A look at how much we are using our mobiles phones today and why your organization needs to embrace this technology to enhance your training initiatives.
(a version of this post was published by Training Mag)
These days, everyone’s face is constantly buried in their phone, buzzing with text messages, social media notifications, alerts, work reminders, and more. Let’s take a moment to understand how much we are using our mobiles phones today and why your organization needs to embrace this technology to enhance your training initiatives.
The average person spends more than four hours* a day on their mobile phones. Some sources say that number is closer to five hours a day.** Either way you look at it, that’s a lot of time. If we assume the average person sleeps eight hours, that leaves 16 waking hours during the day that are spent working, eating, commuting, parenting, etc. The four hours spent on your mobile phone represents roughly 25 percent of your waking hours, or 50 percent of the average eight-hour workday. Now, of course, there is some overlap in time due to multitasking, but there is no question we spend a big chunk of time on our phones. If we want our training and learning programs to mirror how our employees actually communicate and engage content, mobile needs to be a big part of that.
Some 90 percent of the time spent on our mobile phones is using mobile apps; the balance (10 percent) is spent mobile browsing.* While training materials that are optimized for mobile are great, your employees are accustomed to engaging mobile apps for much of their interaction on their mobile phones. This is something you need to seriously consider when selecting the training solutions for your next campaign or training program—does it have a mobile app?
The four hours spent on your mobile phone represents roughly 25 percent of your waking hours, or 50 percent of the average eight-hour workday.
We check our phones an average of 85 times a day, and half of those uses were for an average of 35 seconds or less.*** Do we need to spell it out? Short and sweet. People want information in short bursts and they need to be relevant of high value. Training materials aren’t going to be effective if they consist of hours-long drawn-out PowerPoints with flat voiceovers that are about as exciting as a congressional filibuster.
Mobile phones may have started as a means to communicate, but with today’s smartphones, their utility has forever changed. Today’s smartphones are go-to tools for entertainment, research, learning, productivity, collaboration, and communication. If these numbers weren’t enough to convince you, here are three more reasons you should believe in mobile training:
- Mobile consumption is more prominent than ever. This takes place on laptops, tablets/iPads, and smartphones. Optimizing your content and information for mobile is imperative—make sure it’s short, sweet, and to the point.
- Multitasking. This seismic shift in mobile consumption feeds the “always-on” training and learning companies are looking for. Today’s employee is constantly on the move, making the ability to multitask and adapt to every situation an invaluable skill.
- Mobile learning transforms user experience. Both mobile apps and responsively designed mobile Websites will suffice to deliver learning content, with the real priority being short-form learning content in bite-sized blocks. A more lightweight and intuitive user experience is becoming required for successful employee learning.
While some might see the increase in mobile usage as a distraction, we at Braidio see it as an opportunity to deliver agile social learning and mobile training for enterprise workforces across the globe. Aligning your business with agile, mobile platforms is how companies can stay ahead of the technological curve. Keep businesses streamlined and efficient by catering to modern workforce needs such as being able to train and collaborate on the go.
SOURCES
* eMarketer Data: https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-their-mobile-phones-in-2017-e5f90a0b10a6
eMarketer April 2016 > graph > shows breakout of 3 hours, 23 minutes “in App” and 50 minutes “mobile Web” (more than 4 hours a day)
** Flurry Data: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/03/u-s-consumers-now-spend-5-hours-per-day-on-mobile-devices/
*** Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smartphone-usage-estimates_us_5637687de4b063179912dc96