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ArcLab User Clinic – Learner Analytics and Improving ROI of Training

ArcLab is building the world’s simplest training platform for organisations to upskill your deskless workforces.

Our regular User Clinics gather ArcLab customers and users to connect, learn and share all the benefits that Nano Learning and Just-in-Time Training has brought to their workforce and organisation. The ArcLab team also shares new features that we developed since our User Clinic, and explore how these can be used to create even better and more engaging training for organisations’ workforces.

Our first User Clinic of 2023 centred around Learner Analytics and the Measurement of Training Return on Investment (ROI). 

We had the pleasure to welcome ArcLab’s Advisory Board Member – Dr Karin Avnit, Associate Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology (“SIT”) and Deputy Director (Tech-Enabled Learning) of SIT’s Centre of Learner Assessment & Development – to share on how we think about Measuring & Improving the ROI of Training.

Here’s what Dr Karin shared:

Our CEO James also shared about ArcLab’s Learner Analytics Features, which you can read in detail via our Knowledge Base:

Massive thanks to everyone who took time out of your busy schedules to join our User Clinic of. We hope to host an in-person User Clinic very soon – stay in touch via our mailers & social channels.

Meanwhile, we keep working to help you create continuous upskilling programmes for your workforce, and build better and more productive organisations. 

Thank you for Creating Effective Training with ArcLab!

Download your free deck: "Improving ROI of Training"

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What are Occupational Progressive Wages?

Singapore's Progressive Wage Model

Singapore does not have a minimum wage system in the classical sense. Rather, Singapore’s has to-date adopted an industry-to-industry approach, termed the Progressive Wage Model (“PWM”).

From 1 March 2023, the PWM extends beyond identified industry sectors to cover specific occupations regardless of the employer’s industry classification. 

This is termed as Occupational Progressive Wages (“OPW”) and is meant to uplift local workers who are in occupations that exist across many sectors.

Occupational Progressive Wages

The OPW’s core pillars are unchanged from the PWM:

(i) Clear pathways for workers to progress in their careers,

(ii) Minimum wage requirements for different rungs of the career pathway (Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (“PRs”)),

(iii) Training to improve workers’ skills & productivity – to uplift the capacity to contribute more to employers’ bottom line and justify the wage increases.

The first 2 occupations covered under the OPW are Administrators and Drivers. OPW is compulsory and applies to ALL firms who employ full-time or part-time employees in administrative or driving roles on a contract of service and hire foreign workers. This is irrespective of the industry sector that the firm operates in.

OPW Wage Requirements from 1 March 2023 have been set. Wage levels for March 2024 and later will be reviewed by Singapore’s National Wages Council sometime in 2023.

OPW Wage Requirements for Drivers

The OPW for drivers is a two-level career progression model:

The first rung of the career level is for General Drivers who operate vehicles requiring a Singapore Class 3 driving license or lower. Examples of jobs include motorcycle delivery drivers, van drivers and tram drivers etc. These jobs are often found in the Logistics industry.

General Drivers progress to become Specialised Drivers, who operate vehicles requiring a Singapore Class 4 driving license and higher. Examples of jobs include trailer truck drivers, bus drivers, chauffeurs, and concrete mix truck drivers etc. Such jobs can be in various sectors including Logistics & Supply Chain, Construction etc.

OPW gross monthly wage requirements for Full-time General Drivers start at SGD $1,750 ($9.17 per hour for part-timers) from 1 March 2023, while those for Specialised Drivers are $1,850.

(Click table to enlarge)

OPW Wage Requirements for Administrators

The OPW for administrators is a three-level career progression model.

Level 1 is for Administrative Assistants who perform basic admin tasks like data entry, receiving & registering documents, sort & store files, run errands etc.  Examples of Admin Assistant jobs are: data entry clerk, library clerk, office attendant.

Level 2 is for Administrative Executives who perform more advanced admin tasks like accounting & bookkeeping, customer facing tasks (e.g. answering & directing phone calls, providing client information & services), manage records (e.g. maintaining & updating filing and inventory), handle money, prepare production schedules, secretarial tasks (e.g. arrange appointments, organise meetings.

Examples of Admin Exec jobs are: Office cashier, bank cashier, receptionist, telephone operator, secretary, verbatim reporter, typist & word processing operator, concierge, clerks (e.g. general office clerk, customer service clerk, stock clerk, transport clerk, statistical clerk, legal clerk, accounting and bookkeeping clerk, production clerk, computer operations clerk, postal service counter clerk, finance and insurance clerk, travel agency clerk, proofreading clerk)

Level 3 are Administrative Supervisors – essentially Office Supervisors who supervise staff in admin or clerical roles, and manage personnel, resolve work problems & coordinate work between an organisation’s units.

Administrators are found in virtually every industry and organisation.

OPW gross monthly wage requirements for Administrative Assistants start at SGD $1,500 ($9.00 per hour for part-timers) from 1 March 2023, rising to $2,000 for Administrative Executives and $2,800 for Administrative Supervisors.

(Click table to enlarge)

Workforce Training Requirements

It’s important to recognise that workers’ wages are also employers’ costs, so raising wages cannot be done sustainably without a corresponding rise in workforce productivity. Otherwise, margins are eroded for the business and product pricing cannot be competitive, which hurts consumers.

The only way to square the circle is to improve productivity. This can be done via 2 ways:

1. Adopting digital technologies that streamline business processes

2. Investing in workers’ training so they can improve skillsets and productivity. Ultimately, a well-trained, skilled employee produces more for the organisation.

Hence, training is a key pillar of OPW.

Employers must ensure that your Singapore citizen & PR Drivers and Administrators meet the OPW training requirements. These are:

1. At least 1 Workforce Skills Qualification (“WSQ”) Statement of Attainment (no restrictions on any WSQ course currently); or

2. An In-House Training programme.

To meet the training requirements – the in-house training programme will have to be guided by Training Objectives, Training Modality, Key Training Tasks and Training Duration.

Singapore’s Ministry for Manpower (“MOM”) expects employers to show supporting documentation on their in-house training programme and records of workers who attended the trainings – where required.

On-the-job Training (“OJT”) can be counted towards the In-House Training if the OJT fulfils these requirements.

The ArcLab platform is a simple and effective way for organisations to put in place an in-house training programme:

1. An entire training programme can be developed online and is suitable both for the office setting (Workers in Administrator roles can consume training via their desktops / laptops), as well as for workers who do not work in an office environment – Drivers who can consume training via their mobile phones.

2. ArcLab’s Learner Analytics Dashboard keeps detailed records of every single workers’ training, including time spent on individual modules and as a whole, scores for Knowledge Assessment quizzes etc. These can be easily exported and presented to MOM as required.

Here’s an example of a Training Module for Motorcycle Drivers.

If you found this way of learning engaging and effective, try building a training programme for your workforce now on ArcLab. Here are a few sample training templates from ArcLab Discover, our free library:

1. Safe Riding Training – suitable for General Driver roles (motorcycle delivery drivers) in Logistics firms etc.

2. Safe Manual Handling Training – suitable for General Driver & Specialist Driver roles in Construction, Logistics firms etc.

3. Customer Service (Serving Difficult Customers) Training – suitable for Administrative Executive roles (e.g. receptionist, customer service clerk, receptionist, telephone operator etc.) working in any industry.

Build Training Programme

PW Mark

From 1 March 2023, firms who hire at least 1 Singaporean or PR workers covered by the PWM / Occupational PW are eligible for a newly-launched PW Mark. This enables consumers and corporate buyers to easily identify and support these PW Mark-accredited firms. 

Important note for firms who provide goods & services to the Singapore Government: PW Mark accreditation will be a new procurement requirement for Government tenders called from 1 March 2023.

Supporting Employers

The Singapore Government has committed to providing assistance for employers:

1. Progressive Wage Credit Scheme: From 2022 to 2026, the Government is co-funding eligible wage increases given to lower-wage workers. To reduce administrative burden for employers, any co-funding payouts are automatically disbursed to eligible employers.

2. Workfare Skills Support Scheme: Employers’ training costs for workers above 35 years old and earning less than $2,300 per month are significantly offset.

These would help businesses to ease into the PWM and OPW in the initial period. However, the true benefits accrue over the medium-to-long term for the businesses, as a more productive workforce produces much more and higher-quality products and services that satisfy customer needs, and ultimately adds to the bottom line. Everyone wins – Businesses, Workers, Consumers.

Supporting Lower-Wage Workers

It is time to break the practice of only wanting our own salaries to go up, while our costs (other people’s salaries) stay low. No longer should Singapore’s domestic economy be built on the model of a low-wage, foreign-only workforce.

ArcLab’s vision has a strong impact focus on uplifting deskless worker lives and livelihoods. To achieve this, we know that ultimately – workers win only when businesses win.

We are hopeful that the PWM and OPW help break the vicious cycle of Deskless Workers being viewed as low-productivity and hence not worthy of skills investment and higher wages. In such a scenario, everyone loses – businesses, and workers especially, in today’s high-inflation world. 

Instead, an upskilled workforce means higher productivity and profitability. Businesses can then justifiably pay higher worker salaries. This means better livelihoods and stronger loyalty to employers (lowering costly staff turnover for businesses). This turns the previous vicious cycle into a new virtuous one, helping all of us – government, businesses and consumers to all do well and do good in our new higher-inflation world.

Build Training Programme

Top Photo by Muhamad Iqbal Akbar on Unsplash

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Higher Productivity for Progressive Wages (F&B sector)

Singapore's Progressive Wage Model

Singapore does not have a minimum wage in the classical sense. Rather, she has adopted an industry-by-industry approach to setting what is termed as the Progressive Wage Model (“PWM”).

PWM started in September 2014 for the Cleaning sector in Singapore, and gradually extended to more and more industry sectors in the years since – Security and Landscape sectors in 2016, Lift & escalator sector in 2019, Retail sector in 2022, and the Food Services and Waste Management sectors in 2023.

The core pillars of PWM are: 

(i) Clear pathways for workers to progress in their careers,

(ii) Minimum wage requirements for different rungs of the career pathway (applicable to Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (“PR”)),

(iii) Training to improve workers’ skills & productivity – so they have the capability to contribute more to employers’ bottomline, justifying the wage increases.

To hire foreign workers, Singapore firms must comply with their respective industry’s PWM requirements for their local employees covered by the respective PWMs, and the Local Qualifying Salary (“LQS”) requirements for all other local employees.

 

PW Mark

From 1 March 2023, firms who hire at least 1 Singaporean or PR workers covered by the PWM / Occupational PW are eligible for a newly-launched PW Mark. This enables consumers and corporate buyers to easily identify and support these PW Mark-accredited firms. 

Important note for firms who provide goods & services to the Singapore Government: PW Mark accreditation will be a new procurement requirement, for Government tenders called from 1 March 2023.

ArcLab had previously hosted a webinar where we discussed the PWM with industry leaders from Fei Siong Group, Kiosks Collective (operator of CRAVE Nasi Lemak, Pezzo etc.), IHRP and StaffAny – the motivations behind the PWM’s raising of wages for workers – many of whom are Deskless / blue-collar / frontline workers that have to-date commanded relatively low pay, and are disproportionately hurt in today’s higher-inflation world.


Now let us now look at the PWM requirements for Singapore’s Food Services sector.

PWM for the Food Services Sector

Under the PWM for Food Services, F&B businesses are split into 2 categories:

Category A is comprised of food establishments without wait staff. These include Quick Service (“QS”) F&B establishments like fast-food outlets, food courts etc. Essentially, self-service F&B eateries.

For PWM purposes, one career track is mapped out – stipulating a gross monthly wage requirement of SGD $1,750 from 1 March 2023 for Full-time entry level Food / Drink Stall Assistant ($9.18 per hour for part-timers), with progressive increments as (s)he moves up the career ladder. 

This PWM wage minimum rises to $1,915 per month on 1 March 2024, then $2,080 on 1 March 2025.

(Click table to enlarge)

 

Category B is made up by food establishments WITH wait staff, as well as Caterers and Central Kitchens. 

Two career tracks apply for Category B food businesses. 

1. “Back-of-house” roles, with these minimum monthly gross wage requirements:

(Click table to enlarge)

 

2. “Front-of-house” job roles, with the following monthly gross wage requirements:

(Click table to enlarge)

It’s important to recognise that workers’ wages are also employers’ costs, so raising wages cannot be done sustainably without a corresponding rise in workforce productivity. Otherwise, margins are eroded for the business and product pricing cannot be competitive, which hurts consumers.

F&B establishments can adopt a variety of process innovations and digital technologies that make the business more productive. 

It is also imperative that F&B businesses invest in upgrading workers’ skills so they can increase their productivity and skillsets, offering great food service experiences to customers and helping F&B employers to achieve more. 

Hence, training is a key pillar of the PWM.

Higher Productivity: Training the Workforce

For the Food Services PWM – employers must ensure that their Singapore citizen and PR workers attain at least 2 Workforce Skills Qualification (“WSQ”) Statement of Attainment, from the list of approved WSQ training modules. Alternatively, employers that have in-house WSQ training modules with prefix “FSS” in accompanying Technical Skills & Competencies (“TSC”) code can use these modules to meet the training requirements.

PWM training requirement must be done within 6 months of a new hire’s employment start date, or by 29 February 2024 for existing workers.

F&B employers can consider various Approved Training Organisations (“ATOs”) offering WSQ courses that meet the PWM’s requirements. 

One of these is FSI, an ATO backed by Fei Siong Group – one of Singapore’s largest F&B groups with 173 (& growing) outlets across 20 brands (e.g. Malaysia Boleh, Encik Tan, Nam Kee Pau etc.) employing over 1,600 staff. They are a proven market practitioner – amalgamating decades of practical real-world F&B experience into a sound training curriculum at FSI.

FSI is a public WSQ ATO accredited by SkillsFuture Singapore, supported by Enterprise Singapore and Institute of Adult Learning. They offer WSQ courses that meet the PWM requirements.

FSI offers structured training via in-person classes at their centrally-located venue right above Tanjong Pagar MRT station.

FSI’s courses are short and concise, helping F&B operators to upskill and reskill workers  with minimum fuss and time commitment. 

FSI has also created bite-sized learning modules, readily available 24/7 on mobile devices, shortening the time needed to induct new F&B hires and impart knowledge.

So if you are an F&B business, consider FSI for your training needs – 
(i) to meet PWM requirements, and
(ii) more importantly, continuously skill up your workforce to achieve more for your business.

For starters, check out FSI’s mobile learning module explaining the Food Services PWM ->

Supporting F&B Employers

The Singapore Government has committed to providing assistance for employers:

1. Progressive Wage Credit Scheme: From 2022 to 2026, the Government is co-funding eligible wage increases given to lower-wage workers. To reduce administrative burden for employers, any co-funding payouts are automatically disbursed.

2. Workfare Skills Support Scheme: Employers’ training costs for workers above 35 years old and earning less than $2,300 per month are significantly offset.

These would help F&B businesses to ease into the PWM in the initial period. However, the true benefits accrue over the medium-to-long term for the businesses, as a more productive workforce produces much more and higher-quality offerings for the business, and ultimately adds to the bottom line. Everyone wins – Businesses, Workers, Consumers.

Supporting Lower-Wage Workers

It is time to break the practice of only wanting our own salaries to go up, while our costs (other people’s salaries) stay low. No longer should Singapore’s domestic economy be built on the model of a low-wage, foreign-only workforce.

ArcLab’s vision has a strong impact focus on uplifting deskless worker lives and livelihoods. To achieve this, we know that ultimately – workers win only when businesses win.

We are hopeful that the PWM helps break the vicious cycle of deskless blue-collar workers being viewed as low-productivity and hence not worthy of skills investment and higher wages. In such a scenario, everyone loses – businesses, and workers especially, in today’s high-inflation world. 

Instead, an upskilled workforce means higher productivity and profitability. Businesses can then justifiably pay higher worker salaries. This means better livelihoods and stronger loyalty to employers (lowering costly staff turnover for businesses). This turns the previous vicious cycle into a new virtuous one, helping all of us – government, businesses and consumers to all do well and do good in our new higher-inflation world.

Before you go… we’ll leave you with a free takeaway (“dabao”):

Get your Free E-Book on Increasing Productivity for Food Service Businesses

Top Photo by Nauris Pūķis on Unsplash

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ArcLab is growing

Upskilling the World's Deskless Workforce

ArcLab is a team of educators, designers and technologists working together to create the world’s simplest training system to upskill the world’s deskless workforce.

It’s a huge endeavour – there are 2.7 billion of such workers in the world, 250 million in Southeast Asia alone. We’ve gotten great results, achieving solid results with a very lean team to-date.

We’re now growing the team to so we can accelerate our growth in Southeast Asia (Malaysia and Vietnam in 2023), and help many more organisations to onboard, train and support their workforces in a fuss-free & effective way.

Who we're looking for

To help us achieve our mission, we’re looking for talented folks for these roles:

1. UI/UX Design Lead – Our design philosophy is Simplicity, because the Deskless Workforce doesn’t have bandwidth or infrastructure for Complexity. If you have a passion for understanding users’ needs and pain points, and can design the simplest way to get the job done, there’s a product design role waiting for you. Check the ArcLab platform out too: https://builder.arclab.io

2. Learning Design Lead – ArcLab is a tech platform but ultimately a skilling company. If you can help us build up our mobile learning andragogical practice (see ArcLab Discover: https://builder.arclab.io/discover), and work with & educate customers on their L&D frameworks and training rollouts, we want to hear from you.

3. Customer Success Lead – ArcLab is a B2B SaaS company – we serve labour-intensive businesses across various industries e.g. Food Services, Construction, Logistics, Retail and also Non-Profit Organisations. If you love working with people, helping customers’ HR and L&D leaders and managers to do well for their people and organisation, both individually and for a wider audience (see ArcLab Academy: https://arclab.io/academy), reach out.

4. Digital Marketing Lead – ArcLab is a product-led growth (“PLG”) company. The majority of businesses find us through stellar content marketing (notice how this blog post has targetted keywords so searchers can find us…). So if you’re passionate about inbound, and can get into the weeds with SEO (e.g. ArcLab ranks on Google’s Page 1 for “Train F&B staff”), get in touch.

5. Software Engineer – We’re a well-architected SaaS platform. If you like simple-to-use software, love building and experimenting, and are passionate about organisation and maintainability of the codebase, our CTO Steven (who is ex-PayPal and had successfully exited a business to Rocket Internet before) is looking for you. Work with, and learn from Steven.

If you are (or know someone who can be) a good fit, we’re interested to speak with you. 

We don’t need you to have years of experience, and you’ll notice the job listings don’t ask for any minimum academic or formal qualifications – that’s because we believe that (i) passion for your chosen discipline, (ii) a great attitude towards people and (iii) the drive to learn whatever you need to do you job – are the most important traits for a would-be ArcLab-er.

If we can sync up on these 3 areas above, we’re ready to work with you and give you time to grow into the role that you join us for.

Apply!

Why join ArcLab?

We’ve been recognised globally – featured in Holon IQ’s Southeast Asia Ed Tech 50 for 3 years running, and part of GSV Ventures’ Elite 200 2022, one of only 10 from Southeast Asia.

We’re a driven team yet nice, humble people. See what we get up to on our Twitter page.

We’re doing noble work – ArcLab’s platform empowers businesses to uplift the skills, lives and livelihoods of blue-collar, deskless, frontline workers who’re so crucial to our economies and societies, but yet are severely underserved by current market skilling solutions.

We’re a disciplined business – We don’t subscribe to the scorched-earth, grow-at-all-costs business model. We build efficiently, do a lot with very little and are here to build a sustainable, profitable and impactful business that will be around for a long time.

If you're a good fit, reach out right away!

Hero Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

Gif by Tenor. Rights to Captain America are owned by Disney.

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Top Articles of 2022

Recapping our Top Articles from 2022

As we enter the final stretch of 2022, we recap our top articles from this year:

1. How to Train F&B Staff, co-authored with Passioneat Hospitality – shares how a trained workforce is the biggest contributor to the success of any F&B organisation, and how you can achieve this for your business. 

2. Body Language for Customer Service shares how effective body language is key to creating your well-trained sales force and customer service team. We also share free templates from ArcLab Discover.

Body Language in Customer Setvice

3. Melabur Untuk Perkembangan Perniagaan shares in Bahasa Melayu – all the ArcLab Use Cases that our customers use us for, including digital Standard Operating Procedures (“DSOPs”). Also read the English version Investing in Intangibles for Growth & Productivity

Rounding off, we have:

4. Nano Learning – Simple, Effective, Scalable Training for New & Replacement Workers

5. How can F&B outlets attract new hires & retain existing staff – discussing the importance of a comprehensive L&D programme in making jobs in the food & beverage industries attractive for would-be and existing workers to build their careers, and increase employer loyalty.

6. Streamline Business Processes with Digital SOPs – where we share how documenting procedures is an important way to get staff up-to-speed quickly, and also share various digital SOP templates such as Operating a Point-of-Sale System (“POS”).

7. Construction is NOT Dangerous – which shares about how to effectively conduct Workplace Safety & Health Training (“WSH”) for construction workers.

8. How to Onboard & Orientate your Deskless Workforce – A Fast & Easy Way to conduct staff onboarding, orientation, induction programmes

What's in store next year...

As ArcLab continues to serve our existing customers, extend into new markets like Malaysia & Vietnam, and grow into new sectors (e.g. Logistics and Supply Chain), we’ll keep sharing what we learn in our work serving organisations’ skilling of workers.

At the same time, we keep investing resources into building out the ArcLab platform, while staying true to our vision to always be the simplest and most fuss-free way to digitally skill the most important part of your organisation – your people.

We hope you continue to find our sharing useful as you upskill your workforce to be more productive for your organisation, this year and next.

Best wishes for 2023!

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Work-from-anywhere a pipedream for Frontline Blue Collar Deskless Workers

COVID-19 changed the world (& work)

Once upon a time, the world was pre-Covid. 

Remote Work, Work-from-Home (“WFH”), Work-from-Anywhere were almost alien concepts. For many of us, work took place in an office or worksite, in a different place from our homes. Employers expected staff to work together in a common location.

COVID-19 upended the world we knew. But the early days of battling with COVID-19 have also passed, as better knowledge about the virus helped scientists and healthcare professionals to develop vaccines and medical treatment. 

We learnt to live with the virus these past 3 years. 

In our personal lives – we wore face masks, practised social distancing, learnt how to self-test, got vaccinated. 

In our work lives – we adopted digital technologies in new hybrid work arrangements, sometimes working out of the office, more often working-from-home.

Today, we live in a COVID-normal world, almost no different from pre-2020 (with the notable exception of China). No more lockdowns, social distancing or masking requirements. International travel resumed even as Zoom and Google Meet video conferences became second nature. The ArcLab team ourselves have travelled twice to visit our customers in Malaysia, and plan for more visits next year.

Work-from-Anywhere, I will.

As the economy reopened, we resumed international travel with a vengeance. 

But workers were reluctant to make a shorter journey – that of returning to the office. 

Many workers had gotten used to not having to commute, to having much more flexibility to manage our time & tasks, to having more time & interaction with the family and loved ones.

Technology played a part – why do we need to meet and work together in person when tools like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams helped us to communicate with co-workers, and project management software like Notion and Asana kept everyone on task? 

In fact, work-from-anywhere has now being brought to a whole new level. “Workations”, where professionals travel to a different country to work for an extended period while enjoying leisure travel is “an upcoming workforce train” (quote from this Straits Times article). If you live in a high-cost country, moving to a lower-cost economy to discharge your work duties (without changing job) can end up being financially-productive.

Flexible Work Arrangements like these had now become mainstream. We can now well-and-truly integrate work and play, though there are also downsides from being “always-on”, with no natural break between the workplace and the home (now one and the same).

From the worker’s perspective – it’s the output that matters. Don’t micromanage HOW I do my work, or WHERE i work, as long as I deliver on my responsibilities.

 

Remote Work, you can't (any more).

Not all employers were 100% comfortable with remote work, even when mandated during early-COVID days in 2020. 

For supervisors used to managing by “line-of-sight”, this new WFH setup was tough. How would I know if my staff was indeed working, or slacking / shirking / “relak one corner” (Singaporean slang)? Some managers had resorted to compulsory “video-on” Zooms, where staff needed to be in front of the computer camera, as “proof-of-work” (pardon the blockchain reference).

The reopening economy this past year was a godsend for many employers, many of whom rolled back Hybrid Work Arrangements as a non-negotiable given.

From the employer’s perspective – I’m paying your salary, so I have the right to mandate how (and where) you work. In 2021, my hands were tied because of COVID restrictions, and also because the economy and job market was hot. In late 2022, with rising interest rates, slowing economies and a loosening labour market, employers could now call the shots. 

If a worker insisted on remote work, companies can now easily find someone else who will work in the office. And if it’s really work-from-anywhere, this also means companies can also give one worker’s job to another from a country where wage demands are lower. 

So holding out for remote work also cuts both ways.

Hybrid Work (Give some, take some).

As with most things, the optimal arrangement is probably somewhere in the middle.

In “Water Cooler Moments” – I shared how ArcLab balances Work-from-Home with In-person collaboration for our team.

We’re an output-driven company, but we also believe there is magic when people come together. So we continue to maintain a hybrid approach. 1 or 2 days per week where everyone comes in (no need for the whole day even), rest of the time work-from-anywhere.

Additionally, ArcLab is not ruling out letting our team members work out of different locations (and countries) for a period of time – as we also take steps towards establishing presence in Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia next year. 

Having worked in 3 countries, I KNOW for a fact that working abroad can be a great professional experience, and helps us broaden our perspectives as we build out the platform for our customers. I want to provide this opportunity for my team as well.

As long as employers and employees have a shared vision, and recognise we are all playing on the same team – then there’s no us vs them. 

Together, we achieve more. Together, Stronger – as the Welsh football team’s motto proclaims (condolences to Gareth Bale & team at their World Cup 2022 1st round exit at the hands of Harry Kane & England).

For many, WFH is a pipe-dream.

Whatever we’ve read so far – is only for office workers. The white-collar. The professional. The knowledge worker. The digital nomad.

For 2.7 billion Deskless Workers in the world (250 million in Southeast Asia alone), also known as blue-collar, frontline workers – the concept of Remote Work is utterly irrelevant.

#WFH isn’t for everyone – which I wrote early in the pandemic, highlights that a significant percentage of our workers work in Food Services, Construction, Retail, Logistics, Manufacturing, Healthcare etc., and have time-specific and location-specific jobs.

This makes remote work and work-from-anywhere a pipe-dream for our Deskless Workforce.

As employers and employees continue to hammer out optimal work arrangements that are productive yet flexible, spare a thought for our Deskless Workers – who toil in typically lower-wage jobs, on-site, cooking and serving your food, building your homes, and many other essential tasks that keep our economies and our comfortable lives humming.

For employers who employ teams of blue-collar, frontline workers – can we also help them achieve more for the company with the same / less time at the work place?

We certainly can. 

One important component is making workers more productive through effective, efficient training programmes so they don’t spend more time at the worksite in unproductive tasks.

Here are some tips:

1. Making sure businesses processes are streamlined and aptly-communicated. This can be done by devising well-documented Standard Operating Procedures. These SOPs can then be sent directly to Workers’ smartphones, so that they can easily access performance support materials in a fast, easy and accessible manner.

2. Providing workers with continuous training so they are well-equipped to do their jobs. To avoid more time commitment by the workers, which is also time away from the shop floor, Digitalising Training is a great way to improve the efficiency of the training process so more of the knowledge component can be consumed in a “flipped” setting, without the need for in-person training (here’s how F&B companies can do so)

3. Giving Local Language Support for worker training so they can consume training in the native language they are most comfortable with. ArcLab SmartTranslate helps companies train workers in any language, solving the current training roadblocks where too much off-the-shelf training content is in English, and all-too-general for individual companies.

These simple steps go a long way towards creating an effective, productive workforce, who achieve more for your organisation while working on-site, whom you can now justifiably pay the higher salaries, which promote greater company loyalty while improving their lives & livelihoods at the same time.

Uplift your (Deskless) Workforce.

To conclude, ArcLab believes that for the White-Collar workforce – hybrid work arrangements are here to stay, with the exact mix and mechanics the purview of individual employers & employees to agree on.

At the same time, for our Blue-Collar workforce – there is no such hybrid work arrangement yet. 

Deskless Work still needs to be performed on site, at least for the foreseeable future. We believe employers must ensure that workers’ time spent at the workforce be utterly productive, and that can in good part be achieved by creating a continuously upskilled, productive workforce, with organised SOPs that are well-communicated to streamline business processes.

That’s where ArcLab is here to help.

Get started today – create your productive workforce and profitable organisation, and improve your workers’ livelihoods and lives: https://builder.arclab.io

Build your Productive Workforce
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ArcLab User Clinic – Geofencing and much more

ArcLab is building the world’s simplest training platform for organisations to upskill your deskless workforces.

Our regular User Clinics gather ArcLab customers and users to connect, learn and share all the benefits that Nano Learning and Just-in-Time Training has brought to their workforce and organisation. The ArcLab team also shares new features that we developed since the previous User Clinic, and explore how these can be used to create even better and more engaging training for organisations’ workforces.

In our second User Clinic of 2022, we welcomed ArcLab customers from several countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. 

We also announced new features to help organisations create more effective, engaging and secure training modules. 

For those who weren’t able to attend, this blog post details everything we debuted. And here’s the video too:

 

Now for everything new we announced to help you with your workforce training:

Reorder

“Reorder” is ArcLab’s newest Assessment screen, which can be used to assess learners’ knowledge of procedures, steps or sequences. 

An example might be: 

“Arrange in order: the sequence of the 7 steps of proper handwashing”, 

or 

“Reorder: What are the 5 steps in marinating this chicken dish?“

“Reorder” can be used for assessments as described above, or toggle the “Quiz” setting to “Poll”, and you can use it to survey your staff or any audience’s preferences ranked against the other options.

Full details are in the Reorder section of our Knowledge Base.

Geofencing

Geofencing is a new security measure that you can add to your modules, especially if they contain sensitive or proprietary content.

Geofencing allows you to restrict learners’ module access to specific geographical locations such as your outlets, worksites or offices. Geofencing uses the Global Positioning System (“GPS”) information from your learner’s mobile device to detect if they are within or outside the virtual boundary set up by you. Learners will then only be able to gain access your geofenced modules when their devices’ GPS detects that they are within the pre-defined geographical location.

Other innovative ways of using Geofencing is for onboarding or team-building exercises, where your staffs’ access to specific modules are unlocked at specific locations as part of a series of tasks or “missions”. 

For example, one of ArcLab’s customers used geofenced modules as part of an “Amazing Race” in their new staff onboarding activity. As this organisation had locations all across the country, this was a great way for new staff to visit each location and get to meet the people who work in each location. A great way to conduction an onboarding and induction programme, if you ask us!

What other ways do you think Geofencing can be used for your onboarding, training or HR programmes? Let us know!

Geofencing is currently an Opt-In feature, so drop us a note if you’d like to get onboard.

Learner Access Metrics

We introduced Monthly Learner Access reports so you receive periodic email updates on how many learners have accessed your ArcLab modules. Look out for these on the first day of every month.

We also added a dedicated dashboard where admins & managers can check on these Learner Access metrics at any time. This gives you an idea of the level of engagement from your learners on a month-to-month basis, and give you better control on how you would deploy and manage learner access across your organisation.

Learner Access Metrics can be accessed easily via the top right of your ArcLab Dashboard:

Learn more about your Learner Access Metrics Dashboard in our Knowledge Base.

Upskill your Workforce today

Massive thanks to everyone who took time out of your busy schedules to join our 2nd User Clinic of 2022. We hope to host an in-person User Clinic very soon – stay in touch via our mailers & social channels.

Meanwhile, we keep working to help you create continuous upskilling programmes for your workforce, and build better and more productive organisations. 

Thank you for Creating Effective Training with ArcLab!

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HolonIQ EdTech 50 hat-trick for ArcLab!

Thank you, HolonIQ!

HolonIQ’s Southeast Asia EdTech 50 features the most promising EdTech startups from Southeast Asia.

The EdTech 50 identifies young, dynamic startups working hard to improve learning & teaching in K-12 & Higher Education, and Workforce Upskilling.

ArcLab is proud to be featured in the EdTech 50 for the 3rd year running. 

We are humbled and grateful for this hat-trick of validations of our work to Upskill the World’s 2.7 billion Deskless Workforce, through building the world’s Simplest Training System. 

If of interest, here’s what we’d showed HolonIQ (we updated the 2nd screen after 1 Nov 🙂 ).  

Now imagine a training module built this way. How easy it would be for a lower-educated Deskless / Frontline / Blue-Collar Worker to consume.

Thank you, ArcLab customers!

ArcLab exists because of of forward-thinking customer organisations who trust us these past 3 years to upskill their workforces. Through contextual, continuous and calibrated training in-the-flow-of-work, they nurture well-trained workers who are more productive for their businesses.

This is especially important as costs rise in our new higher-inflation economy. For businesses to be viable, new technologies, processes and business models need to be put in place. All these require effective training – so staff know what to do, and how to do it better for the business.

ArcLab’s data from serving our customers show higher productivity though better-trained workers means better bottom-line for the business. This hopefully means firms can now justifiably pay higher salaries to workers who have contributed more to the business. This is important for the lower-wage workers – where higher costs can very well mean meals skipped, pulling a kid out of school, or worse. 

Looking at this another way – wages have in fact risen due to market forces, especially in labour-constrained economies. Companies who invest in staff training create more productive workforces, meaning getting more bang for their buck for every dollar in wage paid.

Still Day 1 of ArcLab's journey to Upskill the World's Deskless Workforce

I remember ArcLab’s earliest days, from our first POC (built in 6 weeks) to the platform’s commercial launch and our first customer The Hour Glass in late-2019.

The early ArcLab platform was fuss-free and no-frills – with a single-minded purpose to solve organisations’ needs in onboarding, L&D and HR (e.g. Appraisals & Pulse Surveys). 

Along the way, we take in feedback from customers and users, and keep improving the platform, yet retaining our fuss-free and no-frills design pillar. I’ve kept snapshots of our platform through its different development stages. It was a nice trip down memory lane putting them together for this blog post.

Here’s how we’ve been improving ArcLab these past 3 years:

1 ArcLab POC of the world's simplest training system
2 Create training with 1 single click
3 ArcLab's 1st menu had 5 screens
4 ArcLab MVP - we added training templates
5 We also added automated reporting
6 ArcLab Pro's launch retained our clean, fuss-free splash
7 ArcLab Pro introduces a more organised and full-featured dashboard
8 Adding detailed learner analytics for greater insight
9 And the ability to award NanoCreds (digital badges)
10 We launched ArcLab Discover - a free library of templates for onboarding, L&D and HR
11 ArcLab Geofencing lets organisations protect sensitve content
12 Beefed-up Learner Analytics gives actionable insights, displayed as a HUD
13 SmartTranslate lets organisations create training for non-English speakers
14 Our new Learner Management System improves managers workflow, and we're still working on much more
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We’ve grown a fair bit since those early days, and are glad to have the opportunity to now serve customers in Singapore and in Southeast Asia – in industries ranging from Food Services & Manufacturing, Construction, Non-Profit, Retail and others, in areas like customer service training, workplace health & safety training, onboarding and induction programmes, and many more. 

Thank you to all our customers for trusting us to onboard and train your workers.

Thank you too, Bisk Ventures, Tinkertanker & EduSpaze for backing our work from the earliest days.

We remain at #Day1 in our journey to Upskill the World’s Deskless Workforce.

Create Effective Training today
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F&B Leaders’ Dinner in Kuala Lumpur

ArcLab StaffAny F&B Leaders' Dinner KL

In August, ArcLab had the opportunity to be back in Malaysia – following from our previous trip in March. On both our trips, we had the chance to meet with leaders of F&B businesses – some of whom ArcLab is already serving, and others who were keen to find out how to enhance their workforce productivity.

Building ArcLab, we adopted a beyond-Singapore mindset from the get-go. Firstly, Singapore is small as a market, and the workforce is also largely white-collar office workers. ArcLab is built to be the go-to training tool for the Deskless Workforce, so it was only natural for us to think regional and global from our earliest days.

 

Starting with the problem, we looked at some training pain points that market solutions weren’t solving well: 

1. Off-the-shelf Training content wasn’t suited to individual businesses

2. Deskless workers weren’t necessarily proficient in English, which is what most training content was created in.

3. Businesses often do not have the time nor resources to conduct these training sessions, which took employees off the shopfloor, resulting in lost production time.

4. Consistent, uniform training was difficult to do across multiple locations – as much training is person-dependent.

 

Since most companies possessed deep knowledge of the work that they needed their workers to be able to perform, companies themselves should be the best at upskilling their own workers, be it training F&B staff, or training construction workers.

We were also laser-focussed at ensuring simplicity and ease of use as we built ArcLab. And this became the platform:

The platform is infinitely scalable, as training is created by individual companies for their respective workforces. 

ArcLab makes it easy for a HR / L&D / Operations / Workplace Safety & Health professional to create a set of bite-sized training modules for the organisation, designate learners to receive the training, distribute via SMS or email, and track learning & performance via the ArcLab Learner Analytics dashboard. Follow-ups & interventions can then be planned as needed, for workers who need it most. And if inspiration is needed for training content, ArcLab Discover’s library of 70+ (and growing) training templates is a great resource.

Conducting training this way ensures conveying a uniform training experience to every worker – in the flow of work. This helps businesses to reduce time and cost needed for training – effectively, it funds free headcount for the business, through the resource savings and productivity gains.

Having served many Singapore companies since we launched in late-2019, we’re glad to now also serve Malaysian businesses and help you create a more productive & profitable organisation. 

Interested to find out more? Join our LinkedIn community and download your free e-book!

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The BEST Way To Train F&B Staff

The face of your F&B business

One of the most important factors that makes or breaks a business in the F&B industry is its staff, as they have the most interaction with customers. To maintain a good reputation and build rapport with your customers, your business has to ensure that all staff are well-trained, be it front-of-house or back-of-house staff. Every restaurant’s goal is to provide customers with excellent service and meal. To give your customers the best dining experience you can, these are some of the basic F&B staff training points:

  • Meeting Safety & Health requirements
  • Quick service to reduce customer waiting time
  • Familiarity with company and its products
  • Effective communication with confidence
  • Body language for customer service
  • Understanding of company’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Training your F&B staff

Training F&B staff can be tedious and laborious, especially with so many rules, including those listed above. With company rules, guidelines, as well as SOPs, thick binders and 100-slide powerpoints have been the most common method of training for a long time. It’s time for change.

MOBILE Training your F&B staff

Mobile Training

Mobile training is a method of training in the flow of work for your F&B staff, which digitalises training documents into small, bite-sized modules for better understanding and more effective learning. Most studies have shown that the  maximum attention span of an average adult is 20 minutes. 

Thick binders and long hours of training will limit the amount of information absorbed by the employee, hence multiple short training modules will allow training to increase in effectiveness.

ArcLab

ArcLab has built the World’s Simplest Training System to help your restaurant create, deliver and track training all at once.  Digitalised SOPs and training materials can be sent out to your employees with a simple click. With ArcLab, training modules become interactive and engaging with options to embed visuals, as well as create short quizzes to facilitate your staff’s learning. Try it for yourself via this embedded module.

ArcLab's F&B case study (4Fingers)

4Fingers is a Singapore-born restaurant chain specialising in crispy Asian-styled fried chicken, with over 60 outlets across Asia.

Before adopting ArcLab, 4Fingers‘ operational manuals and SOPs were documented in binders kept in each outlet. Updating new content was laborious and costly across the different outlets and countries. Longer training time was required due to limited resources at each outlet. Workers also had to review lengthy texts in the binders to find specific information.

ArcLab's solution to F&B training

With ArcLab, 4Fingers’ staff now have access to the operational manuals and SOPs on their mobile devices, enabling training to take place anytime, anywhere. The static hard-copy binders are also replaced with more engaging and effective learning modules filled with visuals and activities. For training managers, updating content becomes much faster as ArcLab supports real-time editing of all information stored in the digital SOPs.

Results have shown:

  • 4Fingers’ HR and field training team achieved up to 27 hours time savings per staff per month.
  • Staff reduce time away from kitchens or cash counters, increasing productive time
  • Trainers save time by being able to distribute training modules remotely to staff mobile devices. For additional security, proprietary training materials are geofenced for access only at outlets.

Start your F&B mobile training journey with ArcLab today!

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The Best Digital Workforce Training Platforms

As our economy advances, businesses need to continuously innovate to better serve customers and stay relevant. Digitalisation is often a key enabler to improve business processes – even if the business continues to be labour-intensive and high-high, like in Food Services.

Yet even as businesses digitally transform, a trained workforce is still the pre-requisite – so staff know how to better make use of the new technology and processes – to increase the productivity (and profitability) of the business. That’s where an efficient training system is necessary – to continuously upskill workers in the flow of work, especially as knowledge cycles shorten.

While there are many Learning Management Systems (“LMS”) in the market like Canvas, Blackboard, D2L and Moodle, most of these are built for schools and Institutes of Higher Learning (“IHLs”) – designed to serve thousands of students studying together in an academic campus. 

Are there digital training platforms that are more suited for companies, especially Small & Medium Businesses (“SMB / SME”)? 

Let’s look at a few (in alphabetical order):

ArcLab

ArcLab is designed for Deskless Workforces who are usually not seated in an office or have a workstation / computer. 

ArcLab is a mobile learning platform that empowers organisations’ HR and L&D managers to easily create, distribute and track training – delivered via email or SMS direct to employees’ mobile phones (and computer browsers) – all without an app. Anytime, anywhere, any language.

Some important aspects of ArcLab:

1. Fuss-free authoring – ArcLab’s module builder has a WYSIWYG (“What you see is what you get”) user interface that Microsoft PowerPoint & Google Slides users will be familiar with, making the learning curve pretty flat. L&D managers can directly embed rich media and add assessment screens as needed, without coding or complicated UX.

2. Multi-lingual modules – ArcLab’s SmartTranslate is an AI-assisted translation feature that empowers creation of modules in multiple languages with just 1 button click. It’s built directly into the ArcLab builder so you don’t need to toggle back-and-forth with your translation app. Learners choose in their first screen which language they are most comfortable with to consume your training. This is an important feature if your learners’ education level or command or language is not high.

Here’s what ArcLab’s customers have to say.

ArcLab is based out of Singapore, featured in Holon IQ’s Southeast Ed Tech 50 for 3 years in a row, and in the GSV Elite 200 – GSV Ventures’ global list of the top early-stage edtech startups.

EdApp

EdApp is a mobile LMS that aims to change how the world learns at work. 

EdApp’s thesis is that younger employees’ increasing share of the workforce means establishing agile learning & development. EdApp believes their platform can help companies establish a constantly-improving work culture.

EdApp’s platform includes:

1. Learner Platform – where learners are welcome by a modern learning experience with gamification & real rewards.

2. Administration Tools – giving organisations full control and flexibility to manage and deliver content.

3. Editable Course Library – EdApp’s free library of (editable) courseware designed by global thought leaders and leading industry experts.

4. Authoring Tool – where course managers can design microlessons for learners – no coding required.

EdApp has offices in Australia, the US and the UK.

eduMe

eduMe is a mobile training platform that helps companies to onboard and train deskless workforces, within organisations’ existing technology stacks.

eduMe’s advertised value proposition is to empower organisations’ new joiners to become productive in less time, increase the quality of work and set a base for future performance improvements.

eduMe’s features include:

1. Assessments – for L&D teams to monitor, test and ensure workforce quality

2. Engagement – to give organisations’ workforces a voice and to gather insight

3. Integrations – Embedding training into existing workflows for seamless learning

eduMe encourages businesses to include L&D into organisational initiatives because 84% of workers feel disconnected from their companies (the cost of disengaged workers can be $3.4k for every $10k of salary). Thus, equipping frontline workers with technology is the key to organisations’ success.

eduMe has offices in the UK and the US.

Gnowbe

Gnowbe is a microlearning platform, created to empower content creators, thought leaders and trainers from organisations to build experiential, participatory learning on mobile.

Gnowbe’s platform enables curators to:

1. Create – either using one of their editable templates, or to create a program from scratch

2. Share  – preview, publish and share programmes with groups of learners

3. Analyze – gain insight into learners’ performance and progress through the Gnowbe Dashboard.

Gnowbe’s speciality is in mobile-first, group-based experiences, to make it easy for users to learn on-the-go on any device. Gnowbe also has a Learning Library of courses that individual learners can purchase for individual upskilling.

Gnowbe is based in Singapore and the US.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a digital quiz engine. The platform has engaging visual interface, and is presented as a “game” where learners answer on their own, or compete by answering questions within a shared session. It is accessible via smartphones as an app, or on computer browsers.

Kahoot! is not designed for the workplace specifically and not particularly as a learning app since knowledge cannot usually be conveyed via the modules. (n/b see this Kahoot! vs ArcLab comparison that one of our users built).

However, Kahoot! is useful to test knowledge that had been taught through other means and its free version has seen widespread adoption in schools (especially for young students) and in-person events – primarily for audience engagement and its gamified experience (countdown timers, scoring etc.). Kahoot!’s recognisable earworm “soundtrack” also helps in its popularity. Kahoot! has also been expanding their family of learning apps through acquisitions.

Kahoot! was founded in Norway in 2012.

TalentCards

TalentCards is a mobile learning product from TalentLMS’s suite of e-learning solutions. It’s a standalone mobile training platform hived off from their LMS solution to work towards addressing deskless workers’ training needs.

TalentCards helps organisations to bring training to frontline workers instead of pulling them away from their jobs for training. Their digital learning format is known as “cards”, which can be implemented in 3 steps:

1. Create card sets with training material

2. Add users to the platform and invite them to download the TalentCards app

3. Share card sets to be accessed from learners’ smartphones.

Any user can also type in a code to join the company portal and access training, available in over 13 languages.

TalentCards is based in Greece and the US.

In Conclusion

There’s no one single best Digital Training platform that fits every business, since no two organisations are the same. We’ve listed the key features of the platforms above so you can consider which could meet your organisation’s needs.

If you employ a Deskless Workforce, e.g. in Food Services, Construction or Retail – it may be ideal to consider a mobile learning system like ArcLab. 

This ensures that you work with your staffs’ already-existing devices (their phones), helps you deliver training in the flow of work – and equip them with the skills to help you build a productive and profitable business.

Let’s start investing in our people today!

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How can F&B outlets attract new hires & retain existing staff?

COVID-19 Safe Management restrictions have eased with countries adopting a COVID-endemic policy stance. Food establishments have fully opened up as a result. Many countries have also begun accepting travellers and the flight prices have increased considerably as the demand for flight tickets continually increases. Adding on to the holiday seasons that families were unable to travel these past few years, “revenge travel” has been taking place in the recent months. Families are now planning their year-end travel and it is essential for businesses, the F&B establishments, retail outlets, hotels and resorts etc., to prepare themselves for the visitors coming for vacation. 

In Malaysia alone, thousands of food establishments exist. In malls, hotels, wherever you go, there is always an extensive ray of food, drinks and desserts you can choose from. Besides the well-loved eating haunts in Penang, Malacca, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, there are also famous food chain establishments you may have heard of in Malaysia, including Secret Recipe, Pelita Nasi Kandar, PappaRich, Old Town White Coffee, Sushi King, Manhattan Fish Market and many more!

Many establishments have difficulty finding & maintaining hires

With these establishments running, job opportunities open, but why is it that many of these places have a hard time attracting new hires or retaining their existing staff? This is a common problem faced by countries around the world and unfortunately, restaurants are known to have a high turnover rate.

How can you fix this problem and work towards attracting new hires as well as retaining the existing ones in your F&B outlets? 

What are the reasons for people leaving the F&B industry?

Some of the reasons for the high turnover includes:

1. Hires appear to be short-term staff made up of students

Jobs in food establishments are one form of job that never runs out. There is always a need for staff waiting at tables, managing the cashier, chefs, washers, cleaners and so on. Even for outlets that do not have dine-in options, they still require food packers to help pack the food that has been ordered.

These jobs are typically jobs that do not require prior experience nor higher education to be qualified. Hence, many students go to food establishments to earn extra income during their holidays. These students come with the intention of having short term work and thus, contributes to the high turnover.

2. Possible mistreatment of workers

Mistreatment of staff is another factor to consider. Many establishments condone the behaviour of managers who speak harshly towards their staff or treat them with little respect when in fact, every worker deserves to be treated as an equal. In some cases, workers are not given the break they deserve or are spoken down to. 

This is a problem that can easily get out of hand when customers see it before their very eyes or hear of it through social media. Businesses should rectify these issues if they exist to avoid the situation where one rotten apple spoils the barrel. 

Professional work ethic courses should be reintroduced to employees at least once every 3-4 months to ensure that every staff member is aware and reminded of the proper behaviour they should put on at work. 

Some might disagree but customers who treat staff with no respect should also be dealt with accordingly. Gone are the days where customers are kings. We now work and walk towards treating everyone with the respect that they deserve as humans.

3. Improper management

Image is a crucial aspect to maintain when it comes to restaurants, cafes and any establishments out there as people are continuously forming new perceptions of what they see by seconds. 

As a customer or staff, improper management can cause people to avoid coming to such places. A messy and unmanaged establishment causes unrest and people will start forming negative associations with the business. 

In order to maintain and build positive imagery in customers and staff, businesses have to ensure company policies, SOPs and the systems of their F&B outlets, are properly delivered and understood by existing staff and new hires. That way, instructions to follow are clear and staff can carry their duties out competently, leading to happy customers. A place with good management will eventually lead to higher reviews.

4. Unprepared for task

Feelings of unpreparedness do not only exist in potential hires but also in existing staff. Research on Malaysians showed that many feel that businesses and organisations are not providing proper or enough training prior to the commencement of jobs. 

As a result, potential hires are hesitant to apply when they feel unqualified for the job they are about to take on. Sometimes, these hires are also taken aback as they are not prepared beforehand to face difficult customers, handle peak periods and all the challenging scenarios they may encounter when carrying out their job.

The workload of F&B workers is more than what meets the eye and hires are not aware of the actual load that they will be carrying. By conducting training beforehand, teaching on basic things such as the right body language to have when dealing with customers, getting out and manoeuvring around the difficult scenarios they may find themselves in, are simple things that could change the rate at which your staff is leaving. Here is an example of how you can deliver training for handling difficult customers.

What can you do to attract new hires and retain the existing ones?

  1. Provide training, learning & development and upskilling opportunities. A job is much more appealing to potential hires when there are skills and certifications they can pick up whilst working with the business. For existing hires, upskilling opportunities are attractive as they can grow and upgrade themselves while still on the job.

    Upskilling is also very important for the older workers     who work in the F&B industry as they can learn to keep up with new systems, digital trends and operate new machinery without being overruled by the new generation and losing their jobs. Not to forget mentioning, it is much easier and time saving for businesses to upskill their existing workers rather than spending lots of time searching for new ones.

  2. Onboarding and training has to keep up with the trend as well. The new generation prefers if training is made accessible through online means and much better if accessible through mobile phones. ArcLab’s solution of delivering training modules through SMS and links is a great way to integrate online training which appeals to younger hires while making it easy for the older generation to navigate and access training content.

     

  3. Go for micro-learning instead of traditional training. Micro learning or in other words, Nano learning, packages training content into small, bite-sized materials, making it easier for people to go through and retain the information learnt. In ArcLab’s modules, we help businesses move their physical training content to small, bite-sized content to the ArcLab platform and transform old boring training to fun and engaging sessions through the use of quizzes, open-ended questions and word unscramble functions.

     

    Businesses in Malaysia can now attract new hires and retain existing employees easily with ArcLab just like 4Fingers, Ahh-Yum by Kampong Kravers & more. ArcLab solution is a cost and time saving solution allowing fellow businesses to deliver training easily without needing plenty of resources. By saving on training, you can now afford to offer higher wages, making it more appealing to work with your business. 

Read More In Our Free E-Book

Photo by Jeremy Tan, Jay Wennington & Ravin Rau on Unsplash

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How Mobile Training Benefits Non-Profit Organisations

The Non-Profit Sector

Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs or Non-Profits) are organisations that are driven by dedication to a specific cause instead of profit, such as giving back to the society through food or donations etc. Hence, NPOs often receive tax-exempt status from their governments. 

Here are some examples of NPOs in Singapore:

  • Montfort Care was founded in 2000. They provide family services, child protection service as well as cyber wellness and cyber care programmes for the youth and elderly. Their mission is to improve the lives of individuals, families and the community facing transitional changes.
  • Rainbow Centre is a registered charity and Institution of Public Character founded in 1987. Rainbow Centre serves persons with disabilities (PWDs) by providing practical education, meaningful support and effective training. Through their programmes, Rainbow Centre creates opportunities for PWDs to make the most of their abilities and participate meaningfully in society.
  • Care Corner is a NPO founded in 1981, that provides services for families, children, youths, seniors as well as mental health and wellness. Their mission to build hope and promote the well-being of individuals, as well as families in community through social and healthcare services.

Why Mobile Training for Non-Profits?

With good samaritans from all backgrounds and walks of life coming in to volunteer each day, providing them with standardised and timely training can be challenging. Even simple training sessions on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can take up to hours when having to conduct it multiple times in different languages. This is where ArcLab comes in.

Digitalise

ArcLab is a mobile training platform that enables you to digitalise your SOPs into bite-sized mobile learning modules. You can easily supplement your modules with interactive and engaging visuals and quizzes to help facilitate effective learning for your volunteers. Try it for yourself!

Mobile training enables your volunteers to undergo training on-the-go and at their own time. This helps to save training time and increase the organisation’s productivity.

SmartTranslate

ArcLab’s SmartTranslate empowers your learners to learn in their preferred language. This helps to save time as training or briefings do not have to be repeated in different languages.

Our modules are designed to be interactive and engaging with visuals and short quizzes to help facilitate effective learning of your volunteers. Try it for yourself!

Just-In-Time Training

ArcLab supports the delivery of Just-In-Time training to ensure all staff and volunteers are equipped with the relevant knowledge about the programmes prior. It also helps keep information fresh in the minds of the volunteers since the bite-sized training can be completed right before commencement of the programmes. Easily prepare your staff for events and activities through simple ArcLab modules.

How Montfort Care benefits from ArcLab

Montfort Care is a network of programmes committed to improving the lives of individuals, families and the community facing transitional changes. 

  • Previously, before using ArcLab, new hires had to sit through a full day of live 100-slides onboarding presentation on their first day, by various departments (such as HR, Finance & IT). For them, this method of staff induction was time-consuming and inefficient for both existing staff, as well as new hires. The process was also ineffective due to the information overload. 
  • Hence, Montfort Care digitalised their onboarding deck into a series of bite-sized ArcLab modules that are delivered straight to the staff’s mobile devices. This enables them to learn at their own time and pace, as well as refer to materials on-demand. At the same time, representatives from different departments no longer have to be physically present to conduct the onboarding presentation. The onboarding modules also included interactive quizzes which are embedded in the modules to engage and facilitate learning.
  • Montfort Care also embedded virtual office/office tour videos into their onboarding modules for new hires that were not able to physically visit any of their centres (primarily due to Covid Safe Management Measures). This allowed those new hires to experience the office/centres virtually through ArcLab modules.
  • Last but not least, ArcLab is also being used to supplement a “Montfort Care Amazing Race”, which is part of their new joiner orientation programme. Some of their modules will provide participants with clues, as well as details and descriptions of the location of certain centres that they will be visiting that day. Similarly, a virtual tour video is also embedded for participants to take a sneak peek before actually visiting the location.

ArcLab supports Non-Profit Organisations' noble missions with preferential pricing

What are you waiting for? Connect with us and start using mobile training for your organisation today!

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How to Plan Effective Mobile Training for Construction Safety

Construction Safety

Worker safety is of utmost importance in the construction industry as having higher accident rates may break your firm’s reputation. Construction work is laborious and physically draining, however nobody’s life should be compromised. To ensure a safe working environment, your workforce should always be practising the relevant safety procedures and taking proper safety measures. Hence, regular training should be provided for many reasons, such as:  

How to create an effective training plan

1. Defining needs and objectives

A clear understanding of your agenda makes the planning easier as the purpose of training will become apparent. Identifying accident-prone situations or hazardous equipment will help ensure that the training will cover safety measures relevant to the site.

2. Do research

After Step 1, do the research to make sure your safety tips are relevant. Go through the entire plan and curate the safety procedures in every step of the construction process. Compile all the useful information before moving on to Step 3, the final step.

3. Design and present

With all your relevant information from Step 2, it’s time to put together your very own safety training module. Design your training to suit your workers and keep it interactive as engaging training may help your staff retain the information easier. Keep the training simple as most of your construction workers may not be as well-educated. Know your workers well, so you can train them effectively.

Tired of using 100-slide PowerPoints or 100-page binders and documents? Take your workers’ training online with ArcLab. 

Why ArcLab benefits for construction firms?

Designing a simple, yet interactive and engaging training module doesn’t have to be difficult. ArcLab is building the World’s Simplest Training System to help businesses easily create, distribute and track training. With ArcLab, customization is limitless, from ready-made templates to designing your very own modules from scratch. Visit ArcLab Discover, our platform where we collect and display templates created by our builders from all over the world.

With our ArcLab Discover feature, your safety training modules can be translated with just a click and your workers will be able to select their preferred language before they commence training. This will take away the tedious procedure of having different trainers go down to the same site to conduct training in different languages. Such benefits are only possible with mobile training. Prioritise worker safety with ArcLab’s quick and easy training modules. Try it for yourself on the right.

ArcLab modules are created to be simple, yet effective and engaging to train many workers at once. Embedded images or videos, and short bite-sized quizzes can also be added to facilitate the training so you don’t have to. With a simple interface for builders, designing a training session has never been easier. Check out the video below to find out more.

Our Customer

In 2022, Woh Hup started using ArcLab to train their workers and ever since, results have been nothing but positive.

Based on the feedback we received, Woh Hup managed to save 47% of their workers’ training time and over 95% of them found ArcLab modules simple and easy to use. Their training departments are also able to save up to 200 hours on training every year.

We want to thank Woh Hup for treating worker safety seriously and prioritising their Workplace Safety & Health regulations.

If Woh Hup is benefitting from using ArcLab, why aren’t you?

Create Your First Free ArcLab Safety Training Module Today

Connect with ArcLab and begin your workplace safety mobile training journey today

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Problems faced in Construction & How can we improve Workplace Safety?

The Construction industry is one of the economy’s most important industries, as it is the foundation of a country. Jobs in the construction industry not only include construction workers but also, flooring installer, surveyor, brick mason, iron worker, crane operator etc.

However countries like Malaysia have to rely on foreign labour as the construction industry is not seen positively by locals and instead, seen as a very challenging one. The low participation rate from locals has now become a challenge in Malaysia’s construction industry.

Here are some common problems in the construction industry of Malaysia, causing negative perceptions and low participation:

1. Poor working conditions and lack of safety in construction sites

Unfortunately, occupational fatalities and deaths occur in Construction industries in all countries. Death, disability & injuries happen, and instances of injury or disability are just as bad as death. There is no way to properly measure how much is lost when a worker dies or faces disability, but even a fine of thousands of Ringgit on the management will never be able to replace what has been lost. 

For many workers, their job is their only livelihood. Once these workers face disability, they are no longer able to work like they used to, meaning they lose their income for life.

2. Lack of proper skilled labour training programs

Many workers in the Construction industry are unskilled laborers. It is reported that more than 90% of foreign laborers in Malaysia appear to be unskilled workers. Having only the basic knowledge about Construction and not actually knowing the different systems that exist, these workers may have a harder time kicking off in their jobs as they are unsure of how to operate certain things. 

For example, the industrialised building system (IBS) which is a system in Malaysia used in Construction, requires a good amount of knowledge from workers to be executed accurately. 

Unskilled labourers lead to low-quality production, low productivity, delays in projects, and high accident rates. These problems can be solved if workers are properly trained, allowing firms to achieve greater heights of success.

3. Salary

Many people find construction unappealing as on top of the poor working conditions, the pay they receive is not comparable to the amount of effort required as well as the risks workers face. There are also many firms who make use of the high numbers foreign labor as an excuse to provide lower pay, as they know that many of these workers are willing to accept the standard that has been set by these firms.

However, by increasing pay, we can actually increase worker satisfaction which potentially leads to higher productivity and eventually, higher profits for the business. One way to increase pay without using up more money is by saving on training resources. (Continue reading for an elaboration)

All these issues can be easily solved with one solution. Take for example the problem of workplace safety and health.

How can we improve workplace safety and health?

Ensure workers have adequate onboarding prior to starting their jobs. WSH training encompasses many aspects. From ensuring safety on-site, safety equipment checklists, safety with machinery etc., must all be covered in the training programme.

Having stacks of binders or conducting months of training to cover all these topics and having them delivered in the preferred language of construction workers may be impractical as there is a variety of language used by them. ArcLab enables firms to easily translate training content with just a click of a button. The SmarTranslate function has helped companies like Woh Hup prepare their training materials in a number of languages without much hassle. 

Here are other things you can achieve with ArcLab

Other things you can achieve with ArcLab include creating effective training. Training content should be made in bite-sizes to increase learner retention and enable training materials to be accessed whenever it is needed. ArcLab modules are easy to understand and are sent through SMS, making it not complicated for your workers to access.

You can also provide necessary checklists using ArcLab modules to remind workers of the proper attire and safety harnesses they should have on them when working on high floors.

Don’t be hesitant to spend on training and development due to budget or lack of resources. 

ArcLab has helped construction companies like Woh Hup create effective training for their workers, and we welcome Malaysian firms to come onboard. That helps you deliver effective training easily.

Read more on how ArcLab is a cost and time saving solution for Mobile Training

Photo by Mikita Yo on Unsplash, Parth Savani on Unsplash 

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What is Mobile Training? The Benefits & Best Practices of Training in the flow of work

ArcLab Mobile Training

Across the world, 84% of the world’s population owns a smartphone. Mobile phones represent an important part of our modern life, we communicate, access the internet for information, check e-mails, and perform many other important roles with our phones.

For the Deskless workforce, mobile-phone accessibility is also a game-changer. With Mobile Training, they can easily access opportunities to learn and upskill continuously in the flow of their work. As workers’ productivity increases, organisations stand to reap great benefits on the bottom line.

What is Mobile Training

Mobile training refers to training content that is delivered directly to a learner’s mobile device. No printed SOPs checkboxes to tick, hard-copy binders filled with a hundred pages of onboarding to go through, or squeeze in a conference room with hundreds of people for a 3-hour training conference.

Training modules offered through Mobile Training are bite-sized, interactive, and most importantly trackable, so you can measure what matters to further your organisation’s goals.

Benefits of Mobile Training

According to internal research conducted by ArcLab, we see customers such as 4Fingers achieving up to 27 hours of training time savings, per staff per month. Another company – Fei Siong Group, has since achieved 50% time savings and close to 50% increase in productivity, and a 23% decrease in trainers’ manual workload.

This is an achievable goal largely due to our platform features that allow large quantities of information to be condensed into engaging bite-sized NanoLearning materials that make learning quick & fun. The time savings from Mobile Training are beneficial to the bottom line from a business perspective. When staff is well-trained, their productivity increases. All this goes to help employers build a Productive Workforce.

Another benefit of Mobile Training is that it can take place Anytime, Anywhere in Any Language. Our Deskless employees do not have to take precious time away from their job in order to complete their training. Staff are free to complete the training modules at a time and place that best suit their workflow.

3 Best Practices of Mobile Training

Here are some ways to optimise your workforce Mobile training strategy to foster engagement & increase productivity among your deskless workers.

Make it Interactive

Our attention span now averages 8 seconds (for comparison – the attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds). Making learning on the job interactive is not a suggestion, but imperative to engage staff and keep them motivated to learn more and do more.

Ways to make learning on the job fun and interactive are to include pop quizzes throughout the module and to incorporate video into your content.

Make Mobile Training in the Flow of Work

This means having small bursts of information that your employees can complete, and digest easily in 2-3 minutes, and get straight back to work.

Learning and upskilling become a core part of their existing workflow. When Mobile Training becomes an enjoyable experience for your workers, it encourages repeated usage. 

A way to achieve this is to ensure that your training is accessible Anywhere, Any Time, and better yet in Any language tailored to their specific needs. When workers are able to train remotely in their preferred languages, it can help not only increase completion rates, but also provide more value to your business.

ArcLab SmartTranslate

With a click of a button, you can translate an entire module to another language preferred by your workforce.

Measure using Learner Analytics

Measuring performance data ensures that we get the most out of our Mobile Training program. The data can also help guide future mobile training strategy so that it remains effective and impactful for your workforce.

Some key metrics to consider with Mobile Training are the Completion Rates, Training Duration & Performance Scores. These are components that would be effective & relevant in any training program, even more so when it comes to our Deskless workforce who are largely on the go.

That’s why it is essential to create your training module on a platform that allows your HR managers and L&D teams to access relevant data points when needed. ArcLab allows you to access Folder Analytics Dashboard which presents a comprehensive snapshot of all your Learner’s progress & performance.

Looking to incorporate Mobile Training in your Workforce Strategy? Speak with us and let us help you get started!

Or simply start creating your first module!

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Ensuring Construction Worker Safety with Mobile Training

Construction Safety Time-out

Just a week ago, a safety time-out was set in place due to the unexpected rise in worksite fatalities. This situation caused some unrest and caught the eyes of many, including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. PM Lee’s Facebook post reached out to the general public and served as a reminder that we, as a community, should NEVER take construction worker safety for granted. As PM Lee mentioned, “Since the beginning of this year, 20 people have died at work, in accidents of one kind or another — 10 in April alone. This is far too many, and not acceptable.”

Accidents can never be prevented as we are all human and make mistakes. However, every life lost is a life too many. With adequate training and emphasis on safety guidelines, I’m sure the accident rates will go down.

Prioritising Construction Worker Safety

As we sit in the comfort of our homes, offices, or anywhere, let us not forget how all these infrastructure came to be. Be it rain or shine, construction workers put in their blood, sweat and tears to build the Garden City we reside in today. Without them, how much of this will be a reality?

Last week, I wrote about my experience visiting one of Woh Hup’s construction sites and how it influenced my mindset on the current situation. I truly believe that though construction is physically laborious, it should never be dangerous or putting lives at stake. It also states how mobile training can reinforce construction safety training with bite-sized learning modules.

I want to take this opportunity to thank every worker in the construction industry, because without you, there would be no Singapore as prosperous as today’s.

Let us ensure a safe workplace for our construction workers while they part ways with their families to toil for us. Reinforced safety rules and regular risk assessment tests, everyone has a part to play in safety. No one’s safety should ever be compromised at work. We urge all companies to take safety reinforcement seriously. As we are all able to return to our families every day after work, let’s help our construction workers return to theirs too.

Woh Hup's Experience with Mobile Training

Thank you to Woh Hup for hosting our visit to their site. Since using ArcLab, Woh Hup managed to save 47% training time and over 95% of their workers found ArcLab simple and easy to use. Their training departments also managed to save up to 200 hours a year on training.

With ArcLab, safety procedures and guidelines can be conveyed through online learning modules, making training accessible anytime, anywhere. There is no need for a 100-slide Workplace Safety and Health powerpoint. Educate & ensure safety guidelines are met with ArcLab Mobile Training Platform – Anytime, Anywhere in Any Language. 

Connect with ArcLab to start your Construction Safety Mobile Training

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Construction is NOT Dangerous

Workplace Fatalities

Due to the recent spike in workplace fatalities, a safety time-out is taking place in Singapore construction sites for two weeks. If you’ve been catching up with the news, you’d be well aware of the situation right now.

As Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned in a Facebook post, “We have been working hard for years to prevent workplace accidents, especially deaths. We have made good progress. But with our economy reopening and activities ramping up, safety standards and practices seemed to have slipped. Accident rates have gone up, and we have lost ground.

Back to "Normality"

As we Return to Office, or “normality”, workplace safety should never be taken lightly as precautions should always be adhered to. Here are some thoughts:

  • To say I can fully understand workplace danger and fatalities would be a lie since I work in the comfort of a fully air-conditioned and safe office, and sometimes from home (note: construction workers have no option to WFH).
  • However, I was fortunate to have the the opportunity to visit one of Woh Hup‘s construction sites as part of our customer visits. It was a very insightful experience as I was given front row seats to witness how our construction workers toil tirelessly under the hot sun. They do all the hard work for us, building the Singapore we live, work and play in. The visit got me appreciating our construction workers a lot more.
  • Seeing recent news about workplace deaths made me really sad. Our migrant construction workers leave behind kith and kin, coming to Singapore to work for their families with hopes to give them a better life. Sadly, not all are able to return. So even as a 19-year-old young buck, I should cherish life a lot more and do my best to make our workers’ lives safer.

Does construction necessarily mean danger?

PM Lee’s Facebook post highlighted that “We have made good progress.”. Doesn’t this show that workplace fatalities can be reduced?

The first step is to make safety part of COMPANY CULTURE.

Every company must treat safety as a no-compromise must-have. It starts top-down, from the company’s leadership. That our workers’ lives are important, and one death is one death too many.

From culture comes POLICIES & PROCEDURES. Company management must do proper risk-assessments and institute Workplace Safety & Health (“WSH”) frameworks and detailed rules which must be adhered by EVERYONE. Some of which include, not leaving any floor openings unprotected and report to the Safety Personnel immediately to have it covered up, and always ensure that you are equipped with the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when handling chemicals. Simple safety rules are often overlooked and taken for granted, but they are there for a reason (to keep everyone safe). 

Next, TRAINING. Every construction staff and worker must be trained in the basics of safety and what are the DOs and DON’Ts at the worksite.

Creating Effective Construction Safety Training

Construction Safety Training should not be thick binders of rules & policies, or 100-slide powerpoint presentations.

No-one can absorb all that information at one-go. Not a PhD, less likely a lower-educated construction worker whose native language is not even English.

Instead, we should make training materials rich-media focussed and interactive. Like this example:

Special thanks to Woh Hup for hosting our visit to their site, as well as treating Worker Safety seriously. Here are some of the data we received from them after using ArcLab:

  • On average, Woh Hup managed to save 47% training time and  over 95% of their workers found ArcLab modules simple and easy to use.
  • Their training departments are able to save up to 200 hours every year

With ArcLab, safety managers can digitise all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), as well as WSH policies & training materials. 

Create engaging and effective training modules for your staff with images and videos embedded to help facilitate their learning. Interactive quizzes, short-answer or open-ended questions to help ensure your employees understood the module.

For the employers, create one short, bite-sized learning modules to be sent to all your workers. Our SmartTranslate feature allows workers to select their preferred language so safety managers don’t have to create same modules in different languages. Our Learner Management System also helps you keep track of every learner’s progress with a simple dashboard. ArcLab helps move safety training direct to workers’ mobile phones, so safety managers can save time spent on physical training and channel time to higher-productivity tasks.

 

One fatality is one fatality too many. 

Especially in times like now, during this safety time-out, where organisations are revising safety procedures with their staff as well as conducting risk assessments at the same time, this is the best time to use an interactive learning platform like ArcLab to get everyone in the company trained in important WSH training.

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The Ultimate Guide to ArcLab

Ultimate Guide to ArcLab

In this comprehensive guide, you will master every Nanolearning toolset available on the ArcLab platform to easily create, distribute and track training for your Deskless workforce – Anytime, Anywhere, in Any Language. No coding needed, no app to download.

Keep on reading to understand more on Mobile Training & Nanolearning on ArcLab, or jump ahead to the section that interests you most.

Table of Contents

Introduction to ArcLab

What is ArcLab?

ArcLab is a web-based Mobile Learning & Training platform, we empower companies that use our solution to deliver training and digital SOPs to their deskless workforce with the click of a button, saving them valuable time and cost.

Businesses using ArcLab achieve 50% time savings and productivity increase. Businesses are able to gain more from each worker, and grow their bottom line.

For more information on our platform, check out our Knowledge Base.

Why use ArcLab?

ArcLab is the top Nano Learning platform to empower the deskless workforce in various industries including F&B, Retail, Construction, Non-Profits, Logistics and many more. We provide extensive support through content templates, design customisability, and learner analytics to build your productive workforce.

Who uses ArcLab?

ArcLab serves Training Providers, Human Resource, Learning Design & Operations team. Our used cases vary from Digital Onboarding for New Hires, to training in the flow of work and analytics from on-the-job performance support.

Get free onboarding templates here!

Getting started on your ArcLab journey with this 3 mins video:

For more tips on how to use ArcLab to create the best training for your workforce, check out our Academy.

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Return To Office: ‘Water Cooler Moments’

Lunch & Learn with 4Fingers delights!

2 years after COVID-19 became part of our lexicon – there’re good signs that we’ve moved back (almost) to life as we used to know it. Life B.C. (Before COVID).

COVID-19 & Work from Home

The COVID-19 pandemic changed our workplaces. Lockdowns (Referred to as Circuit Breakers or Movement Control Orders in some countries) meant Work-From-Home (”WFH”) became a default for many of us who used to work in offices. Even post-lockdowns, COVID-19 restrictions kept some of us working from home.

WFH gave us flexibility and bought us time. Among other things:

  • We no longer needed to brave the morning and evening commute; we could in fact put that time saved into a more efficient workday, and see our loved ones who lived in our homes a lot more (while they also busied with their lives).
  • We no longer needed to “beat the office lunch crowd”. In fact, we could prepare our own (healthier?) meals. Many of us started exercising more too.
  • We could still collaborate with our teammates, almost as efficiently as before – with Zooms, Slacks, Teams, Meets – whatever platform our organisations used. Digital adoption became mainstream, and scanning QR codes became 2nd nature. ArcLab ourselves had the opportunity to serve a lot more organisations to onboard, train & understand their workforces.

Yet there were also drawbacks:

 

  • Zoom fatigue replaced commute fatigue. While a decent substitute for in-person meetings, it was not perfect. There was only so much one could bear staring into a screen.
  • The boundaries between Work and Personal Life are blurred. Some of us ended up working a lot more because there was no longer that office commute to put a natural ‘break’ to the workday. Travelling time saved ended up being ploughed into more back-to-back meetings (not all of which were productive or necessary).
  • Too much overlapping time at home could create tension. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when schools reopened and welcomed our children back to the classroom. Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Return to Office

With COVID restrictions gradually lifted in the past year and a half, employers in Singapore and all over the world had to decide whether / when / how much to have teams return to the office

While there’s never a perfect system, we think the office does have its place. Most of us are in fact glad to spend some time in the office with our co-workers. We might not miss the commute, but we miss the discussions and brainstorming that we could do with our teammates in the office. No amount of Zooms or Slacks can replace this.

Each of our organisations will have to make our own decisions.

At ArcLab, here’s how we think about WFH vs Return To Office (”RTO”):

  1. We’re an output-driven company – so we don’t police time spent at the desk. If we can finish the work we’d set out to do for the day in 6 hours instead of 8, all power to us. Take that last 2 hours to work on a personal project, or prepare dinner for the family.
  2. We believe in personal integrity & pride – As a software firm, our team members can work from anywhere. So for personal tasks and independent work, we don’t need our team to Return to Office. WFH (or Work from Anywhere) is perfectly fine. This includes every member of our team taking turns to man our User Support Chat (that blue bubble at the bottom of your screen) – so everyone talks to the customer. Obviously, we don’t need to RTO for that. And Point (1) above continues to apply.
  3. We believe in “water-cooler moments”. In spite of Points 1 & 2, much magic can happen when people get together. As we execute our development roadmap to keep building out ArcLab, there are times that we need to brainstorm and think together as a team. Slack message threads can get inexorably long & inefficient, and Zoom Whiteboards just can’t bring out that ‘spark’ moment that can take place when everyone gathers around a physical whiteboard with post-its.

Eventually, after some iteration – we decided as a team to have 20-30% of the time each month be spent in the office, together.

So we now have a hybrid work model – we meet once a week in the office, spending the day working on common problems together, or just working in the same place. In that way, we create opportunities for banter, “water-cooler” conversations (OK, so we don’t actually have a water-cooler), and out of these – sometimes magic happens. We can’t mandate these situations, but we can create the environment for it.

We also have a monthly Lunch-and-Learn – where different team members take turns to share a topic of their choosing – be it their current project, something they learnt, their hobby, anything at all. The firm buys lunch (always from one of ArcLab’s F&B customers 😊 ), and we get to spend time together as a team and learn from one another.

So far, we find this flexible work arrangement a good balance. If the situation evolves, we’d adapt as a firm. That’s what we’d all do.

Now, regardless of whether you’re an employer or an employee, it’s not us vs them.

We all need one another.

The market may be in the employee’s favour today, but I’ve worked long enough to know that the economy moves in cycles. There’ll come a day when there are more workers than jobs available. So always conduct ourselves reasonably.

To Conclude RTO vs WFH - Remembering our Deskless Workforce

Now even as we contemplate RTO for our businesses, let’s remember the workers around us where WFH was NEVER an option – the baristas who make your coffee, the servers who serve your meals, the construction workers who build your homes. And many more.

For these – our Deskless Workers – their jobs are time-specific and location-specific. All these discussions of RTO or WFH are irrelevant to them.

For our Deskless Workforce – work continues, often ignored by the majority of society. Yet, we’d come to realise the crucial role that they play in our economies. On average, they earn lower salaries, because they are often lower-educated, and are less highly skilled (at least in the skills that command high pay). Businesses find it hard to pay them more because their productivity is so low.

This is a vicious cycle that we as an economy and society must break. This is the problem that ArcLab is solving.

Watch:

At ArcLab – we’re building the World’s Simplest Training System – empowering businesses to easily create, distribute and track training for deskless workers.

Training that can be consumed by workers in the Flow of Work. 

Anytime, anywhere, in any language.

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How your untrained staff can get your business into the news for free

Last week, Singapore online publication Mothership published an article of a TikTok user’s video. This video narrated untruths about a woman calling out the user’s parent for opening a sealed bottle of Vicks VapoRub ointment at an NTUC Fairprice outlet without intention to purchase it.

Mothership published the article without fact-checks with the Fairprice outlet in question nor the woman being maligned. We’ll not include the article link here because I don’t want to send more undeserved traffic to a click-bait-y site whose staff did not even follow the basics of Journalism 101 (fact-checking & getting all sides of the story).

Point to note: many online comments supported the woman who was maligned. After all, who wants to purchase an item previously opened by another? For what it’s worth, the TikTok user’s account is no longer active, and the video is no longer available. I am not sure why but perhaps the person realised his plan for online sympathy did not get any. The public can be very discerning when it comes to online bullying.

Mothership eventually apologised to the woman and attempted to salvage the situation by publishing a follow-on article: “The woman’s side to the story”. We’ll leave it at that.

Lessons we could learn: NTUC Fairprice

An NTUC Fairprice staff had seen the perp open the Vicks VapoRub ointment and then put it back on the shelf. However, said staff did not approach the perp on-the-spot to ask if he was intending to buy the item. Instead, the perp was given time and space to shat at the woman, and generally be unreasonable.

Besides the negative publicity, this incident ended up hurting the business’ bottom-line. Let’s unpack it:

Goods are displayed on shelves for shoppers to browse. But opening sealed bottles of goods are definitely a no-no. Opened goods cannot in good conscience be sold to another shopper. So this tainted item now has to be discarded. This means waste (so much for sustainability) and adds to business costs which inevitably has to be pass one – certainly no help for consumers with inflation at multi-year highs today.

What can NTUC Fairprice do? Put in place a comprehensive training programme.

Well-trained staff would be made to understand that shoppers who open sealed goods hurts bottomline (which fund salaries!) and create a worse shopping experience for other shoppers.

It’s also important to train staff how to deal with difficult customers. These always exist. Effective mediation techniques can go a long way to keeping situations calm, and make sure things do not go out of hand. It is the business’ responsibility to equip staff with this training.

Remix this template for your Customer Service Training | Source: ArcLab Discover 

With NTUC Fairprice’s workforce on the shopfloor, it is tough to be able to schedule time away from work to attend training. Here’s where a mobile learning solution like ArcLab can empower organisations like Fairprice to upskill staff in the flow of work.

I like shopping for groceries at NTUC Fairprice. Most of their staff in our neighbourhood outlet are good folks whom we’ve gotten to know in our years living in our neighbourhood. Many of them are great ambassadors for NTUC Fairprice – knowledgeable, efficient, friendly to customers.

I hope NTUC Fairprice can take my suggestion to upskill their workforce so the minority of staff can be just like the rest I described above.

Lessons we could learn: Mothership

Let’s talk briefly about Mothership, whose press accreditation was suspended after they broke a press embargo by publishing market-sensitive information on the Goods & Services Tax increase earlier-than-permitted.

Mothership’s boo-boos may be symptomatic of a less-than-adequate staff onboarding & training programme.

Here’s where a good Standard Operating Procedures (“SOP”) framework could be useful for Mothership to ensure that staff are trained adequately, can refer to said SOPs as-and-when needed, and generally remain onside when discharging their journalistic duties.

Given Mothership’s digital operations, a Digital SOP Solution (ArcLab modules can be created for this too) is probably best for the organisation and staff.

I hope Mothership can step up. Some of their articles can be genuinely quite entertaining.

In Conclusion

Today, businesses’ operating environment are fundamentally changed. Technology in one form or another is needed to keep our businesses relevant in the Digital Age.

Technology is a tool. Tech needs talent to operate and utilise it, to further the organisations’ goals. Talent that is trained continuously and effectively. This is true whether you are a digital media agency or a supermarket. Or any business for that matter.

As we transform our businesses for the Digital Economy, the foundation for all innovation is ALWAYS a well-trained workforce.

Let’s Upskill our Workforces today. Anytime, anywhere, any language.

Top Picture credits: Andre Hunter on Unsplash

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Melabur Untuk Perkembangan Perniagaan

Masa hadapan perkembangan & produktiviti

Masa hadapan perkembangan & produktiviti dalam perniagaan sudah mula bertukar dan para perniagaan akan ketinggalan sekiranya tidak mengikuti perkembangan ini. 

Masa hadapan yang sedang dibicarakan disini merujuk kepada pelaburan para perniaga dalam perkara yang tidak ketara seperti latihan pekerja, pengurusan bakat pekerja mahupun penyelidikan pasaran dalam setiap industri. 

Ada peningkatan dalam kesedaran orang atas kepentingan melabur dalam perkara yang tidak ketara dalam bidang kewangan dan juga industri manufaktur, f&b, runcit dan setiap perniagaan yang mempunyai pekerja kolar biru. Tidak seperti dahulu dimana industri-industri akan lebih fokus dalam pembelian peralatan, bangunan dan sebagainya.

Covid-19 menyebabkan lebih perniagaan mengenali kepentingan untuk melabur dalam perkara yang telah disebutkan oleh kerana melabur dalam penggunaan platform digital, kemahiran pekerja dan penyelidikan pasaran adalah faktor-faktor yang telah menolong perniagaan mereka kekal semasa Covid-19.

Sebagai contoh, industri F&B melabur dalam melatih pekerja mereka untuk mempelajari cara mengambil pesanan melalui platform talian semasa pandemik berlaku. 

Mengapakah perniagaan-perniagaan sedang menuju ke arah ini?

Pelaburan dalam perkara tidak ketara telah dibuktikan menolong perniagaan berkembang dan meningkatkan produktiviti perniagaan. Ini membolehkan para perniagaan mencapai kejayaan lebih tinggi daripada para pesaing mereka dan juga dapat meningkatkan pendapatan perniagaan mereka. 

Terdapat banyak faedah melabur dalam latihan pekerja. Ini termasuk mengenal potensi terkunci, memajukan kemahiran pekerja dan meningkatkan pengekalan kakitangan. Setiap kakitangan merupakan tulang belakang perniagaan dan ianya penting untuk memastikan mereka tersedia dengan ilmu dan kemahiran yang diperlukan untuk menjalankan tugas mereka dengan cemerlang. 

Anda Boleh Melabur Sambil Menjimat Masa Dan Duit

Sementara melabur dalam perkara yang tidak ketara itu penting, hadir sesuatu sistem yang membolehkan anda latih pekerja baru dan kakitangan anda sambil menjimatkan kos dan masa. 

Sistem itu adalah ArcLab. 

Sistem ArcLab merupakan solusi yang menjimatkan wang dan ianya boleh mengatasi halangan bahasa yang dihadapi ketika sedang melatih pekerja. Ianya juga memastikan kandungan latihan anda konsisten di setiap cawangan perniagaan anda dan membolehkan sumber manusia, para pelatih dan pasukan L&D jejaki kemajuan pembelajaran kakitangan mereka.

Jadi Siapa Yang Menggunakan ArcLab?

ArcLab menolong perniagaan dalam industri makanan dan minuman, runcit, pembinaan, pertubuhan kebajikan sukarela etc, dan sedang mencari untuk membantu lebih perniagaan dengan pekerja kolar biru, latih pekerja mereka. 

Kami bekerja bersama pengurus sumber manusia (HR), pasukan L&D dan jurulatih untuk sampaikan latihan dengan mudah tanpa memerlukan banyak sumber dan masa. Latihan yang boleh dijalankan pada bila-bila masa, di mana-mana dan dalam apa bahasa jua. 

ArcLab memperkenalkan penggunaan modul pembelajaran Nano yang memecahkan kandungan latihan berat kepada saiz kecil untuk meningkatkan kadar pengekalan maklumat dalam fikiran kakitangan anda. Ini akan menolong kakitangan anda tingkatkan hasil kerja mereka.

Kita menolong para pekerja untuk dilatih dengan cepat dan kita menolong para majikan jimat masa latihan.

Bagaimanakah ArcLab digunakan?

Modul ArcLab boleh diubah suai mengikut keperluan anda dan hadnya adalah imaginasi anda. Pasukan L&D Fei Siong Group, sebuah perniagaan dalam industri makanan dan minuman di Singapura, menggunakan modul ArcLab untuk sampaikan latihan yang tepat pada masanya dan konsisten tanpa mengganggu aliran kerja. Modul ArcLab juga disampaikan dalam bahasa ibunda para pekerja. 

Restoran 4Fingers (Singapura & Malaysia) pula menggunakan ArcLab untuk sediakan manual operasi, SOP digital dan latihan mudal alih yang membolehkan pekerja mengaksesnya pada bila-bila masa dan di mana-mana sahaja. Ini mengurangkan masa yang biasanya digunakan untuk membaca manual latihan yang bertimbun dan mengekalkan konsistensi dalam prosedur operasi standard terutamanya untuk pernigaan seperti 4Fingers yang mempunyai banyak cawangan. 

Hasil Mengguna ArcLab

Fei Siong Group telah mencapai sehingga 50% penjimatan dalam masa latihan. 4Fingers (Singapura & Malaysia) telah berjaya menjimatkan 27 jam dalam latihan bagi setiap pekerja setiap bulan. (Isi borang di bawah untuk membaca lebih lanjut dalam eBook kami)

Penggunaan lain untuk ArcLab termasuk latihan digital dan prosedur operasi standard (SOP) untuk industri pembinaan dan industri yang bekerja dari rumah oleh kerana sekatan Covid-19. Kita bekerja bersama Woh Hup, syarikat pembinaan yang mempunyai pekerja yang berbual dalam bahasa ibunda yang berbeza, untuk menyampaikan latihan dalam bahasa yang selesa buat mereka. 

Latih kakitangan anda tentang bahasa badan untuk perkhidmatan pelanggan, kecemerlangan perkhidmatan pelanggan atau gunakan ArcLab untuk meningkatkan kesihatan mental pekerja.

ArcLab boleh membantu para perniagaan mencapai potensi maksimum mereka dan meningkatkan produktiviti sebanyak 50%, sama seperti Fei Siong Group. Perniagaan dalam industri makanan, pelayan di hotel dan restoran, bar, kafe mahupun hospital negara, semuanya kita sambut dengan tangan terbuka.

Pelajari Lebih Dari E-book Percuma Kami

Photo by James Sullivan on Unsplash, Photo by Bimo Luki on Unsplash

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Investing In Intangibles For Growth & Productivity

Businesses are investing more in the intangible

The terms ‘Growth’ & ‘Productivity’ are evolving and there is a new future that businesses have to come onboard with in order to remain relevant in the current market. 

The future of growth and productivity we are talking about refers to investing more into the intangibles of every business such as in staff training, talent management or even market research. This is true for companies in all industries. 

Instead of only spending on the tangibles such as equipment, buildings & machinery, there is an increasing awareness on the importance of investing in intangibles. Businesses from the financial sector to manufacturing, f&b and retail companies, are now moving in this direction. 

Covid-19 has amplified this effect further due to the newfound importance of making use of the intangibles to continue the life of the business. Research, moving the business onto digital platforms, upskilling workers to be digital-savvy and even establishing new channels to make your product or service accessible online, are factors that drove sales for businesses during the pandemic. 

An example of investing in these intangibles in the F&B industry is in training staff to take orders using online platforms during the pandemic.

Why are businesses moving in this direction?

Investment in intangibles have proven to drive productivity and growth for businesses, allowing them to perform better than competitors and increase company revenue. (Read more: How employers can support their Lower Wage Workers)

Benefits of investing more in staff training includes unlocking hidden potentials, developing staff skills, increasing staff retention and hence, lowering turnover rates. As staff are the backbone of every business, it is essential that they are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to carry out their jobs well. 

Whilst investing in the intangibles is the way to go, there is a system that exists out there that makes it possible for you to train your new hires and existing staff effectively while saving time and costs. 

The system is ArcLab.

ArcLab provides a cost-effective solution that could overcome language barriers, ensure there is standardisation in training content across different business outlets and enables HR managers, L&D teams as well as trainers to track their staff’s learning progress.

So who uses ArcLab?

ArcLab is helping companies in sectors such as F&B, Retail, Construction, Voluntary Welfare Organisations etc., and are looking to help more companies with blue-collar workers train their staff. We work with HR managers, L&D teams and trainers to deliver training easily without needing plenty of resources and time. Training that can be done anytime, anywhere and in any language.

ArcLab introduces the use of nano learning modules which break down chunky training content into bite-sized information to improve the retention rate of the information delivered in your staffs’ mind. This results in an improvement in their job performance and satisfaction levels.

We help employees get up to speed quickly and we help employers save precious training time. 

How else do people use ArcLab?

ArcLab modules are flexible in use and the only limit is your imagination. Fei Siong Group’s L&D team implements ArcLab modules to deliver timely and standardised training with minimal disruptions to their workflow and even crafted in employee’s native languages. 

Meanwhile 4Fingers (Singapore & Malaysia) uses ArcLab for operational manuals, SOPs and mobile training which allows employees to access them anytime and anywhere. This reduces the time that is wasted on going through stacks of training manuals and maintains consistency in standard operating procedures especially for businesses with various outlets. 

As a result, Fei Siong group has achieved up to 50% savings in training time. 4Fingers (Singapore & Malaysia) has managed to save 27hrs in training for each learner each month. (Fill the form below to read more in our eBook)

Other uses for ArcLab include digitalising training and standard operating procedures (SOPs) such as for construction industries and industries who have to work remotely due to the Covid-19 restrictions. We work with companies like Woh Hup, a construction company with workers who speak in different languages, to deliver training to foreign workers in their native language.

Train your staff on body language for customer service, customer service excellence or even use ArcLab to improve employee mental health. 

ArcLab can help businesses achieve their maximum potential and increase productivity by 50% just like Fei Siong Group. Businesses such as your favourite food establishments, Swensen’s, Astons, Koufu, BreadTalk Group and more can achieve greater heights with a trained workforce.

Learn More In Our Free E-book

Photo by James Sullivan on Unsplash, Photo by Bimo Luki on Unsplash

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Top ArcLab Discover Templates

Arclab is a Nano learning platform that allows organisations to create bite-sized modules for their staff’s training.

ArcLab gives our users the freedom to design your own unique modules best suited for your staff. However, to help reduce time & effort needed to create your own modules from scratch, we have just the thing for you!

ArcLab Discover

Introducing ArcLab Discover, a platform where our Learning Design team has curated templates designed by builders from across the platform. 

Here are the top most popular templates from ArcLab Discover.

5. Workplace Health & Safety

There is no doubt that Workplace Health & Safety would be in our top 5 templates. 

No company wishes to have any kind of work accident or disaster. Not only does it put staffs’ health and safety at risk, workplace incidents also result in work stoppages, and decreases the workplace productivity.

Hence, to avoid workplace mishaps or accidents, safety must be reinforced, and what better way than to use ArcLab module to convey important Workplace Safety and Health dos & donts to your staff!

ArcLab’s module template includes some general workplace safety tips, so feel free to add on to make it your very own module.

Help ensure your colleagues are well-prepared and ready for work with one simple module. 

Click on the Workplace Safety module here to try it out!

4. Service Crew Onboarding (Chinese)

Up next in fourth place is our Service Crew Onboarding template written in the Chinese language. This highlights ArcLab’s proficiency to allow you to train your workforce in any language. 

No worries if Chinese is not the language you’re looking for. With ArcLab’s SmartTranslate feature, translate any of your modules with just a simple click! 

ArcLab’s SmartTranslate feature allows your learners to select their preferred language of choice, so there is no need to create a different module for another language. Features as such are implemented to cater to the convenience of our builders. Start building your first module now!

3. New Staff Onboarding

If you are one of the first few people to visit our homepage at arclab.io,  you may find this template very familiar. In third place, it is none other than our New Staff Onboarding template. This module covers general procedures that should be carried out when conducting induction programmes for new staff and team members. The module also shows how ArcLab can help make onboarding smoother and easier for everyone. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Image from TAB

2. Visitor Health Declaration

Image from Vietnam.travel

With recent news on borders reopening in multiple countries, ArcLab’s Visitor Health Declaration template swoops in for second place! This module showcases the versatility of ArcLab, to be used for more than just onboarding and training.

Forms as such can be created as well to collect responses from a large number of people. In addition, with our new learner management system, it provides our builders with a dashboard collating every learners’ responses. This will help simplify data collection and tracking for you.

1. Customer Service Training

Drumroll please….. and first place goes to… Customer Service Training! 

Excellent customer service is a must-have in any industry involving interaction with potential customers or clients. Different types of customer service caters to customers in different industries, however basic manners, body language and knowledge of products are the standard expectation. How would you feel if staff attending to you have no clue about what they are selling?

This template will provide you with an interactive scenario where you have to learn quickly and display your knowledge on the product. Are you up for the challenge?

Image from SAP News Center

With that, our Customer Service Training template stays in the lead with many remixes from various builders. Will you be one of them? Or will you create your own?

Choose the best way to help you and your staff.

Sign up here and start building for free!

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Bahasa Tubuh Untuk Perkhidmatan Pelanggan

Body Language in Customer Setvice

Tahukah anda 93% komunikasi bukan verbal?

Ini bermaksud kita boleh berkomunikasi tanpa mengata satu perkataan. Bagi pekerja yang berperanan menghadap pelanggan, komunikasi positif yang bukan verbal boleh menyebabkan pelanggan mengalu-alukan perniagaan kita dan akan mahu membeli daripada perniagaan kita. 

Apakah itu bahasa tubuh?

Bahasa tubuh merujuk kepada pergerakkan, isyarat dan adab seseorang ketika berkomunikasi dengan orang lain. Ini semua menunjukkan bagaimana perasaan seseorang dan selalunya dibuat tanpa disedari. 

Body Language

Para peminat drama jenayah US mungkin akan kenal siri “Lie To Me”, dimana karakter Tim Roth membantu agensi penguatkuasa undang-undang dalam siasatan mereka, dengan mengaplikasikan kemahirannya dalam mempelajari “micro-expressions” dan bahasa tubuh seseorang. 

Kadang kala, apa yang kita ingin katakan mungkin lain daripada apa yang kita lakukan oleh kerana kita menggunakan bahasa tubuh untuk berkomunikasi tanpa sedari. 

Justeru, mengapakah perlu kita ambil kisah tentang bahasa tubuh walaupun perniagaan kita mungkin bukan dalam sektor penguatkuasa undang-undang ataupun psikologi? 

Bahasa tubuh dan Perkhidmatan Pelanggan Cemerlang

Salah satu faktor perniagaan berjaya adalah produk yang menyelesaikan masalah pelanggan tetapi cara pekerja anda berkomunikasi bersama pelanggan memegang kunci pada penjualan dan menawar hati pelanggan. 

Bahasa tubuh yang positif menolong tenaga kerja anda berkomunikasi dengan lebih baik bersama pelanggan dan boleh mempengaruhi reaksi pelanggan yang lebih berimpak terhadap perniagaan anda. Oleh itu, pekerja-pekerja patut memberi lebih perhatian terhadap bahasa tubuh mereka ketika sedang berhadapan dengan pelanggan. 

Tidak kira sama ada perniagaan anda merupakan perniagaan “brick-and-mortar” atau seperti yang semakin meningkat, perniagaan online. Ini kerana bahasa tubuh boleh disampaikan melalui telefon dan juga chat atas talian. Apabila pekerja perkhidmatan pelanggan anda rasa tertekan, mereka boleh tercakap ataupun teks sesuatu yang berbeza daripada ketika mereka sedang tenang. Bahasa tubuh boleh menyebabkan pekerja anda menggunakan kata-kata yang tidak diingini yang pelanggan boleh salah faham ketika mendengarnya. 

Dengan demikian, semua pekerja anda yang sering menghadapi pelanggan harus menyampaikan bahasa tubuh yang positif ketika sedang berinteraksi bersama para pelanggan dan dengan yang berminat dalam perniagaan anda!

Apakah contoh-contoh bahasa tubuh positif yang pekerja anda patut pamerkan ketika sedang menghadapi pelanggan?

Tiga contoh tersebut adalah:

1. Kontak mata

Para pekerja patut berkontak mata sebelum berbual bersama pelanggan. Ini menunjukkan pelanggan bahawa pekerja masih sedang mendengar dan bersedia untuk berkhidmat. Namun, pekerja harus berjaga-jaga supaya tidak terlebih melihat kerana memegang kontak mata dengan terlalu lama boleh menyebabkan pelanggan rasa tidak selesa. 

Satu nasihat adalah untuk memegang kontak mata hanya untuk separuh masa ketika sedang berbual dan 70% masa ketika sedang mendengar. Dengan ini, pelanggan akan rasa hargai oleh pekerja anda serta lebih berkemungkinan untuk membeli daripada penjualan anda. 

2. Diri dengan posisi yang terbuka

Posisi yang terbuka menunjukkan kemesraan dan sambutan yang baik oleh pekerja. Bandingkan dengan pekerja yang bersilang tangan, pelanggan akan rasa tidak dialu-alukan oleh pekerja anda kerana posisinya yang tertutup dan defensif. 

Pekerja yang berdiri dengan posisi yang terbuka membuat pelanggan rasa sambutan yang mesra dan juga membuatnya lebih senang untuk memegang kontak mata.

3. Senyum 😊

Senyuman adalah sesuatu kecil yang boleh meninggalkan kesan yang sangat positif atas orang lain. Ia menyebabkan seseorang kelihatan lebih senang untuk didekati dan pelanggan akan tidak teragak-agak untuk mendekati pekerja anda. Para pelanggan akan rasa tercenderung untuk membeli dari pekerja yang sering senyum dan mesra daripada yang tidak berminat dan kelihatan tidak mesra.

Apakah contoh bahasa tubuh positif lain yang anda boleh fikirkan?

Body Language in Customer Setvice

Bagaimana untuk melatih bahasa tubuh untuk mencapai perkhidmatan pelanggan yang cemerlang?

Bahasa tubuh positif boleh diajarkan kepada pekerja-pekerja anda.

  • Pertama sekali, pekerja patut mengenali contoh-contoh bahasa tubuh yang berlainan. Mereka harus mengenali bahasa tubuh yang positif yang patut mereka guna dan juga yang negatif yang harus dielak. 

    Tunjukkan gambar-gambar atau video contoh setiap bahasa tubuh, supaya pekerja anda pasti akan apa yang mereka patut lakukan dan yang mereka patut elak. 

  • Kedua, aturkan sesi ‘role-play’ bersama pekerja-pekerja anda untuk melatih bahasa tubuh yang baru dipelajari mereka kerana latihan yang selalu di praktis akan menyempurnakan bahasa tubuh positif pekerja anda.

  • Ketiga, sediakan prosedur operasi standard (SOP) yang lengkap dengan informasi tentang apa yang patut ataupun tidak patut dilakukan pada bahasa tubuh supaya pekerja anda boleh lihat informasi itu pada bila-bila masa, ulas kembali dan latih bersama pekerja lain pada waktu yang sesuai bagi mereka, di mana-mana jua. 

    Contoh bahasa tubuh dan prosedur operasi standard (SOP) sudah tersedia dan boleh dijumpai di ArcLab Discover.

Belajar Lebih
Bahasa tubuh yang positif adalah aspek penting dalam komunikasi dan ketika sedang berinteraksi bersama pelanggan. 

Tenaga kerja dan pekerja perkhidmatan pelanggan yang dilatih dengan baik boleh menolong perniagaan anda membina perhubungan yang mesra bersama pelanggan dan menolong meningkatkan prestasi perniagaan anda, sama ada dalam perniagaan runcit, penjualan makanan & minuman, pertubuhan kebajikan sukarela ataupun pembinaan. 

Untuk mula penggunaan Latihan Bahasa Tubuh ArcLab dengan percuma untuk pekerja anda, klik disini:

Latihan Bahasa Tubuh

Teruskan Berhubung Dengan ArcLab

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Cara Untuk Melatih Pekerja F&B, Runcit & Hospitaliti Dengan Cepat

Pembukaan Pusat Pemeriksaan Woodlands Dan Tuas

Sebelum pengisytiharan sekatan Covid-19 terhadap pergerakan sempadan antara Singapura dan Malaysia, anggaran 415,000 orang dikatakan melintasi pusat pemeriksaan Woodlands dan Tuas dalam sehari. 

Pada 1 April 2022, sempadan Malaysia-Singapura telah dibuka semula sebagai kelonggaran dalam sekatan yang telah ditetapkan sebelum ini. Sekitar 33,700 orang dikatakan telah melepasi pusat pemeriksaan Woodlands dan Tuas dengan menaiki bas, kereta dan motosikal hingga 5 petang pada hari pertama sempadan dibuka sepenuhnya.

Keputusan ini merupakan pengakhiran dalam penantian lama untuk bersatu sama keluarga dan rakan-rakan tercinta yang menetap di negara seberang. Sementary kebenaran untuk ke luar negara adalah kelegaan setelah hampir 2 tahun tidak dibenarkan melancong ke Singapura atau Malaysia tanpa ujian ataupun kuarantin. 

Pembukaan Membawa Harapan Bagi Memulihkan Ekonomi

Keputusan ini juga merupakan harapan bagi kedua belah negara untuk memulihkan ekonomi. Pada hari pertama pusat pemeriksaan Woodlands dan Tuas dibuka, Johor Bahru menyaksikan lonjakan sehingga 40 peratus dalam penjualan makanan dan minuman mahupun runcit.

Para penjual makanan, khidmat cuci kenderaan dan runcit akan dapat menyaksikan lebih kemajuan dalam penjualan mereka dalam minggu-minggu yang akan datang memandangkan ramai lagi yang masih belum menyeberang sempadan dan juga bulan Ramadhan yang telah tiba yang akan menyebabkan ramai untuk mahu membeli-belah bersama keluarga. 

Inilah masanya dimana kesemua perniagaan makanan dan minuman, runcit dan industri hospitaliti sedang bergesa untuk sediakan perniagaan mereka bagi kedatangan pengunjung yang mahu membeli-belah, makan bersama keluarga dan rakan-rakan serta memerlukan tempat berehat di hotel dan resort.

Ada banyak informasi penting yang harus disampaikan kepada pekerja-pekerja seperti prosedur operasi standard (SOP), prosedur bagi memastikan keselamatan dan kebersihan dan juga latih tentang perkhidmatan pelanggan.

Belajar Lebih

Bagaimanakah Industri Makanan & Minuman, Runcit & Hospitaliti Boleh Melatih Pekerja-Pekerja Mereka Dengan Cepat?

  1. Siapkan informasi-informasi penting yang perlu diajar sebelum onboarding dijalankan supaya tidak ada maklumat yang tertinggal dan semua pekerja mendapat latihan yang sama. Ini memastikan pekerja tidak salah faham akan arahan yang telah diberikan dan akan dapat menjalankan tugas mereka dengan tepat. 
  2. Kumpulkan informasi tersebut dalam satu platform supaya informasi penting dapat diakses pada bila-bila masa, di mana jua. Ini akan menolong latihan pekerja dan onboarding menjadi lebih cepat dan menolong para pekerja mengekalkan informasi dalam minda.
  3. Pastikan pekerja anda memahami apa yang telah diajar semasa latihan mereka. Sekiranya ada pekerja yang masih kurang faham, mereka boleh dilatih untuk masa yang lebih panjang ataupun ia menjadi sesuatu yang menunjukkan bahawa program latihan kita masih boleh diperbaiki. 

Sampaikan latihan anda dengan cepat dan juga dalam bahasa yang pekerja anda guna supaya latihan anda lebih mudah difahami. Ketahui tahap kefahaman pekerja anda dengan menjalani kuiz dan jejaki tahap kemajuan pekerja menggunakan ArcLab Learner Analytics. 

Anda boleh melatih pekerja anda dengan cepat dengan menggunakan ArcLab. Bacalah lebih tentang 4fingers Malaysia dan bagaimana mereka dapat mempercepatkan program latihan mereka atau cuba sendiri di sini.

Ketahui Bagaimana Anda Boleh Jimat Masa Latihan Seperti 4fingers Malaysia

Gambar dari TodayOnline & Lisanto 李奕良 (Unsplash)

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How to promote Employee Happiness

Promoting employee happiness at the workplace has increasingly become a business imperative. Why? Happy employees raise work productivity, they go on to create happy, satisfied customers. When your staff are happy, your business thrives. On the flip slide, unhappy employees are more likely to take sick days at work & are at a greater risk of burnout. 

Why is a happy workforce good for business?

A happy workforce is a productive workforce. In a happiness study by Social Market Foundation, where participants were given “happiness shocks” (it is a lot less electrifying than it sounds – the shocks provided were watching comedy videos, getting snacks & drinks), these subjects were “approximately 12% more productive than the control group” who received nothing.

Happy employees provide better customer service. When your staffs are happy, they naturally show better body language at work. Customers appreciate interacting with cheerful staff and are more likely to make a purchase. Satisfied employees are extremely beneficial for the growth of your business by providing excellent customer service that keeps customers returning.

Happiness at work is infectious; it can spread & affect the entire mood & energy of the team. When you cultivate a positive work environment to promote employee happiness, your staff are more engaged at work, which strengthens camaraderie among your team.

3 ways to build a positive work environment

Positive work culture boost teamwork & communication, which promotes greater engagement, happiness at work. A positive work environment facilitates opportunities for colleagues to learn & help one another to achieve better results.

Here are some tips on how you can build a positive work environment in the company:

Start with ‘thank you’

 A ‘thank you’ costs nothing, but it provides important recognition for a job well done. Take time to notice & highlight tasks performed by people at any level in the organisation to give periodic shutouts to them. It does not take a lot of effort, yet this small gesture of appreciation at the workplace can keep staff motivated to continue to work towards delivering better results. When employees are respected for their work, this builds compassion as well as kindness within the team. 

Aside from thanking your team for a job well done, consider your customers & how you can show your appreciation for their trust & support in your company. Supportive & loyal customers are what push the company forward, served well by your staff, who are appreciated & respected by their supervisors & managers. 

Communicate with honesty & transparency

Top employers are able to create a work environment where all members can freely articulate their thoughts & achievements. Employees know that they are in a safe environment to share & that their concerns are taken into consideration in the company. Frequent transparent & honest communications on company happenings & updates, celebration of individual milestones & achievements, overall company direction all help a company cultivate a positive work experience & promote employee happiness. This is especially important if your organisation is spread over multiple locations – that’s where digital platforms help your organisation communicate effectively. 

Check out ArcLab’s free template for mobile-ready newsletters, delivered straight to your staff phones, digitally.

Create career pathways & the right training for your staff

Helping your staff grow & develop is another important aspect of promoting employee happiness in a positive work environment. By establishing clear career pathways in the company, employees are fully aware of the different development opportunities to grow, expand & pursue career goals in an encouraging & supportive environment.

How do staff achieve that? With training of course!

Training is never for training’s sake: when the right training is implemented & provided for your workforce, your employees can work to achieve better business outcomes. The role of managers or the Learning & Development team is to ensure that they are able to consolidate performance analytics so that they can map skill gaps & zero in on them accordingly. The effectiveness of such a training program can be surveyed through employee feedback. Meaningful data can be extracted to help guide future training and development materials.

Check out how you can collect & analyse survey feedback here.

Build a happy, productive workforce with ArcLab

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How to train staff to achieve customer service excellence?

What affects customer service?

 

Regardless of the industry that you are serving, be it in the F&B, retail or hospitality industry, the most important people we are dealing with are our customers. Delivering excellent customer service becomes one of our big goals, and training our workforce automatically becomes a priority.

The excellent delivery of service is what will help you transform your customers into returning ones and establish customer loyalty. 

So what are the factors that affect customer service and how can we work to ensure our staff delivers? 

There are a few factors we can consider and we can start by looking at the interactions exchanged between our staff and our customers. In summary, they are:

  • Body language / Non-verbal communication
  • Verbal communication
  • Attitude

Body Language

 

Non verbal communications are an important factor in customer service as body language can reveal plenty of information about a person and thus, body language does affect customer service. In an organisation, we want our staff to portray positive body language which communicates our organisation’s interest in caring for customers and readiness to serve which makes customers feel more welcomed. This is why training our staff on body language for customer service is important.

Verbal Communication

 

Verbal communication is another aspect to look at. Our staff’s choice of words can depict our staff’s friendliness and showcase the value we have for our customers. Our staff are essentially the representation of our company and the short few minutes where they interacts with customers can either build rapport and form positive associations in our customers’ minds or tarnish the brand’s reputation.

Positive Attitude

 

Not to forget, our staff’s very own attitude can affect customer retention. Building a positive attitude at work is a crucial point to consider. People we meet and interact with, who are pleasant and treats us with respect, are those who we form positive connections with. Hence, positive attitude is key in customer service and organisations should take the necessary steps to ensure staff develops a positive attitude and learns the art of dealing with various types of customers. 

Conducting training for body language, verbal communication and building a positive attitude can be done much more quickly than thought. 

By using ArcLab’s mobile learning software, which helps to deliver comprehensive and effective training for the Deskless Workforce through compiling training content into one online module making it accessible wherever and whenever required, you will be able to train and set expectations for your staff quickly.

Here is an example of how it can be done:

How can we work to ensure our staff delivers?

  1. Establish a system where good or excellent customer service performance is recognised and rewarded. Positive reinforcements help to drive employee motivation, resulting in higher productivity and performance quality. 
  2. Actively take in feedback and learn from workers. This helps our staff feel heard and valued by the company which improves employee satisfaction leading to better job performance as staff becomes genuine in executing their job. At the same time, you get to identify gaps and improve organisation processes where needed.
  3. Support their learning and training. Most fast-paced industries such as F&B, hospitality and retail have a constant need for manpower but lack time and resources to train their employees properly. Training programmes become insufficient or ineffective due to the speed at which the training programmes are being conducted. Workers who require more support and time in their training do not get the help they require and as such, job performance quality declines. Therefore, establishing the right support for staff is necessary. 
    (Read also: 3 ways employers can support their lower wage workers)

Here is where ArcLab supports you in training and staff’s learning & development. Nano learning platforms and tools are effective in helping employees retain information and quickly pick up new training content. You are able to conduct training online, ensure your workers understand the training programme thoroughly and even keep track of their performance. ArcLab modules are comprehensive, allowing information on their job roles to be accessed whenever the staff requires. 

Companies like Fei Siong Group have achieved 50% time savings and close to 50% increase in productivity gains after implementing training with ArcLab modules. 

Save your time and resources, train your staff for customer service and build a productive workforce easily!

Create Your Own Training Modules Here

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What’s new in ArcLab – Everything announced in User Clinic

ArcLab is building the world’s simplest training platform for organisations to upskill your deskless workforces.

We are growing our community of forward-thinking practitioners, and gathered folks who are new to ArcLab or have used our mobile training software together to connect, learn and share all the benefits that Nano Learning has brought to them. Thank you for being part of the Mobile Training & Nano Learning community!

The core objective of the User Clinic (ArcLab’s first in 2022!) was to share how our tools can help Learning & Development & HR managers succeed in upskilling and increasing the productivity of their deskless workforce with 50% savings in training time.

In our first User Clinic, we announced a couple of new features to help you create better, more organised, and trackable Training modules with ArcLab. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s everything we debuted. Or you can watch the full recordings below!

SmartTranslate

ArcLab takes away the problem associated with having to train a diverse group of learners with different language needs and proficiencies. ArcLab’s SmartTranslate helps you translate your original training content into any language with a single click. Your learners can now access the same module and select which language to consume their training in – increasing the inclusivity and accessibility of your training programmes.

Your learners’ data are also consolidated in one place within the same module, even if the modules have been translated to multiple languages. This allows much easier tracking and analysis – as you monitor your staffs’ training and career progression.

How to SmartTranslate?

On your ArcLab editor, head over to the translation icon at the top bar (next to the module title), select the language that you wish to translate your content into. Within seconds, your translated content will be ready to launch and before that, you can make some minor refinements to ensure semantically and grammatically sound language. We don’t impose a limit on the number of translations for each module – so fire away!

ArcLab SmartTranslate

Folder Analytics

Training is never for the sake of training, but for organisations like yours to identify and plug any knowledge or skills gap to achieve better business outcomes.

Training data and analytics becomes an inseparable component. Which is why the ArcLab team constantly strives to improve our analytics features to provide more insight to L&D / HR managers and administrators.

With the newly updated Folder Analytics, you can now consolidate & track your Learners’ progress and performance across all your modules within a single folder. You no longer need to manually consolidate data across individual modules or use advanced Excel formulas to obtain key compliance & performance metrics.

Time saved can be spent towards more value-added strategic thinking and planning of training programmes to improve the skills and productivity of your workforce, whether you’re an organisation in F&B or construction or VWO or any other industry sector!

How to use Folder Analytics?

Our folder feature operates much like the file-sharing feature on Google Drive – where sharing 1 folder will enable the recipient to access every document & file within. On your folder analytics dashboard, you can have an overview of key metrics such as completion rates of assigned modules, average training duration, and average scores across all assessments and quiz components within your folder. With folder analytics, compliance and performance tracking no longer needs to be a time-consuming process. The updated Folder Analytics is here to make key data and metrics quickly accessible and operational for you.

New Learner Management System

In our new system, we’ve centralised learner management into one single location – akin to a central organisation Staff Contact List.

You no longer need manual updates of individual modules’ Learners. Additionally, Learners can now be categorised into different groups based on regions, outlets, worksites, departments & even their job roles or functions. While you are at it, you can filter invitations based on your learners’ invitation or completion status. Lastly, we launched the most requested feature – which is to customise the invitation message to your learners. You can inject your creativity in crafting encouraging messages for your learners. No more sounding like a faceless chatbot, but a real person behind your training module!

How to use the new Learner Management System?

This soft-launch is now live 🥳 , and we are rolling this out to ArcLab users on an opt-in basis.

To move over to the new ArcLab Learner Management System (all the conveniences described above), please write into growth@arclab.io for our development team to assist in importing your contacts to this new platform. We provide a free 1-to-1 personalised session to help ease the migration.

Build a productive workforce

All these updates and announcements – SmartTranslate, Folder Analytics & New Learner Management System – build towards our long-term mission: to make training and upskilling easier for your deskless workforce. ArcLab will keep working hard to help you create better tools, to connect, train, upskill, share information with your employees more readily. We are thrilled to finally share what we’ve been working on with you and hope it helps you achieve more together with your workforce.

A big thank you to everyone who shared their time with us during our User Clinic session. We hope to host you again at our future User Clinics. Follow our social pages or Subscribe to our blog to find out when. Stay tuned!

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How to Train F&B Staff

Editor’s Note: ArcLab works alongside Experts and Training Providers to help businesses upskill workforces, improve staff performance to achieve more for the business, and digitally transform for the future.

We’re glad to co-author this article with Lauren Wan of Passioneat Hospitality, a hospitality driven consulting company motivated to ignite lasting memories for teams and guests using the power of culture-based training and positive leadership to create consistently excellent experiences.

The Biggest Asset of your F&B Business

A trained workforce is the biggest contributor to the success of your F&B Business. 

Be it front-of-house or back-of-house, well-trained staff make your business operations smooth as butter (pun intended). Customers are attended to promptly, orders accurate and well-cooked, and your staff creates an excellent experience that delights your (returning) customers over and over again.

Returning customers means higher and more consistent topline. So it’s absolutely crucial to train your staff – to achieve more for your business.

Yet despite all the acknowledged benefits of training our workers, 1/3 of businesses surveyed by POS platform Toast encounter challenges in implementing training programmes.

It is perhaps understandable given the lack of time, resources, and manpower, a perennial problem in the Food Services industry – now exacerbated by COVID-19 and the Great Resignation.

The positive impact brought about by training is no secret, regardless of which industry your business operates in. More operators are leaning into the benefits that investing in their teams can bring, especially as the workforce increasingly views training as a sign of a good employer.

How can F&B operators leverage these insights and provide training that enriches both their business and their teams?

Training your F&B Workforce

F&B training can be divided into two main categories – (1) onboarding, and (2) ongoing training and support, both of which have very different objectives.

Onboarding and induction programmes typically offers the following:

  • Sense of confidence with the product, brand, and company values
  • Compliance with health and safety standards
  • Faster competence with guest service
  • Acknowledgement of operating procedures

Digitising certain aspects of onboarding allows you to:

  • Engage and excite your new hire before their first day
  • Make the best use of downtime when your on-the-job trainers are occupied with other tasks
  • Ensure consistency between different trainers and locations
  • Allow access to training content in multiple languages

Where digital training can really shine is with ongoing training and culture support, because it allows you to create rhythm and repetition that is essential for developing a strong culture and high levels of consistency and accuracy.

Case Study

One of Passioneat Hospitality’s clients is a multi-concept Japanese restaurant group. We created interventions for Day 0, Day 1, Day 7, Day 30, and Day 90 so that new hires would feel  welcomed and supported. 

We made use of various mediums to ensure information was consistently shared and recalled by the new hires.

Information Cards

We used static cards to convey operational information like uniform and grooming standards, floor plans, and menu items and company information like Who Am I? introductions so that new hires could learn names and faces more easily, along with fun notes about each person in the team.

Videos

We harnessed videos for demonstrating procedures, especially for the kitchen team, so they could see preparation methods, presentation standards, and hygiene integrated in one shot, which is particularly helpful for action learners.

Quizzes

Multiple choice questions help to test retention quickly and develop a sense of personal ownership over information and agency for closing any knowledge gaps.

Check-ins

We complemented the digital with scheduled in-person check-ins with leaders at various levels of the organisation to ensure that new hires truly felt supported.

Well-trained staff make your F&B operations smooth as butter (pun intended).

Approaches to F&B Workforce Training

While there are many approaches to staff training, some work particularly well in F&B and in tandem with digital training.

Peer-led training

Digital training often features best practices and ideal scenarios, when coupled with real, on-the-ground implementation that is consistent with what is advertised in the digital learning space the learner feels a sense of security and trust with the organisation.

Project-based learning

Allowing your team to engage in their own learning within their area of curiosity has great benefits for their personal development and contribution to your business. You can use digital tools to set up the project process with an overview of the guidelines, support available, tips for success, and preferred reporting back formats.

Developing online content can feel overwhelming at first, but if you keep these tips in mind, you’ll be able to maximise your online learning space:

  1. Keep it light and fun – the digital content we consume is filled with entertainment. No one wants to engage with a text book that has been split into dozens of small screens. Use all kinds of media to drive your learning objectives – make your content dynamic, moving, and interesting
  2. Mimic reality – don’t worry about making sure everything feels like a hollywood production. While professionalism is important, being fixated on being overly polished is often hurtful. Tap on your team to share their experiences, best practices, and stories of what it’s really like to work at your company. Creating too much of a divide between the online and offline worlds will create a disconnect for your team member and result in disengagement
  3. If you cover everything, you’ll cover nothing – how much can we really remember? If we’re being honest, it’s not much. Keep things that can be looked up optional so they can be used as and when they are needed. Understand the importance of being selective on the mandatory parts of your onboarding and ongoing training content and emphasise the how and why of your business
  4. Remember that training doesn’t exist in a vacuum – training is vital and accomplishes an important role – it helps us know what we don’t already know. However, there are two equally important pieces of the puzzle that also need to be addressed to create consistent, high-quality guest experiences – operational culture and performance management. It’s important to place equal value on all three parts, otherwise you’ll end up with a sophisticated training program that either collects dust on a shelf or is scanned through once and never actioned upon.
Related: Read more about Digital SOPs for your workforce – step-by-step manuals that instruct your kitchen staff and food servers on basic procedures for different tasks

Incorporating Mobile Learning

Training should continue for the entirety of your staffs’ employment journey. As pointed out above, ongoing F&B Staff Training improves your workers’ skills and productivity, contributing to better business performance.

As your F&B staff grow into their roles and get promoted, their training needs will also change, as there are now new and higher-level knowledge and skills that they need to be trained in.

Hence, there’s a need for your F&B Business to invest in a system to manage training for different staff in different roles and at different career stages. A good training technology platform will be useful for your organisation to do this.

There are some excellent training tools in the market that complement instructor-facilitated training described above, and workplace learning.

ArcLab is one such innovative training tool that allows you to create, distribute and track Food and Beverage Training for your workforce, fast & easy.

While there are other tools around, one crucial advantage: ArcLab is built for the Deskless Workforce, which comprises virtually all of the workers in your F&B business. In this way, you do not implement a clunky training system which is difficult to onboard for your L&D / Ops / HR administrators and high-friction for your workers to learn how to use – posing unnecessary barriers in their training.

Instead, the ArcLab platform is simple to use for administrators. Your L&D team uses the ArcLab Editor Dashboard to easily create training modules and distribute them to designated staff (your authorised learners). Best of all, ArcLab’s SmartTranslate feature helps you to create multi-lingual modules with the click of a button – to best suit your learners’ individual language preferences and competencies.

Your learners then receive a notification in their email of SMS inbox, and start their ArcLab training module via their personalised secure access link. Content is presented via text, video, pictures, infographics and other rich media, and tested via multiple choice, open-ended and other forms of questions / assessment.

Each learner’s progress is tracked and credentialed, and your L&D / Ops / HR administrators receive a top-level overview and dive into each learner’s detailed journey via ArcLab’s Learner Analytics.

Invest in your F&B Workforce today!

Training your workforce is an important initiative that your F&B Business critically needs.

 

It’s simple to start, and your F&B Business can too. 

1. Get in touch with Lauren via Instagram (@passioneathospitality) or https://passioneathospitality.com for F&B training content and support.

2. Start creating simple ArcLab digital learning modules for your workforce today.

Create training

 

Top Photo by Bimo Luki on Unsplash

In-article Photo by Crazy Cake on Unsplash

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ArcLab in GSV Elite 200

ArcLab launched officially in late-2019 with a simple mission to Upskill the World’s Deskless Workforce through Building the World’s Simplest Training System.

“ArcLab’s vision is to Upskill the World’s 2.7 billion Deskless Workforce through building the World’s Simplest Training System,” said James Chia, CEO of ArcLab.

In 2020, the world as we knew it changed. COVID-19 lockdowns accelerated digital training & upskilling for many frontline workers. We saw a huge spike in inbound and started to welcome many more organisations to use ArcLab’s Learning & Development (L&D) platform to easily create, deliver and track Nano Learning.

With ArcLab, companies are able to deliver targeted bite-sized training modules and digital SOPs – to employees anytime, anywhere, in any language, through mobile.

 

Organisations are able to easily SmartTranslate their training materials with a click of a button

In the past 2 years, we received favorable feedback from our customers on how our platform has helped improve work performance and business outcomes. (Read about how Fei Siong Group & 4Fingers are able to raise productivity of their workforce with ArcLab).

This is only just the beginning. ArcLab remains at Day 1, we’re customer-obsessed and keep working to better deliver modern training, digital SOP & communication SaaS Platform for your workforce.

“We are honoured to be part of the GSV Elite 200 and are grateful to GSV Ventures for recognising our work. We keep working hard to build and scale ArcLab to simplify workforce training, making it accessible and inclusive to the needs of the Deskless Workforce – regardless of age or language” said James Chia, CEO of ArcLab.

We are delighted to be selected to The GSV Elite 200, one of only 10 Southeast Asian firms in this group of innovative edtech startups.

We’re grateful to GSV Ventures for the validation that we’re solving a big problem, and doing it in a very scalable way. We are excited & ready to showcase ArcLab to the world at the GSV Cup during the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego.

Keep up with our journey at the GSV Cup.

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Streamline Business Processes with Digital SOPs

If you’ve ever baked a cake (oooh… hunger pangs…), you most probably followed a recipe – what are the ingredients, what are the steps to make the dough, what temperature to set the oven at, how long to put it the cake mix in the oven… etc.

This recipe that you followed to make that delicious cake – that’s in fact a Standard Operating Procedure, or “SOP”. 

The Master Baker documented step-by-step instructions to make it simple for bakers like you and me to follow and recreate that same cake on our own. Simple, and delicious!

SOPs in the Workplace

Businesses use SOPs to outline how workers should perform different tasks in the workplace. 

An SOP helps a new worker unfamiliar with the task to be done to simply follow the instructions step-by-step and perform the task without assistance or additional instructions.

A good SOP is very defined and focused. Just like how a cake recipe describes how to bake just ONE type of cake, an SOP documents very clearly on just that one particular work task. It does so in a step-by-step manner that is easy to follow and does not leave the worker guessing. 

An even better SOP also describes contingency situations and how to respond to such What-If scenarios.

Here’s an example of an SOP instructing cashier staff how to use the Point-of-Sale (“POS”) System:

In terms of usage, you would expect staff that are new to the task to refer to the digital SOP more often. As he/she gets familiar with the task, this will happen less often, and is perfectly in line with the pedagogical concept of “fading“. This is when the SOP has fulfilled its objective. It has trained your staff on what to do, and how to do it well.

As you can see, SOPs help your workers to learn what is expected of them, how to perform the tasks in their jobs, and ultimately contribute positively to your business.

Your new workers hit the ground running. 

Your managers’ time is freed up for more strategic areas of the business. 

This helps your business to move ahead of your competition.

In summary, SOPs increase your organisation’s productivity because instructions do not have to be repeated to new workers over and over again.

Paper SOPs vs Digital SOPs

SOPs have traditionally been written in paper format. 

Hard copies of procedure manuals are typically put together by an operations or line manager, and filed in a folder for staff to be trained, and to refer to before they start on the shop or factory floor.

There are several disadvantages if you choose paper-based SOPs for your business:

1. It takes a lot of time and effort to create these hard-copy SOPs.

2. It’s expensive and non-environmentally friendly to print out multiple copies of the SOPs for different outlets or branches; even more so if each staff is provided with a personal copy. 

Not many companies would shoulder the cost of providing SOPs for individual workers – who end up needing to refer to shared copies, and many end up not doing so. This results in some workers not being proficient in the task, and more time is needed to (re-)train these workers, meaning more effort and cost.

3. It is difficult for workers to search for specific information on a particular task if you don’t know exactly where to look (“Ctrl-F” searches don’t work on hard copies)

4. Physical copies of SOPs in the F&B or construction work environment get dirty and grimy with repeated use.

5. Adding to / Updating SOPs means another round of intensive effort to print out multiple copies for multiple outlets.

6. Errors in (or missing out) replacing specific SOP pages means some workers may end up referring to outdated SOPs. This introduces risks to your business, workers and potentially to the customers too.

 

In short, paper SOPs are not feasible for your business in the modern age, especially as processes continually get refined and changed in our digital economy. 

A Digital SOP framework is definitely required for your business to do well today.

Creating your 1st Digital SOP

There are different tools in the market that you can use to create your digital SOPs. Today, we will learn how to use ArcLab, our cloud-based mobile learning SaaS platform – to create your first Digital SOP – fast & easy.

Before crafting your SOP, it is useful to watch the task being performed by an expert or someone competent in the task. Write down everything they do, or better yet – take a video clip of them performing the task.

1. Include this video in your ArcLab Digital SOP module as your first demo of the task to be performed, and the sequence of actions – step-by-step. 

2. Break the video up into segments, including an explanation for each step. Make sure that each step is described as simply and as to-the-point as possible.

By this stage the learner has seen what he/she is required to do in totality, and the individual steps required.

3. Test understanding of the knowledge required in the work procedure by including assessment questions.

Your first draft of SOP is ready to be tested. 

Send this 1st draft to a group of staff. Ask them to review that the steps covered are correct and clear. It is very important that the steps be simple to follow for someone with absolutely no background knowledge of the task to be performed.

If your staff pilot group are able to perform the task correctly, your SOP is ready to be rolled out. If not, take in the feedback to improve the SOP further. Then test the 2nd draft of the SOP again – repeating until ready.

In the ArcLab Mobile Learning platform – you can go to ArcLab Discover and pick Digital SOP templates that you can use for your company’s specific needs. Simply select the Digital SOPs menu tab:

Review the SOP template and pick the ones that fit your company’s needs. 

Click “Remix” to add it to your ArcLab Dashboard, where you can adapt to your business’ specific circumstances and workflow.

Once your Digital SOP module is complete, save them to a Folder in ArcLab, and designate which staff to invite to access the Digital SOPs. 

It’s that fast and easy, not to mention secure, as access is limited to only who you designate.

Your Digital SOPs can now be accessed by staff on their mobile devices, ready to be referred to as-and-when needed. 

The best part: whenever there are changes to your processes, you can simply update your SOP in your ArcLab dashboard. Since the SOP modules are cloud-based, staff will always be able to access the most up-to-date SOP modules.

Anytime, anywhere, in any language.

Examples of good Digital SOPs for training

You’ve seen how important SOPs are to your business processes.

You’ve also seen how easy it is to create Digital SOPs on the ArcLab platform, with templates from ArcLab Discover. Here are some that may be applicable for your business:

1. Digital SOP template for Customer Service

2. Digital SOP template for Operating a Point-of-Sale System (“POS”) 

3. Digital SOP template for Chemical Spill in a Lab

Begin your Digital SOP journey today!

Feel free to use these ArcLab Discover templates, and many more.

Now get started creating your own digital SOP on ArcLab today! https://builder.arclab.io

Create Digital SOP

Top photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash