Choosing the right learning solution
It’s almost impossible to keep up with all of the learning solutions in the marketplace today. The differences between each are often subtle and feature-based. If you’re in the market for a learning management system, there are a number of things to consider when determining if a particular platform is right for you. But your exploration should always start with one question: Who do you need to train?
Ensuring the learning solution you select meets the realities of your workforce
Broadly speaking, employees fall into one of two groups: corporate or frontline.
Corporate employees are your 9-5 office types. They work at desks, are on (or have access to) their computers for much of the day, have corporate email addresses and control their daily schedule and workflow.
Frontline employees are typically spread out across locations, work irregular hours and have limited time to spare. They also may not have easy access to corporate computers or devices. All of this makes them considerably more difficult to engage with training.
Why the frontline needs a unique approach
The realities of frontline employees are very different from their corporate counterparts. The modern frontline employee is:
Busy
72% of frontline employees want to be able to complete their training in a few minutes each day.
Unique
89% of frontline employees want their training experience to be personalized and relevant to their needs.
Connected
90% believe being able to connect with training and information at any time is critical to on-the-job success.
Disengaged
79% of frontline employees say more frequent learning and support would improve their feeling of engagement.
How a frontline-focused learning solution stacks up against a traditional LMS
Since corporate and frontline employees do very different work, their training needs will differ greatly. Supporting each group may require different technologies. Here are some of the main differences between a learning solution built for the frontline and a traditional LMS.
| Frontline learning solution | Traditional LMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Training | Short, targeted, personalized sessions | Longer-form course content that is usually delivered through a classroom-like experience |
| Easy for every employee to see what they need to complete each session | Relies on employees searching for and enrolling in training content | |
| Opens up additional training, relevant to their role once things they need to complete are done | Opens up the same content to every employee, so they can choose what they want to enrol in | |
| Creates meaningful training experience to keep employees engaged in daily training | Makes recommendations so that those interested in learning can get focused | |
| Content | Role-specific training topics for a wide range of industries | More general business-focused topics like communication skills and time management |
| Content is designed around business results | Content is designed around topics to be learned | |
| Content is constantly refreshed and adapted to focus on each frontline employee’s individual training needs | Refresher content is often manually administered and delivered according to time not needs | |
| Mobile access | Mobile-first design so every feature can be accessed virtually anywhere—from a POS or smartphone to the scale behind the deli counter | Offer mobile experiences, but traditionally accessed through desktop |
| Reporting | Covers reporting basics like completion rates and test scores, then takes it one step further by measuring knowledge growth and behavior change | Covers reporting basics like completion rates and test scores |
| Measures the impact of training on results you care about—like CSAT, NPS, AHT, shrink, etc. | Limited ability to tie training back to business results |
We know that’s a lot to take in. So we’ve built this platform selection tool to help you figure out which technology makes the most sense for you.
Made for the frontline from day one
For almost a decade we’ve been thinking about how the frontline learns best at work. So, we’re really good at helping them perform their best every day. Here are just a few of the customers that agree.
