The year is off to a racing start. Have you implemented your New Year’s resolutions for your business yet? Or is your business a work in progress? Regardless of where you’re at, you’re not alone—March is full of insightful instruction and great ideas to boost your productivity. Recharge yourself with a free webinar or two this month—we hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Monday, March 2, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: The Future Trends of Organization Development (Free for ATD members)

Predictions are commonplace in the stock market and real estate, but they should be just as common in organization development (OD), which can be as volatile, with people moving from one organization to another for many reasons. As OD practitioners, can we predict how or why employees leave? Where is the OD field going? What will it look like five or ten years from now?

A successful OD practitioner must be able to see around the corner in at least three areas: work trends, global trends, and technology trends. In this session the webinar presenters will discuss current business issues that practitioners are facing today, identify emerging trends that will impact the future, and discuss how an OD practitioner can stay ahead of these trends. Upon completing the session, participants will be able to:

• Reflect on past and current conditions in the OD field.

• Compare their predictions about the future with other professionals.

• Review existing literature about emerging trends.

• Discuss how to prepare for the future.

• Brainstorm how OD can support future challenges.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Focused Performance: Translating Learning Strategy into Business Success

Choosing strategic technology does not guarantee that you'll be able to reap the efficiency rewards. Whether virtual learning, communities, or management systems, most technology implementations fail to deliver the ROI that businesses need.

In this session, you will learn how to prioritize strategies, translate the strategies into projects assigned to a single project manager, and then create a dashboard for each project using an actionable plan with one task, one date, and one name for all work to be done. You will receive a copy of an e-book with reusable tools to leverage this process at home.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PT: Making Every Learner An Innovator (Free for ATD members)

IBM Learning has researched the behaviours driving innovation, and Matthew Valencius will show you how practical and simple it can be to promote innovation through learning. This webcast will spark ideas about how your organization can be even more innovative!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Design Considerations for Learners on the Go

There are close to a dozen different iOS devices and over 4,200 different Android devices on the market. Designing training content for these different devices is challenging. When considering building training material for mobile devices, you might wonder if it’s best to build a native application or a web application. It’s important to know the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two options, and to understand the significant differences between developing for mobile and developing for traditional desktops.

In this session, you’ll explore a matrix that will help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of building native applications versus building web applications. You’ll discuss topics such as flexible layout for smartphones, appropriate fonts, font sizing, colours, and safe viewing areas on a phone. You’ll explore what mobile training is versus just-in-time information (JII), and how the differences between the two can impact how and what you build for your mobile learners.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: How to Succeed under Pressure for High-Performance Sales: Succeeding under Pressure

Selling is not easy, especially under pressure. Pressure changes how the brain functions; it diminishes our ability to think, make decisions, and connect with others. That’s why the ability to manage pressure is one of the things that sets high-performing sales people and sales leaders apart. And it’s one of the reasons smart people often fall short. In this interactive session, leadership coach Bill Benjamin shares his secrets for how to drive sales, increase customer loyalty, and succeed amid constantly increasing pressure.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Stop Wasting Money on Sales Training: The Secrets to Creating a High-Performance Sales Team (Free for ATD members)

You’ve likely heard the lament, “Our sales training isn’t working.” If done well, sales training can be effective. But the act of training alone, without the context of continuing sales support or manager engagement, won’t change the game, leaving you to wonder what your investments are really buying you.

Best-in-class organizations are taking a more holistic approach to improving sales performance that goes beyond event-based training to include knowledge reinforcement, skills transfer, coaching to mastery, and behaviour change. In this exclusive webinar for ATD members, the expert presenters will discuss:

• The most common reasons sales training fails.

• The importance of knowledge transfer and the role of managers in motivating long-term change.

• The metrics that matter when it comes to improving sales performance.

• Real-world success stories from leading global brands.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Total Talent Acquisition: The Three Phases of a High-Performance Framework

Join us for a live interactive webinar, during which Brandon Hall Group analysts Madeline Laurano and Kyle Lagunas will present the three phases of their high-performance talent acquisition framework and the actionable steps to execute effectively. Their model represents the three phases of a high-performance framework that aligns to a refreshed set of key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Plan & Prepare

• Identify & Evaluate

• Acquire & Engage

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Engaging Learners in the Virtual Classroom

As classroom trainers transition to the online virtual classroom, they often deliver boring lectures with an occasional poll or chat thrown in to mix it up. Learners pushed into the role of bored, passive observers quickly discover how easy it is to multi-task (checking email, finishing projects, or even conversing with co-workers). Trainers report that they hate the lack of visual feedback and their inability to read their learners’ needs when delivering training via the web. If you want to do it better, enjoy it more, and feel satisfaction in your training efforts, join us to learn tried-and-true engagement techniques for the virtual classroom.  Attend this one-hour webinar to learn how you can deliver vibrant, engaging virtual learning experiences that capture their attention and lead to actual performance improvement. 

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: TAG, You’re It! Aligning eLearning Game Designs to Bloom’s Taxonomy

There is a lot of excitement and buzz in the industry around “gamification” of learning. What does this mean for instructional designers? Is it possible to blend tried-and-true theories of instructional design while meeting the needs of your learner population and stakeholders who are begging for games? Does gamification of eLearning even make sense for your organization or the needs of your learners?

Learn how to avoid gaming just for the sake of gaming, and truly align gaming to your instructional needs through the examination of real-world eLearning examples and their game-design elements. Angel Green will provide a sneak peek into Allen Interactions’s Taxonomy Alignment for Gaming (TAG)—based on Bloom’s Taxonomy—to help instructional designers in their quest to incorporate gaming into their learning designs.

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: What Makes a Great Facilitator? (Free for ATD members)

In this webinar, we'll share the critical skills for effective facilitation, and the expectations you may encounter as a facilitator with a C-level group. As a part of the webinar, you will hear real scenarios and how the facilitator dealt with real-life participant issues. The presenters will discuss:

• What C-level executives expect when they are participants in a meeting.

• The six critical skills for effective facilitation.

• A great activity to manage egos.

• How you can manage conflict as a facilitator.

Great facilitators make their work look like magic. This one-hour webinar will kick-start your work to become an effective facilitator; it’s also a preview of what ATD will cover in their new Facilitation Skills workshop. Join them for this complimentary webinar!

Friday, March 6, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Case Study: Building a Program to Grow Real Leaders (Free for ATD members)

First Bank Financial Centre (FBFC) is a 155-year-old community bank based in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. As the organization continues to grow in support of its clients’ needs, it remains an admired, trusted financial institution in the communities it serves. FBFC’s reputation is a reflection of the 250 individuals who make up the FBFC family and the distinctive service they provide. In preparation for continued growth, the groundwork was laid to pilot a program that would prepare internal leaders for management-level positions.

This webinar will discuss the evolution of Leading with Distinction, FBFC’s leadership development program, shared from the perspective of developers and participants. By hearing this story as it continues to unfold, you will:

• Understand how the groundwork was laid to obtain support from executives, management, and pilot participants.

• Learn how a mid-size company can develop a high-value program on a slim budget.

• Anticipate the potential challenges and rewards of developing, launching, and measuring the impact of your own leadership program

Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Building a Culture of Employee Engagement (Free for ATD members)

Research has shown that improving employee engagement in government will drive higher levels of organizational performance, stimulate innovation, reduce unwanted turnover, and yield other important workforce and organizational benefits. In this session, Bob will expand on previous sessions he’s presented on engagement, including:

• What employee engagement is and why it matters, particularly in government.

• Assessing the level of employee engagement.

• Improving engagement.

• Developing managerial competencies on engagement.

• Training and educating managers/supervisors on measuring and improving engagement.

• Building an organizational culture of engagement.

• Why engagement efforts fail.

• How to get started on the journey to improved engagement.

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PT: State of the Industry (Free for ATD members)

Laurie Miller, director of Research Services at ATD, and David Frankel, research specialist, will discuss benchmarking data from ATD BEST Awards Winners, and other organizations from 2006 to the present. ATD estimates that U.S. organizations spent $1,208 per employee on training and development in 2013. The content from this webcast is drawn from ATD's 2014 State of the Industry report, which is sponsored by Skillsoft and the Ken Blanchard Companies.  

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Be THE LEARNING EXPERT : Get Decision-Makers on Your Side!

A lot of what we do as learning and training professionals centres on building our credibility as EXPERTS in our respective fields. Our desires include becoming a consultant and change agent so we can introduce and lead our leaders to make changes. Failure means we suffer from having low-impact contributions on the job. Consequently, we lose excitement and commitment to our roles as developers and inspirers of people. In this webinar, Ray Jimenez will share experiences from the trenches, having worked with Fortune 500 companies and large as well as small companies with global situations. He will share common traits, strategies, and methods to obtain success in being an expert and making things happen. How do you avoid confusing the administrative control function with the learning function of compliance courses?

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Best Practices in High-Performance Recruitment Marketing

The most effective hiring organizations today leverage advanced marketing practices to create highly effective strategies that go well beyond simply broadcasting open jobs. Recruitment marketing is being implemented across many top talent acquisition teams, the most effective of which are using social media marketing, content marketing, employer branding, and search engine marketing to boost the acquisition of top talent. But how exactly are these strategies being implemented, and what tactics are being leveraged to attract more qualified candidates—and convert them into applicants more quickly?

Learn best-practice strategies for high-performance recruitment marketing in a new webinar led by Brandon Hall Group and featuring Lockheed Martin, CDW and SmashFly, a leader in recruitment marketing technology. You’ll learn:

• What are the critical components of high-performance recruitment marketing every modern recruiting organization should use?

• How can a recruiting team leverage these components to attract more (and better) talent to their critical job families?

• What role does measurement play in driving both short and long-term success?

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: How Much Is Ineffective Sales Manager Training Costing You?

What’s the difference between training targeted specifically at front-line sales managers versus general leadership training targeted at other supervisory functions within an organization? Unfortunately, in many cases, nothing. While it is clear that there is merit to tying sales manager training to an organization’s competency model, most of the training sales managers receive tends to be too blunt an instrument to address the day-to-day realities of sales management.

In this webinar, Michelle Vazzana, partner at Vantage Point Performance and co-author of Cracking the Sales Management Code, will reveal how to:

• Develop sales manager training that accommodates the complexities of different sales roles.

• Align training with the high-impact sales management activities that drive sales performance results.

• Help sales managers establish a framework that allows them to operationalize the training into their daily workflows.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Leadership Skills (Free for ATD members)

Taken from the ATD Trainer's Workshop series, this Leadership Training webcast offers practical, ready-to-use programs that allow users to quickly create half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshops. Learn how to integrate 10 key leadership competencies to create leadership training programs that get results.

This program is designed for all levels of leaders, from executives to middle managers to project managers. The tools provided can also be used to develop high-potential, next-generation leaders. Training programs are designed to be experiential, minimizing emphasis on lecture and focusing on shaping participant attitudes. In this webcast, Lou Russell focuses on giving individual learners support through discussion and participant reflection.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: 10 Ways to Virtualize Your Training

Are you struggling with the challenges of delivering training to a global employee base? Would you like to provide more interactive and engaging training? How about social learning—is this one of your training objectives? Attend this webcast to learn how best-in-class organizations are using virtual learning to provide outstanding training experiences. In particular, this webinar will showcase 10 best practices for using virtual learning environments to:

• Deliver a global training experience while enabling localized distinctiveness.

• Engage and motivate your learners.

• Add social learning to your training arsenal.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: How to Leverage Learning for Business Results

Learning and development seems like a fairly straightforward discipline, but innovation is continuing to drive new trends and opportunities to improve the results of these initiatives. What do the best learning organizations do that differentiate them from the rest? How can companies leverage the 70:20:10 learning framework for powerful results? How does content outsourcing fit into the learning and development puzzle?

Join Senior Learning Analyst David Wentworth and HCM Analyst Ben Eubanks for a free webinar to learn the answers to these questions and more. During the webinar David will offer insights from the Brandon Hall Group 70:20:10 and Learning Content Outsourcing surveys. In addition, they will wrap up the webinar with a Q&A session to answer your biggest learning questions.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Qvidan Presents: 2015 Sales Execution Trends Research Results (Free for ATD members)

Qvidian recently surveyed sales and marketing executives from companies around the globe to better understand their outlook for 2015. Please join Qvidian’s Chief Marketing Officer Christopher Faust and Marketing Director Amanda Wilson for a live webinar as they review the results of the annual State of Sales Execution Survey, which include key objectives for sales organizations in 2015, the challenges and obstacles they expect to face, and the investment areas needed to improve sales execution.

Attendees will receive valuable insight into this year’s sales trends:

• Executive management priorities imply that most organizations will continue to be in growth mode for 2015.

• Slow sales rep ramp-up continues to be the hurdle for organizations achieving quotas.

• Efficiency remains a priority for organizations with increasing upsell and cross-sell efforts, and they are streamlining sales processes to meet this objective.

Thursday, March 19, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Performance Improvement: How Savvy Managers Create Measurable Change

Annual performance reviews are a given in business. What is not a given is timely and meaningful feedback throughout the year. Yet research shows that providing ongoing feedback in smaller chunks, while situations and circumstances are still fresh in the employee’s mind, is more effective than a one-hour meeting once per year. Savvy managers know that frequent contact, recognition, and encouragement with honest and direct feedback regularly produce higher-performing employees. Communication with simplicity, a focus on the future, and support for employee self-tracking is a winning combination that yields measurable change. 

Thursday, March 19, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: The Threads of Engagement: Weave a Total Talent Management Tapestry at your Organization

Join us for a live interactive webinar on how to provide highly personalized talent experiences supported by a unified talent platform.

Brandon Hall Group’s Mollie Lombardi and PeopleFluent’s Todd Black will discuss total talent management in the modern workplace—where no two employees are the same, but they can be engaged, motivated, and aligned by a unified talent platform. Their presentation will cover the following and more:

• Gain insight into key principles for total talent management with a discussion on the evolution of talent management technology and how it supports a unified employee experience.

• How talent management solutions should support employee empowerment, accountability, and engagement.

• How your organization can avoid the downside of analytics and focus on the right data for the right decisions.

Friday, March 20, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: From the Mouths of Millennials: Priceless Tips for Managers (Free for ATD members)

Big data can give us demographic numbers to crunch and analyze. But that’s not enough for us to be the most effective managers we can for our millennial employees. Listen to what they are saying:

• What is on their minds?

• What is important to them now?

• How can we break the 1.5-year-average retention rate?

• How can we engage them to produce their best work?

Learn the insights that emerged from an open-ended survey conducted with employees born between 1980 and 1992. These priceless tips will make us the best managers millennial employees can ask for.

Monday, March 23, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Creating Organizational Engagement (Free for ATD members)

Much has been made of physician engagement within healthcare systems, but often physicians are just one group within a system that depends on the active engagement and communication of employees in disparate, disconnected environments. Hospital executives can’t run clinics or departments directly, so they must cultivate the engagement of managers at the practice level to oversee organizational change. This webinar will look at the practical strategies healthcare system senior executives can take to engage operational managers in a way that develops the efficiency of an organization and its ability to cultivate management skills.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Accelerate Performance Experience on the Job: Fast, Effective and Low-Cost Methods

Why is experience the ultimate best teaching model? Why do we miss out on opportunities for improving performance through experience? Research has shown that the demographics in the workforce are gradually changing. Companies are losing more experienced people. Moreover, it is getting more difficult to hire people with experience. Unfortunately, learning environments and training programs focus on the theory about the work, and not gaining the experience needed for the work. As a result, companies lose valuable human resource assets and ultimately their competitive edge as well.

In this webinar, we will explore “learning-for-experience” and “learning-for-performance” models to help learners and workers gain experience faster.

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PT: Onboarding Analytics: Improve Retention, Performance and Hiring

For the average organization, it takes over six months for new hires’ contributions to pay back the expense of recruiting and onboarding them. With some straightforward approaches to measuring the onboarding experience, training, and performance of new hires, organizations can significantly accelerate time to productivity and improve new hire retention. In this webinar, you will learn the following:

• The business case for investing in onboarding analytics.

• Simple, scalable approaches to measuring the onboarding experience and new hire training.

• The data-driven decisions that accelerate time to productivity, engagement, and retention.

• How to loop the data back to improve quality of hire.

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Developing Great Leaders: Bucking Conventional Wisdom (Free for ATD members)

Leadership development has traditionally focused on the competencies needed for one to be successful. There is little doubt that competencies are important, but truly great leaders are more than competent. They have character—character represented by values that guide their every action and determine each decision. In values-based development, the focus is on the why instead of the how, and the result is both pervasive and impactful. As a result of attending this webcast, you will learn:

• The role that values and character play in leadership.

• Why values are important above and beyond competencies.

• How to use assessments to measure values.

• The way values can derail performance and careers.

• How values can be used effectively for development.

Friday, March 27, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PT: Effectively Managing Curriculum Projects (Free for ATD members)

While we are bombarded with information and documentation available on Project Management in traditional fields such as engineering and software development, Project Management as it relates to curriculum and training projects is often times managed using tribal knowledge or unwritten rules.

We all know that curriculum development has its own set of challenges. Project managers find themselves improvising the traditional project management practices to manage their company's training deliverables. This webcast offers best practices on effectively managing curriculum projects, specifically technical instructor-led projects and shared best practices. Attendees will learn:

• The development life cycle overview.

• How to plan for your curriculum projects.

• Phases and milestones in development life cycle.

• Project management best practices for curriculum projects.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PT: How to Talk to an Executive (Free for ATD members)

When we surveyed managers about executive conversations, 90 percent said these conversations are harder than those with co-workers or employees, and 20 percent said they are significantly harder. There seems to be a disconnect between managers and executives that occurs during high-level conversations, caused by the difference between the manager’s perspective and the executive’s expectation.

This webcast will:

• Reveal the executive mindset. Managers often miss the mark by talking to C-level executives as if they have the same perspective as middle managers. Sally Williamson and Associates brings unique insight into what top executives value and how they think.

• Expose what executives want. This segment introduces three core concepts that leaders listen for and demonstrates how to deliver on them consistently.

• Teach a bottom-line strategy. The ability to define a clear and compelling message is essential to the executive conversation.

• Provide a conversation framework. Every high-level conversation needs a framework that leads an executive to a clear understanding and interest in any recommendations.