A comprehensive roadmap for frontline learning

4 key capabilities to empower your frontline

With the right tools and strategies, you can make learning accessible, relevant and easy to find.

But it’s not about buying any tool that delivers training. You need practical capabilities that will help overcome common obstacles, ensuring every employee has a chance to learn and grow, right in the flow of work.

1. Let employees choose how they learn

Maximizing the number of ways your frontline workers can access learning is key. A “choose your own device” (CYOD) approach lets employees decide how and when to engage with training, whether it’s on their phones, a shared tablet or a computer at work. This flexibility meets them where they are, breaking down barriers to learning by making it available on devices they’re already comfortable with.

📱While the CYOD approach is a variation of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy, here are the common best practices to follow.

2. Stream smarter to beat bandwidth woes

Bandwidth limitations shouldn’t stand in the way of learning. Adaptive streaming technology automatically adjusts video quality to match available bandwidth, ensuring that training content is always accessible, even in locations with spotty internet.

This is especially important for remote workers or those in large facilities where Wi-Fi strength varies. Keeping content easy to stream means no one is left behind due to technical constraints.

3. Use QR codes to keep learning just a scan away

QR codes have become an everyday tool and are a simple way to make digital content instantly accessible. Instead of making employees navigate through complex systems, you can place QR codes in strategic locations—like break rooms or near specific equipment—linking directly to your learning platform. Employees can instantly access the right resources in the flow of work, whether they need a quick refresher or an on-the-spot answer.

4. Embed learning where work happens

If your learning platform is buried behind layers of enterprise tools, employees simply won’t use it. Make learning easy to find by embedding direct links in the systems employees already use daily.

For example, adding a one-click link to the learning platform within your CRM, knowledge base, or SharePoint site means employees can seamlessly switch from work tasks to training. The more accessible learning is, the more likely employees are to engage with it.

Pro tip 🪄

Find out what devices people use on the job and review your company device policies to identify “screens of opportunity” within the workflow.

If you think that’s hard to do, take inspiration from one of the biggest, most successful retailers.

Walmart’s success story ⬇️

With its size and scale, Walmart was struggling to deliver training to its distribution team. Initial attempts to use training PCs in a distant room failed, as few employees ever made it there. By simply relocating the PCs to the charging stations where lift truck drivers had downtime during their shifts, Walmart integrated learning into the flow of work.

This small shift led to 95% of their 100,000 supply chain team members completing two training sessions per week, demonstrating the power of finding “screens of opportunity.”

By integrating the other capabilities we listed above, you’ll ensure your frontline workers have multiple, easy ways to access the training and support they need—whenever and wherever they need it.

Now that you made learning accessible, let’s move on to how to make it simple (and meaningfully challenging) for your frontline employees.