5 Reasons Frontline Employee Learning Isn't Working

Frontline employees want to learn. 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if they felt like their learning and development was being invested in. 

Yet 34% of millennial frontline workers in industries like retail, hospitality and logistics report a lack of progression, which means that they’re not being offered the opportunities for development that they want.

So what’s going wrong?

Here are 5 reasons why organizations are struggling to train frontline employees:

1. Learning is inaccessible

Learning opportunities are limited for those in frontline roles. 40% are trained only once a year or less.

As deskless workers, frontline teams spend all day on their feet or on the road, jumping between different tasks. This means that they have limited time for learning. 

If frontline teams aren’t being provided with enough accessible opportunities to learn, learning won’t happen!

2. Learning is overwhelming

Employees typically receive a huge influx of information at onboarding and then little training thereafter. 

This ‘information dump’ style training is ineffective, as without repetition the information retained by learners halves each day.

This means that even if learners take on 90% of the information taught in the original training session, within 5 days they will remember less than 3%.

3. Learning is disruptive

Classroom training, employee handbooks or even online courses on a desktop computer typically can only be accessed by going to a back office or staff room.

Learning this way takes employees away from their day to day tasks,  it’s inaccessible on the job. It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus after disrupting an employee’s workflow.

This means that they won’t be motivated to learn as training is inaccessible and limits productivity.

4. Learning is boring

Training manuals, worksheets and even classroom training fails to engage a workforce made up heavily of people who are accustomed to swiping and scrolling. 

Traditional formats for delivering learning content are outdated and tedious, so employees don’t feel motivated to complete training. 

This is especially true if learning takes customers away from tasks that feel more engaging, like interacting with customers.

5. Learning is isolating

66% of workers consider the social aspects of working more important than their paycheck. Yet 39% have an isolated work environment. 

Reading through handbooks or completing courses in a solitary environment is tedious and doesn’t make learning an appealing prospect for employees. 

Furthermore, this type of training doesn't reflect the social nature of the frontline workplace, so doesn’t prepare teams to perform their best in a fast-paced, team oriented environment.

What’s the answer?

This array of obstacles is a cause for concern. But there are steps you can take to create better learning experiences for your frontline teams. 

Our new whitepaper walks you through the 5 steps you need to take to make learning more effective alongside 5 real-life examples of companies who have put these steps into action.

Get your copy now!