In an article featured in Inc. entitled "7 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction," April Shetrone writes: "Employee attitudes typically reflect the moral[e] of the company. In areas of customer service and sales, happy employees are extremely important because they represent the company to the public. Satisfaction, however, is not linked solely to compensation. Sure, a raise or benefits will probably improve employee contentment, at least temporarily, but small, inexpensive changes can have a long-term impact."

In today's age of technology, there are virtually no limits when it comes to collaboration and communication tools. Despite this, however, communication can still get lost in translation. As a result, organizations are experiencing a lag in productivity and a delay in meeting deadlines among teams. While streamlining internal communication is often easier said than done, opening the lines of communication can ultimately help build stronger teams and improve your company as a whole.

Studies have shown time and again that it costs less to provide ongoing training to current employees than to hire new ones. An article in Chron discusses this relationship, stating: "The type of training necessary to bring an employee up to speed also impacts costs. On the job training, where workers perform their tasks and learn as they go, is relatively affordable, while lengthy induction training—the training you provide for workers before they’re ready to begin job functions—can incur higher costs." But even if you and your colleagues have embraced this concept, the effort to lower training costs doesn't end there. For many, virtual training is a cost-effective solution.

In a Forbes contribution by Josh Bersin, founder and principal at Bersin by Deloitte, he writes: "US spending on corporate training grew by 15% last year (the highest growth rate in seven years) to over $70 Billion in the US and over $130 Billion worldwide." With these numbers, it's evident that there are a lot of options out there when it comes to training and developing your employees. We know that it can be tough to sort them out and determine which are best for your particular business.

The Train the Trainer approach has expanded its reach into many contexts, including laboratories, schools, hospitals and the corporate world. Its breadth speaks to its intuitive design and ease of adoption, as Train the Trainer simply involves "initially training a person or people who, in turn, train other people at their home agency," according to a report by the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. In other words, one subject-matter expert shares his or her expertise with a group of trainers from your organization. This group then uses this information to instruct others.

Initiating an organizational culture change within a business is no easy task. And the larger your organization is, the harder change will likely be. This is due to what Boundless calls "cultural inertia." It continues: "Big and strong organizational cultures will have a powerful tendency to continue moving in the direction they are already moving (momentum)." An organizational culture change successfully alters the speed or direction of that movement.

Productivity can be a frustrating concept. Even if you feel you're working effectively, projects can still emerge lacking efficiency and doing nothing to increase your ROI. However, the good news is that with a quick refresher your team can be up and running again with vigor. If you seek out where productivity is lacking, you can have your employees take a quick break to engage in virtual training geared toward solving the problem. At the same time, you can conduct an audit of your current virtual-training resources to make sure you have something relevant in your dashboard.

Chances are if you've used a computer in a work setting, you've probably used the Microsoft Word application. While some may use it for simple word processing alone, others take advantage of the whole breadth of the software, including some handy tools that can help organize what you've created on the page.

A library of training resources puts valuable information at your employees' fingertips. In addition to providing them with the knowledge they need to succeed in their roles, it also lets them return to the lessons if their skills need a brush up. Since they put their trust in you to provide this system, it's important you accumulate the right sources of information. We've compiled a methodology of what to consider for your library, along with some of the benefits of videos vs. slides, to make this process easier.

For those implementing new software programs at their businesses, time is always a concern—the time it will take to develop what kind of training you want to use, the time it takes to research the best methods to set this up, the time it takes for everyone to complete the training, and so on. The good news is that if you take the time to create the right process from the beginning, you can expect a lot of these actions to fall into place efficiently and within your deadline.

So you've chosen a new software platform to roll out at your company and identified and segmented the employees who will be using it. However, the idea of organizing your own training program for a whole group of people in various roles is understandably a bit daunting. Luckily for you, this is something that's best left in the hands of the experts anyway.