When was the last time you had a really effortless experience with technology?
Think about car doors automatically unlocking thanks to a Bluetooth key fob. Or a TV blending into the decor around it when not in use. Curtains in a smart home opening when an alarm goes off.
We’ll take a guess and say you can’t remember. That’s the power of invisible technology.
Tech is getting rapidly smaller, more integrated, embedded, and hidden away. It’s becoming invisible - to the point where we, as users, barely register it.
Invisible technology - tech without a user interface or with a UI that cannot be perceived by the senses - will be the norm in a few years. And as workplace leaders, we need to prepare for it.
Most technology - and by proxy, most learning experiences - at work are the opposite of what’s described above. And in the years ahead this won’t be good enough.
Intrigued? Here’s what we’re going to cover today:
- Why we need to change how we think about learning for the frontline
- What invisible learning means
- Is the future of learning invisible?
- How to make your learning experiences invisible
Why we need to change learning for the frontline
Your employees are consumers who already interact with invisible tech in their day-to-day. How do you think they’re going to approach training if it’s hidden away - buried within your company intranet, or only accessible after logging into your organization network, and then your eLearning software?
This is particularly true of frontline workers. Let us explain.
Be honest: how many apps do you have on your phone that serve the same purpose? More than makes sense, right? And how many do you use every day?
Tech burnout is a real thing. And, as Mike Elgan puts it, “the need to protect the user from mental burnout from technology will be one key to succeeding with any tech product in the future.”
At the moment, most businesses don’t consider this when thinking about their frontline workforce and what they need from technology. Deskless workers - far more so than office workers - don’t have the time to engage in context-switching and app-hopping, battling with authentication methods and multiple sign-ins.
Asking your frontline to go on a mission each time they need to find information is a blow to their productivity - in fact, every time they face a barrier it drops by as much as 40%. Every time you add another app or technology, the likelihood of your tech investments becoming redundant increases.
The consequences of missed knowledge go beyond wasted money. They could be anything as small as a fast food worker failing to make a customer’s order correctly, or as big as an accident from incorrect operation of machinery.
On a macro level, it means a workforce that’s less engaged - 92% of employees think workplace training is key to job engagement - and less likely to stick around. Take transportation, logistics, and trucking for example, where invisible training was recently shown to increase one company’s retention rates by 50%.
What invisible learning means
Here’s where invisible technology can make a difference.
Instead of the multi-app situation described above, think about training that’s imperceptibly embedded into real life. We can achieve this state in three ways:
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Integration: embedding training within pre-existing apps or comms channels.
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Passwordless access: logging in with one tap.
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Relevant and branded: either to match your brand or that of the third-party app your workers are using.
We call this 'invisible learning'. And it's the future of frontline training.
Is the future of learning invisible?
Smart technology is already present in “many areas of everyday life”. The Future Today Institute’s 2024 Tech Trends Report takes note of “companies like Meta, Apple, and Snap developing innovations in voice control, hand gestures, and even neural signals”, “underscoring a key vision”.
And tech at work needs to keep up: 86% of employees state that the quality of workplace technology influences their decision to stay with or leave a business.
The goal here is to make sure the end user doesn’t even recognize a switch from one tool or a second tool. The experience is completely seamless: so quick, visually consistent, and barrier-free that it’s not noticeable. Let’s dive into how we can do this today.
How to make your learning invisible
The key principle is to minimize the perception of a separate tool on all fronts:
- Make it accessible: preferably through a training channel that already exists like Workday, Microsoft Teams, or high-adoption channels like SMS. Embedding training in a familiar workflow is easier than introducing an entirely new interface.
- Minimize friction: make sure your team doesn't have to log in to access the training, or wait for it to load. For example if you want to support in-the-moment training with QR codes attached to equipment, your workers scan the QR code and are taken to the relevant content.
- Prioritize visual consistency: you want your training to have the same look and UI as where it’s embedded. Training that feels visually consistent with the UI that came before it is more effective than training that clearly comes from a third party.
As for the benefits of implementing invisible learning? You’ll see higher engagement with and completion of training, and better productivity, safety, and retention rates as a byproduct.
Conclusion
As buyers, we want to feel confident that the tech we put our money behind will stand us in good stead. We shouldn’t feel any different when buying and using tech in a professional context.
Next time you’re looking to implement a new technology, don’t start your search with a checklist based on what your old tool did. Instead, reframe your thinking to be user-centric. What would make the most sense for your frontline workers’ needs? What other tools are they using? What devices do they have access to at home?
If you have higher expectations, you’ll see better results - and make sure your workplace keeps up with the world around it, too.
eduMe is the leading mobile training platform for the frontline workforce, enabling companies such as The Home Depot, Hilton, and Uber to deliver learning content seamlessly to their workers’ personal devices, boosting retention and increasing productivity as they continue to scale operations.
Get in touch with us to see how we can modernize your workforce training. Not ready to talk? Watch a whistle-stop tour of the product instead.
