Almost every 1 in 3 employees in America is a millennial today, accounting for 35% of the workforce. With this new demographic comes different needs and preferences. Millennials want to work at a place that aligns with their career goals and are quite willing to switch jobs for that. Technology is another major differentiator between the two generations. How well a company embraces technology influences the choice of workplace for 71% of the millennials, while that number stands at just 53% for baby boomers.
Employees today are highly tech-savvy, armed with smartphones and laptops, 24X7. In fact, 96% of Americans own a mobile phone of some kind and 75% of the adults in the US own a desktop or laptop. And they are highly active on these devices too. An average American spends 3 hours 10 minutes on their smartphone every day.
Another thing that today’s workforce wants is flexibility. Millennials believe that they do not always need to be at the office to work. Instead, they believe they are more productive when allowed to function at the time and place of their liking.
The Need for Learning on the Go
These behavioral traits pose an important question. Are the traditional learning and development approaches effective for the modern workforce? The answer is: Not really. Corporate training with through face-to-face instructions, with the help of projectors and slides or even a PowerPoint presentation is inefficient, inflexible and bores learners easily.
The need of the hour is learning on the go. Today’s workforce wants a training platform that is mobile. Not only does this suit the needs of the millennial employee, but it also helps in saving both time and money. This is because learning on the go allows employees to choose convenient timings to complete their training, while making the most of the time they spend at the workplace. This means that they can choose to learn while commuting or during breaks, or even when everyone is stranded at home due to a pandemic! As a result, they remain productive at work.
But the learning also needs to be personalized, accessible and measurable to make training effective.
Mobile Apps to the Rescue
What better way to deploy on-the-go learning than with the help of mobile apps? Everything seems to be moving towards mobile devices. Even Google recently announced that websites with a great mobile page would be favored in its indexing. Mobile apps also provide everything needed for a great corporate training experience.
Some of the benefits of mobile apps in learning are:
1. Anytime, Anywhere Learning
With mobile apps, you can provide training wherever the employee might be. This takes care of the rising trend of remote workforces. All employees need is a mobile device and internet connectivity. In addition, there is no limit to the learning resources that can be provided, which each employee can explore at their own pace and based on their personal interests. They even access content offline, during times when there is no internet connectivity. So, learning never needs to stop. This ensures optimal use of time and immense flexibility.
2. Social Learning
With mobile apps, no employee has to learn alone. Advanced mobile learning platform allow employees to view and share their learning assets and experiences across different channels. They can even compete with each other with the help of leaderboards and other gamification elements. This fits right in with the need for collaborative work and learning among millennials.
3. Uninterrupted Learning
With a mobile learning platform, employees do not have to wait for an instructor or senior colleague to be available to show them the ropes. They can access personalized learning paths as well as self-assist facilities, such as an AI-powered personal learning assistant, who helps them stay motivated and on-course for their training.
4. Taking Advantage of Micro Moments
Micro moments are short bursts of time spent by a person on a mobile device. This can happen before a person goes to sleep or while waiting for a cab. This is essentially free time for learning. Mobile apps are ideal for the creation of bite-sized, microlearning content that is perfect for such moments.
5. Learning Objects
A learning object is a small instructional component that can be used multiple times in various learning contexts. One of the advantages of training through mobile apps is that managing learning objects based on specific training purposes becomes incredibly easy.
All of these benefits mean that the use of mobile apps for training can improve employee engagement, fast-track development and reduce turnover. This helps in increasing ROI for businesses.
Conclusion
If you need more reasons to adopt a mobile learning platform, here they are. Did you know that employees experience a 43% productivity boost when training is provided with the help of a mobile device? And they also take 40% to 60% less time to complete training! Can you afford not to give your corporate training initiatives the mobile app edge? Contact us to know how MagicBox can help.
