Shift work management platform Deputy today announced its partnership with mobile learning management system (LMS) EdApp, to create two new courses specifically designed for shift workers and managers in the hospitality industry.  Developed off the back of Deputy’s Big Shift Report: The Changing Landscape of Australian Hospitality, these courses were created as a solution to one of the findings — 50% of global shift workers want their employer to place a greater focus on wellbeing. This re-confirms the need for the hospitality industry to support career development, build trust and improve the feedback loop between shift workers and managers.

Following these recent report findings, Deputy and EdApp joined forces to create a solution to this industry problem — mobile-first, micro-learning courses for frontline workers. This partnership produced two new courses: the Shift Workers Track and the Manager Track. With each micro-lesson taking between three to seven minutes to complete, teams are motivated to delve in at their own convenience, with little disruption to their workflow.

“To make training effective, businesses must meet their employees where they are. This means moving away from lengthy, hours-long, dull training sessions and towards bite-sized and mobile-first learning. We've seen businesses improve training completion rates nearly threefold and, as a result, achieve higher sales, better productivity and a general increase in employee engagement,” said Darren Winterford, Founder and CEO at EdApp.

Each course is made up of four sections; an introduction, building trust in the workplace, career development, and a survey in order to gather feedback on where each group stands on their health and well-being. According to Deputy’s report, 93% of Australian workers say emotional and mental well-being is as important as pay, so the survey insights from these courses are invaluable to businesses and provide direction for future microlearning.  

The Shift Workers Track aims to equip employees with the tools they need to evaluate a healthy workplace, share their opinions and feedback and set up a path to success in their career journey. While the Manager Track provides managers with tips for how to develop a healthy and inclusive workplace, build trust and facilitate feedback with staff, and foster career development in order to support employee retention.

“According to The Big Shift report, employers who place wellbeing as a priority have 4.4x higher profit and 30 per cent higher productivity. EdApp’s industry-first microlearning is a direct solution to foster well-being in the workforce. Training and open communication are the cornerstones to creating mentally healthy workplaces and ultimately will be able to reduce employee turnover and contribute to a business's bottom line,” said Emma Seymour, Chief Financial Officer at Deputy. “Microlearning is a growing and critical part of the shift work economy, and workplaces need to embrace it in order to thrive in the rapidly evolving world of work.”

With the Deputy and EdApp integration, business owners can also make sure teams are up-to-date on training and compliance before their next scheduled shift. For example, when a new employee is added to Deputy, they are automatically invited to join EdApp to complete the required training before their start date. This allows business owners to assign prerequisite training before employees can be scheduled for shifts so teams can provide exceptional customer service and are always compliant.

Each course is free and completely editable, allowing business leaders to update any of the text, add their own slides or re-brand the entire course as needed. Businesses can get started in as little as five minutes, and the courses are automatically synced to Deputy with no additional steps required.