Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
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10 December 2014 / January 2015 Elearning! News People on the Move RAMSEY CHAMBERS has joined Meridian Knowledge Solutions as vice president of Product Manage- ment and Strategy. Chambers brings deep roots in learning, with former executive- and strategic-level positions at Academic Benchmarks and Black- board, Inc. At Meridian, Chambers will be responsible for driving the learning product strategy, evangelizing the learning product mission, and position- ing products for relevant markets. LISA BRUMMEL, the human resources chief who helped to lead Microsoft through a series of major changes in HR practices, is retiring from the company at the end of the year. She will be replaced in the role by Kathleen Hogan, who has worked at Microsoft for 11 years, most recently leading the 21,000-employee Microsoft Services division. Brummel is a 25-year vet- eran of the company who led human resources for nearly a decade after working in the company's product groups. Hogan, who has joined he company's senior leadership team, now reports to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Learning Technologies Group has appointed NEIL ELTON as its new finance director with immedi- ate effect. Elton joins the company from fellow AIM-listed Sagentia Group, the technology research and development company, where he was the finance director from 2010 to 2014. Richard Jones, the current finance director, will step down from the board and become group financial controller. E-learning leader MICHAEL ABBIATTI is stepping into a leadership role at the WICHE Coop- erative for Educational Technolo- gies (WCET). Effective January 5, 2015, he will join the non-profit educational policy organization as WCET executive director and WICHE vice president for educa- tional technologies. Abbiatti served as director of distance education for Louisiana State University, and then as associate commissioner of information and learning technol- ogy for the Louisiana Board of Re- gents. He will take the reins from Mollie McGill and Russ Poulin, who served as co-interim executive directors for 2014. Enterprise Learning! Conference Calls for Papers ELC15 will move to June 8-10, 2015 and be hosted at the Hylton Center in Manassas, VA. The event hosts the annual Learning! 100 Award and Innovations in E-learning Symposium with partners from Defense Acquisition University and George Mason University. The ELC15 Call for Papers is now open and seeks presentations from learning executives on best practices, strategies and technol- ogy at work. Presenters from corporate, government, education and non-proft entities are invited to submit. Submit your paper at: http:// www.2elearning.com/events/ELC2015 Sales Professionals Want Training to Be More Engaging Nearly half of training professionals (48%) say their organization's sales training content isn't engaging enough to work, while 25% say the materials created don't match sales teams' needs. Perhaps it's no wonder that only 32% describe their organization's current sales training programs as "effective." In addition to struggling with training content that falls fat and/or is ir- relevant, respondents cited other content-related challenges, noting that, on the whole, their organizations fnd that sales training materials are: >> Too time-consuming to create – 50% >> Too hard to create – 24% >> Too expensive to create – 31% >> Too hard to update – 32% >> Obsolete by/before delivery time – 15% Survey results show that the most prevalent methods for sales training for organizations today are: live classroom (80%), live Web conferencing (65%), on-demand training (67%), video (49%) and social learning (28%). –Source: Brainshark, Inc. Employees Today Feeling Overloaded with Work The 2014 "State of Workplace Productivity Report" of 2,009 U.S. employees cites the biggest hindrances to productivity in the workplace. Key insights: >> 68% say they're overworked, compared to 54 percent in 2013. >> The No. 1 productivity killer in the workplace is work overload — and 52% say it's gotten worse in the last year. >> 65% think a fexible and remote work schedule would increase their productivity. An additional 65% agree that in-person meetings can be completely replaced with the right technology. >> In-person collaboration is still preferred by 63%, compared to 28% who say online collaboration is preferred and just 10% who say phone or video conferencing is preferred. >> 80% would be motivated to use company-provided wearable tech- nology that allows employers to track their health and wellness data, and 76% would be willing to allow employers to track job performance and productivity — in exchange for rewards. — Source: Kelton Research