The German Industry has a worldwide reputation of high quality products – the label “Made in Germany” can be attributed to a first-class status. However, can the same be said for these companies’ employee training programs? Employees categorized as “Blue-collar workers” are in particular, passed over for company training. Nevertheless, lifelong learning and professional development should not be dependent on whether or not you work on a computer.
There is great potential in expanding employee training to include all jobs. This is especially evident when looking at current statistics. According to the Institut für Wirtschaft only 36% of company employees in 2018 were office workers.
This figure illustrates that even in modern and high-tech sectors like e-commerce, healthcare, or mechanical engineering, many employees do not fully work “online”. However, these “offline” workers make up a large portion of our workforce and are a decisive factor to the success of a company. How then can we ensure that all employees receive adequate training opportunities and how can professional development be made more inclusive within companies?
Why have companies not prioritized the training of “Firstline Workers”? What obstacles do they face?
In general, companies find it difficult to integrate all employees into a digital learning concept. This is due to a number of reasons including, unfixed and unspecified workspaces, lack of personal company devices; notebooks, stationary PCs, tablets and smartphones are often shared among groups. As a result, individual employees often do not have a personal company email address. Considering that they often do not need one to complete the responsibilities of their role, companies tend to save themselves the cost and effort of creating such email addresses.
How can this be counteracted?
This is a question that many HR managers within different companies are asking. Until now, a limited number of E-Learning Providers and Platforms have offered any technical solutions that would account for the equal integration of all kinds of employees into a unified digital learn- and training concept.
The need for an uncomplicated and easily scalable solution for internal training is very high, especially for globally active groups and companies.
Masterplan for All Teams: Exclusive Content on an inclusive platform
Masterplan has addressed this problem by creating a new platform feature that offers both existing and new customers the chance to use its holistic system. HR managers now have the option of linking employees to the platform via a personalized ID, which can also simply be used to login. Companies therefore, do not have to invest in creating their own IT infrastructure first, but can simply use Masterplan to integrate digital learning for all of their company teams. The personal IDs can be effortlessly transferred in a bundle through a one-time Excel export. Employees with an existing company email address can simultaneously be invited to the learning platform.
Thanks to an ever expanding video-library, you too can step on the bandwagon
From personal experience, we know how much planning and time goes into the production of videos for specialized or company-specific topics. For more general training however, we’ve already got you covered!
- Mandatory training and onboarding
- Soft Skills
- Content on digital tools
- Fundamentals of digitization and new technologies
Our ever-growing video-library already holds more than 2000 lessons from numerous industry-fields. We continuously work to expand our platform and bring in only the best content from a global group of speakers. This means that our customers have both access to a wide range of high-quality learning content and can quickly and easily provide their employees with general and company-specific training.
HR managers can create unique comprehension tests, set mandatory training, and track employee learning success. Learners on the other hand, will be motivated to learn using the intuitive user interface, short learning-units, gamification element and personalized learning groups. You will never again be reminded of the dull school lessons from grade school because with Masterplan, learning is made fun!
“The biggest challenge is to give all workers, from those working offline to the so-called blue-collar workers, access to Masterplan and to encourage them to use it for the long-term. The need is especially great for example, in cases of mandatory training. We are actively working on framing the conditions for this training, such as providing suitable devices."
Bernd Thyssen, eLearning Specialist, Global Ardex Group
Promoting an Inclusive Learning Culture: A means for company success
The involvement of the entire workforce in continuing-education training – from “Offline Workers” to the so-called “White-Collar Workers” – is essential for company success. Fortunately, many companies are already recognizing this advantage and are rethinking their current learning models.
The change in learning culture is occurring in both the production and logistic sector, as well as in health care and operations supported with shift-work. It is logical to make such adjustments because it allows employees the chance to learn during their regular working hours, adhering to all labor laws.
A company-wide definition of concrete learning objectives or the preparation of optimal learning conditions (like access to devices such as smartphones and tablets) are additional challenges for companies. Evidently, it is essential for continuous actions to be taken in order to establish an inclusive continuing-education culture.
Using “Masterplan for All Teams”, companies don’t have to worry about contacting every employee, save time and money on customizing their own IT systems.
Three Tips for HR Managers with Blue-Collar Workers
Blue Collar, Pink Collar, White Collar: A Short Overview
These three terms have principally been designated for front-line workers that do not hold a university or technical college degree. The colors used under are derived from the colors that each employee would wear as part of their job-uniform. Given the fact however, that some of these terms have been in use for more than 100 years, they do not accurately describe the diversity of the modern workforce. “Blue-collar” for example, is often used to describe people that do manual or physical labor. The term is derived from the blue collar uniform that workers would wear on the job. The term “pink collar worker” refers to anybody who works in the service sector. However, this term is extremely outdated and unrepresentative. Historically, these occupations were performed by women and hence labeled as “pink”. Finally, “white collar” stands for professions where white button-down shirts would be worn. This usually refers to people who work in an office-space and are likely to sit at a desk with a computer.
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Masterplan Team
