Your employees are on the move. In fact, much of the global workforce is mobile. This is because more employees than ever are working from home, which has enabled many to travel and take their work with them.
Despite the rise of the Delta coronavirus variant, workers are still travelling. On August 31st, 2021, the U.S. Travel Association stated, “Willingness to travel for business is holding steady with more than three-quarters (77%) (of the workforce) willing to travel in the current environment.”
In 2021, it is critical that corporate training keeps up with a mobile workforce. If not, employees will go without training that is vital to their growth, productivity, and effectiveness in their roles.
A mobile workforce is defined by IBM as “a group of employees that isn’t bound by a central physical location. Instead, the employees are connected by various types of mobile technology: computers, smartphones and other mobile devices.”2 If you recognize your workforce as mobile, read on to find practical tips for meeting their training needs.
Remote Training Improves the Productivity of a Mobile Workforce
Wondering why you should prioritize training your mobile workforce? In short, the benefits of employee training are undeniable. One of the primary benefits of training a mobile workforce is increased productivity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today’s employees are becoming fatigued from dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC stated,
“The causes of worker fatigue can stem from a number of sources such as changes in work routines and schedules, varying degrees of stress due to adversities related to COVID-19 and concerns about exposure to SARS-CoV-2 at work.”3
Worker fatigue can cause a lower-than-usual level of productivity. This is unfortunate since disengaged employees end up costing the U.S. about $483 to $605 billion each year in lost productivity, per Ottawa University.4 IBM said that the objective of a mobile workforce “is to make employees as productive outside of the office as when they are in it.”5
Thankfully, training can make employees more productive, and companies with mobile/dispersed workforces receive the same benefits from training as organizations with employee bases that are bound to one location. Maryville University reported that training can help workers improve essential skills and help employers boost employee productivity.6
Remote training is absolutely critical to the productivity of a mobile workforce in the post-COVID business world where many workers are no longer reporting to the office, or are adhering to a hybrid work model. In fact, remote training can help workers adjust to a hybrid work model. In “Remote Employee Training Vital to Maintaining Productivity in a Post-COVID World,” Rallyware said,
“...remote employee training and engagement should be made an even greater priority when adopting a work model that is unfamiliar to most of one’s workforce (i.e., a hybrid work model).”7
Remote training caters to a mobile workforce. This means that for today’s organization, remote training is essential. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, some employee training will need to be delivered remotely, via a learning management system (LMS)
Keep Learning: “How an LMS Can Help Your Company Improve Employee Productivity”
Tips for Keeping Up with a Mobile Workforce During the Pandemic
There are several ways to stay in-step with your mobile workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. Here are some examples:
- Use an LMS to deliver mobile training - The first and most important step to offering remote training to mobile learners is to launch a social learning management system (LMS). An LMS makes it easier to deliver remote training to learners, no matter where they are in the world.
With an LMS, your employees can participate in training while waiting in line at the grocery store, or from the comfort of their home office, using their personal mobile devices. Mobile learning makes this possible. The benefits of mobile learning are robust and include...
- Greater accessibility for all users - Accessible learning paths from anywhere give users the flexibility to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule.
- Reasonable costs - With mobile learning, there are no added hardware or connectivity charges as most employees already own smartphones or tablets.
- Increased productivity - Mobile learning provides flexibility and freedom outside of office hours, giving employees the ability to increase productivity in other areas of their work.
With the TOPYX LMS mobile learning feature, learners can access content on-demand, regardless of location or time zone. All a user needs for an on-the-go learning experience is an internet connection and a mobile device.
Wondering if TOPYX LMS is right for your employees? Request a free LMS demo of TOPYX to learn more.
- Make training content mobile-friendly - Using an LMS to deliver remote training isn’t enough to meet the training needs of a mobile workforce. It’s also important to design training in a mobile-friendly way. eLearning Industry said you can accomplish this by removing extraneous content from mobile courses, using navigation icons, giving mobile learners audio control, and concentrating on a single learning objective in each mobile course. The source also suggested making good use of screen space:
“Screen space is prime real estate when you're creating mobile-friendly eLearning courses. Which is why you must cut your images down-to-size and remove large blocks of text. Break it down into easily digestible bullet lists that occupy less room and prevent cognitive overwhelm. Avoid bulky graphics, icons, and graphs that require a lot of screen scrolling.”8
You can ensure remote training content is easy-to-navigate for learners by using an LMS with a robust mobile learning feature. Be sure to demo the LMS and compare it to other systems before making an investment.
- Embrace mobile learning as the new normal (for now) - It’s important that you and other organizational leaders fully embrace mobile learning. This entails accepting the fact that corporate learning may not ever be the same, or may not be the same for several years, as working and training from home is here to stay. Tech Republic stated,
“...only one-third (31%) of CEOs said they anticipated a return to normal in 2021, while 45% expect things to return to normal in 2022. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of companies said they would wait until a vaccine had been rolled out successfully before they asked their staff to return to the office, and 76% said they would wait until the government said it was safe to return to the office before encouraging their staff to do so.”9
Due to the emergence of the Delta variant and widespread vaccine hesitancy, many U.S. companies have put off getting their workforce back to the office. This means mobile learning is here to stay, probably for a long time.
At different stages of the pandemic, your company may need to implement more or less mobile learning. By embracing mobile learning and being adaptable, your company can successfully meet the ongoing training needs of workers, no matter where they are working and training from.
Related Reading: “How to Deliver Mobile Learning to Remote Employees During COVID-19”
Improve Productivity and Support Your Mobile Workforce with TOPYX LMS
Training a mobile workforce doesn’t have to be a pain. TOPYX LMS makes it simple. TOPYX can meet the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce with mobile learning, social and collaborative learning, and learning paths. Here are some other TOPYX LMS features that will be useful to your company when training a dispersed workforce:
- Certifications - Easily manage your Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and other certificates. Use embedded e-signature to capture learners’ verification for compliance and auditing.
- Blended learning - Easy learner registration for online, in-class, or instructor-led sessions. Use integrated webinar tools to host and connect with your audience.
- Microlearning - Deploy bite-sized learning and knowledge checks to validate understanding and retention.
- Personalization - Built-in personalization options to make the learning experience unique for each learner.
- Gamification - Keep users focused and promote healthy competition with badges, awards, rewards, and more.
- Unlimited groups - With unlimited groups you can organize learners and content in any number of ways.
TOPYX can help your company improve worker productivity, as well as speed up onboarding and automate compliance training. Download our free case study to find out how TOPYX helped Convey Health Solutions, a leading technology‐enabled healthcare solutions provider, do these very things in the midst of the pandemic.
Looking for an LMS that can help your company keep up with a mobile workforce? Look no further than TOPYX. Request a free LMS demo of TOPYX today.
References:
- U.S. Travel Association. https://www.ustravel.org/research/monthly-travel-data-report#:~:text=In%20April%202021%2C%20travel%20spending,months%20%E2%80%93%20a%20new%20pandemic%20high.
- 2, 5. IBM. https://www.ibm.com/topics/mobile-workforce.
- CDC. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2021/01/13/covid-19-fatigue/.
- Ottawa University. https://www.ottawa.edu/online-and-evening/blog/december-2020/ways-to-increase-employee-productivity-in-2021.
- Maryville University. https://online.maryville.edu/blog/importance-of-training-and-development/.
- Rallyware. https://www.rallyware.com/remote-employee-training-vital-to-maintaining-productivity-in-a-post-covid-world.
- eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/tips-developing-mobile-friendly-elearning-courses.
- Tech Republic. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/remote-working-may-not-be-the-new-normal-after-all/.
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