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This is a time of the year when courses get over, the market is filled with new opportunities and talent, the best time to issue changes in an organization. But why do changes not happen? Decisions have been taken to either offer a new product or refine the offering, yet it seems too difficult for the change to occur.

Change is not to be taken lightly, no matter how slow its impacts are. People generally are comfortable with the old schedule and any change in that makes them get prepared along, so they do not allow changes quickly. Changes also do not happen overnight, they take time to be felt upon.

Even when it is felt for a recommended change, its pitfalls of done shabbily affects the whole process of welcoming a new change. The reasons and their possible solutions are discussed below-

No decision is taken

A change is propelled by an idea, constant work on it turn them into projects. Work is done for several weeks, yet a major step can be missed if the idea runs out of fizz as a decision was hard to be taken as simple as that.

Resolution- This can be avoided if the decision maker is chosen initially.

Whether an individual or a committee consisting of several, decision making must be unbiased and benefits to the organization. This speeds up the process, the project comes under the direct purview of the leader. Implementing decisions can be a big step for changes.

Change lacks luster or that extra edge

The changes need to be supported by the management and also be positively welcomed into. Choosing the right people for the job makes it easier to complete a task. For example, human resources managers are better to tell who will be benefited with corporate training rather than some top-level bureaucrat.

Resolution- The changes can be proved more useful if supported by case studies or performance reports that are sure to excite everyone. This eliminated guesswork and drives up efficiency.

Communication gap

Let’s face it, most of the decisions are taken in the boardroom within private enclosures, and little to no communication takes place. When there is a change in works, any delay in the final announcement gets the worst of the team, they expect something to change but still not clear what change is to take place themselves. This could to leaks of information or even spread of rumours underlying the effectiveness of employees.

Resolution– Communication is the best way to remove fears of the team, it must be the duty of the organization to promote friendliness and effective communication channels within the organization. A preview can be given to chosen executives to gather the feedback and working on the improvements. Communication about the change can be done through editorial messages or notices boards. Informal messaging can be done through social media or corporate Intranet.

Change not Followed by Training

Announcement leading to changes can be discussed with proper presentations of the situations now and to be expected later and must be clear to all attendees. Arrangements may be made to post this discussion in internal channels for quick delegation of the information. As reiterated earlier, humans are comfortable in doing their habits, any change in them will make them uncomfortable. To alleviate this tension, training must be arranged to provide the team with confidence.

Resolution– For counseling and training purpose, the organization can take the help of certified trainers to help their employees. A good training can help them excellently.

Effective Date to Get Started

A gap might exist between the announcement, the training and the effective date of getting started. There should be no gap in the ideal situations, as change is not a distant process and should be welcomed into the work culture of the organization as effectively as possible.

Resolution– The team should be well informed about the go-live date and a change can be ranging from a new feature on the webpage, a new product is to be launched or new performance evaluation system. A small time period may be provided to tweak and make effective improvements to that mentioned earlier.

Technology has changed most aspects of our lives. Everything has transitioned and can be done online. Hence it is not surprising that learning is also finding its way online. People no longer need to travel distances to learn, and companies don’t need to spend on travel and lodging to acquire skill sets. So is online learning really a boon or does it have a downside?
Every coin has a flip side, and to find out if online learning, is as fascinating as it sounds, is it truly suitable for you or not read on.
Like true optimists lets look at some positives first

• Online learning is convenient and flexible, all you need to gain knowledge is a computer with internet connection and basic technical skills, like how to operate a computer, an LMS system, navigation and ability to manage and report issues if any to the provider.
• You save on travel time, and can instantly start learning. At the same time as a knowledge provider, distance is no boundary, specially in a corporate set up, you can widen your reach across locations and also geographically.
• Online learning allows learners to acquire knowledge at their own pace, they can also build up their own learning schedule, chose where and when to learn. You can multi task and learn while travelling, or in lean pockets during the day.
• Online training is very cost effective, specially as far as corporate training is concerned, no travel cost. Some sophisticated LMS systems also adapt instructional designs mechanisms to factor and reach all behavioural types of learner preferences. It’s a combination of audio, video, and experiential learning methods that are put into designing a course.
• Self-paced or instructor led, both forms of eLearning gives ample opportunities to receive feedback and hence to a great extent learning is instant, as there is a learner buy-in.

Since human intervention is reduced, the conventional theories of instructional designs and methods are absent, which could lead to certain precincts.  

• You are in it on your own, at least for the most part of it, so although online learning is flexible and convenient, it is not as engaging as a classroom environment will be. Although doubts can be cleared, especially in a virtual set up, however, due to the barrier in communication, the essence could be lost, this could make one feel confused, and lack of support might take you away from the learning opportunity.
• A virtual classroom or a virtual environment cannot give the support that actual human face to face interaction can. So the learning over online portals might occasionally seem impersonal.
• After a day long investment at work, to sit in front of the computer and learn could seem daunting.
• Taking up an online learning course requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation. Remember, some people need constant supervision to adapt a skill set.
• Online learning gives the control of learning to the audience, it sounds good, but sometimes not very effective. As there is no control on identifying that the learner is actually going through the material as required, there is always a risk factor that one could have gone through the material without dedication.

So while designing or choosing between traditional online learning options, consider, do you have what it takes to take the course to completion.
Online courses, if designed with passion, creativity, talent, time, knowledge, great communication skills, and above all ingenious incorporation of the course content with conventional instructional design methodologies, will have great results and will easily outweigh the limitations. Evaluate and begin learning!

What are the Reasons For Choosing a Right Job?

Once upon a time, changing jobs every few years would look bad on your resume, it meant that the employee either did not get along with the team or had commitment issues. Times are changing, and Millennials have a very strong desire to continuously learn and develop their skills which lead to frequent job changes.
Two to three years is considered an average tenure of an employee. Toggling between many companies and industries becomes a vital part of current professionals. The advantage of this trend is that there are many choices throughout your career, the disadvantage is that not all those choices might be good.
Choosing the right job or deciding on “The” company to work for might not be the dilemma of only experienced job seekers, but is a daunting task even for beginners. No matter how lucrative the opportunity is, it’s easy for seasoned as well as first-timers to divert all their attention to impressing the right people, in the process, they forget to weigh certain pros and cons.
Even before you start considering which company might be suitable to you, it’s a good idea to introspect, and do some self-analysis in understanding what gets you going, to make the right career choice.
To broadly classify, certain personalities love to seek new opportunities, think abstractly, and are quick decision-makers. They usually like to work in the creative fields or in entrepreneurship set up. Their opposites are personalities that prefer planning and detailing, are analytical thinkers and do not take decisions until all points are considered, they avoid spearheading projects with limited resources etc., while a mix of both these personality types is imperative, one needs to know where you learn before choosing a career. As the creative personality, might not function at full capacity with a 9-5 setup.
Once the right career path is selected with due diligence, you need to list down the non-negotiables. Remember your priorities will change with age and experience, hence it is a good practice to re-visit the list from time to time.
Certain common factors could be-
Development Plan –  Consider a good training and development opportunity. A bigger company might offer this and similarly, in a smaller company you might have more responsibility, both would lead to a skill set growth, while one might be organised the other would teach you practical application, choose where you learn. Is the work atmosphere conducive? Also, understand the organisational hierarchy, and separate the title from the responsibility, because at the end of the day it is what you do that will get you your next opportunity.
Job Reviews – it is a good thought to know your review/appraisal cycle. If you are a person who needs regular affirmations this will become your driving point. Regular reviews also mean you are that much closer to your next promotion.
Company Review – Company Image is crucial. It’s a known fact, that companies that don’t always keep up the pace are surpassed by the ones who do. Some factors into account would be to check the company’s leadership team. Do you see followers or innovators? Any success stories, how do they treat their employees. Client/ customer testimonials, look at their ex-employees, what opportunity did they have? In terms of technology how advanced or accepting the company is. Research your boss, estimate his personality, does it match yours?
Location – Two ways to look at it (A) where is your office located, the company address has an obvious impact, how well connected is it in terms of transport (B) how much are you willing to invest in terms of time and money. What are your options, does your office have flex hours or promote work from home? Leave policy? It’s also good to see if you blend into the vibe and culture of a certain setup. Research shows even with generous packages if the vibe, location or culture is a misfit you will reach a saturation point much faster than in a vice versa situation.
Salary – At the beginning of your career there would be some time you need to invest in hard work, however, consider the location, benefits, travel, and the salary scale of future employees of the brand you plan to join, merely taking your decision on the take-home amount is not advisable.
Imarticus Learning offers a comprehensive range of professional Financial Services and Analytics programs that are designed to cater to an aspiring group of professionals who want a tailored program on making them career-ready. Our programs are driven by a constant need to be job relevant and stimulating, taking into consideration the dynamic nature of the Financial Services and Analytics market, and are taught by world-class professionals with specific domain expertise.
Overall, are your personal growth goals in alignment with the company you intend to work with? It would be short of a miracle if you find a 100% yes, however, a higher scale equals to accuracy in the decision.
And the most valuable piece of advice is to trust your gut, your visceral cues are more valuable information, filtered by your subconscious. Make your intangible list, evaluate against all odds, and go accept that offer you have!

Blended learning might have many connotations for many individuals. It is essentially a hybrid approach with a combination of online delivery of content and the traditional live face-to-face based instruction. For some, the definition or understanding of blended learning so boards that any integrated use of technology into the learning experience might result in it being branded as blended intervention.
What is Blended Learning?
In the true sense, blended learning is more of a pedagogical approach in education which brings the best of socialisation opportunities of the classroom and marries it with the flexibility of technologically enhanced active learning possibilities of online teaching experience.
The teaching landscape has witnessed a great evolution over the last century, there has been a technology uprising especially in the last decade which has impacted the way people learn. The availability of smartphones, tablets, Kindle, accessibility of the internet almost everywhere on the planet has rapidly impacted the way we learn and the generations to come will. Technology will continue to integrate into our lives and education and learning and development portals have accepted this fact and are willing to embrace it for the advantages it brings. Thus one will see the uprising in the acceptance and usage of blended learning approaches.
Blended Learning Models are very segmented in nature and hence is gaining popularity in the education forums for its ability to personalisation to fit the individual’s learning needs. The course can be designed from the many available models, to suit the topic or audience, for example, instead a traditional mode of delivery, one can choose the online method, where face to face interactions are periodic or limited, or offer Rotation method where the participant rotates between self-paced online learning and personal instruction schedules which are fixed but flexible in nature. They can also take advantage of the Flex method which for its majority is online delivery and participants can get instructor interactions on request as a support.
Advantages of a Blended Learning Approach
In the true sense, this approach is a win-win situation for the Instructor, Participant and the Topic i.e. the teaching condition is conducive to the topic of learning.
The Blended Learning Approach is breaking the traditional wall in some sense and addressing issues of individuals rather than approaching it as the whole, where the needs of a few were neglected. With the currently available technology, courses can be personalised to individuals learning capabilities. The technological integration also breaks down the conventional issues like time, where the participant has the flexibility to learn at their pace around a time in the day which is most convenient to them.
Instructor gains access to global resources, and materials which match the students level of knowledge and interest. Teachers can offer personalised interactions in private through chat rooms, emails etc., in turn helping the learner me more effective. Due to online portals, students get availability to their learning graph, which reduces the stress from the teachers allowing them to focus on the areas of weaknesses and bridge the skills gap more efficiently. Teachers can use technology to introduce a variety of activities and engage students through different learning styles. Instructors with the help of technology can reach and motivate slow learners or hard to reach participants creating individualised professional development plans. It also offers to teach as a professional to people located in remote or low opportunity areas, thus creating more earning potential and activating dormant careers.
Participant stays focused when technology is introduced in a teaching set up, focus and excitement increase. Subsequently, the retention ability is also enhanced due to continuous reinforcement. With the access to the internet the availability of resources increases, where inquisitiveness is fuelled by research, guaranteeing consistent engagement of participants and students alike. It gives rise to student autonomy, making the participant in charge and responsibility in setting personalised goals and learning pace, instilling a sense of ownership. This is phenomenal as the participant is not only learning the subject or topic but is also getting prepared in real live skills, thus directly impacting the future skills, like decision-making, resilience, self-engagement, research skills.
Topics or scale of information, it’s penetration or reaches also increases. It reduces isolation, participants or students sitting across any location can take advantage of the wealth of information and opportunities which were only available to the select few of the cities in the past. Thus offering more collaboration and networking opportunities. This, in turn, leads to better student data making the path for professional growth.
With all of these interesting facts and things being stated here, Imarticus Learning has taken an uptake over the Blended learning and we have created courses best suited for the people interested in Banking, Finance and Analytics industry.
To conclude, it is important to note that each individual will have a different learning style, the instructional design should focus on the visual, auditory and kinetic learners alike while designing corporate courses or in education. Integrating technology effectively can improve the retention, engagement and enjoyment for participants. Increased availability of technology in learning or blended learning approaches thus becomes imperative in today’s time irrespective of the nature of education in schools or corporates alike.

They say, it’s the simplest of things, which sometimes have the potential to make the greatest of changes. For example, a tiny change in your daily routine and to your overall perspective can ensure a potentially great effect, on the results, you ultimately plan on achieving. This is more in keeping our personal lives in focus. Whereas in the corporate world, in our business lives, all of your chances to succeed, wholeheartedly depend on the overall result of all the small, tiny decisions that you take, this is regardless of your position or the industry you work in. For instance, something as inconsequential like, getting in a bit earlier every day, gives you the extra time that will help you in working over the big projects. And these very big projects are supposed to pave way for your appraisal, at the end of the year.
Now whether you are actively seeking to bag a promotion or a raise or just heightened productivity, there are certain really simple life hacks, which help you in achieving greater success, in the corporate world.
1. Finish off with the smallest of chores first.
Haven’t we all gone through the stages of innocent procrastination, where we tend to think that certain tasks are not really worth our time, which is why we push them behind to focus on the biggerones. But did you know that this very attitude, later on leads to the incomplete tasks interrupting your bigger projects. This is why it is more important to get over with them as early as possible. Yes, there is the risk of being distracted from the bigger, more important tasks, but it clearly beats the risk of these incomplete small tasks, which become the reason of our anxieties later on.
2. Flight Mode is definitely beneficial
Today the world of technology has become a highly developed, potentially dangerous place. The reason for this is the immense amount of ways of communication, gives one more access to the whole, wide world. This may be the upside, but like with all great things there is a downside as well. The entirety of social media and social networking sites have the potential of becoming extremely distracting. This distraction develops in the form of your productivity killer and as a result, has a detrimental effect on your progress. Which is why going off for a while is great.
3. The non-verbal cues achieve great things
Start of by making simple changes to your attire, possibly even your posture and your facial expressions. These changes, although might seem very inconsequential, they have the potential to mentally enrich you and help in your progress. These also act as confidence boosters, with the help of which you can totally conquer your work life.
While these three make for some of the most important hacks, there are still others that you must pay clear attention to. For instance, cutting down on the sedentary lifestyle, by trying to move as much as possible throughout your day is a great way to feel energised. If all these changes seem overwhelming at first, start small by timing yourself, while you perform your daily tasks. With HR Managers looking for more industry endorsed professionals, institutes like Imarticus Learning have been sought after due to their offerings in industry relevant courses. Visit one of our training centers based in – Chennai, Thane, Pune, Banglore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Coimbatore  for more information.

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