The hustle-bustle of the skills shortage and hunt for the right talent for the corporate functions has somehow overshadowed the hiring challenges of the deskless employees. A study conducted by TalentCards Mobile Learning Platform has revealed that a staggering 72% of onboarding managers reported that their company is having difficulty in finding deskless employees who possess the necessary skills to fill open positions.

The study titled ‘Onboarding Deskless Employees 2022’ revealed that 48% of the respondents noted lack of skills among the new hires as a major challenge and involves much time and expenditure on training. The acute labour shortage has been attributed to the communication gaps between the job seekers and the hiring managers. 40% of the HR professionals said that at least minimum access to smartphones may ease out the process but only 17% of the labour workforce use smart devices making the process a time consuming one. 

Onboarding managers have noted that at least 35% of the new hires quit within 12 months of hiring, while 32% experienced accidents due to improper training. Labour workforce being highly fluid, retention is a great challenge for many companies. Findings show that 16% of the new hire leave within six months while 19% leave in less than a year. And, 24% leave in less than three years. 

Commenting on the report, Leonidas Palaiokostas, Product Owner of TalentCards said, “What’s interesting about the challenges that onboarding managers most commonly face when training new deskless employees is that they can almost all be solved by finding and implementing the right tech solution. Distributing training materials, evaluating how well knowledge has been retained, providing access to materials even on the go, sharing employee schedules— all of these tasks can be accomplished much faster and more efficiently through the use of training software and mobile applications.”

With significant hiring and training cost, such frequent job switches throw challenges at the hiring managers. Here is what the respondents noted as the hiring cost of each deskless employee:

• Between $1000 to $5000 (39%)
• Less than $1000 (32%)
• Between $5001 to $10,000 (12%)
• More than $10,000 (11%)
• Unsure (6%)

Retention strategies:

• 54% of the employers are offering higher pay
• 47% are offering flexible working shifts
• 32% are offering better benefits
• 27% are offering more paid time offs
• 23% are offering more training opportunities

Despite these efforts, onboarding managers report that 59% of deskless employees end up leaving the company in under 3 years. It's worth noting that the majority of these employees are not switching to desk jobs. In another TalentCards report which surveyed deskless employees directly, 64% stated that they would not switch to a desk job even if they were given the same pay and benefits.

Chad Halvorson, Founder & CMO of When I Work said, “This survey shows that industries like manufacturing and construction continue to face challenges filling open positions. 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.”