Frontline employees are professionals who do not regularly work at a desk or computer—for example, retail clerks, utilities technicians, hospitality staff, warehouse associates, and nurses. Frontline employees are typically working in shifts. They are moving throughout the workday and may even travel to several locations in one day. As a result, TD professionals need to align their learning approach to the nature of frontline work.

In Frontline Employees: Addressing Training Needs for Critical Workers, 334 TD professionals answered questions about how their organizations deliver training to frontline employees, what their learning and business goals are, and what challenges they face in delivering training to frontline employees.

Key findings include:

• The live, instructor-led traditional classroom is the most popular format for delivering formal training to frontline employees.

• Organizations use many types of on-the-job training, such as coaching by managers, job shadowing, and knowledge sharing.

• 61% of organizations measure the impact of their training efforts for frontline employees on business goals.

• 74% of organizations cite high employee turnover as a challenge they face in providing training to frontline employees.

• 84% of organizations do not currently use AI-enabled training. The most common reason is that they lack staff with the right knowledge to implement AI-enabled training.