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Your LMS is Failing Your Mobile Workers—There’s a Better Way to Train

Your LMS is Failing Your Mobile Workers—There’s a Better Way to Train

By Michelle McDaniel, Learning & Development Specialist, Skyllful

You’re tasked with finding a digital training solution for your organization. The goal—to improve employee effectiveness and adoption of technology being used in the field in order to cut training costs. After endless research and countless sales conversations, you’ve selected a learning management system (LMS) within your budget and are hopeful for a solution. After months of preparation and training, you’re ready to implement the first round of training to the field, but find that your training courses are not responsive on mobile devices—they can only be taken on laptops or desktop computers.

You go back to the drawing board and purchase an additional authoring tool advertising mobile responsiveness and integration with your LMS. After additional months spent rebuilding the training courses, the second round of training implementation rolls out to the field. The training works adequately enough on your workers’ mobile devices—as long as there is a strong wireless connection, of course.

However, it’s now time to check out the results in the dashboard to see if the training has been effective. You’re excited to see the results, only to find that the world-class training you’ve created is showing consistent failure rates, and field supervisors are complaining that their employees still don’t know how to perform their job functions properly. So, why is this stellar, highly rated LMS training ineffective? Where is the gap for the mobile workforce regarding traditional learning management systems and training methods?  

The traditional LMS and lack of training effectiveness

A traditional LMS is not designed with the mobile workforce in mind and, therefore, not optimized to effectively train learners out in the field. The major gap missing from your standard LMS is the ability to take scenario-based training on the actual devices your frontline employees use for day-to-day job functions and to practice and apply that knowledge directly. The result? Workers merely click through e-Learning courses in an LMS and, often, forget the information within 24 hours.

A hands-on approach to learning

Hands-on, scenario-based learning makes lessons more impactful, especially when combined with the ability to refer back to the training as needed. Trainers and supervisors can monitor everyone’s progress and work individually with those who need extra guidance. The characteristics of hands-on, scenario-based learning optimized for field workers are as follows:

  • Microlearning: Short but impactful training courses refresh the learning objectives and help learners consolidate the information for longer-term retention. In addition to simulating the learner’s experience, this approach improves employee knowledge retention by introducing new concepts in bite-sized pieces.
  • Contextual: Each course is focused on a specific concept that is relevant to the learner’s job, which adds additional motivation for the learner to retain the information as well as the ability to practice and apply the concept right away. Using tools such as simulation enhances the contextual nature of microlearning even further.
  • On-Device: Having microlearning lessons delivered to the learner’s primary device (which, for mobile workers, is a mobile device) is the most effective strategy for knowledge retention and means workers can interact on the devices they are actually using to do their jobs.
  • On-Demand: Delivering training content where and when they need it is critical for mobile workers. Even while out in the field, employees can refer back to prior lessons and videos to refresh learning concepts as needed, which encourages frontline workers to perform their job functions more efficiently. 

Training with a traditional LMS isn’t effective for your mobile workforce and doesn’t promote long-term learning retention or allow your workers to practice their skills while on the job. Instead, provide your crew with on-demand training where they can practice and master their skills on the devices used for their daily job functions.

 

Take a deeper dive into the ROI of digital training with this visual guide. And if you’re looking for a digital training solution for your field workers, check out the first digital adoption platform designed specifically for frontline workforces, Skyllful.

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