A major challenge contemporary industries and businesses face is how to train a deskless workforce with diverse geographical presence, languages, access to training hubs, and resources, amongst others.
Traditional paper-based materials and events incur significant costs and use time. These in turn negatively impact productivity, quality of work, and workforce satisfaction.
WhatsApp chat-based training offers customisable solutions which cater to these basic needs, and additionally, empowers the deskless workforce and communities to learn and upskill from anywhere. Some of these features have already been proven in practice:
- Upskilling the deskless workforce across geographical locations and even time zones.
- Reaching a wider community through chat-based training in multiple languages.
- Training is available to communities with limited data.
- Engaging multiple demographics.
Unprecedented Access to Training
For the deskless workforce to attend training has previously required significant time away from their primary tasks in addition to the costs of travel, lodging and meals, to name a few. WhatsApp chat-based training solutions remove all of these barriers and costs, while giving the workforce access to training with additional unprecedented benefits.
- Training that fits the workforce’s schedule. With training material provided on users’ own devices and the familiar WhatsApp platform, employees have more opportunities in their schedule to engage with learning material without compromising production. In fact, the features of chat-based learning improve production and the quality of work.
- Without the requirement to travel, the workforce can access training in the palm of their hand, on the go, wherever they might be. This aspect of chat-based training is highly valuable to industries with a widely distributed workforce.
- Learning in one’s own language. WhatsApp chat-based offers training in multiple languages and media including images, video, text and quizzes. The diversity of learning materials appeals across the scope of a workforce.
- Bite-sized learning means employees’ training needs are suited to their work schedule, benefitting workforce satisfaction and production.
How to reach a workforce or community with low data and limited resources:
A community development organisation, Beulah Africa, trained hundreds of rural workers simultaneously within a day on Covid Health & Safety practices – all within their preferred language, complete with explanatory images, light-data short videos, and fun engaging quiz questions.
Whether your workforce is deskless or you are aiming to reach communities based in rural areas, the low-data nature of WhatsApp chat-based learning means everyone has access to material without major concern for data usage.
Additionally, trainees do not need access to a centralised learning hub or expensive PC equipment. Learning material is accessible right on their own mobile devices.
Innovative Features and Applications
Supported by video, audio, images, quizzes and interactive chat, trainees remain engaged and focused while learning in the comfort and convenience of their own schedule, location and personal mobile device.
WhatsApp-based training can be applied to a wide scope of applications, from soft-skills to procedures, policy, technical skills and more. Chat-based learning has already been employed in readying the future workforce, giving trainees and students access to CV-building tools and interview skills.
With WhatsApp chat-based learning, businesses save costs, while improving productivity, workforce satisfaction and training value.
