I picked up on another sad statistic the other day. A recent survey of over 4000 workers revealed that one-third have never received a regular Performance Review

So, millions of workers in the UK are neither receiving regular  feedback on their performance  nor being advised as to what is expected of them.  How on earth can we expect to compete effectively in the global economy if so many people are in that situation?

At Mindleaders, Performance Reviews are part of our DNA and we have just started on our annual round of  discussions. Within the next few weeks, every single person will have held an in-depth review with their line manager to discuss their performance in 2011. They will then agree a set of Business Goals (which will be closely aligned to the overall needs of the business) and will put together an individual development plan designed to help them achieve the business and any other personal goals.

All of this information is recorded within our own Talent Management system (we like to practice what we preach) and progress is tracked and reviewed on a regular basis. It’s not a one-off box-ticking exercise – it’s a living, breathing tool that is now part of our culture and is valued throughout the business.

Of course, effective Performance Management doesn’t just happen by chance.  Meetings need to be carefully planned and thought through beforehand and both managers  and their people need time and space to talk through issues and agree plans for the future.  10 minute discussions at the end of a long day simply won’t work.

So does all the effort and planning  have any measurable impact on the business? The answer is an emphatic “Yes”. Every year we carry out a staff survey and once again, the results this year were excellent. However there was one particular statistic that stood out for me. 96% of our people say that they fully understand what is expected of them. That figure has improved significantly since we introduced our Talent Management system and I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a direct link between the two.  It also compares with another recent survey which showed that only 54% of employees understood what was being asked of them.

Our own results would therefore appear to be way above the norm and leaving aside all the many other benefits of a Talent Management system, if we can be assured that nearly every single person in our business understands exactly they need to do and how to do it, then our business is in a great place.

An important statement was released on the Skills Funding Agency website last Thursday. It confirmed what many of us had believed since the Government released its “New Challenges, New Chances” strategy document last November, that Functional Skills would be funded as standalone literacy and numeracy qualifications from 1 September, replacing the Adult Basic Skills (or Skills for Life) funding stream.

This statement has huge significance for everyone involved in the adult literacy and numeracy field. Until this point, we knew that Functional Skills would replace Key Skills within the Apprenticeship framework from 1 October 2012, but no commitment had been made to replace the Skills for Life programme which was ending at the same time.

We now have that commitment and the growing number of employers who recognise the benefits of upskilling their staff in literacy and numeracy can now put their people on funded Functional Skills programmes.

However (and when dealing with government funding initiatives, there always seems to be a “however”), there are still several unanswered questions which need urgent clarification.  Until now, workplace literacy and numeracy has been funded through two totally different programmes – Key Skills within the Apprenticeship Framework, and Skills for Life (SFL) as a standalone qualification. Whilst purporting to achieve the same uplift in skill levels, these programmes were funded at different rates (c£175 for Key Skills and c£500-600 for Skills for Life). Now we have a single qualification but no information whatsoever has been released about the funding levels available when the programme kicks in on 1 September.

One can only assume that as a far more robust and complex programme than either Key Skills or SFL, Functional Skills will be funded in the £500-600 region.  But will the same rate apply to Functional Skills within the Apprenticeship framework?

I find it very frustrating that once again the government has released a major statement about the funding of adult literacy and numeracy programmes without providing the necessary detail which will allow employers and training providers to plan out programmes which must now start in less than 6 months time.  Training providers are already grappling with the complexities of delivering Functional Skills and it is imperative that they receive the financial information which will enable them to deliver cost-effective solutions.

At MindLeaders, we have been delighted by the response to our Functional Skills solution and are now talking to many different organisations about delivering Functional Skills programmes. However, like everyone else, those discussions are being hampered by the lack of clear funding guidelines and we need that information now – not in 6 months time.

There’s a growing buzz in the internet rumour mill about Microsoft having found their “golden reason” to upgrade to Windows 8 – built in connect. Microsoft recently announced Kinect for windows and the buzz is that this will be built in to some windows laptops, netbooks and probably even tablets.

What does this mean?  – Well, here’s a scenario.

Imagine, if you will, standing at the front of an audience to run a presentation from a box with Kinect built into your Windows 8 Operation System with Metro.  Changing page could be as simple as waving at the laptop, or  imagine selecting a video through a mixture of voice and pointing at it on the screen.  No actual touching needed.

The World of Minority Report style interfaces could be approaching far faster than we thought possible…

The next obvious question is – would manufacturers get behind it? Apart from the point that someone obviously already has as demos are currently being leaked, there is a huge upside for manufacturers. Recently, the necessity for consumers to upgrade their OS has been less than overwhelming.  It’s certainly nice to have the newest processor, more ram and a fast SSD hard disk but it’s hard to justify a new laptop on just those grounds.

Kinect would change all that – it adds a new, and very sexy, feature to Windows.  What sales agent worth their salt wouldn’t want to wow their customers with the latest tech to show they are ahead of the game?  For those of us with kids (or technavore partners) the “I need it” factor is huge.  New hardware for Christmas isn’t then just a “nice to have” but becomes a “if you loved me you’d get me a Kinect equipped laptop” scenario.

So will manufacturers get behind this? In the words of Sarah Palin, “You Betcha!”

As for my opinion – if this comes off this could well be a game changer and is certainly going on my Christmas list if I haven’t saved enough pennies to get one at launch.

Having come from a long background of education in IT and computing, surely I am IT savvy? Surely I know how to work a simple office application such as Excel? After all, I have been using them all my life!

Not so.

Following my arrival at MindLeaders and in my new role as account manager for the Public Sector, I thought it only fair that I partake in some of the ECDL courses I will be delivering to my partners.

Before starting the Unit 4 Spreadsheet ECDL Courseware, I was typically confident of breezing through the courseware and achieving 100% in my AutoTest exam. After all, I have been using PC’s since starting with Windows 3.1 at 5 years old.

Upon commencing the courseware, I was fairly confident going through the first few modules: ‘creating a spreadsheet’, ‘creating basic formulas’ etc. This perhaps inflated my ego further with the notion that I was indeed the self proclaimed Office Guru I previously thought.

However after delving further into the interactive courseware, beginning subjects such as ‘creating more advanced formulas’, my confidence in my ability started to wane! No longer was I flying through the questions, entering the correct formulas to achieve the desired result. I was now starting to rack my brain, rarely finding the answers and beginning to question what I have been studying all these years!

After completing the courseware I decided to take a diagnostics test to ‘check out my knowledge’ and I received an average result. I was certainly not quite the Office Guru I thought at the beginning of my training! Perhaps I will need to undertake some more training before entering Auto-Test to achieve that magic 100%!

In all, it was a truly challenging course, one that I have not taken during my education career and one I perhaps should have. It is always refreshing to be challenged as a learner and my experience with one unit of the ECDL course remind me of the fact that it is not always wise to stop studying and definitely not wise to be so blindly confident of my skills.

Let’s be honest. In any business, IT skills are as imperative as reading writing and speaking. Upon completion of this one unit, I can confidently say I have learned transferrable skills that I can take forward into my new job role.

Time to check out my Word Processing competencies….. If I dare!

Last month saw the publication of a report by the World Literacy Foundation which makes depressing reading for those of us attempting to address this issue.  The report highlights the fact that in the UK, six to eight million adults are functionally illiterate. This means that although they can read and write simple words, they cannot apply these skills to accomplish tasks which are necessary to make informed choices and participate fully in everyday life, such as filling in a job application form or reading a bank statement.

Moreover, the problem is self-perpetuating as illiterate parents tend to have lower aspirations and expectations for their children. They cannot teach them to read or encourage a love of learning.

The cost to the UK economy, according to this report, is in the region of £81 billion per year. When one considers that almost three times as many adults lack functional numeracy skills, the total cost to the economy is likely to be far higher.

There will never be an easy single solution to a crisis of this complexity, but there is no doubt that the introduction of Functional Skills into the Apprenticeship programme represents a significant  step  forward.  Functional Skills is designed to enable learners to adapt their learning to different situations rather than simply applying some basic knowledge to their current role.

It is therefore worrying that a number of organisations are still lobbying the government in an attempt to delay the introduction of Functional Skills or to dumb down the robust Assessment process.  Their argument is that learners will find Functional Skills too difficult to complete and will therefore lose interest in their Apprenticeship programme. But is that really their concern or do they simply want to maintain the status quo because they know that the discredited Key Skills alternative is easy to deliver and can therefore quickly draw down government funding?

Our experience to date with Functional Skills has been extremely positive. First-time pass rates have been exceptionally high (and continue to improve) and learners love the additional challenge presented by a course which genuinely stretches them and provides them with real learning opportunities.  Moreover, our clients report that Functional Skills learners are more confident and more highly motivated than their Key Skills counterparts and likely to progress more rapidly through their Apprenticeship programmes.

So let’s embrace Functional Skills with open arms rather than trying to fight or delay its introduction. It provides UK Plc with a genuine opportunity to develop the skills required to enable us to compete globally whilst at the same time reducing the massive cost burden to the economy.

During an induction for a new member of the MindLeaders team, one of the areas that I love to introduce to my colleagues is the sheer variety of the social care world.

When people think of the care sector often the first image that comes to mind is of an elderly care home setting, but there are many other service groups to think about. One highly rewarding area, for example, is the learning disability world. I’m always proud to show new team members the role that our elearning courses and learning services play in facilitating the fantastic work that social care providers undertake in this space up and down the country.

And over our thirty years as a training provider, we’ve seen the care model change for the better. Many years ago, those with learning disabilities were locked away in institutions and ostracised from society as part of a highly exclusive social care model.

Nowadays, the social care model is far more inclusive. Instead of shutting them away from the outside world, we have support workers who endeavour to enable those with learning disabilities to participate in society as much as possible.

In our opinion, elearning can be one way for those with learning disabilities to participate and build their confidence by discovering their own potential. We firmly believe that everyone should have access to learning, which is why we offer our courses free of charge to our partners’ service users. I’d like to share with you the story of Nick, a young service user who attends a Voyage day service:

“Recently Caroline, the senior at the service, asked me if I would like to complete some training courses on the internet, as I am a bit of a whizz on the computer I jumped at the chance. I enrolled myself with Third Force training company [now MindLeaders] and was given my own users name and password. Caroline helped me to log on the computer (although I think I was helping her more!) and we were away I decided I would like to do Food Hygiene first. I spent four one hour sessions on the computer and passed each test first time. I am very proud of my achievement, but there is one drawback and that is now all the staff want me to help them to complete their food hygiene training!”

Nick’s story may not be a huge headline or the basis for a big press release about corporate social responsibility, but I do think that his outstanding success shows that as an elearning company, in a day-to-day way we really can live our values and “change lives through learning”.

Over the holiday period I was in Austria learning how not to fall over every two minutes. One day I was in a cab with a delightfully friendly driver. Her English was impeccable, a lot better than my German. It was a relatively long trip of about 40 minutes. So, after the usual “cab in a different country” conversation (very different to “cab in your own country” conversations) which included the revelation that Ireland was not in the UK (“You don’t have the queen?”) there was a lull in the conversation.

The music on the radio wasn’t my cup to tea, to say the least, and after four or five songs the driver said “Nickleback, every single song is good… every song!”

“Yeeeeaaah” I replied faux-enthusiastically.

“Are there many good Ireland bands?”

“Yeah, of course, we have lots of good bands” I replied, seizing my chance to impress, “like U2 or Van Morrison or The Cranberries or The Frames for example?.. .No response…”or Thin Lizzy?”… again, no response. I listed as many bands as I could think of and the only response I got was when I mentioned “Westlife”… “oh, Westlife”.

Then out of nowhere came the driver’s Eureka moment: “Johnny Logan, He is Irish, yes?” This threw me quite a bit. “He is the man that Austrian mothers want their daughters to come home with…”

As I digested that particular piece of information, wondering how Johnny Logan* was more famous in Austria than U2, I started to think about the importance of knowing your audience. I had been thinking purely from my own point of view and my own expectations, i.e what would I expect to hear if I asked that question.

Yet when delivering a service we deal with different people of all ages, from different countries with different backgrounds and levels of experience. That means that part of what we need to do is adapt our language, our tone and the level of detail we use to suit the person on the other end.

In all of the courses and programmes MindLeaders deliver, we use subject matter experts to make sure that they are fit for the audience they are meant for. Every day of the week our courseware and our testing are taken by a hugely diverse number of people all over the world.

Each week our learning support managers and customer service representatives talk to and email hundreds of learners, managers, teachers, administrators etc. and in every one of those interactions a huge amount of work has gone into understanding and adapting to the audience and with consistent feedback those interactions get better each time.

If you don’t adapt and learn if you look at each interaction from your own perspective, from the way you would like to receive the information then you are on to a loser. So who knows, the next time anyone asks me about Irish music, my first response might just be “Johnny Logan!”

*Johnny Logan is the most successful artist in Eurovision history (and Irish)

At our recent Functional Skills Forum, the disturbing fact was presented that nearly one quarter of working adults have numeracy skills below those expected of an 11 year old starting at secondary school.  Even more worrying is the fact that the figure has got worse since the last survey in 2003. All of this despite huge focus on the problem by successive governments and millions of pounds of funding allocated to solve it. Knowing those facts, it is hardly surprising that in 2010, about 377,000 UK jobs were taken up by foreign workers. Clearly we have a cohort of adults in the UK who simply do not have the basic skills required to compete effectively in the jobs market and we have to tackle this crisis as a matter of urgency.

So what has gone wrong? It’s doubtful that there is one single factor and whilst it is very easy to put the blame on the school system,  we have to accept that work-based learning Maths and English programmes have not produced the results that were originally intended. In particular, the Key Skills element of Apprenticeship programmes has had no impact whatsoever and was strongly criticised in the Wolf Report.  This makes you wonder whether those people who are staging a rearguard attempt to retain Key Skills and to further delay the introduction of Functional Skills, genuinely have the interests of learners at heart, or are just looking for the easy life (and easy funding) associated with the simple MCQ exam at the heart of the Key Skills assessment process.

To be fair to the present government, once they set their minds on something, they seem determined to stick to it notwithstanding any short-term dips in popularity and they have consistently evangelised the need to raise Maths and English levels in the entire adult working population to a minimum GCSE ‘A-C’ Level. That is a huge commitment and it will require appropriate funding if work-based training providers are going to provide effective solutions.

However, there are early signs that this strategy may pay dividends. Speaking at the Forum, Sandra Kelly who heads up the Apprenticeship programme at  our partners, Whitbread  and who has championed a successful  Functional Skills pilot scheme, emphasised very clear differences between Apprentices studying Key Skills and their counterparts on the Functional Skills programme.  The latter had not only developed far more effective  Maths and English skills which they could adapt to different situations, they were more confident in their work and more motivated to succeed.

We are delighted that our Functional Skills solution is clearly having a positive impact on the skills crisis in the UK. Of course, there’s a long way to go yet, but there is every indication that Functional Skills could be the key which finally unlocks the potential in our work force and equips them properly for a future career rather than a dead end job.

Happy, smiling and engaged employees are vital. And when they aren’t happy, the world tends to find out about it quickly.  These days, a single disgruntled UPS driver hurls a package 100ft to a door and it’s a viral YouTube smash hit.

So how do we foster engaged and productive workers? Daniel H. Pink’s Drive (isbn 978 1 84767 769 3) explains when the good old stick and carrot no longer work and why they can have the opposite effect you require on both engagement and productivity.

Pink shows that employees who consider themselves fairly paid are not further motivated by bonuses if they are involved in creative work.  In fact, external pressure by censure or reward tends to cause degradation in performance rather than improvement. It turns out that what really engages employees is the chance to do a good job and to be fully engaged whilst doing it. Dan Pink refers to this state as “Flow”.

Flow is the wonderful state of mind we achieve when doing something that holds all our attention, stretches us mentally and leaves us with a sense of having “done something” when a task is completed.  Most importantly, it leaves us hungry for more.

If you want an example of how motivating Flow is, try prising a teenager away from their Nintendo DS in mid-game (but please ensure your medical insurance is paid up first).

Hand in hand with Flow is the concept of Mastery. We don’t just want to be average at what we do.  It’s unfulfilling, boring and does little to enhance our sense of happiness.  We want to get better at what we do and enjoy the rewards that true Mastery brings – recognition from our colleagues, happy customers and a sense of a job well done.

All of this points to the vital role of personalised learning and development in the workplace. To be highly motivated, we need to be both well trained and also allowed the autonomy to improve. Like some of my colleagues, I’m certain that Pink has a point. After all – who wouldn’t want to be a Master of their trade?

2012 will see some companies pull ahead of others because they are able to collaborate, innovate and execute better and faster thanks to an ingrained culture of sharing. This is the year that companies get serious about investing in their internal social business capabilities, simply because it helps create and sustain a fast-moving, innovative and collaborative culture. It’s one thing to have a Facebook or Twitter presence run by your small marketing team.  It’s a very different story when a truly social business has hundreds or possibly thousands of employees connected externally as well as internally.

The true character of any business is revealed in the collective experiences of its customers. Over the next year successful companies will be investing time, money, and resources into three key areas: customer service (which builds brand loyalty and drives word of mouth), culture (which leads to the formation of core values), and employee training and development (which leads to a pipeline of successful leaders). To provide great customer service, companies must educate, train and empower their employees to solve customer problems.

Culture is often dismissed as the “soft” underbelly of business. But as business leaders like Tony Hsieh (Zappos) have written, culture is what creates and sustains a great company. To earn the attention and business of the connected consumer, brands, products, and services must connect with its consumer personally, emotionally and intellectually.   There are two ways I see culture changing because of increased sharing enabled by social technologies. The first revolves around connecting employees with customers. The second is connecting your employees with each other.

When connecting employees with customers no matter how many people you have on your social media team, it won’t be enough to meet the groundswell of customer demand. To do that, you have to create your own internal groundswell, embodied in all your employees, remembering that customer service is marketing.

The most important thing in creating a strong culture is that it creates tight alignment within the organisation. What the culture is actually doesn’t matter as much as the commitment to the culture and core values of the organisation.  A lot of companies have “core values” or “guiding principles,” but most of the time they are very lofty sounding, they read like press releases and nobody really pays attention to them. It doesn’t really do much good to have core values if the organisation isn’t living by them. The right culture will see employees stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.

When connecting employees with each others, tapping into the power of social technologies isn’t about mastering the latest shiny technology; it is actually about having a clear idea of the relationship you want to form.  A growing trend right now is the adoption of “Enterprise 2.0” where a company uses software to connect employees socially within the enterprise. This can be either as a standalone service (like Yammer or Socialcast) or integrated into a collaboration platform or suite (like Salesforce.com’s Chatter, IBM Connections or Sharepoint). Think of it as Facebook behind the firewall. These tools are a complete inversion of the top-down way companies run. Increasingly forward thinking leaders are behind the adoption of these technologies. They realise it is a way to transform their organisations simply by creating the opportunity for people to share.

Coupled with the rise of the golden triangle of technology (mobile, social, and real-time), sharing results in the barriers between departments falling. Silos get broken down and the power distance between leaders/managers and front line employees becomes smaller. In this environment employees will engage more with the training/learning because they have access to just-in-time information when they need it that is personalised to their needs and will be more engaged with the workplace as a whole because they will be integrated into it quickly and supported on an ongoing basis.

In the end, culture is defined simply by the values, norms, and practices of how we get work done each and every day.  Social media is about speaking with, not “at” people. The key challenge to making centralised decision making more open is not to involve more people in the actual decision but to open up information sharing in both directions, so that those in power have the right information on which to base their decisions and also have the commitment to share it back out to the organisation. The information economy is the economy, since information surrounds every product, real or virtual. Social business tools help liberate information. The intractable nature of some cultures means that in order for cultural transformations to happen and to happen quickly, the new norms and mindsets not only have to established and trained, but also reinforced over and over again.