Empowering the Deskless Workforce's Growth & Development

Create in-depth Employee Development Plans for talent development and a future-orientated workforce

Employee development allows both the organisation as well as individual employees to grow, fostering long-term progress and business advancement. An Employee Development Plan keeps employees motivated by providing them with opportunities and training to enhance skills that align with company goals , in turn creating a future-orientated workforce.

Benefits of Employee Development

Closing the skills gap

For deskless workers, upskilling means that they have the opportunity to position themselves better for higher-paying roles and promotions that command more diverse skill sets. This helps to lessen the gap between deskless and white collar workers.

Employee Engagement & Retention

When a company invests in their employees’ growth and development, employees are more motivated, invested and confident to excel in their job, leading to improved employee retention. Deskless workers require a diverse set of skills (both technical and soft skills) to accomplish their tasks efficiently. Employee engagement will also increase as they are able to tackle and solve more complex tasks at work by relying on their own skill sets.

Staying relevant and competitive

With introduction of new innovations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobile apps, and automation, technology and business environments are evolving at a rapid rate. It is critical for employees, especially deskless workers (who do not primarily work at desks or use computers daily) to upskill themselves in order to stay relevant, efficient and their job, and reduce the risks of being replaced by technology and machines. Acquiring technological skills also allows deskless workers to be more versatile, and provides them with future career opportunities to transition into different fields or industries.

Adapted from AIHR

BE INVOLVED

Like all relationships, trust, rapport and respect takes time and effort to be established. As managers, being involved in the daily tasks and development of your employees is essential to build the foundation of a employer-employee relationship. Furthermore, employees who respect their managers will be more receptive and open to initiatives (such as an employee development plan) rolled out by their managers.

SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Conduct a skills assessment among employees to get a better idea of the skills that the employees are lacking, which hinder the productivity and overall objectives of the company. This will aid in creating a more comprehensive Employee Development Plan that targets employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

EVALUATE COMPANY'S END GOAL

It is essential to take into account the company’s goals (both in the near future and long term plans) and align them with the Employee Development Plan. For example, a construction company may have plans to take on a major construction project. As managers, it is important to plan ahead by assessing if their workers are competent enough to fulfill the company project.

UNDERSTAND EMPLOYEES' OBJECTIVES

An Employee Development Plan has to engage both the company and employees. Managers should schedule meetings with their employees to gain better insights into the employees’ personal long term goals and career aspirations.

DECIDE ON SUITABLE TRAINING METHODS

To properly target employees’ weaknesses, harness their strengths and yield the best results, proper training methods and management should be implemented. Especially for deskless workers, on-the-job and situational training go hand in hand with training in theory.

SET LEARNING OBJECTIVES & DESIGN

It is inevitable that amidst the chaos at work, managers and employees may overlook the importance of training and fail to set aside time for consistent training and skills revision. Setting aside a designated time to conduct and complete training is essential in any Employee Development Plan.

LEARNING ASSESSMENTS

Another crucial aspect of an Employee Development Plan is to track learners’ progress through learning assessments. This will give managers important insights into areas that need further improvement, while recognising areas which employees have developed in. Furthermore, managers will be able to tailor future trainings to focus on the topics and areas for employees that require more assistance.

TRACK RESULTS

Lastly is to track the progress and results of the Employee Development Plan. Apart from learning assessments, managers should also assess results on a company level, such as enhanced productivity, new skills utilised for problem solving and daily tasks, and completion rate of company projects or tasks.

Use ArcLab for your next Employee Development Plan

ArcLab’s learning modules are designed to suit the needs of deskless workers who are often on-the-go or do not have ready access to computers. Workers can simply access modules sent via a unique URL (from their manager) on their phone, anytime, anywhere, in any language.

Explore a wide range of learner assessment templates on ArcLab’s platform to enhance the learner experience.

With learner assessment comes learner analytics. Managers are able to analyse learners’ progress and understanding to prepare for future training modules. Data is made readily available in ArcLab’s dashboard.

To improve employee engagement and enhance their understanding on certain topics (such as step-by-step procedures), an array of visuals and media is available when creating training modules.