Outlook Online: Three favorite features
On a daily basis I receive dozens of email messages from retail stores, online vendors or companies that I’ve purchased from or communicated with in the past — clothing stores, shoe stores, and printing companies —along with recipe…
How becoming a better learner can be your secret weapon
When I started my career in journalism about 25 years ago (yikes!), the newspaper business was a lot different than it is today. While basic reporting skills such as conducting interviews and story writing haven’t changed very much,…
Celebrate Dr. Seuss Day
Tomorrow -- March 2 -- is the birthday of Theodore Geisel, better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss (rhymes with ‘Joyce’ not ‘Zeus’). Since his death, every March 2 we celebrate Dr. Seuss Day. It's a day for reading…
Google Docs Basic Features
Google Docs resembles most common word processors. Document Template Your first screen offers choices for a New Document. There are template options for commonly used documents: resumes, letters, brochures, and proposals. You may start with a template, which…
Career Development Through Training
Attending training is a wise career development move, often giving you skills to be more efficient and productive, which can help boost your career. In some cases, training can cause you to think in different ways and give…
Focus on a single task
For those of you who are bad at multi-tasking — rejoice! You shouldn’t be doing it anyway. In Velsoft’s course, Getting Stuff Done — Personal Development Boot Camp, learners are advised to stop multi-tasking and concentrate on a…
Fostering Innovation Quick Reference Guide
Fostering innovation means to create an environment where employees are able to let ideas flow freely; it means being open to new ideas, allowing creativity to flow from all areas, and accepting that not all ideas are going…
Random Acts of Kindness at Velsoft
This weekend we are asked to perform Random Acts of Kindness. When I was planning for this blog, I thought first I would start with a definition, so I asked my friend Wikipedia and found the following: A…
Creating an Innovative Environment
When talking about creating an innovative environment we need to first define what innovation is. Innovation in its purest form means to create something new, but it can also mean better solutions, new methods of doing something, finding…
Creating Successful Blended Learning
Blended learning refers to combining face-to-face instruction with eLearning, and is also known as hybrid, mixed, or integrative learning. Blended learning must successfully integrate synchronous (at the same time) and asynchronous (not happening at the same time) activities,…
Clean Out Your Computer Day
Want to work better and faster? Of course you do! Cleaning out your computer can help you accomplish this. Deleting unnecessary files and uninstalling unused applications can make your computer run faster, and getting organized by sorting your…
Fostering innovation is crucial for businesses
Fostering innovation is good for businesses and yet many don’t do it. Innovative companies grow faster and are more profitable than those that aren’t innovators. Benefits include differentiating from the competition, increasing sales and profits, and better employee…
Getting to Know Velsoft better
Studies have shown that getting to know co-workers has many advantages, including employee satisfaction, a better team atmosphere, and enhanced productivity. In The Benefit of Getting To Know Your Coworkers, 2313 Inc. writes that: “One of the main benefits…
What do vegetables have to do with training?
So what do vegetables have to do with a good learning experience? As it turns out, not much. Recently I was completing an update of one of our softskills courses and I came across an Energizer activity that…
Recognizing the Privacy Officer on Data Privacy Day
Today, Jan. 28, is Data Privacy Day around the world. As the name suggests, it’s a day to promote good privacy practices and education at home and in the workplace, and to recognize the work being done to…
Three words for February: Clean, Balance, Organize
Clean. Balance. Organize. I recently read a blog by Chris Brogan (keynote speaker, author, and business and marketing advisor) in which he explains why instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, he uses a practice called “My 3 Words.”…
Mobbing in the Workplace Quick Reference Guide
What is mobbing in the workplace? More and more people are becoming familiar with the harmful effects of bullying. Bullying is a problem that exists in many environments, including workplaces, and inflicts harm on the target through the…
Is It Possible to Cure Stage Fright?
Musicians, actors, magicians, politicians, and trainers all have one thing in common: performing in public. Stage fright is a workplace hazard for these people! While there are many causes of stage fright, one of the most common is…
To ditch or not to ditch, that is the question
“Many years ago, I resolved to never bother with New Year’s Resolutions, and I have stuck with it ever since.” — Dave Beard Like Dave Beard, it seems as though most Velsoftians didn’t make New Year’s Resolutions either,…
What is Mobbing?
What and Why? Bullying is a problem that exists in many environments, including workplaces, and inflicts harm on the target through the use of harassment, threats, intimidation, humiliation, or sabotage. It is damaging and often occurs over a…
Making Training Dollars Count
In today’s economy, finding ways to make every dollar count is more important than ever. What investment will give you the longest-lasting impact? The answer, of course, is training. The old saying, “Give a man a fish and…
Clean Off Your Desk Day: The Aftermath
Clean Off Your Desk Day encourages people to have a clutter-free, clean, and organized workspace. Experts say a functional workspace will increase productivity, as a clean and organized desk allows workers to focus and process information more easily.…
The Top 10 Softskills Needed for Future Success
Businesses that don’t invest in training and teaching their employees new skills over the next few years are going to get left behind, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum. “New technology adoption drives business…
Organization of a code base in CSS and HTML
Strategy and Structure The organization of a code base can greatly affect speed of development as well as the speed at which a page is rendered. Performance As a website’s code base and traffic grows, a new skill…
Mobbing in the Workplace
For about six years beginning in 1997, four female firefighters in Richmond, British Columbia were subjected to harassment from their male colleagues. The women reported incidents including obscenities written inside their helmets and lockers, threatening notes, the display…
A little bit of trivia
Here at Velsoft, we enjoy trivia. Account representative Cindy poses a daily question to staff on HipChat, and content creation manager Kevin regularly quizzes the sales staff with statistical trivia. What is trivia? Dictionary definitions include: matters or…
Story Marketing Lessons from Star Wars
I love movies and TV series, especially science fiction. I own copies of all the Star Wars movies, along with all the Star Trek movies and episodes from all the different series. I also have Firefly, Babylon 5,…
Velsoft’s advent calendar
As most Velsoftians are aware, at the head office we’ve been conducting a reverse advent calendar activity. Many of us will remember having advent calendars as youngsters, each day in December opening the little door in the calendar…
Getting Started with OneNote Online
OneNote Online is the cloud-based version of Microsoft’s note taking program. Using OneNote Online, you can gather many types of content into one location, and share your notes as needed. Best of all, OneNote Online’s interface is intuitive…
GDPR: The First Six Months
December 2018 marks almost seven months since the European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was enacted, resulting in a shake-up of privacy practices in Europe and around the world. Since then, what has been the effect of…