Technological growth and automation is making every industry a space of exciting and disruptive change. Take logistics, for example; the recent upsurge in global freight networks has accelerated the technology backed trends and innovations in the logistics and supply chain landscape. Striving to improve safety standards, warehouse productivity, workplace ergonomics, pick-up accuracy, etc., the industry is introducing rapid changes. Autonomous vehicles, new supply chain software, automated omni-channel retail distribution, scalable intelligent robotics solutions and more are coming up to streamline operations.

As logistics answers to increasing demand, it also supports the e-commerce industry which is witnessing exponential and unprecedented growth. With all this action in the foreground, the industry deals with a widening skill gap and shrinking labour availability.

This is understandable as automation and AI will continue to make employee skills obsolete, creating a deficit in employee proficiencies. Again, this is true across sectors.

As the landscape evolves minute by minute, if teams are not prepared to learn on-the-go and anticipate challenges, then businesses stand to lose on many fronts. A member survey from Association for Talent Development (ATD) reveals how lower efficiency tops the list of business impacts of the skills gap, followed by missed opportunities for the organisation.

This is why L&D teams have to undertake skill building measures—upskilling, re-skilling and skilling teams—on the double. The need to get information out is now and given the pace of change, pressure of everyday deliverables and the high cost of errors, organisations are not able to set a particular day aside for learning.

Enter mobile learning (mLearning)—delivering consumable, on-demand podcasts, modules and other forms of eLearning through a smartphone.

mLearning has changed the corporate training landscape forever. Users today want to access training on the go, making phones a great medium to impart skills. Some of these stats mentioned below make a compelling case for mLearning:

This is the surest route to meet KPIs and drive profitability. And here is why:

• Mobile learning shows a 72% increase in user engagement
• 89% of smartphone users download apps, of which 50% are used for learning [Towards Maturity]
• 71% of millennials say they connect more with mobile learning than L&D activities delivered via desktop or formal methods [Gallup]
• Smartphone learners complete course material 45% faster than those using a computer (The Merrill Lynch GoLearn followup Survey).

mLearning’s strengths make skilling on the mobile the remedial measure to build a skilled workforce and prevent profit leakage.

Organisations, keep up

Learning is happening at hyper-speed.

To be effective it has to be experiential as much as it has to be personal. But what it must mostly be is convenient. mLearning caters to each person’s requirement, pace and individual level of understanding.

Evidence suggests mobile learning can significantly increase the training speed and productivity of a workforce. The Merrill Lynch GoLearn initiative quoted above that compared mobile learning with traditional online learning was conducted with the goal to determine the efficacy and ROI of mobile learning. The follow-up survey revealed some interesting facts:

• 99% participants who used a smartphone felt the mobile format supported their learning and all indicated their willingness for more mobile training
• More than 75% identified the key benefits of mLearning as convenience, time saving, and no distractions.

The momentum behind mLearning

mLearning and mobile technologies are not about to slow down given the fact that mobiles are everywhere. A study by handset maker Vivo reveals the average time spent on smartphones was 5.5 hours per day. This was in March 2020 (pre-COVID) and this number must surely have risen sharply recently. mLearning solutions are also easily scalable and flexible which too are driving the hype and popularity.

Popular with desired audiences:

Generation Z is ready to enter the workforce. Given their appetite for snackable content and constant stimulation, the mLearning trend is popular with them and is here to stay. The millennials and Gen Z are multi-faceted and more capable of successfully multi-tasking between hobbies, work, learning, family and friends; all through their smartphones. mLearning makes desired content available to this younger breed of employees through their favorite device, in manners that hold their attention.

Evolves with changing times :

The concept of work-life balance has changed.Flexibility at the workplace also means that it is now impossible to not bring work home. With WFH increasingly looking like it is here to stay, the boundaries between work and personal life are becoming even more blurry and require more self-regulation. Employees have more autonomy with mLearning, completing learning at a pace and place that suits them best. According to Learner Events, 46% of learners use mobile learning before they go to sleep at night.

Better engagement :

Tech which is mobile ready is one of the most effective ways to create better employee engagement in today’s times. It provides companies the opportunity to increase outreach and engage with their employees in new and striking ways. When employees have more control over their learning and their career growth, they feel more enthusiasm.

A global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) discovered a quantifiable connection between a mobile-first work environment and an increase in employee engagement. The study reveals how mobile ‘pioneer’ organisations saw a 16% boost in productivity, along with improvements in levels of employee creativity and loyalty.

If you haven’t taken your training programmes mobile yet, you are missing out on many opportunities to boost productivity and grow and improve your revenue. Competing in a dynamic real-time environment requires a learning platform that prepares employees to deliver results in real time. For businesses mLearning also means lesser expense on instructor hiring, travel and classroom costs, not to mention the cost incurred from setting aside critical and productive working hours for learning. Evidently the road to all desired growth leads through that smartphone you are probably reading this blog on!