You may have heard of the POPI Act, but don’t really know what it stands for or entails. Well the POPI Act is more than just a catchy name – it is a super important thing for all companies to comply to – let’s find out why.
The Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act was set in place for the purpose of protecting an individual’s personal details, in order to prevent people from just sharing their information all over the place without their consent.
An individual’s personal details are seen as ‘precious goods’ that they have every right to protect – nobody wants their cellphone number or address thrown around all willy nilly right?
The act was signed into law in November of 2013 according to the South African constitutional right to privacy as seen in section 14 of our Constitution. The POPI Act will be implemented on a more serious note from 2018, but for now, we would like to stipulate the importance of becoming POPI compliant in the future.
There are a few steps that a company needs to take in order to effectively and securely store an individual’s information. We list these below:
Have we mentioned before how cool OnRamp is? We’re so cool, we even offer help with POPI training. It’s as easy as boiling an egg. You can simply create a training PlayBook around POPI best practices, upload it to your OnRamp portal and send it on to all your staff for them to learn and complete a test. You can view our PlayBook on more POPI information on your portal once you are logged in. If you want to create a series of PlayBooks on how to look after customer information, you can do this too. Some PlayBook subjects could be:
And in case you were wondering, OnRamp is POPI compliant, with each of our customers information securely stored and free from those sneaky little hackers. We take the utmost care in safely storing any private information that you give us and we promise not to sell it on the call-centre market 🙂
If you are still stuck with how to go about being more POPI compliant, drop us a line on info@onramp.co.za.
You can also read more the POPI Act over here: https://www.workpool.co/featured/popi/
Last month, we chatted about empowering your staff in the workplace, by offering them training options to better themselves and your business as a whole (if you missed it, you can read this article here). We agree that training your staff is a pretty cool thing to do right? Now, what if training your staff meant a higher BEE score? Well, it does, and it’s a great thing to strive for. Let’s have a look at how this can be achieved.
Well, let’s start by saying what it’s not. It’s not one of those annoying little things that fly around, ready to sting you at any moment that you bother it. Although, the lack of BEE in your company can leave somewhat of a sting if you are not complying with the correct BEE codes.
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) or broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) as it is more technically known, was implemented as a means to right the wrongs of Apartheid, by giving previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa, economic privileges that were once not available to them. In other words – providing them with jobs in the workplace that would previously have been given to the advantaged in South Africa.
Let’s just say, that having a high ranking score on the BEE compliance ranking is more beneficial to your business in South Africa than having Bill Gate as your CEO. It is crucial for South African businesses, in order for the country to integrate its people and grow the economy.
For each individual business, being BEE compliant will help with getting bigger and better contracts; it provides credibility for the company – thus making you outshine your competitors; it helps to develop lasting business relationships and it forces you to upskill your employees, which is beneficial for the company.
Skills Development is seen as a priority element under the Revised Codes of Good Practice with the BEE gods. Upskilling employees benefits your business in that it helps to keep your staff for a longer period of time; training as a benefit will assist in recruiting new staff and it helps to make you more competitive as a company.
Besides these facts, skills development will help your company to earn more B-BBEE points as skills development earns 20 points on the BEE scorecard as opposed to 15 points for other developments. Companies can also claim up to 40% back on any staff training costs – that’s a great incentive!
So we’ve seen how important it is to train staff for BEE purposes, but how and where do we do it effectively? The important thing in this instance is being able to capture your training in one place, so it can be easily submitted for your BEE audit. Online training has become a popular way to train staff, because of its flexibility and easy access (read more about online training, here). It also makes it really easily accessible for reporting on what training has been done – especially when done in one central hub.
With OnRamp training, all your information is stored in one place, online. We will be releasing a new feature next month, which has been created particularly to log any external training activities, for ease of use when submitting your BEE audit. Pretty cool of us right?
The important thing to realise when training your staff is that you are essentially paving your own future for the company and providing a means for better business on all accounts.
Acquiring a specific skill in this day and age is not only important for helping a person choose a career path, but it is critical in helping to set them apart from the crowd, with so many unemployed people in South Africa and so few jobs to go around. It is imperative that individuals are skilled enough for employers to need them more than say Joe Soap down the road.
The Skills Development Act in South Africa was created to help develop the skills of the South African people in the workplace, enabling them to better their chances of finding work and keeping a job. Its purpose is to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers and to promote self-employment.
The Skills Development legislation basically provides a platform for increasing the volume of education and training for individuals, but at the same time ensuring that their is quality education and training available.
This is a much needed legislation in South Africa and one that should be well utilised by companies.
Well, it is beneficial for both you as an employer and for your employees. It benefits you and the company as you would have better skilled staff who are able to work more productively – this means faster turnaround times with fewer mistakes, resulting in more profitability for the company.
Employees that are well trained will feel more confident in their roles and take greater pride in how they do their work, because they will feel valued by you having taken the time to invest in them. These employees will have a greater level of job satisfaction and really enjoy being at work knowing they are valued.
It’s basically great overall for everyone in the company.
If your organisation has a payroll of more than R500k per year, you are required to pay a Skills Development Levy of 1% of that payroll to the legislation. Alas, there is hope – you are able to claim back up to 50% of that amount, there are just a few easy steps you need to follow.
Every year your organisation will be required to submit one of these Workplace Skills Plans with a detailed outline of training for the following year as well as an annual training report detailing the training completed in the past year.
As long as you are diligent about doing all of the above, you will have no problem with claiming back on the Skills Development Levy.
Remember that developing and uplifting your staff is as crucial as paying their salaries at the end of the day. If your staff do not feel like they are valued or growing, they may move onto something better, where they will not be taken advantage of and will be encouraged to grow. Staff are the lifeblood of your company, so should be treated with respect – if you have good staff, there is even more reason to look after them and value them as best you can.
If we think about learning in any sense, what is more appealing – long, text-heavy pages of information, or shorter bits of text accompanied by imagery, be it in the form of videos, images, graphs etc? Most people relate better to text accompanied by visual aids which help them to grasp what they are reading. A visual aid is something that supplements words with a picture, chart, illustration or video.
Video-based learning is based on the principle of learning, through seeing. It is fast becoming a popular way to train and educate people, because it is interactive and thought-provoking. With most people spending their time in the digital realm, video-based learning makes sense in terms of overcoming real-world studying constraints, such as time and attention span. It is something that can be used in conjunction with other study methods to create a holistic online learning space.
Video-based learning comes in various forms – from home videos to professionally shot videos, to videos full of text and videos that speak volumes with no words needed. Learners will benefit differently from various forms of video content – it is finding the right mix for your staff or clients that is the hard part.
These work well for organisations that are very hands on, such as factories. Create short videos to send to your staff in order to show them how to assemble a product or how to use a certain machine in the factory. Videos in this sense, are the perfect tool for learning and teaching, as a manual on how to do it just wouldn’t have the same effect.
Share a motivational video with your staff about someone that has succeeded or overcome in one area of their lives. Better yet, get someone to film you telling your life story and how you got to where you are today – your staff will love that. Real-life scenarios or people have a greater impact in motivating others, than say, some non-fictional story.
Introducing yourself or a person in the company to staff members, can easily and very effectively be done through video – especially if that person is not in the same office or province as everyone else. Introductory videos are very popular with the induction process and usually involve introducing a CEO or team of managers to the new team member.
Screencasts have become a very popular way of tutoring of late. They are really effective at showing someone how to use a program or showing staff how to correctly file on their computers for example. Screencasts can easily be recorded on a computer through programmes such as Quicktime, while the person giving the lesson talks their learner through the process.
Informative videos do just that, they inform, but lots of information can tend to be boring and can cause disinterest very quickly. Informative videos should be kept shorter and to the point, to grasp your audience’s attention. If there is a lot of information to get across, try cutting your videos into chapters or a series of videos.
Make use of animated characters and objects to convey your message. This will cut your costs of using actors if need be and will also give a nice contrast to your video with a mix of animation and real-life. Of course you can also create your entire video as animation – this will be lots of fun for your learners.
Whatever kind of video you are creating, you will need to take into consideration the use of audio, text and graphics and how much or how little you will use them. Audio, unless spoken clearly and in a way that people understand, can often confuse the whole video, so use it wisely. Text in videos is usually also used sparingly in order not to divert from the purpose of the visual, but if it is used, make sure you use it as emphasis for something or to aid your learners in remembering something. Graphics can be great in boosting the message of a video, but can also look cheap and forced if not done correctly. Use them where necessary and they will enhance your video message.
With the ever increasing number of people using a computer and the busy schedules that most people have, video-based learning has really become a popular method of teaching and learning. It can be extremely diverse and beneficial to the learner and definitely an option to be considered for your next employee course or lesson.
Remember that with OnRamp, you can upload any of these videos! It’s easy-peasy, can add such value to your Playbook and can also make your overall training more effective.
To chat more about videos on OnRamp, drop us a mail: ashleighv@onramp.co.za
We are super excited about some sweet new features that have been released. Here at OnRamp, we love a new challenge and are continually looking for ways to make our system that much more awesome. With that being said, we have just ramped up our features in a BIG way!
We know from personal experience, just how important branding is to your business – it’s what sets you apart. Our upgraded Custom Theme Feature allows you to personalise your OnRamp portal by branding it with your company’s look and feel. All sorts of things can now be changed – colours, icons and even the main login screen to the system. Check out this cool video clip to see for yourself just how awesome this is for your brand.
Learning a new skill or taking in some useful information is all well and good, but if that information is never implemented into our daily lives, is there really any point to it?
Knowledge Accountability is often a sore point in many businesses nowadays. The constant struggle that business’ face trying to impart valuable information onto staff is a reality. The days of sending an email expecting staff to acknowledge, read and implement are sadly no longer. Thankfully OnRamp can solve this problem. OnRamp allows business knowledge stakeholders to easily push vital company procedure or product info to staff and track engagement. Aligning people to process or products info in a measurable way, will ensure greater levels of success.
Accountability for knowledge digested will ensure that your staff are constantly growing and improving. OnRamp has helped many customers solve this challenge in a fun, simple and effective way. Want more information … pop us an email and we will gladly contact you.
Ashleigh Vorster has been with OnRamp for the last two years and has helped it grow in leaps and bounds. We smaak Ash.
Ashleigh is our customer success manager and deals with all new OnRamp customers. She is the go-to gal for any platform questions and is super clued up about all our new features and whatnot.
You can ask Ash (just about) anything and she will give you a detailed and helpful response.
Get in touch with Ash. ashleighv@onramp.co.za
Whether it is a marathon, maths exam or even avoiding that slice of molten chocolate cake … mmm – if we want to achieve results, we all know we need to train to get there. Train our bodies, train our minds and train our errr … willpower. Simple enough right? Not always. Training can be ineffective if not planned and executed in line with what it is you want to achieve, which could mean valuable time lost and the risk of not getting the desired results. That is not so good for business. Here are our four top tips to ensure you create an effective online training strategy that will help your business grow.
Diversify your training options. Offering a wide range of training options is a wise idea. All members of your staff are unique individuals, with distinctive needs and preferences – even when it comes to learning. Offering a variety of options allows staff and managers to choose an approach that works best for them or their team, benefiting your business in the end. These options can range from online training activities, such as engaging with multi-modal Playbooks through OnRamp to practical workshops or demonstrations. Having a wide range of online training benefits each of the different types of learners and covers the basis for your training objectives. You can also diversify the way in which you assess training. This brings us to our next tip …
Keep track of results. To check that you are on the right track to achieving your objectives, you need to be continually assessing the plan. There are various ways you can do this. With online training through OnRamp, you can assign tests to each training module to ensure the student has fully engaged and understood the content. Further to this, you can run various reports to track the progress of your training objectives and pinpoint any areas that require further attention. An example could be when an employee is not performing well in a customer service module, then additional training could be recommended to build on that skill.
What are the benefits of online training? If your employees can reap real world benefits, then you can consider your online training program an effective one. State clearly the benefits of each of your online modules and activities that your employee will receive, as well as how the training is going to help them boost their performance to work more productively. This would ideally be stated before the training begins, with every exercise reinforcing the value the training experience holds. This helps employees understand why they are being asked to complete these training programs, as well as how they would apply the knowledge they learn in a real world setting.
Feedback is key. Give out surveys or questionnaires to your employees, and hold open discussions after each training initiative. Through these methods you can discover how the training can be improved on; what your staff enjoyed about the training and if you are reaching your business or brand objectives. Feedback is important, and your staff are one of the most valuable feedback assets you have at your disposal. This allows you to encourage an increase in job satisfaction rates and tailor the experience to meet your employees’ expectations. Through OnRamp, students or employees can have direct feedback with their training managers on each Playbook, allowing them to feel heard and giving the training coordinators the power to address any queries effectively.
Online training is a process that can continue for as long as an employee is with the company. It is a constant source of learning and one that should be built on regularly. This will help your employees to grow continually with the company and to remain excited about their job roles. It may not be the quickest option, but it is a process of constant evolution which will achieve the objectives you are looking for.
Online learning, or e-learning as it is more commonly known these days, is the ability to learn via electronic media, typically by use of the internet. It allows you to study in your own time, at your own pace and in your own space – most of the time.
Online learning can be a super tool for those who need to work fulltime while studying. It is also great for fulltime students who wish to take some extra lessons or courses over and above their day-to-day studies.
For companies needing to educate their staff on a continual basis, online learning is the way to go. With OnRamp, you can easily send out training manuals to be completed online, with a few clicks of a button. You can add loads of different resources to your playbooks, so that your staff are fully equipped for their online learning experience, and ready to crack that learning. Upload resources such as instructional videos; demonstrations; PowerPoints; recording of live lessons/presentations; or downloadable documents for an optimal online learning experience.
Some people are however, skeptical about online learning, as they believe that it only works for certain personality types or learning styles. We believe though that online learning can be great for everyone, regardless of learning styles – it just depends on what resources are made available.
When we talk about learning styles, we refer to the four different categories that people fit into. These learning styles include: visual learners, auditory learners, reading/writing learners or kinesthetic learners. Everyone should know their particular learning style in order to get the maximum benefit from online learning and learning in general.
Auditory Learners: They love to listen! Auditory learners get the most out of learning through hearing things spoken out loud. For example, reading out loud to themselves; listening to audio clips or videos; explaining things to others; listening to pre-recorded lectures or spoken instructions. Any auditory resources will go a long way with this type of learner!
Visual Learners: They have a keen eye! Visual learners work best by seeing and visualising a relationship between different ideas. They are good with spelling, colour, understanding charts and diagrams and generally like to have a quiet space to learn by sight. Visual learners will do well with resources such as images or PowerPoint presentations.
Kinesthetic Learners: They are good doers! Kinesthetic learners do well at tasks that keep them busy and less distracted. They have the ability to work in a noisy environment as background noise does not affect their ability to learn. Kinesthetic learners will do well with interactive videos that require them to make or build something – so for example, they could be required to submit a project with the process of how they changed a tyre (an employee working for a car company).
Reading/Writing Learners: They have that nerd factor! This is an obvious one – reading/writing learners learn best through writing down ideas and reading land interacting with text. They are good at researching by reading and finding information to help in their learning process. They are good at writing notes and studying through this process. Reading/writing learners will do best with written projects and downloadable reading materials – they thrive on a good essay or two.
For companies wishing to train staff through OnRamp, it may be a good idea to find out your staff’s learning styles and capabilities before creating playbooks for them. With OnRamp’s unlimited users functionality, it is very simple to create different playbooks for each user or different groups of users, according to their learning style and what would work best for them. There is so much flexibility with the system, that it is almost impossible for anyone not to be able to learn online and benefit from online learning.
We believe that online learning is the way of the future and is beneficial to all age groups and personalities. If done correctly, online learning can be fun, interactive and a fantastic asset to any person or company.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you learn in the best possible way!
The very word ‘train’, can leave people with a shiver down their spine. Training in any form often means boredom, hard work or loads of pressure from outsiders.
Add the word corporate to training and you immediately have everyone breaking out in yawns and groans. The stigma that surrounds corporate training is one of dry, dull and lengthy lectures that benefit no one, except for allowing them some time to nap during working hours.
OnRamp is here to break the cycle of boredom and the myths that surround these corporate training sessions.
Here are a few myths that exist in this day and age around corporate training and how we feel OnRamp does and will break these myths.
No. Training is more about quality as opposed to quantity. An employee will not become more skilled with more hours of training if the training material does not cover relevant information. It is better to focus on providing quality training materials that are loaded with great content and can be completed in a short time, as opposed to a lengthy training guide filled with drawn-out information. Your employees will thank you for short and concise training. With OnRamp, you can create specific topics or Playbooks that are filled with quality resources to ensure that training is relevant to each employee’s role or department within the company.
Absolutely not. Imagine you have employees that have been working for your company for 10 years and the last time they received training was when they first started! Ongoing training for staff is critical, to keep them up to date with the latest information and excited about their roles. Training will also increase their skillset, creating a more valuable team.
With OnRamp, you have the ability to continually train as many employees as you like with our ‘unlimited users’ functionality. Our system also allows for great reporting on how staff interact with and cope with the training material and to measure the KPIs for performance management and to gauge which areas need further training.
If training is done right, this myth is 100% false. If you take the time to create content that is engaging and interesting, then there should never be a reason for any employee to find the training boring. When employees see how beneficial and interactive the training material is, they will want to learn and complete it.
OnRamp is fully online and accessible at any time of day, which is hugely beneficial. This allows employees to do the training in their own time and at their own pace, and to engage with the training material in a less pressured environment. OnRamp also has the ability to incorporate multi-modal resources, which means adding images and videos to help create content that is fun and interactive.
Remember: Your attitude towards training will directly impact the way your employees react to training. If you are excited about it, they will be too!
Would you make a 5-year old watch a video on how to start a business? Likewise, would you make an adult watch a kiddies video to teach them something? No, because they are completely different age groups and require different content to be stimulated. It is the same with your employees. They should be given training material that is relevant to their skillset and department. The accounts department would probably not need to do the same training as say the marketing department – they are different areas completely.
With OnRamp’s easy-to-use system, you can group users according to their department and requirements and allocate the relevant training guides to each person, so that they don’t have to complete the entire organisations worth of Playbooks, which would just be messy and impractical.
There’s no need to burn the midnight oil to get a training manual complete, whilst pulling out your hair. OnRamp training does not need to be created from scratch. You can easily take material that is already created and add to or edit it. You can also attach fun and interactive resources to your Playbook, making it an exciting process for both you and your employees. Our system allows employees to get involved by creating their own content such as demo video’s and creative imagery.
Creating training material does not have to be an arduous, boring task for those creating it as well as those engaging in it. OnRamp allows for quick, easy and fun Playbooks and in fact, we encourage this kind of content more than anything. You can train hundreds of different staff at the click of a button and allow for everyone to enjoy it at the same time.
Don’t leave your staff untrained, get OnRamp and start creating fun, informative and interactive content today!
The way that we learn these days is so different to the way it was ten years ago, even five years ago. The world is changing at such a rapid rate, with new technologies being introduced constantly. The days of rushing to the library to copy some notes from the encyclopedia are long gone. Now, the only rushing that happens, is to the laptop: Google has all the answers you could possibly need, and then some.
Learning has also taken a turn in the last couple of years, with online learning and training now available at our fingertips. The internet has become an invaluable resource for education, and with the introduction of on-demand learning and learning from your computer, in your own space and in your own time – the world of education has opened up like never before.
Some of the benefits of online training and learning
Benefit for students:
Little to no transport is required to hop onto the internet for a lesson. Lessons can also take place immediately, at the click of a button – no need to wait in long lines or sit in traffic for ages to get to class – you can simply walk from your bedroom to the study and voila, the lesson begins.
Benefit for companies:
There’s no need to hire out expensive venues to host hundreds of people, or worry about where they will park, eat and how comfy they’ll be. Online presentations and webinars allow you to reach thousands of people at the click of a button, increasing the flexibility of learning all round.
In OnRamp, you can attach multiple types of visual and downloadable resources to encourage optimal engagement from your audience, and with so many free tools and software available, like screen recording, graphics and slide shows, providing really engaging training content has never been easier and more cost effective.
Benefit for students:
With the ease of access to mobile devices, online training is conveniently available wherever you are. The beauty of learning online is that you don’t have to be in a class at the moment it happens. Lessons can easily be downloaded at a later stage, when it is convenient for you.
Benefit for companies:
Online training works well for businesses who need to plan a group session – they can easily download a pre-recorded webinar or presentation and show it to a team of individuals at a set time. If you are uploading training sessions, you can do this weeks in advance, without needing to be present at the time of the lesson.
Benefit for students:
No more hot classrooms, surrounded by loads of people and sitting on hard chairs. Instead, you can sit in the comfort of your home, possibly even in your pj’s and learn at your leisure. It’s a much easier option and affords you the opportunity to actually enjoy your learning experience.
Benefit for companies:
Providing your team with an online training platform leaves a lot more room for a good return on your training investment – your costs will be lower and your time more efficiently utilised. Simply offering your team access to an online training platform like OnRamp, where they can login at their leisure and complete your training at any time – will allow for upskilling of your human resources, even while you hit the zzz’s.