A new TalentCards report examines the state of training for deskless workers, a group that makes up a staggering 80% of the global workforce, and has proven essential during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surveyed amid the pandemic, frontline and deskless employees (such as nurses, teachers, salespeople, construction workers, truck drivers, etc.) stated that they wouldn’t switch to a desk job given the opportunity. In a report published by the mobile learning platform TalentCards, 64% stated that they would not give up their current positions as frontline workers in exchange for a desk job, even if they were given the same pay and benefits.

The report surveyed frontline workers from the US, Canada, UK, and Australia and revealed that the majority of respondents have received COVID-19-related training. A deeper look at individual industries shows that healthcare and retail employers have offered the highest rates of COVID-19-related training, with 82% and 76% of employees, respectively, reporting having received it. While, surprisingly, education landed at the bottom, with only one in two employees in the sector (52%) reporting having received COVID-19-related training.

Deskless employees report that training in general makes them feel more connected and secure in their jobs. Sixty-three percent of frontline workers said that access to additional training would help them feel more connected to their organizations’ values and mission. More than half (56%) believe that additional training would improve their chances of surviving in a job market that is continuously changing due to advancements in technology.

“The reality is that the majority of training software has been developed to suit just a portion of the global workforce — meaning the people who do their jobs from behind a desk, and not those who don’t,” comments Thanos Papangelis, CEO and Founder of TalentCards, and continues: “Our findings show that, if businesses intend to increase the effectiveness of their training initiatives to support and engage their deskless workers, mobile training has to become standard practice and not the exception.”

Moreover, the TalentCards report confirms the reality of the forgetting curve, with one out of three deskless workers stating that they have forgotten most of the training provided by their employers 30 days after completing it. 

The survey also explored how deskless workers feel about the frequency of training, with 80% reporting that they prefer short training sessions regularly over long, one-time training events.

Read the full report: https://www.talentcards.com/deskless-workers-training
For media enquiries please contact Eri Panselina (epanselina [at] talentcards.com)

About TalentCards
Trusted by notable companies such as Schindler and Alcon, TalentCards is a mobile learning platform, designed for deskless workforce training. Employees sign in from their mobile device and complete their training any time, any place, using a native iOS and Android app. TalentCards is built by Epignosis, the learning tech vendor behind TalentLMS and eFront.