During volatile times, learning at workspeed delivers the agility you need

Coronavirus is challenging the ways we work. As the global pandemic continues to empty roads and sidewalks of commuters, businesses have been tasked with figuring out how to manage workforces from afar.

For some companies, the workweek has simply shifted from an office desk to a home desk. Enabled by technology like corporate email, online file sharing, video conferencing, and real-time collaboration and communication tools, the transition has been relatively smooth.

For other organizations, things haven’t been so straightforward. Companies with remote and deskless employees don’t often have those technological safety nets in place. As the name implies, “deskless” equates to no work computer or company email address, which leaves this segment of the workforce cut off from seamless communications, updates, and instructions from their employer.

And we’re not talking about a small number of workers. Would you believe that remote and deskless employees comprise 80% of the global workforce? That’s approximately 2.7 billion people. This huge swath of the population works in industries such as retail, hospitality, restaurants, healthcare, manufacturing, education, transportation, technology and construction.

How are these employers handling this tumultuous situation?

Volatility highlights present-day learning challenges

Coronavirus is causing major volatility for organizations with deskless workers and exposing the limitations of the communications and corporate systems, like learning, these companies rely upon. Consider the following:

• Without work email, how do you deliver information and updates to your workforce? Even if you decide to use their personal emails, how do you ensure the messages have been received?
• For workers who continue to do their jobs during the epidemic, how do you create and edit knowledge & learning content with speed to ensure everyone remains informed and safe during a rapidly-evolving situation?
• At a time when large gatherings of people in a single place is hazardous to everyone’s health, how do you deliver new training to your workforce when you rely on instructor-led classroom training?

Traditional learning models, processes, and systems simply don’t provide the right tools to support the level of agility you need on a day-to-day basis, let alone during these uncertain times.

On-demand learning delivers workspeed

Rather than wonder what you should have done to prepare for a scenario like this, now is the time to recognize what the present and future can look like. And the answer is likely in your hand or pocket.

Mobile devices and digital content represent the modern tools you need to enable your employees.

With a decentralized workforce, there’s no better way to deliver knowledge, learning, and real-time communications than in a mobile-first environment. Digital is fast, simple, and powerful and enables on-demand learning at workspeed. When interactive training is in hand, employees not only learn in the flow of work, but they also receive new updates and critical information without delay.

Digital also provides content authoring capabilities that enable employers to create learning content with speed in order to react to new circumstances, as well as the ability to revise that same content when things change. With digital content, you also know with certainty whether or not all employees have seen the information with reporting and tracking.

The coronavirus is teaching us many things, including the undeniable value of delivering a modern learning environment so employees can benefit from learning at workspeed every day.