AI Strategies Help Deskless Workers Overcome Barriers to Training

Deskless employees make up 80% of the global workforce—whether they work in retail, maintenance, health care, manufacturing, or industries requiring them to be on the road or outdoors.

In the U.S., deskless workers are made up of 13.2 million employees in retail, 18.7 million in health care, 9.1 million in manufacturing, 3.9 million in education, and 442,400 in utilities, according to 2023 statistics.

But even though deskless workers abound, they face a bigger challenge than office-based workers for training and development, according to 79% of 1,046 HR professionals SHRM surveyed in 2024.

The main obstacles are limited internet access and the lack of a place to sit and quietly undergo training, according to Joy Lacher, assistant director of learning and development (L&D) at Xylem Tree Experts.

The Norfolk, Va.-based company clears power lines of trees and other vegetation for utility companies and municipalities in 11 states across the Southeastern U.S. Of its more than 4,000 employees, all but about 400 are deskless workers, Lacher said. For many of these deskless workers, their trucks are their workstations.

Limited access or no access to training is a common barrier to training for deskless workers, Lacher has observed.

“Being able to step away and do the training can be a problem,” especially when workers’ duties involve interacting with the public, she said. “That was always the issue in a food industry, having that ability to step away.”

One tool at employers’ disposal to help close the gap: AI knowledge-management portals and personalized training modules. These can be used, Smart Industry reported, “to display best safety practices within each worker’s unique environment that ultimately provide more practical information and learning opportunities on demand, leading to fewer injuries.”

Xylem has been implementing artificial intelligence strategies for a little more than a year through videos an AI provider created using customized avatars of Xylem’s HR and safety staff to deliver training.

“It enhances their connection to the material,” Lacher said. “Particularly with our safety team, as they are also in the field, employees see the avatars as real people wearing the company logo and training them in person.”

Amy Casciotti, vice president of HR at TechSmith, predicts avatars will revolutionize company training content. TechSmith, based on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., is a provider of visual communication tools.

“Unlike human presenters, avatars don’t require replacement due to turnover and can be seamlessly updated to reflect new training materials,” Casciotti said. “Their engaging presence enhances video content without the need for on-camera confidence or costly talent, making them a game-changer in creating dynamic and scalable training experiences.”

Lacher likes the agility of AI training strategies.

“We can create training at a more rapid pace and give people their onboarding training faster,” she said, noting that the safety team recently watched a video while on the job with a trainer nearby to field questions.

“We are able to cater [training] to most of our folks and the barriers they come across,” Lacher said, by facilitating communication using translations, closed captions, and avatars that can read the information to employees.

Using AI also allows her employer to create its own scripts, she said, instead of relying on an off-the-shelf narrative and to quickly adapt its training to industry changes.

“Anytime there’s a change in any kind of regulation or process or procedure, we can adapt our training very, very quickly” without relying on a film crew to edit existing training videos, Lacher noted.

Xylem’s L&D and safety teams customize all of its scripts, according to Lacher.

“If the material falls outside of our area of expertise, we work with subject matter experts to fill in the gaps and ensure we are producing a message that is applicable to day-to-day operations,” she said.

Xylem employees previously used printed manuals to complete their training. That required employees to answer test questions and sign and mail their tests to the corporation. Anytime changes were needed, the manual or the affected portions therein had to be reworked, Lacher said, and sometimes manuals were lost in the mail or destroyed. Now, employees can access the AI app on their phones.

Lacher noted, though, that e-learning typically accounts for only 10% of Xylem employees’ actual training:

“The safety team and field leaders account for 70% of learning as they complete on-the-job training and provide real-world examples, ensuring safe work practices. The other 20% is from their peers as they learn and develop as a team.”

Other Considerations

Organizations utilizing AI for training still have to do their part, Lacher cautioned.

“AI does not do the work for you. It doesn’t know your company, your processes, your missions and values. You still have to put the work in,” she said. “It’s a tool available to use that you can cater to your company.” 

For example, language translation is one of the features her company uses for its Hispanic employees. Xylem staffers review the translations and double-check the verbiage “to make sure it makes sense,” Lacher explained.

“There’s going to be hiccups; it’s an imperfect process,” she said.

It’s also important to review closed captions that are taken directly from the script you create.

“Does it make sense? Read over it and make sure [the wording] aligns with what [you’re] saying,” she said. Reviewing translations and closed captioning are going to be a constant part of Xylem’s process, she noted.

Remember, too, that technology is not perfect.

“Technical issues such as system crashes, connectivity problems, or software bugs can hinder the learning process and negatively impact the user experience,” eLearning Industry pointed out in a May 28, 2024, article. These glitches “can disrupt learning activities and lead to frustration among learners and administrators.”

Be cautious, too, about relying so much on technology that you lose the human touch that is important in certain types of development activities, such as coaching.

“By designing and deploying AI thoughtfully across the entire workforce,” Smart Industry reported, “we can distribute the benefits often reserved for information workers to the 80% who need them most.”

Other Resources:

Deskless Workers May Need Different Communications About Benefits, SHRM, June 2024

Training: Don’t Forget Your Deskless, Night and Weekend Workers, SHRM, November 2021

Deskless Workers Often Overlooked in Training and Development, SHRM, May 2017

4 Training Lessons from the Trucking Industry, SHRM, June 2017