How Wearable Technology is Fast-tracking Employee Training Across the Supply Chain
It’s hard to believe in this digital world that a warehouse operator (or any organisation) is struggling to onboard front-line workers. Yet, over half of decision-makers surveyed in Zebra’s latest Warehousing Vision Study said that training workers was their second biggest struggle. It’s taking an average of 4.7 weeks to get employees to full productivity! The fastest time reported was four weeks for receiving. The longest was five weeks for cross-docking and 5.1 weeks for put wall.
Retailers are reporting similar challenges. In the 15th Annual Global Shopper Study from Zebra, released in late 2022, three-quarters of retail decision-makers said reskilling or upskilling current employees is a challenge.
Why is this happening? There is so much technology – and even more on-demand content – available to guide employees through new tasks. You would think workers would be able to clock in and make an immediate impact in their first hour.
Well, by digging deeper into the data from the Global Shopper Study, we can see two key stats standing out:
Nearly nine-in-10 retail decision-makers and employees say training and learning could be improved by technology. This statement rings true across the whole supply chain. In many organisations, there’s often a missed opportunity for self-directed on-the-job training via mobile technology.
Three-quarters (76%) of retailers said they will invest time and money in training employees on technology in 2023. As opposed to general onboarding/training, which is a given with any new job, the majority of organisations recognise they need to invest more resources into training employees on how to use the specific technology they rely on to do their jobs efficiently. No wonder onboarding times are extending out for a month or longer!
This last statistic is quite staggering. Technology shouldn’t be so complicated that organisations have to spend a lot of resources teaching people how to use it – at least not when it comes to tools used by front-line workers. We know turnover can be high in front-line roles, and a common reason why new workers get frustrated and quit so quickly is because they don’t feel they are contributing to their organisations fast enough. Or perhaps they get frustrated with how complicated their job seems to be because the technology is difficult to learn and use.
If your business processes are simple, but the technologies used within those processes are not – at least not from a user experience (UX) perspective – that’s a problem. And it’s one you must solve immediately.
The Case for Wearables
Warehouse, distribution, transportation, logistics, retail, and manufacturing operations functioned just fine before technology existed. That’s not to say they functioned perfectly, but the simplicity of paper checklists, inventory lists and job aides reduced friction in workers’ days. If they didn’t know how to do something, they would shadow a colleague for a while to learn or just ask for help.
Today, it seems like new employees are having to spend a lot of time learning how to use technology in addition to learning how to do their jobs because they are expected to be autonomous. According to a recent Microsoft study, 55% of front-line workers report they’ve had to “learn new tech on the fly, with no formal training or practice”. If being inherently tech-savvy is a prerequisite for front-line work, then it will be difficult for companies to survive in the on-demand economy.
While a growing percentage of the labour pool is comprised of digital natives, and 64% of front-line workers are excited about the job opportunities technology creates, nearly half of front-line workers (45%) “feel pressure to adapt to new technology over fear of losing their jobs”.
You cannot allow technology – or the fear of technology – to complicate an employee’s first day, week or month (and eventually scare them away.) You must give them technology that facilitates on-the-job training in a way that is simple, straightforward, and familiar rather than forcing them to learn complicated new technology to complete new tasks. The tech you give them should be self-explanatory as much as possible. That’s one of the reasons why wearables must become a staple in your warehouse: to maximise productivity and operational efficiency and to simplify user training.
Though there are plenty of mobile devices you could use, such as a mobile computer or tablet, the reality is that any device that must occupy someone’s hand could be adding friction to those workflows. The only way people can move as fast as humanly possible in a warehouse is if they have their hands totally free to pick items, operate equipment and more. With wearables, staff don’t have to worry about picking up and putting down a device every time they need to do something else, they can just flow through their tasks. And because the device can essentially show – or audibly tell – them where to go and what to do next, they don’t necessarily need a large screen device for direction. They can also get up to speed quickly, which means they can reach full productivity faster.
Take for example the average smartwatch, which many people own today. Wearable computers like the Zebra WS50 look and function a lot like the consumer smartwatches employees may already use (even though the WS50 is an enterprise-grade device built specifically for business applications used across the supply chain.) So, when workers put on the WS50, which runs on the Android operating system (OS) like many consumer devices, there won’t be much of a learning curve, if any. They’ll have to learn the software on the device just like they may have to learn a new app on their personal devices. But familiarising themselves with that software won’t be overly difficult.
In fact, one of the reasons wearable computers like the WS50 have become so popular with business leaders and front-line workers alike is because Zebra designed the WS50 and Ivanti’s Velocity software application to enable day-one productivity. The device essentially coaches the user through their job, facilitating on-the-job training that expedites time-to-productivity and aids with worker retention – without layering on a secondary tech training requirement during onboarding. Instead of asking another team member to hold a new employee’s hand, you can give them a WS50 loaded with step-by-step guidance software to wear on their hand (or wrist) and send them on their way. The WS50 even comes in an RFID model, packing even more functionality into the world’s smallest all-in-one enterprise-class wearable computer.
The Bottom Line
Technology will remain pivotal to your business operations, so you must find a way to make it work better for your front-line workers. They need to be able to jump into a new job and feel productive from day one – or fill a new role at a moment’s notice. They no longer have the luxury of month-long onboarding periods. Neither do you.
So, make sure you are only investing in technology that offers highly immersive, micro-learning experiences for all employees rather than choosing technology that requires a lot of extra training investment. If anything, allocate that money to the creation of snackable, on-demand visual or audible guides that can give front-line workers the full autonomy they want and the confidence they need to be a valued member of your team.
