The manufacturing labor shortage isn’t a new problem. According to a recent report from Deloitte, the US manufacturing industry faces an unprecedented labor shortage in the next five years. A wave of retirements and continued industry growth will create demand for upwards of 4.6 million manufacturing jobs by 2028, but more than 2.4 million are expected to go unfilled due to a persistent skills gap in the workforce.

Executives are willing to open their wallets to fix the problem, with 80% of those surveyed saying they will increase pay rates where necessary and implement new programs to find people who can fill these gaps, but with an average of nearly 90 days to recruit for highly skilled areas currently, and the shortage only expected to grow, the problem is only expected to get worse.

Increasingly, manufacturers are turning to new investments in internal and external training to address the issue. If they can’t find skilled workers, they’ll develop them. And the investments back it up, with the Manufacturing Institute estimating that manufacturers are set to spend $26.2 billion in 2020 on training initiatives for new and existing employees. In a recent survey, the found that nearly 70% of manufacturers are creating new programs or expanding existing programs to address these issues. As part of this, organizations are looking at not just adding new programs, but rethinking their entire approach to training – and a big part of that is through microlearning.

What Is Microlearning?

Based on fundamentals in cognitive science, microlearning involves breaking up complex topics into bite-sized “chunks” of information that can be processed and practiced as part of an employee’s normal workflow.

Rather than pulling an employee off the floor and sitting them in a training room for eight hours, new concepts are presented in context, where they’ll be used. Microlearning is adaptive, matching the learning style and speed of the individual, and presented in a flexible format. This is all made possible by technology tools that can pull from standardized training materials, but present them in personalized ways.

The Forgetting Curve illustrates how employees will forget 90% of what they learn within 30 days if it’s not reinforced through repetition. Microlearning is designed to ensure core concepts are not just repeated, but utilized frequently. At the same time, technology allows us to optimize how the content is presented. Through spaced repetition to embed information deeper in the brain, retrieval practice to strengthen memory, and other techniques, employees are trained not only in skills but in how to remember those skills.

The Advantages of Microlearning

Professional training has long involved sitting at a desk and attempting to absorb large volumes of information delivered in rapid succession. It’s no wonder employees get fidgety and can’t focus. It’s just not how our brains work. Microlearning is designed to match how people naturally learn. The benefits of using such a method include:

• Greater Agility – Microlearning content is built around business needs, not vague concepts. The result is that you can rapidly shift gears and hone in on specific challenges as they arise. Quick, actionable training tools can help address quality issues, safety concerns, and more on the fly.
• Stronger Engagement – Shorter, more direct training is easier to link to results. Employees see not only the purpose of what they’re learning but the end result and become more engaged in improving their performance.
• Better Information Retention – An optimal attention span is no more than 20 minutes, meaning a multi-hour training session will put even your best employees to sleep. Shorter, focused bites of training materials are absorbed and retained at much higher rates.
• Employee Empowerment – A Connected Worker Platform gives employees the resources they need to ask questions, find solutions, and engage with others faster. They aren’t at the mercy of a top-down training process that withholds key information. Training is designed around business needs and their best interests. This empowers them to learn more and proactive engagement with that content when they need it. Less “that’s not my problem” ‘and more “let’s find an answer.”

Implementing Microlearning to Address the Skills Gap

With the vast majority of manufacturers eager to address the growing skills gap, microlearning plays an important role in the process. Instead of paying more to entice an ever-smaller pool of qualified workers to sign on, companies are implementing progressive training programs that prepare workers for the advanced skills needed in modern manufacturing.

Microlearning delivered through a connected worker platform vastly improves retention, shortens training time, captures valuable knowledge that would otherwise leave an organization when older workers retire, and creates a culture of continuous improvement. Learn more about the role of a strong training program and microlearning, in particular, in our eBook, A Quick Guide to Solving the Perennial Worker Shortage

Baby boomers represented the largest concentrated generation in the workforce for much of the last four decades, but as they age into retirement, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in the demographics of the labor market.

A combination of demographics and economic realities means that, while 10,000 baby boomers reach retirement age every day, only 5,900 are retiring. Crain’s Detroit Business reports that in Michigan alone, 265,000 individuals 65 years and older were in the labor force in 2018. That’s a 65% increase from 2010. Across the country as a whole, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that 26% of the total workforce will be 55 years or older, nearly double the number in 2002.

In the short term, this means that the retirement tsunami long expected by labor experts hasn’t yet occurred. Instead, we’ve seen more of a trickle as many over-65 workers remain in the workforce longer. In the long term, however, we’re poised to see a sharp shift as baby boomers leave the workforce and Millennials and Generation Z take up those roles. Fortunately, though, we have more time than expected to prepare for this, and technology can help.

The Benefits of an Aging Workforce

An older workforce offers many benefits, especially in the manufacturing industry, which has struggled for years to fill positions with qualified new workers. The slower the older generation retires, the more time is given to fill those roles.

In addition to the added time to fill-out growing labor demands, businesses see significantly lower turnover rates from workers over 50 years of age, and they are able to build knowledge bases and institutional capital by capturing the knowledge of those older workers. Technology is enabling companies to do this faster and more accurately than ever before.

Adult learning has always been challenging. It’s difficult for adults to experience repeated failure and to not fully understand a topic as part of the reskilling process. Aged workers who can provide insights and years of experience in support of the training process offer a support system and knowledge base that would otherwise not be available. In the past, however, the only way to capture this knowledge was one-to-one. Older workers would train new workers on processes and provide support throughout training, but once onboarding was complete, they’d be left alone, without access to that knowledge.

Frontline connected worker platforms are changing that, providing new ways to capture, standardize, and share knowledge across an organization:

• Standardized Training Materials – A central training repository that provides a single process can be enhanced by older workers providing insights on potential issues. Employee input can be captured directly in the app and updated in realtime to reflect actual conditions. This avoids hidden factory processes that “fix” what are seen as inefficient processes.
• Digital Andon Cord – New and established employees alike have instant access to everyone in an organization through a digital andon cord on their smart device. This keeps them engaged with the individuals who help manage and support their training.
• Progressive Training – Training can be provided as needed with progressive platforms that adjust to employee performance, frequency of questions, and input from supervisors. This can also help to identify when further hands-on support is needed.

The goal of a connected worker platform is to ensure everyone has equal access to all the information needed at any given time. In the past, as older workers retired, gaps were created. Technology is empowering companies to capture institutional knowledge and preserve it for the next generation of workers.

The Risk of a Demographic Shift

We currently sit at the apex of a booming economy. Over 10 years of unprecedented economic growth, we’ve reached record low levels of unemployment, with 150,000-200,000 new jobs created month after month.

This won’t last forever. The workforce is aging, future generations are smaller and frequently lack the advanced skills needed to operate modern technologies and processes. To prepare for an inevitable downturn and the reduced capacity to hire new workers and generate value at the current rates, companies need to leverage the resources they currently have. Aging workers are helping to maintain the high levels of productivity we currently see in the economy, but it won’t last forever.

Smart investments in the right technology right now will help to capture knowledge that can help improve efficiency, get new workers up to speed faster, and maintain higher levels of quality over time.

Learn more about how connected worker tools like Smart Work Station are helping to increase productivity and reduce costs for businesses as they look to capture savings and prepare for the next wave of the demographic shift in the US workforce. Download our eBook below: