Manufacturing, construction, and transportation industries suffer from huge skills gaps, survey shows

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, TalentCards, a mobile learning platform backed by Epignosis, and employee scheduling software, When I Work, are releasing results of a survey on the onboarding of deskless employees. With historic quit rates and labor shortages affecting most sectors, the report reveals how companies in construction, manufacturing, transportation, shipping, and energy are struggling to retain their deskless employees and find skilled workers to fill empty positions.

The survey shows that 72% of the surveyed companies have unfilled positions due to their inability to find qualified deskless workers. A closer look at specific industries reveals the skills gap persists across sectors. Seventy-seven percent of companies in transportation/warehousing experience difficulties with finding employees, along with 74% of manufacturing companies, and 69% of construction.

Consequently, most hiring managers have to fill positions fast with candidates that lack the necessary skills and, thus, require a significant amount of training. Fifty-one percent of manufacturing and 49% of construction companies responded that new hires don't have the necessary skills for the job when they're hired, while 45% of transportation/warehousing companies stated the same.

"This survey shows that industries like manufacturing and construction continue to face challenges filling open positions," said Chad Halvorson, Founder & CMO of When I Work. "Thorough onboarding and on-the-job training are more crucial than ever to make sure new and existing employees are able to keep operations running smoothly."

Despite the fact that 64% of companies continue to provide training at least once every six months even after new hires have completed onboarding, 32% of companies have reported experiencing an accident due to improper training.

Apart from a lack of skills, other challenges onboarding managers face include a lack of time to devote to training, difficulty in evaluating if training is completed, and difficulty sharing training materials with deskless employees.

"What's interesting is that almost all challenges can be solved with the right tech. Distributing training materials, evaluating knowledge retention, providing access to materials even on the go, sharing employee schedules— all these can be accomplished much faster and more efficiently through training software and mobile applications," said Leonidas Palaiokostas, Product Owner of TalentCards.

With the talent race raging, over half of companies surveyed (54%) have offered higher pay to reduce turnover. Nearly half (47%) have offered flexible working shifts, and 32% have offered better benefits to retain their deskless workers.

The full report can be found here: Onboarding deskless employees 2022

TalentCards is a mobile learning platform that puts training in your people's hands, no matter where they are in the world. While traditional LMSs are made for office-based employees, TalentCards is an app built for mobile and deskless employees— people who need training on the go. Build powerful courses on safety, compliance, product knowledge, soft skills, and more, and deliver them straight to your team's smartphones, without interrupting the work day.

Epignosis is a leading software house in learning tech and trusted by over 70,000 teams worldwide. Its portfolio includes TalentLMS, an all-in-one LMS for SMBs, TalentLibrary™, an on-demand library of ready-made courses, eFront, an enterprise learning management platform, and TalentCards, a mobile app for training the deskless workforce. The company is paving the way for the democratization of training by developing premium eLearning tools that help teams reach their full potential.

When I Work is a market leader in hourly workforce management that provides businesses a fully integrated scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging solution. Trusted by over 200,000 workplaces worldwide, When I Work ensures reliable shift coverage, engaged employees, and faster decisions—giving everybody what they need to be successful at work.

SOURCE Epignosis