Prepare your manufacturing workforce for the future with online learning

The U.S. manufacturing skills gap is anticipated to leave up to 2.1 million manufacturing jobs unfilled by 2030, finds a study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute. This will potentially cost the U.S. economy $1+ trillion. The study reckons that accelerating digital transformation contributes to the struggle 77% of manufacturers surveyed experience when attracting and retaining talent. This digital transformation has fundamentally changed the industry’s jobs and required skill sets. 

Today’s manufacturing workforce requires increasingly specialized skills to work with changing manufacturing technology—skills that many have never learned. It’s critical that manufacturers take inventory of their workers’ skill sets and create cultures of learning that develop and sustain the workforces they need to remain competitive. 

One effective route to developing the necessary portfolio of skills is investing in an online training system that lets manufacturers quickly create engaging training, efficiently distribute it across devices to all of their people, and easily manage it from a single system. Plus, online training helps companies establish a culture of learning, which can increase a company’s attractiveness to potential employees. Here are ways that you can maximize online learning to decrease the skill gaps, adapt to changing business needs, and welcome advanced manufacturing technology as a partner, not a problem.

Onboarding: Get your employees off to the right start

Thorough, consistent onboarding is crucial in any industry. It can help workers feel valued and supported, and provide the necessary tools so they can succeed in their daily work. It’s also an opportunity to inform employees of potential career paths, and introduce online learning as the groundwork for employee skill development. Standardize and expedite the onboarding process with online training, and everyone can get off to a consistent, rapid start.

Connection: Train and stay connected with your teams all over the world 

Most manufacturing companies have employees spread across multiple facilities. This presents the workforce challenge of quickly and efficiently disseminating information and pressing updates. When introducing or upgrading equipment or changing a production line process, combining hands-on learning with online learning is a fast way to simultaneously distribute critical information to many employees across several locations.

Easy access: Eliminate roadblocks to learning 

Your manufacturing workforce varies in education and skill level, and works divergent shifts—particularly in 24/7 manufacturing sites. Assembling a group of people with different work schedules can be tricky enough; but then providing the right training to satisfy each of those person’s learning needs complicates the situation further. Online training eliminates the hassle of in-class meetings. And online learning helps ensure that each employee benefits from continued access to specific course content wherever they’re located—on their schedule and at their skill level.

Safety: Keep your manufacturing facilities secure for your employees

Employee safety is paramount in manufacturing facilities, and failure to educate your workforce on workplace safety can have serious consequences. As new technologies are brought into facilities, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) makes frequent updates to its risk and safety policies to maximize employee protection. Use online training to swiftly deliver guidance on health and safety best practices to all of your employees. Interactive online learning lets you walk your people through various workplace scenarios and provide easily digestible instruction on how to navigate them successfully and safely.

Adaptability: Cross-train your workforce to cultivate a resilient company

In today’s job market, many manufacturers want versatile workers who can contribute in different areas of their organizations. In the 2021 Deloitte Global Resilience study, chief experience officers ranked flexibility/adaptability as the most critical workforce trait for an organization’s future. Cross-training employees helps manufacturers adapt when business needs change. Regardless of the change—a shift in product mix from memory chips to ASICs, a supply chain disruption causing a shortage of raw materials, a pandemic that affects a significant portion of your workforce, and more—cross-training will help your organization stay agile and resilient.

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