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Empower Your Career Journey with Our New Training Platform

Hello there! Are you new to a role or project and are feeling a bit overwhelmed? Perhaps you’re looking for a way to streamline your processes and boost your confidence in your agile journey. Well, you’ve landed in the right place!

Introducing Our New Training Platform

We’re thrilled to unveil our new, innovative training platform, expertly designed to empower individuals like you. Our platform is structured to demystify the world of agile, no matter your role or project.

Why Choose Our Training Platform?

Ever found yourself stuck in a whirlwind of project management jargon? We’ve all been there. Or maybe you feel like you’re just not getting to grips with the agile approach. It can be tough, right? We understand that, which is why we’ve designed our platform to make the agile journey clearer, simpler, and more manageable for you.

Gain Confidence in Your Agile Journey

Our training platform aims to break down the complexities of agile methodologies, helping you to gain confidence in whichever area you’re working in. We believe in the power of learning and growing together. With our interactive platform, you’ll be able to connect with other learners, share experiences, and support each other through the agile journey. Sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Empowerment for Various Roles

Whether you’re a project manager, product owner, or a developer, our platform caters to all roles. Our comprehensive training materials cover everything from the basics of agile to more advanced aspects, giving you the confidence to navigate through your role with ease. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want to be part of?

Time to Take Action

Imagine what you could achieve with a bit of guidance, support, and the right tools at your disposal. The ability to confidently navigate your role or project, the satisfaction of seeing your projects come to life, and the joy of being part of a thriving agile community. Can you picture it? We can, and we’re here to help make it a reality.

Now, the ball is in your court. Are you ready to empower yourself and embark on a transformative journey in the agile world? We believe in you, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. Let’s take this leap together!

Don’t wait. Sign up and start your agile journey with us today. Together, we’ll make great strides in the world of agile!

Remember, you’re not alone in this journey. We’re with you, ready to empower you to be the best that you can be. So, are you ready to start your journey to becoming a confident and empowered agile professional? Let’s do this, shall we?

Conclusion

We hope that our new training platform will help you feel more assured in your role and project. Our goal is to support you, inspire you, and help you navigate the agile world with confidence. So, are you ready to join us on this journey?

Remember, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. And we’re here to make that journey as rewarding as possible for you.

Sign up today and let’s embark on this journey together. Because together, we can achieve anything. Welcome to the world of agile!  Let’s get started.  Happy learning! 🚀🌟

See you in the skill areas! 😉

The Great British Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off is a beloved television show that has captivated audiences for years. But did you know that you can use this baking competition as inspiration for your team retrospectives? That’s right – by incorporating elements of the show into your meetings, you can add some fun and creativity to the process while also identifying areas for improvement. Here’s how:

  1. Set the scene

To create a baking-themed retrospective, you’ll want to start by setting the scene. Decorate the room with baking-themed decorations like bunting, aprons, and utensils. You could also serve baked goods to your team to get them in the spirit.

  1. Identify what went well

Just like on the show, start by identifying what went well during your project or team management process. Encourage your team to share their successes and achievements, and make sure to celebrate them appropriately. You could even award prizes, like a “Star Baker” certificate or a baking-themed prize.

  1. Discuss what could go better

After celebrating your successes, it’s time to identify areas for improvement. Just like the judges on the show, provide constructive feedback to your team and encourage them to brainstorm ways to improve. You could even set a challenge, like identifying three things that could be improved in the next iteration of your project.

  1. Focus on teamwork

The Great British Bake Off emphasizes the importance of teamwork, and your retrospective should too. Encourage your team to work together and support each other throughout the process. Make sure everyone has a chance to share their ideas and contribute to the discussion.

  1. Learn from mistakes

The show often highlights the importance of learning from mistakes, so use that as an opportunity to discuss any mistakes made during your project or team management process. Encourage your team to brainstorm ways to avoid those mistakes in the future and focus on how to improve.
In conclusion, using the Great British Bake Off as inspiration for your team retrospectives can be a fun and engaging way to identify areas for improvement and celebrate your successes. Just remember to keep it light and friendly, and focus on collaboration and learning. Happy baking!

Top 10 Tips For Keeping On Top Of Your Training

💻 Training is such an important part of any organisation and in this blog we will discuss our top 10 tips for keeping on top of your training as a business.
💡 This will help you to understand how best to undertake employee training to get the most out of your staff, along with effectively performing as an organisation and meeting your aims and objectives!

➡️ So, let’s get started:
Our first tip is to avoid mass training within your organisation. It can be all too tempting to bulk everyone together and train them, however, this is not helpful as a one-size fits all approach does not always work in practice. Each team member will have a different style of learning and bunching everyone together is an unproductive way of training as it will not get the best out of staff members.

Realistic training is a further tip for keeping on top of training, as individuals need to be aware of tools that are used within the organisation so that they are able to perform effectively in their position. Training is about practice and it needs to be hands-on!

The promotion of a culture of learning is another tip that is important in keeping on top of training as if an organisation isn’t frequently learning, it can be left behind. Promoting a culture of learning and communicating your expectations that your employees should update their skills is vital.

Progress should be rewarded, with training plans being no exception and your organisation should enable a process so that your employees are rewarded for their training. If employees are appreciated, then they are more likely to want to keep on top of training.

Another tip for keeping on top of training is how your organisation determines who will direct the training and ensure that the choice fits the business’s needs. Selecting who is going to conduct your training is really important as it will make a key difference to the overall success of your efforts.

Following up after training sessions is a must do with regards to keeping on top of your training. Once a training session has ended, development and continuity are key. The training process is not about giving lectures or ‘talking at’ your staff, it is a collaborative process where you gain and receive feedback from your employees in a constructive manner!

Another top tip is knowing the people in your organisation and what their needs may be. This is important as if your employees know what your business goals are then they will be more willing to learn new information.

In terms of keeping on top of your training, you need to establish a flexible environment where your employees have the ability to engage in training at times that suit them. Ensuring that you give your employees flexibility is a hugel benefit to your organisation for keeping on top of training!

Along with being flexible in your approach to training, the location where the training takes place needs to be thought about. Having the correct equipment, such as computers and projectors is a further important consideration.

Our final top tip for keeping on top of your training is measuring and tracking the effects of the training. You need to figure out how you are going to analyse the success of your training. This allows you to assess how valuable the training has been and what other areas of growth you would like to see in the future.

✅ Taking all of these 10 top tips as a whole, it is extremely important to ensure that you keep on top of your training.
📧 Here at Symtoi, our all-in-one platform is designed with a focus on training, development and upskilling, and can be adapted to fit into any organisation. Give us a shout any time if you would like to have a chat!

Creating OKRs For Your Training Plan

In our last blog we looked at the top digital skills needed in 2022, which was a slight diversion from our main focus of training, so today we are back the subject of training and will be looking into creating OKRs for your training plan. 

So, what does OKRs stand for and how can they fit into your training plan? This blog will also touch on why they are necessary, how to create them and how they can be maintained. 

OKRs means Objectives and Key Results. They are a simple but flexible tool you can use to set goals, define objectives, and measure results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals! 

But what are they in practice? Well, the most effective OKRs typically have the following characteristics:

  • Objectives: These should be exactly what you want to achieve, so they must be set in stone, as opposed to being aspirational and vague. When they are properly pinpointed they must be straightforward to understand and real, tangible goals. It is a good idea to make them action-oriented in order to inspire people to take specific steps toward achieving them. 

  • Key Results: These are used to measure your progress toward your objectives. They should be quantifiable and measurable, ensuring that you can see when they have been achieved. Think of it like a signpost with a distance marker, as it demonstrates how far you are progressing towards your objective(s). 

  • Implementing OKRs into your organisation can help with staff alignment, help bring people, teams and the whole organisation together – Good stuff! This means that everyone will be pulling in the same direction and focused on the same result. It is important to ensure that you know what you’re doing from the get-go. A structured training program certainly helps reduce errors, build rapport, and improve teamwork.

When planning your OKRs there are a list of steps that need to be taken in order to be as most effective as possible within your organisation. Here we will outline the main steps:

  • Define your agenda: It is vital to stay on track with regards to your OKRs, so take time to compose your schedule and share it with your team(s). Be honest about timelines and set realistic targets. 

 

  • Outline your expectations: Let everyone involved know any rules or expectations that you have, such as promoting collaborative working among your team(s). 

 

  • Understand your organisation’s vision: It can be extremely useful to not only know your vision and direction, but also the direction of the specific objective that you have set out to achieve. This aids in everyone having a clear understanding of what is expected of them during the project. 

 

  • Break into smaller groups: If you have the ability to break a team down into smaller groups, then take it! It can be nerve wracking to feel comfortable sharing your ideas in front of a large group of people, so dividing into smaller groups makes people feel less intimidated and more able to share easily. 

 

  • Reconvene and finalise plans: After everyone has developed their own ideas then bring the group back together to discuss them as a whole and pick out the ideas that best fit the brief. If necessary you can narrow down the OKRs to a smaller number – Whatever makes it more manageable for your organisation. 

How we maintain them

During the implementation of OKR (Objectives and Key Results) in your company, it is crucial that the framework is well-maintained and continually integrated into the company culture.

In order to maintain the quality of OKR within your company, then it is crucial that you consistently measure your progress within your organisation, through possessing clearly defined expectations and metrics. High levels of communication is a further fundamental aspect of maintaining OKRs, so ensure that your team(s) understand the level of communication needed to achieve the best results. 

Top Digital Skills Needed in 2022

We have spoken about many topics across our recent blog posts, including how to keep on top of your training and why you should undertake training.

💡 This article will outline the top digital skills that are needed in 2022,  from Video Editing to Data Science.

Keep reading to find out a little bit about each skill..

What is Digital Marketing? Well, it is the promotion of brands in order to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This could include email, social media, web advertising and mobile devices

Artificial Intelligence refers to computers and machines which  mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. Given the increasing sophistication of the programmes and machines we’re capable of creating, Artificial Intelligence is certain to grow exponentially for decades to come.

 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. With an increasing number of consumers researching and shopping for products online, search engine marketing has become a crucial online marketing strategy for increasing a company’s reach.



Coding is the use of computer programming languages to give computers and machines a set of instructions on what actions to perform. Coding is how humans communicate with machines. It is used for so many different purposes, such as building websites or creating software. Without coding, we couldn’t have some of the digital products that we enjoy today, that certainly make our lives easier!



Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Editing is usually considered to be one part of the post production process, such as titling, colour correction and sound mixing for example.



 If a brand doesn’t exist on social media today, then it is likely to fall behind its competitors. At its heart, social media is any digital tool that allows users to quickly create and share content with the public. Social media regularly uses feeds that allow users to scroll through content. These companies use algorithms, based on a user’s profile data to determine the content that appears and the order that it appears in.



Data science is the extraction of actionable insights from raw data and helps to achieve goals that either were not possible or required a great deal more time and energy just a few years ago. The need for data science is rapidly increasing as the amount of data multiplies exponentially and companies depend more heavily on analytics to drive revenue and innovation.



Are you looking to develop your company’s training objectives? If so, give us a shout as we can work with your organisation to establish a bespoke plan to assist you in this!

Importance of keeping on top of your training

Why is it important to keep on top of training in the workplace? Why must employers instigate training opportunities for their employees? What value can training give both an organisation and its workforce? Let’s delve a little deeper into these questions and discuss the benefits of how Symtoi can be interwoven into your organisation, in order to upskill users that are new to the digital sector, or are in the process of changing their role.

Training? What is it? Well, training in terms of workplace training is when employees participate in activities or learning opportunities that equip them with the necessary skills to improve or enhance their work performance. There are multitudes of different training opportunities that employees can undertake, with the specificities depending on the industry itself.

The importance of training is that it leads to improved, streamlined business activity which is vital in this ever-changing world of work, especially with the conversion to more flexible working practices, alongside a significant increase in remote working. Ensuring that you keep on top of workplace training has never been more pertinent, as it aids all parties in the workplace, leading to increased productivity and performance, enhanced skills and ultimately, lower employee turnover.

A further benefit of keeping on top of training is that it keeps you abreast of industry trends, recognising where your gaps in knowledge may be and the way in which you can overcome such skills gaps to fulfil your understanding. The value that training can give an organisation is one of a competitive nature, ensuring that all members of the workforce understand the latest business practices, in order to create and maintain a productive and positive working environment.

As discussed, there are a multitude of ways that training can be undertaken, from online courses to augmented reality/virtual reality, where users can experience real-life scenarios in the subject they are studying, as well as traditional in-person training sessions. As the world continues to change, upskilling gives employees ways in which to keep up with innovations in problem-solving, logical thinking and technological integrations. The value that keeping on top of training gives an organisation is vast, from increasing employee engagement to addressing internal weaknesses – there is sizeable value in establishing training opportunities within a workplace.

So, let’s turn to Symtoi and how your organisation can utilise us to upskill users. There are a range of benefits of our product, including:

● Users learn about the tools/techniques just before they need to apply it to their work, so they are able to make the best use of the training

● Our training is flexible as users are able to change their mind about their training and pick as many areas as they want to

● Users will be able to access pre-created templates, in turn helping the user to implement their training

We additionally have a premium offering which includes one-to-one Slack support, where users can get peer reviews of their work, a one-hour online training catch up and question and answer support on their training needs. We are happy to discuss any options with you, to fit in with your organisation. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss your bespoke training needs.

Why should you have a training plan?

We previously discussed the importance of training and the value that both employers and employees receive from undertaking it, alongside what opportunities are available in the current
marketplace, however, a question that is commonly asked is why? Why should organisations undertake training? Why does a business need its employees to receive training? Why do you need to invest in training opportunities? In this article we will explore why you should have a training plan and the reasons why it is beneficial for your organisation.

Firstly, possessing a training plan demonstrates to employees that they are valued and that the organisation is invested in their development and progression. Through teaching your
employees the latest and most current updates practices enables them to be more productive members of the organisation as a whole. As a result of this, employees may feel they have heightened morale as they will be able to undertake new roles and tasks more efficiently than
previously. Training plans allow employees to acquire new skills and experiences, in turn making them more efficient in their job role. This is beneficial to an organisation due to them having notable improvements in their capabilities in turn leading to higher satisfaction and
improved output.

As discussed in the the points above an increase in productivity and performance is a definite benefit of why an organisation should have a training plan. When employees undergo training it enables them to learn new information which can help them do their job in a more streamlined and efficient way. Depending on the specific industry this new information will vary, however, in
all sectors understanding and knowing the current trends in the marketplace is an extremely valuable aspect of possessing a training plan.

Leading on from this, a further reason why a training plan is valuable is that it reduces wastage in the organisation. When employees are trained effectively this will lead them to become more economical in a business’s resources and also their own. This is a great positive to a business
as this will seek to set them apart from their competition. Staying ahead of your competitors is something that is extremely important when managing a business. Possessing a training plan will assist in achieving your company’s specific aims and objectives. The way in which a training
plan can do this, is through aligning the goals of the training with your organisational objectives. Interpersonal relationships across the organisation can significantly be improved through possessing a training plan, creating a more harmonious work environment. Plans can be produced which outline correct behaviour and etiquette in order to foster strong and healthy connections between team members. The benefits of this can be three-fold: it can aid in establishing a positive and meaningful organisational culture, minimise potential conflicts such
as bullying and harassment, as well as there being honest lines of communication across the business.

Implementing a training plan empowers an organisation to strengthen its overall efficiency in several distinctive areas, consequently developing the performance of it within the marketplace. This not only gives advantages to the business, it additionally benefits the employees in a myriad of ways as mentioned within this article. If your business is looking to develop its own training plan, here at Symtoi we have a range of ways that we can work with your organisation
to assist you in this. Please get in touch with us to discuss your specific needs. We are here to help.