Study: Frontline training increases during pandemic

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, retail frontline workers have improved knowledge in key areas via mobile training.

Data released by frontline microlearning platform Axonify indicates that 60% of its frontline users across industries including retail, hospitality, and foodservice completed regular training from March through July 2020. Axonify data also shows that frontline employees in North America completed an additional 3 million daily training sessions during the five-month period, on top of the average two to three training sessions completed per user per week on the platform.

This extra training resulted in a 10% increase in employee knowledge across a range of essential of topics, including health and safety, customer experience and company processes. For example, employees improved their knowledge of proper handwashing by over 15%.

A total of 21 million learning questions were answered by Axonify users from March through July 2020, based on more than 20 new COVID-19-related topics. In the early stages of the pandemic, this effort was focused on topics such as hygiene, sanitization and change management. More recently, the topics have shifted to include improving frontline communications, customer service, mental health and reducing stress.

Messaging and mobile device usage have also increased as companies seek to keep frontline employees updated on business changes, even when they are away from work. From May through July 2020, messaging volume increased 35%. More than three-quarters (77%) of Axonify training sessions were completed on a mobile device during this three-month period.

"The global frontline workforce has really been put to the test during COVID-19 with incredible demands on continuing to further the customer experience in a safe and compliant manner," said Axonify CEO Carol Leaman. "As the workforce roles have changed, our data reveals the frontline employees that did have access to training were incredibly committed to training and acquiring the most relevant knowledge to do their jobs safely and efficiently."