Why you Shouldn't Invest in an Employee Training App

How did you feel the last time you had to download an app? 

Excited to learn how to use it? Happy to give up more space on your phone? Ready to set up a new account - passwords, two-factor identification, and all? 

Or were your feelings closer to…the opposite?

With the average phone user having between 60 and 90 apps on their phone, we’ll take a bet it was the latter. And your employees will be no different. 

Here’s the thing: the appeal of a workforce training app is more than easy to understand. It’s a purpose-built destination with - usually - a comprehensive feature set, all arranged neatly for the user. What’s not to like?

You press one tab in the menu, it takes you to a repository of available training content. You tap another, you can see how your training performance is tracking against peers. Your homescreen has an itemized list of things for you to look at, and also highlights the most important training you need to take. 

On the other hand, an app is a destination. And destinations require journeying to. To ‘work’ to reach a destination (i.e. access a software) might be a reasonable expectation for a desk-based employee, whose days revolve around fixed devices and making use of the different programs within them. Around switching between 2, 3, 5 windows and tabs every  5, 10, 15 minutes.

The frontline worker, on the other hand, doesn’t share this experience of uninterrupted, device-centric work. 

This demographic’s days look different – they deliver parcels, serve food, help you pick out the right paint color or power tool. They keep production lines moving, machines operating, shelves stocked, and inventory managed. Their needs are vastly different from those of a desk-based employee - and it’s important to make sure training is delivered in a way that reflects these varied needs.

But how best to upskill them, if not through an app? 

That’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this blog post. Coming up:  

• What is an employee training app? 
• Aren’t apps for employee training where it’s at? 
• Why apps don’t work for a frontline workforce 
• What should I do instead? 

Ready? Let’s get started. 

What is an employee training app?

An employee training app is an app, used on cell phones, other portable devices, and computers, that helps companies teach their employees new skills or information. 

New skills or information could be related to anything from company policies, to reward schemes, to safety procedures; in essence, anything an employee needs to do their job effectively. 

Aren't apps for employee training where it's at?

Up until the mid-to-late 2010s, when desktop-based training was still the norm for the global workforce, apps were the exciting, novel 'new way', and held promise. 

For businesses that employ frontline workers, this might still seem like the case - especially when the latest research indicates 83% of frontline workers are still reliant on desktop computers (despite often working nowhere near a desk). It’s understandable that in contrast, an employee training app might seem like a more effective and more modern alternative. 

Plus, almost everyone has a cell phone or mobile device - so assuming your company has a ‘BYOD policy’ - why wouldn’t app training make sense? 

If the use of an app requires an employee to download it, create a new account, and learn how the app works before they even get to the learning part of things, you’re not giving them a straightforward, digitally uncomplex experience. Instead, you’re giving yourself a substantial behavior change project. 

Digital interruptions of any kind that involve ‘context switching’ and ‘app hopping’ (including password resets) can decrease productivity by up to 40% - and it can take 23 minutes to get back to a productive state afterward. 

Why apps don't work for a frontline workforce

Frontline workers, who make up 80% of the workforce today, who are often paid according to how quickly they can do a task, and who have minimal access to workplace tech, are the demographic most negatively impacted by the digital friction described above. 

Different types of frontline workers (e.g. retail associates vs. delivery drivers) have different modes of operation and daily flows, and it can get complicated when one business employs both, e.g a retailer with in-house logistics.

These two roles are extremely different in terms of tasks, hours, and location. One is customer-facing, tied to a location and works among colleagues, the other drives from point A to B in isolation. 

The shop floor worker may be able to take a few moments in between busy periods to complete, for example, a theft awareness lesson shared following a shoplifting incident in another store, but there will naturally be less opportunity for someone who is behind a wheel for hours to interact with training material in the same way.

It follows that upskilling each requires a slightly different approach. 

This is an employee training app’s downfall. One solution for every frontline worker doesn’t support these differing set-ups - the varying levels of access to tech (e.g. our retail associate may have access to both a personal mobile device AND a shared tablet, where their driver counterpart has access only to a personal mobile device), nor does it support their highly individualized flow of work. 

Instead of building efficiencies, having separate software like a standalone app is decelerating these workers. 1 in 3 are using 4 or more apps and digital tools in their work, and 91% also report being frustrated with the software they have access to. 

Ultimately, the more hoops you ask an employee to jump through to access training, the more likely it is that they will fail to reach the destination you want them to get to. If not all of your staff can access their training when they need it, well, fewer will complete training. People aren’t using what you invested in - which means you’ll see a poor ROI. 

If we consider the impact on the employee – who as a result may lack knowledge on everything from where to find things to the soft skills for handling a high pressure situation – their day-to-day performance (and morale) take a hit. This in turn impacts everything from productivity, customer perception, accident rates and employee retention.

So, what should I do instead?

It may or may not surprise you to hear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to successfully getting information to your frontline workers. 

Any solution you invest in needs to allow for flexibility – the flexibility to deliver where, how, and when a frontline worker is most likely to see, reach, and engage with it. 

The type of technology that can facilitate this is known as ‘invisible technology’, which is technology that embeds in and is accessed through another location totally imperceptibly to the user (in this case, one that you know your employees frequent).

What does their day-to-day look like?

Before you find a solution, you should break down what the day-to-day operation of your employees looks like (is it more like the retail associate, or the delivery driver?), and from there assess where and how training could effectively slot into their current workflows. 

And how can I fit training into it?

From there, you can start to think about when and how training fits in. For a delivery driver, for example, this might be when they decide to park, take a break, and check their phone. A warehouse worker might regularly check company communications on a laptop. A construction worker may have 5 minutes at clock-in where everyone is gathered for a spoken ‘toolbox talk’. 

When you find an opportune moment – say, a contextual QR code that a line worker can scan to refresh their knowledge on the safe use of equipment, as they're about to use it – then look to find the next opportunity. 

The goal is to maximize opportunities for training to be accessed, to saturate your frontline with potential entry points to training.

The more you can fit training opportunities into a worker's different existing digital flows or touchpoints with your company, the more likely they are to see and access the knowledge they need to be productive, safe, and successful at work. 

To work toward a multi-access state, we’d recommend an exercise scrutinizing three areas: channels, devices, and flows. 

Channel 

Examples of different channels could be: 

• SMS 
• Company emails (if they get high open rates)
• An existing employee app 
• A workforce management system like Workday
• External delivery like QR codes 

Temco Logistics, a home goods delivery and installation solutions provider fulfilling deliveries for retailers like The Home Depot, is a nice example of a business that uses multiple channels to distribute training content. 

With a remote workforce made up of thousands of people, it needed to provide an always-on source of knowledge, ready to be accessed and re-accessed as needed. The business chose SMS, a channel that employees checked frequently, to send links to lessons. It also delivered training through contextual QR codes. Here, QR codes are linked to specific lessons located in a contextual place - for example, a QR code on a certain piece of machinery would link to a lesson on how to use it. 

McCoy’s Building Supply also used SMS alongside QR codes to deliver its training. Jason Trail, the business’s Training and Development Manager, noted that having a multi-channel strategy helped with previous ‘struggles with communication’ and made a ‘big improvement’. This big improvement was, in fact, a 95% training completion rate and a 94% learner satisfaction rate.  

Device 

Here, the key is to reach your workers on a device they interact with daily. This could be: 

• Their cell phone 
• A shared tablet 
• A handheld device 
• A shared desktop

Today, it will come as no surprise that a cell phone is a good bet: the average American checks theirs over 200 times per day, and the majority of the world population has one. 

Device should always be considered alongside the final piece of the puzzle - the flow. Without further ado: 

Flow
This describes a ritual or routine that a lot of your workers will do on a daily basis, for example: 

• Opening up an app to clock in on-shift 
• Checking emails for communications from your business 

Training can be integrated into these flows - if they are successful in their own right. For example, if you start sending training via emails that nobody opens, you’re not tapping into your workers’ flow. That in turn will let the channel - mobile phone or handheld computer, perhaps - down too. 

If training is integrated into a routine that they undertake every day, you’re onto a winner. Uber drivers’ training sits seamlessly within the Uber platform, for example, for a truly invisible learning experience. 

Pet Supermarket and Grubhub do things slightly differently from Uber. Both businesses utilize third-party apps - Fountain for the former and Workday for the latter - to deliver knowledge to workers. 

Grubhub also uses in-app notifications, email notifications, and has a dedicated space for learning (the ‘Learninghub’) within its delivery driver app. Meeting workers in as many places within their workflows as possible maximizes the success of its program (which has increased the adoption of new delivery features to improve customer experience, streamlined onboarding for drivers, and improved driver productivity).

As these different examples show, the only feasible way to deliver training to a frontline demographic is to slot into existing tech set-ups and processes. As every business runs slightly differently, training that works across different channels, devices, and flows is going to be seen by your workers, and in turn, make a tangible business impact. 

Why you shouldn't invest in an employee training app: final thoughts

By keeping employee training to an isolated app, you are not getting information to a busy population in an optimized way and, in turn, reducing the opportunities your workers have to see it. Thinking about how training can fit into your existing channels, devices, and workflows, on the other hand, is the route to success. 

If your employee training solution is flexible enough to mold to your business’s softwares, devices, and flows of not just today, but tomorrow, then you can sleep soundly with the knowledge you’ve made a good investment. Job done. 

Looking for training that invisibly embeds across multiple channels, devices, and workflows? 

We know just the tool: eduMe is a device-agnostic, app-free training product built just for frontline workers.

Get in touch today to find out how we can help you drive business impact through training.