up Page

Once people sign-up, their progress through the course can be tracked, and every action they take is logged under their learner profile.

This information can then be used to see which leads are most active, and which content is most appealing.
 

 

Step 4 – Tell people about your Free Course!
 

Nudge Coach were getting quite a few sign ups organically through their website but knew if they wanted to maximise their reach, they’d have actively tell people about Nudge Academy.

Nudge Coach emailed their mailing list full of existing and potential clients and let them know about “Nudge Academy”.
 

They also posted on Facebook, and other Social Media, and used their corporate partnership network to promote the Academy.

Very cleverly, they made accessing the Academy very easy for people by adding a direct sign-up link into each of their posts.
 

For example…
 

“Hey Guys, we’re proud to announce Nudge Academy. Be sure to check out our free digital coaching courses right here.”
 

The “right here” actually directs users to the link you can see below.
 

This way people could simply click the link and sign straight into their free course on health tracking, digital coaching and the Nudge Coach platform.

You can easily integrate these links into any of your marketing (email campaigns, buttons on your website, social media posts, infusionsoft etc.),  and allow people from anywhere to access your free course in exchange for their contact details.

Nudge Academy Call To Action

Step 5 – Track your leads and CONVERT them
 

Having people learning all about your area of expertise is great. But the endgame is of course to turn them into happy loyal customers.

Built into every Wyzed account is a way to track and visualise which content is most popular.

And a way to track which people are most engaged.

Nudge Coach tracked their learners progress, and followed up with phone calls and emails to convert these highly engaged leads into happy paying customers.
 

Use Wyzed to track which users are most engaged in online learning

As you can see,  Mathew and Marc are the most engaged as they have finished the whole course.

These would be the hottest leads to follow up first.

Kyla, Louise, and Kerry have showed considerable interest by completing most topics in the course and would also have a High Conversion Chance.


To get a little more info on each lead you can click right down and see EXACTLY what content they are interested in. (see image below)

Track learner progress through their online training course

As you can see above, it’s very simple to see which content individual leads are interested in by which course they have completed.

For example, if you were to make a sales call to Sonia, you would know that she was highly interested in the content from Academy Level 1 and Level 2.

You can then tailor your around that content, and improve your chance of converting Sonia to a payed customer.
 

So tracking allows you to see…

1. Who are the hottest, most qualified leads
2. Which content each lead was most interested in
 

And once you know these two key metrics, you can easily make the sales call targeting each lead’s exact interests, rather than a broad scatter gun approach.

From this data you can also be confident knowing which information works best with your audience while continuing the cycle of delivering content and then following up by closing on hot leads.


 

Step 6 – Keep bringing people back with built-in SMS and Email Marketing

 

Every Wyzed account also allows you to “Message Learners” at any time.

This means you can send an SMS and Email to groups of leads as well as individuals, directly from your Wyzed account.

Each SMS and Email includes a link directly to the content, making it amazingly simple for your audience to access.

SMS and Email users at different stages in their online course

It’s all mobile friendly, so people need only to click the link to access your Free Online Course at any time, on any device.


For example, if Nudge Coach were to add an update to a course, they could easily click the message button and notify EVERY single person who’s signed up to Nudge University and let them know that there’s brand new content available.

All people have to do is click the link on their phone, and it puts them straight back into Nudge Academy, where you can re-engage existing and potential clients.

Using this SMS and Email messaging tool is a great channel for getting the word out whenever you update content, or even to remind people of your existing courses.

 

 

Step 7 – Relax and enjoy marketing automation
 

The final step involved Nudge Coach sitting back and watching as people continually spend 1.3 weeks every month educating themselves on everything about digital coaching and the Nudge Coach Platform.
 

Well, in all honesty they didn’t really sit back too much.

But they COULD have!
 

They actually went on and have continued to build out multiple online courses and free education for their clients.

They’re doing an awesome Job, and are thinking about charging for some of their courses soon (but that’s another story for another post)

So it all sounds pretty simple, right?
 

I’m sure you’ve already got a bunch of ideas that you’re thinking of doing yourself.

And as a SPECIAL OFFER we’re giving away free consultations with our in house professionals as long as you click the button below in this post.

So if you’d like to run your ideas past a professional consultant for FREE, simply book an appointment using the link below

Or if you’re ready go right NOW, you can create your own online course and start automating your marketing today.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this post!


We’re looking forward to hearing all your ideas and helping you set up your own marketing automation with Online Courses.

Scale Well Podcast

Nudge Coach Health Tracking

Have you ever wanted to provide more value to your clients, while reducing your active work hours?

If the answer is yes (and it should be!) you need to check out the Scaling your business podcast by Nudge Coach.

To fill you in, Nudge Coach is an awesome digital coaching platform.

What’s a digital coaching platform you ask? Basically it’s the future of health and fitness coaching, but here now.

Nudge Coach let’s coaches, health care providers, and practitioners keep track of their clients fitness and health all from one simple app.

Using the Nudge Platform, you can sync up a range of fitness tracking devices (fitbit etc.) from your clients and get live data as they move through their day, receive alerts, and contact them as needed.

You can then track their health over time, and work out customized health goals for each client based on the solid data that Nudge Coach provides. Put simply it gives you the information and insight you need to take your health and fitness coaching to the next level, without relying on infrequent and time consuming manual measurements of each client.

Pretty awesome right?

So naturally Nudge Coach’s podcast is about scaling your business and setting up systems that both make your life easier now, as well as set you on a path for increasing success in the future.

“We got to chat about easy ways to provide more value to your clients (and make more money) without even needing to be there.”

We got to have an awesome chat about how we’re currently seeing people systemising their services with online courses and classes, and easy ways to provide more value to your clients (and make more money) without even needing to be there.

You can watch the podcast below, or download the episode from iTunes.

Watch

Summary

[2:20] how to strategically iterate based on customer feedback,

[4:20] the ways businesses are getting the most value from their online training courses,

[6:05] what businesses are charging for access to their online training courses for customers,

[8:20] using online training to make sales and marketing processes more scalable, lead capture, lead nurturing, [read our ‘how-to’ blog post on this topic here]

[16:20] how the Wyzed revenue model and pricing model evolved,

[18:45] what the next phase of product growth has to look like to scale their business further, 3rd party platform integrations, online membership management tools,

[20:45] how this enables the next generation of fitness and wellness businesses,

[26:00] what software tools and platforms Wyzed use internally to run their business,

[32:00] and more lessons for product companies to remember.

Get In Touch!

If you’d like to learn more about digital coaching you can contact the friendly people at Nudge Coach here.

And if you’d like to speak to someone about ways you can systemise and scale your own business, feel free to book an appointment with Wyzed here.

Why you need to care about staff development

Henry Ford once famously said,

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them, and having them stay.”

Staff development can pay huge dividends to your business. It is something that you need to invest time and money in.

Of course there is a risk that developing staff will see some of your best and brightest move on to other opportunities, but a development program will always ensure that there is someone to take their place.

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them, and having them stay.”

Research shows that company profitability is linked to a happy workforce.

A consistent focus on staff development and training will create a motivated, skilled workforce capable of delivering the results that you need. Well – trained motivated staff will feel you are committed to their development and they will return the commitment back to you in spades.

As former Xerox CEO, Ann Mulchay once said, “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

Viewed in this context, staff development becomes a critical element in your business planning and operations. It will deliver benefits to you in the following key five areas.

Greater Staff Engagement

Extending the skills of your existing staff makes them feel like a more valuable commodity to the business. It engenders greater confidence in their abilities and their potential for advancement.

This confidence and understanding leads to more “buy in” , all of which promotes a more harmonious and effective workplace.

This engagement provides flow­on benefits in several ways. Engaged, motivated staff want to come to work. They are happy in their job and are more likely to be an advocate for your business to potential customers and employees alike. This makes them much more likely to suggest new innovative ways of completing tasks, adding even more unexpected value.

Improved Efficiencies

An obvious benefit of greater skills and improved knowledge is a lower error rate, which results in greater profit margins.

Perhaps a greater long­term benefit is the potential to adapt more quickly to changing circumstances by having a workforce capable of quickly adopting new technologies and work methods.

An engaged team will be much less likely to resist change and will be more open to new methods. What’s not to love about that?

Reduced Employee Turnover

The old saying that retaining a customer is much more profitable than attracting a new one, can be applied equally to staff. Retaining staff and keeping turnover to a minimum is critical if you intend to maximise the returns on your business.

The costs of employee turnover are massive when you take into account the associated direct and indirect costs. Direct costs could include such line items as:

  • costs of advertising the vacancy
  • recruitment agency fees
  • possible fees to consultants for conducting aptitude tests, reference checks and medicals examinations
  • termination payout amounts, such as pro rata long service leave and pay in lieu of notic

Indirect costs can be even more costly when you take into account such factors as:

  • Loss of productivity caused by other employees having to cover duties
  • Initial induction costs including training and https://www.wyzed.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/staffdevelopment-768×407-1.jpegistration aspects
  • Termination costs including processing of final payments and superannuation https://www.wyzed.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/staffdevelopment-768×407-1.jpegistration processing times
  • Initial loss of productivity. It will take some time for any new employee to “get up to speed”. While this will vary from individual to individual and from job to job, you realistically have to factor in that it may take some time for the employee to be at least 75 percent as effective as the person that they are replacing.
  • Inevitable loss of productivity in final stages of employment. Once an employee gives notice, there will be a drop in output. It’s difficult to quantify, but they will already be focussed on the next stage of their life and making plans for that.

Their obligations to you are no longer high on their priorities list.

With these costs in mind – the costs of an ongoing staff development program that aims to engage and motivate employees should be seen as an investment in the business rather than a simple expense.

Better risk management

The resultant greater engagement of staff brought about by staff training and development creates tangible benefits in the areas of risk management and safety. Engaged staff are more likely to identify risks of a financial and physical nature.

Risk identification, reduces the likelihood of costly incidents. Innumerable studies have also shown that disengaged staff are twice as likely to have an accident at work. You can also ensure that employees are up to date and informed on such issues as sexual harassment and equal opportunity.

Improved Business Profile

The best form of advertising is word of mouth.

Employees who appreciate being treated well and given the opportunity to improve will share their positive experiences about your business. Every time they cast your business in a positive light they do two things.

They give your business free advertising as an ethical business committed to staff development and they also make your business an attractive place to work at for potential new employees.

Seems to me that Henry Ford knew actually what he was talking about, way back when.

10 secrets you don’t know about a trainers life.

Think back to the last staff training session that you attended.

Was it engaging? Did you learn anything?

Do you think preparing staff training sessions would be an easy gig?

Before you decide that delivering training is a walk in a park here are some important facts about the your trainer’s life that you probably haven’t considered.

“Good trainers never claim to have all the answers, but welcome questions that they can’t answer with a promise to find out.

1. Your trainer knows some subjects are boring

Compliance reasons dictate that some subject matter simply has to be delivered in a training format and let’s face it delivering some of this stuff is your trainer’s worst nightmare.

Undoubtedly they’ve spent hours agonising over how to make that dull, boring subject interesting and engaging. Sometimes they even pull it off. If they don’t, it isn’t for lack of trying.

2. Your trainer will have favourites

It’s not intentional. Some people just click better than others. When participants engage and interact, your trainer is likely to feed off that energy.

They’re human and will respond to where the positivity is coming from. It’s only natural that they view those engaged participants in a more positive light than others who simply seem disinterested. You can overcome this by ensuring you become one of your trainer’s favourites.

3. Your trainer is prepared to take risks

Of course they are. It comes with the territory. Standing up in front of a crowd and speaking is never easy. Not only are trainers not afraid to speak to a crowd, they know and understand that they have to engage the audience to have an impact.

Sometimes they might go out on a limb and try something different to get a reaction or to get buy in. Sometimes those efforts work, sometimes they don’t, but rest assured your trainer is trying their best to deliver a positive result.

4. Your trainer is not an expert

Good trainers never claim to have all the answers and they welcome those questions that they can’t answer, with a promise to find out. While trainers rarely claim to be an expert on a particular subject, they are well prepared to deliver a training session on an aspect of that subject.

They’ve researched and prepared their session to help you get better at what you do.

5. Your trainer understands that you may not “get it” the first time

Nothing is easy the first time and everybody learns at different levels. Besides, on any given day some people, for whatever reason, won’t be totally switched on.

Your trainer structures presentations accordingly to reinforce key points and to give you a clear understanding of what is required. They encourage questions for a reason – make use of their time. He or she will appreciate it.

6. Your trainer reads a lot

Training is not a job that you can just improvise on the spot. Lessons have to be planned and researched. That means a lot of reading. Almost always done in the trainer’s own time.

It may come as a surprise to you, but trainers don’t come ready made with complete knowledge about a subject. Often they have to do the hard yards researching and learning a specific topic so that they can present it to you in a coherent fashion.

7. Trainers spend time on social media

They’re also professional enough to realise that social media channels are public spaces that can be used for effective collaboration and work-related chats. Some trainers even use mediums like Twitter to encourage dialogue with trainees.

8. Your trainer is an easy target

Trainers want you to succeed for good reason – self preservation. They are judged on outcomes. When things go wrong in the workplace one of the first “reasons” rolled out by both management and staff on occasions is inadequate training or poor training.

When the wheels fall off a project it sometimes can be easy to blame the trainer rather than supervision, inadequate planning or a host of other management failings. Your trainer is aware of this. You can rely on them to be well prepared and to have documented that preparation.

9. Your trainer is not a robot

They don’t just come to work, switch on and deliver perfect sessions. They too struggle with juggling the demands of their personal and professional lives.

The car doesn’t start, the kids are ill and there’s unexpected bills just as often for the trainer as anybody else. Professionals act as they must, not as they feel. Your trainer embodies that philosophy. Training is delivered with passion and integrity without betraying all the personal stuff rising to the surface.

10. Your trainer doesn’t necessarily agree with policy

Nor will they betray their feelings in this regard. Not all policy is good policy, but your trainer is there to deliver the message and ensure that you understand what is required of you, according to policy. They did not conceive it or write it. They’re just the messenger.

If you don’t agree with a policy that is at the heart of some training program being delivered, your trainer can’t change the training or the policy. Save your breath. Absorb the training and if you really have a beef about some aspect of policy raise it with your direct supervisors or management.

When you next attend a training session, remember that your trainer is investing their time and energy in your improvement and that their presentation was not thrown together in five minutes. Take the time to thank them – they’re sure to appreciate it.

Thank you for reading this.

7 scary reasons to improve employee training

If you own or run a small business, employee training is one of those costs you probably try to avoid.

It’s costly to backfill, it takes staff away from core duties, and you don’t always know whether it will have been time well spent until afterwards.

Because of this, many employers either don’t understand (or live in denial of) the fact that employee training is extremely important.

Not convinced?

Ok, Imagine you just found out you need an operation and are having the interview with your prospective surgeon…and he lets slip that he doesn’t have the proper training. How do you feel?

“Any workers can make mistakes, but in many industries not training workers properly puts management in direct legal risk.”

You’d check out of the hospital faster than Jiminy Cricket!

…You wouldn’t let an engineer build a bridge without the right training.

…You wouldn’t send your kids to a school where the teachers weren’t trained.

The list goes on. So, most of us admit it eventually, staff development is important.

How do so many of us end up with problems in this area? Hint, its not a hiring problem. Business managers don’t usually hire unqualified employees, but they do hire under-qualified workers, and worse, we all let standards slip over time.

An employee can become underqualified for several reasons:

  • Our company is too busy to train right now
  • When there’s a lot of changes in a business such as technology
  • We don’t have enough money to pay for training

Yes, It takes materials, money and time to train employees. In many cases, third parties are required for the job training. There’s an investment of time which is un-billable as well as other costs. Some employers don’t train employees because of their past negative experiences. The training may not have been done correctly or the wrong topics were taught. When training fails it’s a high cost for the company.

However, If you don’t train your employees, this is also a serious risk. Here’s why untrained employees are costing you far more than you think:

1. Untrained is Unhappy

When you have employees that feel like they underachieve, feel inadequate or unsupported, they tend to feel unhappy. If you want staff buy in to your vision and mission, you need to train them. This ends up costing money and time for the company.

2. Production Value is Lower

An untrained employee won’t be able to solve problems to the same degree as someone who is properly trained. The performance and dollar per hour value of that employee tends to be lower than it would if the employee was given professional development.

3. Inconsistency is Inefficiency

You can spend more money and time when you have an untrained employee. It ends up taking them longer to complete the work assigned to them and the consistency just isn’t there. Even basic tasks can be done faster with training, and the more complicated the process, the more important the training.

4. Mistakes and Damaged Goods

You’re not losing money with training. An employee without the right training causes mistakes and wastes time which does cost you money. There’s materials and time lost when an employee makes a mistake. In some cases, there’s an inadequate product which is delivered to the client. The damage to you

5. Legal Liability

Any workers can make mistakes, but in many industries not training workers properly puts management in direct legal risk. Staff, clients, customers and the public are all at increased risk of accidents and mistakes if employees are not well supported and educated on their roles and responsibilities.

6. More Miscellaneous Expenses

Untrained workers are less likely to look for issues in service delivery or ways to improve customer experience. These expenses can be harder to track and mistakes may take more time to fix. If things were done right the first time, there wouldn’t be added costs. Trained workers are more likely to think about improving your business offering and make your clients happier.

7. Lost Clients

If you have untrained employees, the degradation to product or communication quality you can lose clients and customers. Staff could be selling out of fit or talking to customers with entirely the wrong language. This impacts your customer experience and erodes client base as they expect more from you as a company.

There you have it, 7 scary reasons not to ignore employee training and skills development. So…what then?

Solution: Better Quality Work with Quality Employee Training

When you have a trained workforce, you have workers which are learning new skills and this can cut production time, improve consistency, reduce costs, reduce mistakes, and build up a confident workforce. This all creates a safer working environment, happier, more passionate staff and a better customer experience.

When you invest in the skill set of your employees, you’re making an investment in your company. When you have trained employees, everyone benefits.

If you need help to implement an online training platform for your staff, then Wyzed can help. It’s what we do best.