As a predominantly online business, with customers all over the world, Velsoft's website is essentially the home base for our business. Like many other businesses, we rely on our website to link our social media pages, newsletters, and…

We know that giving effective feedback can be tough. You want to be able to provide constructive feedback, that helps the individual learn and grow, while avoiding insulting, belittling or punishing them. Feedback is essentially commentary on how…

We know that introducing training can help improve employees' skills, but it also helps businesses to reach their overall objectives and goals.  In this blog, we will explore the process of how to conduct a training needs analysis -…

As I was pulling together information about social learning for this piece, I quickly realized how closely it relates to a blog I wrote a couple of weeks ago about user-generated content, which is essentially content generated by…

Do you know someone in your workplace who’s a little more motivated to follow their own projects than regular tasks? Someone who always has ideas for advancing the business, new ideas to streamline processes, or another money-making idea?…

I don’t know about you, but as a trainer, when I complete a really great workshop I always read the evaluations. I pore over them looking for ways that I can improve training, get more engagement, provide experiences…

Do you know of a company that goes above and beyond to protect its workers at home and abroad? Do you work with an organization that protects the environment while growing its bottom line? Or perhaps you’ve read…

Hello? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? Maybe I'm dating myself with a movie reference to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but I remember the teacher in that movie taking attendance at the front of the room, and how he tried…

In the brave new world of hiring, Millennials are often interviewing a potential employer as much as they are being interviewed. Why should we hire you? often becomes why should I work for you? Traditional recruiting is not…

Everything in moderation - that can apply to eating or drinking or working. Yes, working. If you find yourself slaving away for hours without end each day, there comes a point where either you will resent your situation,…

TLDR. This bit of online jargon stands for Too Long Didn’t Read. You definitely don’t want that applied to your emails, business or otherwise. It could lead to lost sales or, in extreme cases, getting your business emails…

Look around your office. Is everyone the same? I doubt it. There is a likely a mix of genders, races, ethnicities and backgrounds. But they all have to work together. It’s great that we can all work together,…

How does the saying go? It’s something like ‘I would rather cry in a Mercedes than laugh on the bus.’ This is just another version of the old time-worn saw ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness.’ Well, neither does poverty,…

The pictures are everywhere – refugees fleeing their homelands for safety, to the chance of a better life. Some pictures are galvanizing, like the one of the three-year-old Syrian boy face down in the surf on a Turkish…

Do you cause congestion in the workplace? Are you a bottleneck? Does not having control over every little thing that your staff works on make your skin crawl? Is the only way for things to get done correctly…

A look around the Velsoft office reveals just what you’d expect: traditional work stations and chairs. Except for two oddities tucked shamefully in the corner. One is blue, the other purple. These bent-wood yoga chairs are the relics…

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” Rodney King asked that in the spring of 1992 as Los Angeles suffered through riots following the acquittal of four police officers who were charged…

Let’s look at a few numbers. 25, 49, 35 The first number tells us that one-quarter of Chief Human Resources Officers and HR leaders lie awake at night worrying about employee engagement and retention. Twenty-five percent, that’s a…

There’s a street near our office that I cross daily to get to work. The other day I saw a driver lock his brakes and almost rear-end a car that had stopped for me at a marked crosswalk.…

Music or no music? Music in the workplace can be a divisive issue, without a doubt. Some listeners submit themselves to the isolation of headphones while others like having soft music playing for ambiance from speakers or a…

We've got an addiction problem here at the office. One day it might be muffins, or cookies, or granola bars, or cake, or donair egg rolls…mmmmmm, donair egg rolls. Another day it might be marshmallow squares, pastries, or…

Have you ever thought about how you measure up as a trainer? Are you the hyper-prepared A type who leaves absolutely nothing to chance? Are you the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type who wings it? Somewhere in between? I know what…

Clothes make the man. Appearances can be deceiving. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Dress for success. Hogwash. These platitudes are not worth the pixels that make them appear on your screen. Attitude is everything. I heard…

If you ask me what I’m going to have for supper I couldn’t tell you. I can’t see that far into the future, I’m not a fortune teller, and planning ahead is not my forte. But that won’t…

The number of stress balls flying around the Velsoft office far outpaces the actual level of stress. Those balls are the orphans of a promotional idea that’s now lost in the mists of time. A coffin-shaped box that…

Here’s a topic that might get your blood boiling, one way or the other: political correctness. According to Wikipedia, political correctness means “using words or behavior which will not offend any group of people.” Regardless of which side…

Coffee is nearly as important to Velsoft as the Internet. And considering we’re an online business, that’s saying a lot. But it’s not far from the truth. Our coffee maker hardly ever stops running during the workday and…

Pressed for time? Pressed for learning? That’s pretty common these days and it looks like one vision of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) learning aims to address that. The NOOC (Nano Open Online Course) is the next step…