A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill Programs As organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking? For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization. In Proving the Value of Soft Skills, measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders’ hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts. This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: business alignment design evaluation data collection isolation of the program effects cost capture ROI calculations results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.

What’s the worst thing you can hear when you have a good idea at work? “That’s not how we do it here!” In their iconic bestseller Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber used a simple fable about penguins to explain the process of lead­ing people through major changes. Now, ten years later, they’re back with another must-read story that will help any team or organization cope with their biggest challenges and turn them into exciting opportunities. Once upon a time a clan of meerkats lived in the Kalahari, a region in southern Africa. After years of steady growth, a drought has sharply reduced the clan’s resources, and deadly vulture attacks have increased. As things keep getting worse, the har­mony of the clan is shattered. The executive team quarrels about possible solutions, and sugges­tions from frontline workers face a soul-crushing response: “That’s not how we do it here!” So Nadia, a bright and adventurous meerkat, hits the road in search of new ideas to help her trou­bled clan. She discovers a much smaller group that operates very differently, with much more teamwork and agility. These meerkats have developed innova­tive solutions to find food and evade the vultures. But not everything in this small clan is as perfect as it seems at first. Can Nadia figure out how to combine the best of both worlds—a large, disciplined, well-managed clan and a small, informal, inspiring clan—before it’s too late? This book distills Kotter’s decades of experi­ence and award-winning research to reveal why organizations rise and fall, and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.

Employee engagement, impact, ROI—if you can’t connect the three, your program’s in trouble. The number of employees who sleepwalk through the day or undermine the work of their engaged counterparts is on the rise. More and more companies are turning to engagement programs to recoup lost revenue and productivity. But these pricey endeavors can lose critical funding when they are designed without business impact in mind. In Measuring the Success of Employee Engagement, renowned experts Jack Phillips and Patti Phillips and knowledge organization expert Rebecca Ray help you make the business case for an employee engagement initiative. More important, you’ll discover what it takes to build a program with the end in mind. By following real case studies that show the Phillips’s ROI Methodology in action, you’ll learn how to avoid narrowly focusing your efforts on behavioral outcomes alone. Measuring the Success of Employee Engagement is an essential resource for all who support employee engagement efforts, from the chief learning officer to individual members of employee engagement teams. Ensure that your employees drive innovation and increase sales with an engagement program that earns its keep.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill Programs As organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking? For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization. In Proving the Value of Soft Skills , measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders' hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts. This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: business alignment design evaluation data collection isolation of the program effects cost capture ROI calculations results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.

Summaries a portion of the research conducted under a two-year joint project of the American Society for Training and Development and the U.S. Department of Labor.

Although institutions of higher education have recognized the need for preparing their graduates for a digitalized, global workplace, these efforts have been sporadic, individualized, and varied from discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, over the past 10 years, trends such as “double classrooms,” “inverted classrooms,” and “collaborative online international learning” (COIL) have gained traction at universities across the globe. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, efforts to engage students in the use of digital tools and virtual collaborative teamwork increased tenfold. Creative and innovative virtual learning environments (VLEs) have emerged, and instructors have used them to connect with their students much more frequently. The holistic nature of virtual learning, its impact on employability, and the development of global citizenry have become prime areas of research amongst the digital education landscape. Now more than ever, it is essential to look at virtual learning environments and how they can be used to prepare students and employees for the opportunities and challenges of a global, digital workplace. Developments in Virtual Learning Environments and the Global Workplace provides readers with a rationale and tool kit for facilitating virtual learning in a wide variety of contexts in response to the opportunities and challenges presented by the digital global workplace. This book covers virtual learning practices, the value of virtual learning for professionals and employers, and the best practices in online learning in different settings. Additionally, the chapters dive into the future perspectives and trends within virtual learning environments and the creation/evaluation of virtual learning strategies. These insights range from diverse countries, education levels, industry sectors, and academic disciplines, making this book a comprehensive research tool. This book will greatly benefit e-learning and instructional designers, university senior managers, university staff responsible for mobility and exchange, researchers, professionals responsible for organizational development and further education, human resource directors, global company executives, managers, practitioners, stakeholders, academicians, and students looking for information on how virtual learning environments are preparing students for the global workplace.

*Shortlisted in the Management and Leadership Textbook Category at CMI Management Book of the Year Awards 2017* Keen to succeed in today’s competitive job market? Want to learn how to make the most of longer-term graduate career development opportunities? This handy guide is the gateway to help you understand the academic and practical aspects of employability and to make the most of your longer-term graduate employability development. Inside you’ll find: A critical examination of theory to help with your employability studies Practical insights through real-world case studies on everything from job applications, to using work experience and networking effectively Specially commissioned employer, university, adviser and graduate insights from organisations large and small, as diverse as investment banking and international development aid giving you the inside track on what employers are looking for and how to develop your career. This essential guide equips you with the knowledge and practical guidance you need to achieve your full potential during your studies, into your first role, and in your career beyond. SAGE Study Skills are essential study guides for students of all levels. From how to write great essays and succeeding at university, to writing your undergraduate dissertation and doing postgraduate research, SAGE Study Skills help you get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips, resources and videos on study success!

Key themes in the book are: 1. The need to revaluate how people contribute and create value in today's economy – it is about knowledge, innovation and relationships today rather than executive potential tomorrow. 2. Challenging the conventional wisdom that talent refers to a 'special few' rather than the 'vital many'. Perhaps we don't have enough because we keep looking in the wrong places and doing the wrong things? 3. Conditions facing organizations are tough and competitive and markets are turbulent. To withstand this, we need to build talented organizations and talented individuals. 4. Interdependence between people within and across organizations is critical. The way that each individual relies on each other and how talent is realised through social and team ties makes a decisive, defining difference. 5. Individuals control when and who their potential is shared with. The idea that an organization can manage talent and potential is an outdated conceit. 6. The nature of work itself matters hugely. The extent to which it is stimulating and engaging – and how people can make the connection with what they do and the wider difference it makes – is vital. 7. The way talent is generated is affected by the whole 'ecology' of an organization – its sense of purpose, rituals, the behaviour of its leaders, how it hires and how it fires people all influence the way talent is generated.