One Big Use for Tablets in the Enterprise That No One is Talking About

Tablets are incredibly versatile devices: useful to kids, adults, and employees of all sorts. Although there’s one big use for them in the enterprise no one’s really talking about: employee training.

A new study from ILX Group has found that 41% of enterprises are using or planning to use tablets for training purposes this year. Its Digital Learning for Business report found that human resource leaders and business managers are shifting toward mobile devices as primary training tools.

Just last year, desktops were used in 70% of employee training programs. But by the end of 2012, this number will shrink to just 55%. The story is the same for projectors, from 62% to 47%, and laptops, from 74% to 66%.

While these percentages go down, others are going up: smartphones will be used in 6% more training programs this year, and tablets, a whopping 28% more. Interestingly, internet-connected televisions and gaming consoles are also rapidly gaining popularity in training.

ILX Group suggests that traditional classroom training is increasingly being meshed with digital learning, also referred to as e-learning, to improve worker education. 59% of HR professionals favour this “blended” approach to training as most experts believe it is more efficient than traditional classroom learning. 

Tablets become a part of training programs is significant because training itself is a significant component of successful companies. 63% of HR professionals and business managers train employees to “increase business capability,” while 51% find training has a positive effect on both employee longevity and morale. 43% believe training boosts productivity afterward, and 30% even say it achieves superior profit.