Supporting Learning in a COVID-19 Environment

Learning and development programmes are often seen as important ways in which to support business growth. However, in an environment of a global health pandemic – like the one currently being experienced as a result of an outbreak of COVID-19 – businesses are responsibly acting to reduce the impact on business continuity by transitioning to remote or home working.

Among the things to be dropped as a result are often learning & development programmes. This is because, more often than not, […]

Adapt Through Adversity: A Lesson for the Learning & Development Industry

In the learning & development industry, there is a danger that some providers don’t always practice what we preach.

In our ever-changing world, adversity such as the recent bushfires and weather events, and the current virus outbreak, can challenge our ability to function and grow.  Of course the most tragic implications here are those on our environment, human life, and health. These must be at the forefront of our mind with great sympathy and understanding of the trauma and pain these […]

How one man turned a tragic incident into a way to enlighten children through the creation of children’s books.

Back in 2013, a member of the OnTrack International team was unfortunately involved in a tragic accident, but what came from the accident changed his life forever. He has now written his own range of books aimed at children to teach them about disabilities, and how having a disability doesn’t mean your life is over.

The Event

Hi, I’m Brian, a retired Financial Services Executive from Halifax. And I took my last steps on this earth at about 9.15 am on Sunday […]

5 Ways Organisations Can Avoid Workplace Conflict Within Teams

Workplace conflict is inevitable, especially with the multiple personalities and opinions that are within any working environment. Conflict can create a very unproductive workforce for everyone within the same environment as the conflict, let alone the people who are involved with the conflict. But there are many ways that organisations can help tackle workplace conflict that may develop within their work teams.

1. Listen to your Employees

One of the many factors that can cause conflict is the premise that employees feel […]

A New Year Objective to Improve Your Works Learning and Development

With a new year, comes new year objectives, why not shift your own objectives for 2020 and aim your objectives towards work achievements. There are many objectives that learning managers can use to help improve the learning and development within their company.

To make sure you stick to your new year objective (we all know hard they can be) make sure you create a measurable goal with clear steps that you need to take to make sure your objective is a […]

Building personal boundaries can help improve your Learning & Development

When it comes to Learning and Development it is vital for everyone to build personal and professional boundaries. These boundaries can steer your professional and personal development in a course that helps you achieve your goals.

What are boundaries?

We understand the need for boundaries in sports such as football, golf, cricket, hockey or tennis. These boundary lines are clearly marked on the playing field and going out of bounds always has its consequences.

Similarly, boundary lines are equally important in the game […]

Careers – a personal journey of learning & professional development

Learning and development is a vital part of our careers. From laying the foundations of our skillsets and extending our abilities to work with different stakeholders, without learning we cannot grow.

In many cultures across the globe it is commonplace to compare life to a path, a road, or a journey. I’m sure many of us will have embarked on many long journeys in life, including our current job roles and careers. I’m certain too we can all understand why this […]

How To Remain Motivated With Learning & Development

During long-term learning and development courses, it can be very easy to lose motivation to achieve your personal and professional outcomes, especially if the end result seems so far away. But there are activities you can do to help you remain motivated and achieve your desired goals.

I recently set myself the personal challenge of learning to run and in this blog I explore how to remain motivated to achieve your long-term goals. While it may be running focused, the same […]

What Makes Negotiations Successful?

Negotiating well is a skill as old as time itself. Our lives are almost always made up of different negotiations – if you have ever negotiated with your partner about what to have for dinner, you will know what I mean, sometimes you get what you want and other times your partner gets what they want.

The same is true in professional negotiations too, but the real reason for the negotiation can quickly become lost and the negotiation itself can take […]

How Companies Can Give Employees The Tools To Manage Their Workload

During the winter months, work life can become busier and more stressful for employees. It is essentially down to the employer to make sure that their employees can manage with the extra workload without overburdening them. We have collated a few steps employers can take to help with employee workload:

Prioritise the work

If your employees have too much work, then help them implement a priority system, let them know which items of work are more important then others. This way of […]

The 4 Hokey Cokey Principles

The Hokey Cokey and Little Oscar’s Confidence Boost

A couple of weeks ago I attended my cousins’ daughter’s 5th birthday party. This has probably been the first kids’ birthday party I have been to in about 10 years. There was loads of cake, sausage rolls and plenty of party games. Due to being a “cool cat” and in my 30’s, I tried to not get involved in all the shenanigans, but the big kid in me was bursting to get out. […]

Let’s split up gang – A learning lesson from Scooby Doo

It’s Halloween…

With the pumpkin carved and candy bowl stocked, put on a scary movie and get ready to suspend your disbelief.

It’s funny how smart people do dumb things in horror films.

A creaking door, a deathly scream, a trail of blood…

Best go investigate. Alone.

Straight into the arms of a knife wielding maniac.

You can’t help but think the victims of Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, Jason Vorhees et al, should’ve studied the Scooby-Doo playbook. Shaggy Rogers, Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake and […]

Can Taking A Break Make All The Difference?

Are you a hard worker who has plenty of work to be doing and are far too busy to take a short break, just for a reason that you may become overwhelmed with the amount of work? Then we have news for you, taking a short break away from your work has its own benefits and can help increase your productivity.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider taking breaks during the working day.

Goal Re-Evaluation

Non-stop working can cause you […]

Working at OnTrack International – Our People

We like to think that working at OnTrack International is more than a job. We recently asked a number of our team to tell us about what it is like to ‘work’ here:

Name: Paul Heath

Role: Principal Consultant

Joined OnTrack: 2016

Why do you enjoy working at OnTrack?

Three main reasons:

1.       The variety of high quality client who choose us to work with them

2.      The innovative approaches to the problems we help solve

3.       The quality and calibre of the OnTrack team, which is second […]

10 Qualities of Great Leaders

When it comes to being a successful leader, there are no one-size-fits all approach that will guarantee success. Some of the best leaders of our time have all taken very different approaches to inspire success in their team, and, no doubt, the next generation will forge their own path towards achieving their goals.

However, there is a common thread between many successful leaders that showcases the qualities that it takes to push teams onward towards success.

“The challenge of leadership […]

Living Workplace Cultures: An OnTrack Case Study

Without a strong focus on employee culture and values, companies continually struggle to successfully deliver their vision. At OnTrack International, when it comes to culture, we believe that it is important to embody the values which we encourage our customers to adopt.

We surveyed our team to showcase how the right blend of leadership, people and culture can drive a successful business forward.

 

“The trust the leadership team put in you and the faith they have in your skills and […]

Carnival UK share their experience of working with OnTrack

Testimonial: Carnival UK

Discover how we have been working with cruise ship company Carnival in the UK to support their learning & development programmes:

We have worked with OnTrack International for a number of years, delivering a wide variety of learning and development opportunities for our people at Carnival UK, covering topics such as Management and Leadership Development, Presenting with Impact and more recently our Talent Development programme, Springboard.

We work with OnTrack to design and deliver half-day or full-day workshops as part […]

Choose Your Own Learning Experience – Using Interactive Video as Part of the Learning Mix

There’s something special about a ‘choose your own adventure’ story. The feeling of deciding where you want to go next, how you want to get there, and the obstacles you face along the way, create an experience that is difficult to match within a set, linear narrative.

The willingness of Netflix viewers to view ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’, a story of a young programmer who is adapting a fantasy choose-your-own-adventure novel into a video game in 1984, highlights that the demand for […]

Mission Critical Prioritisation – A Lesson From The Moon Landings

20 July 1969: One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years since science, some serious bravery, and a bunch of cool heads put two men on the moon. For an entire generation, it became the ultimate where were you moment. Neil Armstrong and crew returned as heroes but Margaret Hamilton rarely gets her dues. Grossly unfair, because without her, Houston would’ve had a serious problem…

While the world watched the lunar module making […]

How An Adjustment In Style & Increase In Teamwork Can Revolutionise Results

OnTrack International have once again been recognised for their global learning and development consultancy, having been named on the Training companies watch list for fifth year running!

Training Industry continually monitors the global learning marketplace and it conducts an annual, independent analysis of hundreds of leadership training providers. It then publishes a Leadership Training Watch List to recognise those companies which have significant capabilities, experience and expertise.

OnTrack International was chosen again in 2019 as a Watch List company because of its […]

What Pokémon can teach us about effective learning pathways

As a little kid growing up in Japan, Satoshi Tajiri loved to catch and collect insects. And his hobby evolved into something bigger, on a scale he never could have imagined.

In 1989, when the original Gameboy came out, he had an idea for a video game that incorporated themes of collecting, training and battling, inspired by the bugs of his youth, which he pitched to Nintendo as ‘Capsules Monsters’.

Six years in development, it finally hit the shelves, albeit with a […]

Stepping into a Leadership Role: Fears & Considerations

Stepping into a leadership role is not always straightforward, and often comes with a significant increase in responsibility – to the business and the people employed by it. It is therefore unsurprising that your people who may be about to step into these roles, or have done so recently, might have a number of fears about what that new role holds.

Finding the right people to join the leadership team is vital to ensure that continued growth is achievable. However, without […]

Fast Tracking Talent – A Lesson From the Champions League

The Champions League is European club football’s elite competition. And this year’s tournament has been a real humdinger. Sizzling goals, incredible comebacks, and aristocrats like Juventus and Real Madrid unceremoniously dumped on their backsides.

While the heroics of Liverpool and Tottenham dominated the sports pages here in the UK on the road to the final, the real story for us L&D folks is the resurgence of AFC Ajax. A team of precocious starlets, unfazed by the big stage, who were a […]

We are hiring – 3 roles available

Due to continued growth, new client wins and diversification of offering, OnTrack is searching for creative people to help build the future of learning. You will be working with some of the worlds largest and most successful companies developing cutting edge learning for a global audience.

Are you the creative we are looking for?

The roles available include;

Account Manager – working with some large global brands to improve business performance through people development
Dedicated Account Manager – partnering with our largest client to […]

Why learning plays a key role in supporting mental wellbeing

13 – 17 May 2019 is Mental Health Awareness Week

Over the last couple of years, the conversation around mental health has become increasingly open, and with that has come a greater emphasis on the impact of work on our wellbeing. In 2017, the Thriving at Work review estimated that poor emp

loyee mental health costs UK employers £42bn a year, and review set new standards for organisations to implement to better support their people.

When businesses are evaluating how they can better […]

Women in the Boardroom – How to Gain Boardroom Confidence

According to recent findings, the number of women holding the most senior jobs in the boardrooms of Britain’s biggest companies has fallen with there now being just 30 women in full-time executive roles at FTSE 250 firms, down from 38 in 2017. This accounts for 6.4% of the total number of executives.

This is a shockingly low number, and highlights the work that needs to be done to increase gender parity at a senior level. With such a low number of […]

Women OnTrack: Female Development Programme – Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling

Attitudes might be changing, but lip service to diversity is still depressingly common. Women with aspirations to move into top jobs continue to hit up against the glass ceiling, denied the opportunity to succeed. The old boys’ club is very much alive and well.

But for some companies, a new culture is taking root, more than just tokenism.

The Challenge

In 2017 OnTrack International were approached by a European Financial Services client to design and deliver a talent development programme as part […]

Maintaining Focus – a Lesson From Six Nations Rugby

Crouch, touch, pause, engage. The Six Nations is underway.

And the first two rounds have served up a real feast of rugby. In a heavyweight clash in Dublin, England pulled off an upset, beating Ireland 32-20 and went on to comfortably beat France this weekend.

After a difficult 2018, the Red Rose appears to be turning the corner. The two matches have perhaps been the most complete performance of the Eddie Jones era. The abrasive Aussie isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but, […]