How mobile learning can help you reinvent your operating procedures to adapt to the “With-COVID” world…
The COVID pandemic has brought in unprecedented levels of uncertainty and difficulty in running a business, and managing teams of employees. Now is a time of increasingly remote work, fast-evolving guidelines and policies, and rapid re-invention of operating procedures to adapt to the “With-COVID” world. Clearly, the businesses that can most efficiently and extensively communicate and re-train their workforces will win this battle to not just survive, but to thrive. To that end, businesses are looking to modernize, digitize, and completely revamp their archaic training methods mostly comprising classroom sessions and paper-based assessments.
From training on safety measures and procedures related to COVID-19 to upskilling staff in handling new skills and unfamiliar roles, businesses are entirely rethinking how training programs are delivered.
The Problem
Here’s the real challenge – frontline workers who constitute a vast majority of the workforce don’t have access to a computer or even a company email address and are on their feet all day. In the current pandemic situation, the changing market realities and social distancing norms are further challenging the way employees access training, both remotely and in the frontline. For instance, organizing in-person briefings in large groups is no longer an option. Neither is eLearning through shared devices like computers because of the health risks. What about employees who are working remotely, how do they access learning resources away from their workplace?
It’s clear that traditional training methods are not the best option to address these challenges.
The Solution
Today, nearly everyone has access to a smartphone. Research shows that on average, we spend around 3 hours and 15 minutes a day on our phones. This presents a huge opportunity for employers to take advantage of smartphone functionality in supporting learning.
By implementing mobile learning, you can bring training to your employees on a device they already carry everywhere. And when you deliver training through bite-sized content, the advantage is two-fold. Not only do you solve the problem of making learning accessible, but also make learning more engaging for today’s learners with short attention spans.
So, what is bite-sized training?
Bite-sized training modules are small, highly focused content based on a single topic or problem. Instead of delivering training over long durations, you break it into bite-sized chunks so learners can easily fit it into free slots in their daily schedules. These learning modules usually range in duration of one to fifteen minutes and are centered on a single defined learning objective.
Here are some of the advantages of mobile training, and how it can help you streamline your processes:
- Offering Microlearning – Microlearning or bite-sized learning helps in being able to learn faster and easily retain small pieces of information. Research shows that small but effective bursts of learning experience prove to improve job performances and motivate employees. Bite-sized learning material, supported by various multimedia modalities such as photos, videos, and PDFs, also enables quick access for self-study and future reference.
- Learning on the Go – People always have their phones with them – it’s usually the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see before going to sleep. With mobile training, you can give your frontline teams access to training anytime and anywhere. It offers tremendous flexibility for your employees to choose when they want to learn, and most significantly, at the pace they can consume information. It only takes a few minutes to learn on the go or during free time, without their work or personal lives being affected.
- Ensuring Higher Engagement – Mobile learning allows you to personalize each individual’s learning journey. And because it is easily accessible, it enables higher engagement, better retention, and stimulates behavior change. It also offers the opportunity of learning contextualized skills that can be applied immediately. Your employees don’t just learn skills but also get a chance to practically make use of them in real-time.
- Tracking and Assessing Knowledge – With the right mobile learning platform, you can track the progress of an individual’s learning journey with ease. You can even track the delivery of specific real-time instructions and guidelines related to new processes. You can use simple assessments and quizzes to evaluate knowledge and comprehension of the training provided. You can even generate reports like the number of courses assigned and completed easily on your mobile.
- Saving Time & Resources – With the majority of employees already having access to a smartphone, the problem of investing in a new device for training is already solved. You no longer need to gather a crowd for group training and team briefings. Regardless of tech-skills, you can provide personalized training to all your employees. You can easily develop a mobile learning course or improve your existing content by making it mobile-friendly, without having to invest any additional time and resources.
Final takeaway
For businesses with a large frontline workforce, mobile phones don’t just act as a means of communication, but rather, they provide an opportunity to empower your employees. You can give access to learning anytime and anywhere with tools to get up-skilled and stay up-to-date with information. You can effortlessly train your employees to their full potential without spending hours on training. The effectiveness of mobile learning makes it a must-have for every business.
Need More?
Want more insights on how you can save time and keep your workforce upskilled anytime, anywhere? Check out KNOW’S mobile learning platform. KNOW can help you effectively plan and streamline your training processes in minutes. And guess what, KNOW is already being used by leading businesses in construction, logistics, retail, and more to deliver training to over 50,000 users every month.