Your staff isn’t tied to their desks anymore, and while it may seem that they’re getting more done, they may not have all the tools they need to be as efficient as possible. We’ve identified these four ways you can help deskless workers be more effective on the job, creating more job satisfaction for them and higher quality work for the organization.
Mobile Support
The very nature of deskless employees is that they aren’t in one place all day. The laptop computer was the mobility tool of choice for a couple of decades but in the past ten years, smartphones and tablets have displaced laptops for many tasks. While some people prefer portable computers still, be sure to offer your employees a range of mobile devices to suit the work they do as well as their work habits.
Learning On The Go
You can’t expect deskless workers to come home to HQ for training anymore. It’s the definition of inefficiency. Old eLearning systems used standalone computers but new training modules are made for mobile devices. “Microlearning” is a recent evolution in the way learning content is delivered and viewed. Microlearning content is short (under 3 minutes) and designed to provide a quick shot of supporting info for employees in the middle of a task. They don’t have time for a “deep dive” while working, so give them a microlearning boost.
Video
Sitting down to read a long text document requires your employees to focus their attention for a prolonged period of time, which usually means finding a quiet spot so they can concentrate. Videos can deliver a similar amount of information in a much shorter timespan because images convey much more than words. Deskless employees often don’t have the luxury of time or quiet rooms, but they do have headphones and their mobile device to watch a brief training video.
The best thing you can do when training deskless workers is give them unrestricted access to the information and learning modules they need to do their job well. The less they have to fight through the system for their tutorials and exercises, the more productive, efficient, and engaged they’ll be.
