Do you have a plan B?

 

The game gradually began to slow down as they came out of the opening phase without having made a single mistake and entered a tight middle game, each having lost a knight and a bishop, with their kings well protected and no holes in any position… Negotiation can sometimes resemble the famous Netflix series, the Queen’s Gambit. Everyone is protecting their king and no one wants to end up with checkmate. 

 

Negotiation processes are becoming more and more complex, often with a host of interlocutors to convince. The chess game becomes a tournament, where the stakes can be raised several times. Therefore, training in negotiation techniques is essential, in order to know simple techniques to implement to win the game. 

 

The “Become a Great Negotiator” playlist includes lessons that will help you boost the negotiation skills of your teams. Agenda, plan B, haggling, managing emotions and toxic subjects, pauses and silences… This playlist is full of tips to know how to conduct your negotiation masterfully. Aimed at a wide audience, these courses will provide your employees with the essential basics to negotiate in all situations.

 

So essential that we have selected 5 principles that no one can ignore for a successful negotiation, and these pro tips are directly issued from the “Become a great negotiator” course playlist:

 

The plan B

In your negotiation you always want to keep the advantage, but it is possible to face a wall. That’s the whole point of your Plan B, which is there to make you stronger… in the negotiation of Plan A! Just as a game of chess can sometimes go against one of the players, the winner will be the one who is several moves ahead. Plan B is what you plan to do if you can’t reach agreement on Plan A. It must be concrete, unilaterally feasible and satisfactory, regardless of the current negotiation. Do not hesitate to disclose it whenever you need to, for example when your interlocutor, aware of a crucial deadline for you, intentionally shifts the discussions to increase the pressure on you.

 

Leading the discussion

Negotiations are often conducted with several people, unlike chess games. In a multiparty negotiation, you should make sure that you discuss with the strongest players first. This way, you can be sure that the agreement reached will not be questioned. This is also a way to get the minor players on board. In a chess tournament, the strongest players are the ones who will be the hardest to beat.

 

But be careful! In a partnership with several partners, it is necessary to identify the most important interlocutors and to negotiate with them first, without offending the others. This is the only way to avoid any form of pressure from your minor partners.

 

Negotiate on principles, not positions

Like Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit, anticipate! As a preventive measure, before starting the negotiation, systematically prepare yourself to have to explain the principles underlying each of your positions. Thus, you always begin by presenting the principle(s) that underlie your position, i.e. the reasoning that justifies it. Your counterpart will then have less time to prepare a response to this position, and will instead react to the reasoning.

 

And what if the opponent sees through your game? If he analyzes everything in detail and asks you to justify this or that point? Don’t be impatient! Keep your cool, don’t get overwhelmed like Beth did by getting depressed and drinking. Stick to the facts, avoid interpretation and present the proposals from the point of view of your partner’s interests.

 

Leading the meeting

In chess, as in poker, the attitude of the player is as crucial as his game. The expression “poker face” testifies to this. Emotions are put aside and the affective dimension does not pull any strings in the game. Conversely, in negotiation, the emotional dimension is very present before, during and after the game. But this is a trap, as negative emotions are contagious and can cause the discussion to fail. It is therefore necessary to keep business and emotions separate!

 

Nevertheless, unlike chess, cooperation is the most effective dynamic in negotiation. Indeed, if you treat your partner as an adversary, he will act like one and this can put obstacles to reaching an agreement.

 

Negotiation is one of the trickiest aspects of business and few people can claim to be true negotiators. But the good news is that negotiating is a skill that can be learned! Whether you’re negotiating deals with Chinese investors or discussing who’s going to cook tonight, the principles of negotiation are the same.

 

Find out how to become a great negotiator :

The fundamentals of negotiation

Test your relationship to work!

 

Lockdowns, remote working, health measures and social upheaval: the COVID crisis has shaken up the needs of employees. Today, employees are questioning the way things are done, expressing new expectations and may even resign without you having been able to anticipate it. Engaging employees has therefore become a major challenge for managers in order to maintain the productivity of teams and the performance of the company.

 

Encouraging engagement at work is the subject of the latest course co-published by somanyWays. In this course, discover the Workoscope®: a reading grid that allows you to better understand your relationship to work – your vision, needs and expectations at work. It was developed in 2018 by somanyWays, after more than 3 years of R&D with individuals in professional questioning. 

 

Take the test and find out what kind of relationship you have with your work!

 

1 ) You have just been offered a promotion. First of all, congratulations! Your first reaction is…

a ) Accept without hesitation and immediately change your job title on LinkedIn to inform your network

b ) To take time to reflect on the changes that this new position may involve before making any decisions 

c ) To be enthusiastic about the idea of discovering new missions and to ask my interlocutor about the possibility of training associated with this promotion 

d) To look forward to discovering new projects and getting out of my comfort zone! 

e) To ensure that this promotion will enable me to make a significant contribution to the company’s development on key high-impact issues, as this is what drives me

 

2 ) A new project is discussed at a team meeting. You are…

a) You provide information on the stakeholders and people involved in the project

b) Take the lead in establishing a clear and well-defined plan of action to move the project forward 

c) Offer your help to advance a part of the project that interests you and in which you can deploy new skills 

d) Take the opportunity to organise a brainstorming meeting to innovate on this new project 

e) Remind the team of the importance of including this project in a CSR and environmentally friendly approach 

 

3) A new recruit has just joined the company! At the welcome breakfast, you will…

a) Ask them about their professional experiences and education, in search of common knowledge! 

b) Welcome them and invite them for a coffee to discuss joint projects!

c) Be delighted and interested in the personality of this new talent!

d) Offer to introduce yourself in 3 fun facts, it’s a change!

e) Ask about them values and the reasons why they joined the company

 

4 ) Friday, 6 p.m., you leave work… On the way home, you…

a) Open LinkedIn to see the reactions to your last post!

b) Hurry so you don’t arrive late for your dance class, it’s your passion and you’re already revising the steps in your head.

c) Log on to the Coorpacademy app to do a course and develop your skills!

d) Still thinking about that current project you’re having a challenge with, on Monday you’ll have the solution for sure.

e) Have already left a little earlier, you had a volunteering assignment planned for that evening!

 

5 ) For you, the ideal manager…

a ) Sets ambitious goals and gives you responsibility!

b) Is attentive to what matters to you and focuses on the relationship.

c) Takes a coaching approach and pushes you to excel!

d) Gives you carte blanche and entrusts you with innovative projects.

e) Invites you to take up environmental or social issues in the company and understands your causes!

 

Results

You have a majority of a)

You are in Ascension mode. You are looking for career advancement and responsibility above all. Your status and title are important to you. Your Linkedin profile is always up to date, you are open to development opportunities and seek visibility with influential people. Proactive, you know what you want and dare to express it.

Your area for improvement: sometimes having a tendency to forget about others in favour of your personal goals.

 

 

You have a majority of b)

You are in Equilibrium mode. For you, there is work on the one hand and passions and interests on the other. You seek to preserve your personal life and appreciate a regular work rhythm within a precise framework, with a pleasant climate.

Your area for improvement: you bring consistency to the company, but be careful not to be reluctant to change.

 

You have a majority of c)

You are in Introspection mode. You are looking to develop the skills that interest you and to grow personally. You question your place and role in the company and ask for diversity. You expect your work to allow you to express your uniqueness, to exercise your passions and interests. Your taste for learning allows you to explore new paths.

Your point for improvement: be careful not to forget the collective issues.

 

You have a majority of d)

You are in Transformation mode. You are looking to innovate, to invent, to make things happen in your organisation. You are driven by leaving your mark. Enthusiastic about new things, you like to get out of your comfort zone and ask for autonomy.

Your point for improvement: A driving force in times of change, you may however have a tendency to reinvent the wheel!

 

You have a majority of e)

You are in Impact mode. You seek to have a positive impact on the environment, others and society. This can be expressed through a sensitivity to your company’s purpose and values, through an interest in CSR, employee representation bodies or transmission. Your commitment contributes to the evolution of the company on key issues.

Your point for improvement: Be careful not to neglect your daily tasks in favour of your causes.

 

To go further and understand what your employees expect in order to engage them in the long term, discover the course Encouraging engagement at work co-edited by somanyWays.

 

Encouraging Engagement at Work

 

About somanyWays

New aspirations, new jobs, rapid obsolescence of skills, a context of uncertainty… work is changing at the pace of the words and the evils of the times. In a world on the move, somanyWays contributes to the emergence of a new work culture, more virtuous and more in tune with the needs and uniqueness of each individual. Our mission? To accompany, train and equip individuals and companies so that everyone can (re)find meaning, pleasure and therefore commitment at work.

Online training for SMEs

Frédérick Benichou and Armelle Lavergne’s interview on B SMART

Wendy: This is the continuation of SMART Campus, thank you for being faithful to this meeting of education and training stakeholders! What is the right path for your identity and what is the job behind it? We are going to be concrete and efficient with a reference in online training, Coorpacademy, represented by its co-founder Frédérick Benichou.

Frédérick: Hello!

Wendy: And with Armelle Lavergne in charge of content and partnerships, hello!

Armelle: Hello Wendy!

Wendy: Your platform is almost 10 years old, you created it with former Google employees.

Frédérick : We are very proud of course! We created ourselves, we were three. I’m not going to say in a garage because it sounds a bit cliché, but it’s not far off! Today there are more than 55 of us, we have more than 800,000 active users, 150 major account platforms open, we are present in about thirty countries, and 40% of our users are outside Europe. So we’re actually quite proud of our little journey.

Wendy : Oh yes, indeed, it’s quite enormous. That is to say that in 8 years, an identity has been created with a clear pedagogical line, right Armelle?

Armelle : Yes, exactly! I’ve been lucky enough to work for Coorpacademy for 7 years, and we’ve set up a Content division that I manage. Today, we have more than 1800 training contents available and we are very much oriented towards soft skills – we talked a lot about this during the confinement because it is what enabled us to face the crisis. The editorial line is therefore very soft skills and it can cover 5 areas of transformation: digital, managerial, operational, cultural and sustainable.

Wendy : Right. So the relational skills are what the companies that call on your services increasingly ask you for?

Frédérick : To carry out a transformation project in a company, at least 70% of employees must understand what it is all about. Our platform, with its microlearning format, its permanent accessibility at all levels and its fun game modes, enables a large proportion of employees to be acculturated almost instantly before consulting firms or major company reforms are required. It is therefore part of our DNA to be able to deploy this acculturation very quickly to digital transformation projects, sustainable development projects, cultural transformation projects, and employee ‘upskilling’.

Wendy : That’s interesting because if we talk about content, in connection with what Frédérick was saying, are we seeing a revolution in e-learning, Armelle? Is there an evolution in mentalities, a very different demand for training?

Armelle : I think that the training market today is very competitive, there are a lot of offers. What we see is that the personal use that you can have when you train in languages for example, you want to find it in your professional life. We target employees of large groups, but also today of very small businesses and the idea is to offer them a fluid, gamified experience – that means you can learn while having fun, because you can be serious without being serious – so the idea is to be able to pass levels, unlock these levels, talk to your colleagues, create emulation, win lives, etc. This fluid, very operational mode is also a way to make the learning process more efficient. This fluid, highly operational mode, which is also linked to our personal uses, is what we are asked to do today and that is the challenge.

Wendy : Yes, and all this with a minimum of time, because the problem is that we are also compressed in space and time!

Frédérick : It is indeed very important. You were talking about the e-learning revolution, about the evolution of mentalities, when we arrived on the market and we spoke to teachers and told them “we’re going to make courses, modules that are 5 minutes long, you’ll be able to do your 20 minute course in 4 modules of 5 minutes, but you’ll have to break up your content” they looked at us with catastrophic and horrified eyes. But it turns out that in our personal lives we are all addicted to our phones and the short format, so if we don’t do it, we don’t have a completion rate. People don’t get to the end, they stop, they interrupt.

Wendy : And so the 5 minute format is the right format?

Frédérick : So it’s more complex than that because in fact, we have a KPI, a key figure that we track a lot, which is the completion rate. We have an 83% completion rate on our modules, which means that 83% of people finish the modules they start. So that’s huge in the world of e-learning. And this completion rate can be explained by the fact that it’s a game, because we win lives, because they are short formats, because we have an editorial tone – thanks to Armelle’s teams – that makes it friendly and funny, and because we make the content our own, etc. So we’re not going to learn complicated jobs – we’re not in the business of learning – on the other hand, we’re in the business of acculturation and that works very well.

Wendy : Yes, on soft skills, it’s important to distinguish. So you were talking about your clients, the CAC40 companies, the large groups, but now there is an offer, a Team offer which is much more targeted at VSE/SMEs.

Frédérick : When we created Coorpacademy, we said to ourselves that we were going to bring the quality of the tools of the personal world – the quality of the digital tools of the personal world – to the world of large companies. Today, we say to ourselves that there is no reason why only large companies should have access to these quality tools and so we are going to bring to SMEs the quality of the tools of large groups – with preferential rates, an ease of subscription, an ease of parameterisation which is more standardised but more operational – they can create platforms in less than 15 minutes, it is open and they invite their employees instantly.

Wendy : With key topics coming out of this particular year but which also speak of competitiveness: digital, teleworking, sales, languages, etc. Are we in these contents too for this particular Team offer?

Armelle : Yes, that’s right. We carried out interviews and in particular a competitive benchmark study. The first thing we noticed was that there was not much difference between the training needs of large companies and VSEs/SMEs. We were then able to ‘pick and choose’, i.e. create training courses with the objective of being very practical and with concrete and rapid results. So the main points are office automation, management, negotiation management, etc. Very specific themes for VSEs/SMEs.

Wendy : So how do we know that it went well and that there is good feedback on the experience and on the completion rate?

Frédérick : The completion rate is a great indicator. We also have the duration of the subscription, if customers stay, if people come back, if companies stay subscribed, that’s very important! We have customers who have been subscribing for more than 7 years, so a priori, since there is no commitment, they are happy!

Wendy : That’s a good estimate. Do you have anything to add?

Armelle : No, we hope it will take off and we’ll see you soon to talk about it!

Wendy : I am very pleased with this Team offer in particular and with your follow-up of the evolution of mentalities, requirements and needs!

 

Tell us what courses you play and we’ll tell you who you are

 

During the course of a day, our attention is constantly stimulated by various information. We only need to spend 30 minutes on our favourite social network, or turn on our television, to realise the constant hubbub around us. Paradoxically, we have also become more attentive to the type of information we are willing to receive. But the point is that this flood of information is one of the reasons why we want to create the most relevant content possible. But how can we deliver on this promise? We’ll explain it to you in a few lines, so you don’t lose your attention.

 

A finely tuned catalogue

If you have read our article on the recipe of the Coorpacademy catalogue courses, you will know that we take care of both the presentation and what is on the plate. To engage our learners and stimulate them during their learning, it is important to offer them premium content, designed by educational engineers or in co-publication with exclusive partners such as Forbes, IBM or Cegos. To build a relevant training catalogue adapted to each learner, it is crucial to offer tailor-made content, so that it fits them perfectly. Thus, our content catalogue includes courses concocted by us and also by the business experts of each organisation we work with, to promote the development of each individual’s skills.

 

Content tailored to the changing world

Learning means progressing, doing better, evolving. This implies not only change, but also temporality. We start from a point A, at a certain point in time, and end up at point B, in some time. Therefore, in a rapidly changing world, learning is essential. In preparing our courses, we think about the world of tomorrow, to better prepare you for it. Thus, the more than 1700 exclusive modules on soft skills that make up our training catalogue are designed to guide you through the 5 crucial transformations for the future of organisations. But fighting for tomorrow’s world means that it still exists. That’s why we offer Coorpecology, the first training platform dedicated to the ecological transition, and why we are proud to collaborate with the Collège des Directeurs du Développement Durable (C3D) to design courses that develop sustainable thinking.

 

Support that is as personal as your experience on our platforms

To get to know you, we have a major ally: data. If you’ve played the All About Data playlist, we’re not teaching you anything, data is essential to designing a learning experience that reflects you. Indeed, by playing courses on our platforms, we are able to refine what we offer. So, training is really just a click away. But if our courses adapt to our learners, our platform also adapts to the needs of our clients, integrating directly into their training ecosystem. When we say that we know you well, it’s also because our team of Customer Success Managers supports you in your training projects, to achieve your objectives and those of your learners. We offer you concrete actions to engage your community of learners over time and reach new heights!

 

5 questions to ask yourself when thinking about long-term talent management

 

In 1987, the average lifetime of a technical skill was 30 years. Today, it varies between 12 and 18 months (OECD). As the obsolescence of technical skills increases, the HR function must both meet short-term requirements and think about the future of the organisation. So how do you meet this challenge and ensure the company’s long-term performance, while at the same time ensuring short-term results?

 

There is a duality within the company. It thinks and acts in the short term, but its survival depends on its long-term strategy. However, there is no question of rushing into emergencies, because survival also depends on a company’s ability to adapt and respond to fluctuations in its environment. Following the pandemic, it is now a certainty: the long term must supplant the short term. And if past events are not enough to convince you of this, the coming climate crisis shows us the importance of building for the future now.

 

The company’s main asset is its human capital, which is an essential pillar of its overall strategy. Strategic decisions are made taking this resource into account, and skills management then becomes a tool for deploying the company’s strategy. So-called “soft” skills are increasingly sought after, although technical knowledge is still valued, developing employees’ “soft skills” enables the company to promote profiles that are strong in adaptation, resilience, creativity and agility. These behavioural skills are a real competitive advantage in a context where the skills required vary and the environments are changing.

 

The HR function must therefore be able to align its strategy with that of the company, while taking into account its own changes within its environment. The major transformations that companies are undergoing today are strategic issues both for a company’s HR strategy and for its global strategy. It is therefore necessary to think about strategies in a common way, to coordinate efforts and to gather employees around the same objectives.

 

But in the day-to-day life of an HRD, long-term thinking is often interrupted by short-term emergencies. Thus, HR teams are reactive in the face of day-to-day problems but at the same time deploy strategies that respond to more global objectives such as recruitment, employer branding and training policies, all of which help to ensure the company’s sustainability and good health.

 

Thus, when it comes to building the competence development plan, HR teams have to think in the long term. Not least because of changing environments and evolving skills, it is crucial to build a learning culture within the company, in order to foster the agility of the company and all its employees. This is an essential skill to ensure long-term success.

 

So, to ensure the long-term development of skills, here are 5 questions to ask yourself as a training manager:

  • What skills will we need to follow our strategy in 5 years time?
  • How will we enable our employees to develop these skills?
  • Which skills will be obsolete in 2 years?
  • What are the current skills?
  • How and where can we develop the company’s untapped potential?

 

Faced with this reality, companies must constantly question the skills that make up the company. Identify those that will soon be obsolete, and those that will enable them to survive in an unstable environment. It is therefore crucial for companies to take into account the strategies put in place in the short term, in order to consider the consequences in the long term.

Training is a big deal!

 

Training is above all a human adventure. It puts people at the heart of the company and helps the talents that make up the company to progress. Through the story of my experience, I would like to try to answer the following question: does the size of the company count when it comes to training?

 

Having had the opportunity to work within groups of different sizes and operating in different sectors or regions, I have always noticed a common denominator in these experiences: my desire to learn. Whether it was learning how to produce an editorial calendar, something very concrete, or developing my adaptability, a so-called soft skill, the size of the company was never a hindrance to progress. But then, if size doesn’t matter, what’s left to measure? To help you understand, let me tell you the story of my rise in skills.

 

Here we are 3 years ago, I land in Montreal, and I discover the queue to enter the bus. If I decided to join Céline, it’s not for the love of poutine but for an internship in a big international cosmetics company. The dream – with 20 degrees less. With more than 8,500 employees, this first experience in marketing will allow me to develop skills that will be essential to me later on… Because in addition to the management and coordination tasks that I carry out on a daily basis – and which I quickly adopted the basics of – I am developing an unfailing ability to adapt without even noticing it. FYI, I work in French with Quebecers who work half the time in English. Since Canada is an English and French speaking country, all communications are done in both languages, but not all communications can be adapted to both languages. I adapt the speech, change the slogans, arrange the visuals. And when I get back to France, I feel like I’ve become a chameleon who can’t wait to change my appearance.

 

I’m back in France, I’ve just got a work-study contract to validate my last year of a Master’s degree in Communication, I’m starting in 2 days. The chameleon that I have become is not disappointed: I will now work in a telemedicine start-up! A dream come true – minus the Quebec accent. From my very first days, I’m learning new tools, adopting a new tone in my communications and immersing myself in new subjects. Offering teleconsultations and understanding the care pathway is a bit different than selling perfumes and understanding different skin types. And while I’m gaining skills in the Adobe suite, developing my creativity and gaining self-confidence, something happens that turns my life upside down: a certain extremely contagious and dangerous virus has appeared in the Wuhan region. You already know the rest: confinement, teleworking, Zoom aperitif and increased screen time. For my company, which has about forty employees, the adaptation is fast, and that’s good because we are at the front line. Although size doesn’t matter when it comes to training employees, it does influence the available manpower. This is why I had the opportunity during this pivotal period to provide support for tasks other than those usually assigned to me. This experience and this unprecedented situation allowed me to develop resilience and flexibility. But as I finish my work placement and head towards the world of work, I know that I will miss the school benches because I am thirsty to learn… Unless?

 

Unless the world of work is finally similar to the school benches. To finish our story, we are – almost – out of the health crisis and I finally found my first job as a Community Manager! The dream – minus the terraces. So I work in a start-up that does digital learning. A platform for massively developing the skills of employees, while meeting the needs of each learner. If joining a digital learning company makes it easier to increase your skills – I admit it – I discovered that, in the end, what I want to do later on is learn. Indeed, today I have understood that the common denominator of my employability, and above all of my motivation, is to progress, to improve myself, to adapt my skills to my environment. And as my environment is constantly changing, the chameleon that I am wants to learn continuously.

 

Thus, I have noticed through the writing of this article that all my experiences have led me to mobilise essential soft skills. Adaptation, resilience, creativity, team spirit, stress management, etc. are the soft skills that I have developed and nurtured throughout my professional life. The development of my skills is mainly based on my motivation and, to a certain extent, on the tools or situations that allow it. If the size of the company does not matter for my motivation to learn, the tools that will be made available to me can be influenced by this factor. In 2015, the inequality of opportunity in terms of training is reflected in the figures: the proportion of employees who received training in 2015 increases significantly with the size of the company employing them: 25% in the 10-19 employee group, 29% in the 20-49 group and 41% in the 50-249 group. These figures then increase to 58% above 250 employees, and to 63% above 500. Employees of large companies are therefore proportionally two and a half times more likely to have been trained in 2015.

 

This is why it is crucial that all companies, regardless of the number of employees, should be able to offer – and be offered – training that is engaging, impactful and accessible from anywhere. In conclusion, to train effectively, let’s not measure the size of the company, but rather measure the commitment of learners to develop their skills and the relevance of the devices put in place.

 

Are you a company with less than 250 employees and are you looking to develop your staff rapidly and massively? Discover Team by Coorpacademy, the training offer specially designed for start-ups and SMEs! Take advantage of a 15-day free trial – only available in French: https://coorpteam.coorpacademy.com  

Clue, the educational investigation: become the hero of your training!

 

Having just arrived on Skill Island, the seven members of the Newcleus research laboratory’s party committee soon lose one of their number in tragic circumstances. What happened to poor Mr Boddy? While everything seems to point to an accident, Colonel Mustard suspects… murder! He decides to investigate on the sly… Who could have had it in for the good man? With what weapon was he killed? And in which room of the house did the murder take place? These answers are up to you to find, thanks to the clues that have been misplaced in the sumptuous house. It’s up to you to play detective, it’s up to you to play…

 

Clue !  

 

With more than 150 million copies sold worldwide since 1950 – including 4 million in France – the mythical board game developed by Hasbro® has been invited onto the Coorpacademy platforms to make your employees the heroes of their training.

 

Discover this new educational format through 3 clues on the backstage of this partnership! 

 

Clue 1 – An iconic and entertaining partnership

 

Building on the success of the Trivial Pursuit courses, our partnership with Hasbro continues to enrich our training offer through the world-famous game Clue. Making learning more fun is one of our core beliefs and engaging employees in training is one of our daily missions. Therefore, we are constantly looking for innovative and entertaining formats, so that the learner is a real actor in the course they are playing.

 

With this new learning innovation, the learners of the Coorpacademy platforms have the opportunity to develop their skills through a game that they know well, and which mobilises their full attention! Indeed, a good detective must be critical…

 

Clue n°2 – A formative and playful investigation!

In Coorpacademy’s Clue investigation, your objective is to understand who is behind the murder of Mr Boddy… To solve this crime, you will have to discover as many clues as possible by exploring the manor and questioning the five suspects. But be careful… they will mislead you, knowingly or not! Your critical thinking skills will be essential to unravel the truth.

 

This skill, identified as indispensable by 2025 by the World Economic Forum, enables people to learn how to construct rigorous reasoning in order to achieve an objective, or to analyse facts in order to formulate a judgment.

 

Clue 3 – An immersive learning experience 

You are now in the shoes of the famous Colonel Mustard! You have access to the different rooms of the manor. These are full of clues that you can manipulate to gather all the information you need to solve your investigation. Pssst… the mansion is so big, it also hides secret passages. Pay attention, they might help you to identify the real culprit…

 

Set sail for Skill Island, a windy island, and find the seven members of the Newcleus research lab’s party committee! Hurry, one of them will soon disappear under strange circumstances… Start the investigation!

What if we were all SMEs? Training on a small scale

 

The majority (56%) of the employees who trained during the Covid are in large companies (2,000 or more), compared to about a quarter in companies with 10 to 49 employees, according to the study “Impact de la crise sanitaire sur les mobilités, les projets, les aspirations professionnelles, les compétences et le travail” (Impact of the health crisis on mobility, projects, professional aspirations, skills and work) conducted from March 2020 to May 2021 by the Céreq and coordinated by Ekaterina Melnik-Olive. Yet their needs in terms of tools and training are just as important as those of large companies, and sometimes even more impactful. So what if we were all SMEs?

 

The Swiss Federation for Continuing Education FSEA examined the influence of the coronavirus crisis on continuing education in SMEs earlier this year. According to the study, which was published on 10 May 2021, “a majority of companies attribute a high degree of importance to continuing education in coping with the effects of the pandemic.” As with large companies, “one third of SMEs surveyed indicate that employees need new or different skills”. Thus, training is an issue for all. However, SMEs are often obliged to make a quick return on the costs of training their employees, their expectations are immediate. Their employees therefore need concrete training that can be activated quickly. Increasing the skills of their teams is a race against the clock and against the constantly accelerating evolution of the markets. They are therefore looking for agile, digital solutions covering a variety of subjects, to meet the needs of their teams and their constraints.

 

Finally, what SMEs are looking for is a need that can be found in all companies, and it is a common benefit to demand that training provides a concrete and immediate benefit. To meet this legitimate demand, digital learning is an ideal solution, because training then becomes massive and accessible quickly, from anywhere, and for everyone. In addition to this increased accessibility, providing employees with a solution that can be accessed at the click of a button also saves a considerable amount of time, compared to face-to-face training systems. Employees can learn about different subjects from their workplace in just a few minutes.

 

Thus, we would all benefit from demanding training as much as SMEs do in terms of cost effectiveness and usefulness. Training on a “small scale” is just as necessary and impactful for business transformation, especially in the long term. If SMEs need solutions that can be activated quickly to meet their immediate needs, then digital learning solutions will be able to make training an automatic and a tool to prepare SMEs to become… large companies.

5 essential courses to sustainably transform the company through training

 

The ecological transition is an important axis of transformation for us, but also for the rest of the world. On the occasion of the Sustainability Week, which took place from 20 to 24 September 2021, discover the 5 essential courses to initiate the ecological transition of your company.

 

  • To learn is to understand

The causes of the ecological crisis are the first basics to acquire in order to understand the extent of the problem. Climate, pollution, biodiversity: the world’s ecosystems are in danger, and this is largely due to our social and economic system. The sustainable transformation of a company can only be effective if we also transform our personal and professional habits. The course Understanding the ecological crisis“, co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), aims to provide the keys to understanding the ecological crisis, to enable professionals to understand the mechanisms at the origin of the ecological crisis, their interactions and their consequences.

Understanding the environmental crisis

  • Biodiversity, an often neglected natural capital 

After understanding the extent of the ecological crisis, it is important to identify what the ecological crisis is jeopardising. Businesses need biodiversity to operate smoothly and sustainably. Yet businesses affect it as much as they depend on it. Biodiversity is essential to the proper functioning of all ecosystems, yet it is threatened by the ecological crisis.  It is therefore time to act to protect it. Thus, the Coorpacademy course “Protection of biodiversity: an asset for companies transmits the best practices to preserve and enhance this natural capital, and allows all employees to be initiated into the challenges of the ecological transition.

Protecting biodiversity: an asset for companies

 

  • Transform in order to last

Are you up to date on the origins of the ecological crisis and its impact on biodiversity? It is time to learn how to transform the company. Our contemporary economic system, which is based on a model of infinite growth, is no longer viable. It is therefore crucial to understand how the company can reinvent itself to become sustainable? Thanks to the course Preparing the company for the environmental transition co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), you will be able to guide the transformation through essential tools for the transition and by adopting the right reflexes in the face of change. 

Preparing the company for the environmental transition

 

  • From a straight line to a virtuous circle

To go further and really revolutionise the current economic model, we recommend the course The circular economy: from a straight line to a virtuous circle” co-edited with MySezame. Indeed, if we evolve in a world of finite resources, it has its limits and we are beginning to see these limits. It is therefore time to rethink our linear economy in order to transform it into a virtuous and above all, sustainable circle. 

The Circular Economy: From a Straight Line to a Virtuous Circle

 

  • What does this mean in practice?

Once you have developed and tested your theoretical knowledge of sustainable transformation, it is time to look at CSR approaches. Starting a CSR approach depends on each company. Each company can act on its own scale and have a greater or lesser impact on its sector, but how do you start or transform your own CSR approach? To guide you, discover through the Coorpacademy course “Sustainable transformation: success stories and business cases 3 very different companies that have integrated CSR into their strategy based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A course to give you the keys to action to positively impact society.

Sustainable Change: Success Stories and Business Cases

 

Large-scale training is essential to transform the company. By massively training employees on crucial sustainable development issues, and by raising awareness of the consequences that our human activities can have on ecosystems, we are gradually changing the rules of the game; and it is by sustainably transforming the company that we will be able to play longer. To go further, discover Coorpecology, the online training platform dedicated to sustainable transformation!

The HR themes of the recovery: what are the skills to develop to go back to work serenely?

 

September is the end of the vacations and the return to the office, but it is also the time to start all over again, the beginning of a new chapter. This new school year is particular, it follows a long period where individuals and companies had to adapt in record time. In a world in upheaval, what are the key HR issues of 2021? What skills are already essential to meet the challenges of the new year?  Let’s discover the chapter that is being written.

 

Transforming to last

The list of skills you can develop by accessing the more than 1,800 courses available in our premium content catalog covers all those deemed indispensable by the World Economic Forum for 2025.

This year, the most sought-after topics on our platforms reflect the upheavals that companies and their organizations are facing. The key competencies to support managerial, digital, cultural and organizational transformations are widely represented in the catalog, as shown by the top 5 competencies covered in terms of number of courses offered.

Continuous learning to evolve in a changing world 

Learning allows you to progress and evolve, and in a context as changing as the one we know today, it is a key to ensuring the relevance of the skills you will develop to face the challenges that the future holds.

So which courses make you want to learn the most? Let’s find out in the top 5 most played courses of 2021:

  1. The course “Communicate effectively to collaborate better” co-edited with Dunod Formation, which gains 2 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  2. The Coorpacademy course “Big Data”, which loses 1 place compared to the 2020 ranking, but which remains a must!
  3. The course “Adopt an agile culture” published by Coorpacademy, which enters the Top 5 by gaining 4 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  4. The course “Solving complex problems with the 4S method” co-edited with Bernard Garrette and Olivier Sibony, which also makes a triumphant entry in this Top 5 2021, gaining 10 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  5. The course “1 hour to stop stressing and stay zen” co-edited by Dunod Formation, which remains in the Top 5 despite losing one place compared to the 2020 ranking

Key skills for the future 

Training plays a crucial role in ensuring that your employees develop their skills and adapt to the new expectations of the job market.

In view of the top 5 skills consumed in the 2nd quarter of 2021, our learners are already ready to serenely apprehend the uncertainties of tomorrow’s world:

Topics that are on the rise

The skills found in the top 5 skills consumed in 2021 do not vary so much from those whose consumption is growing fastest in Q2 2021. The need to meet new employee expectations and adapt to new ways of working is only intensifying. Not surprisingly, digital literacy skills are on the rise, as the digital transformation of companies is never done

The start of the HR season will not take place without the transformation of companies, and consequently, not without an increase in the skills of all employees. To accompany them in the changes that are already concrete, soft skills will be essential.

Thus, to apprehend the start of the 2021 school year, we recommend:

  • To know and understand the technological evolutions that are taking place more and more rapidly;
  • Develop your ability to identify, understand and react appropriately to the emotions of others in order to promote team cohesion;
  • Demonstrate flexibility and agility to respond effectively to current and future developments
  • Successfully leverage relevant company data to create value
  • Manage your teams in the best conditions, including remotely, while making good use of diversity
  • To learn continuously on Coorpacademy, to increase your skills while having fun!

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