Geo-Location – It’s not just for online retailers anymore. Admittedly, once the technology was available for companies to track longitude and latitude of their target customers, geo-location became a huge benefit. Retailers can track their customers/potential customers’ whereabouts and push special sales and discounts out to them. The ability to do that takes advantage of the impulsivity of many consumers who love to get a good deal.
It was inevitable that geo-location would begin to be seen as a benefit in other online capacities. One of those capacities in in the area of online training, especially for organization and corporations with a global reach. Creating an online training program for new employees in the U.S., in Italy, and in the Ukraine, for example, requires customization for those locations – in terms of local resources, languages, training activities, and the materials that will be presented. And because online training is becoming more and more the “norm,” organizations will need to make use of geo-location to provide customized training. Here are six ways in which geo-location is valuable for training purposes.
Employees with Similar Positions Around the Globe
Your organization has offices, subsidiaries, distribution centers, etc. all over the world. You have developed new procedures in logistics – perhaps in the warehousing and shipping of products. The warehouse managers in all of your locations must be trained. In each of these locations. Of course, each of these managers must be trained, but they also use local employees and local shipping companies, airlines, etc. Your training programs must be “localized” for each of your warehouse and distribution centers in terms of language, physical resources, etc. So, you will be creating online training programs that accommodate those situations that are unique to each location. You will want your trainees in California and China to see different text and images. Fortunately, there are now some pretty solid e-learning creation tools that will accommodate geolocation, by adjusting text and images based upon the learner’s location and point of reference.
Gaming and Geo-Location
Gaming has been a favorite of training programs for quite some time now, primarily because it engages the trainees and forces them to apply what they are learning. Whether you use augmented reality to superimpose virtual locations as a part of the gaming experience, or simply require that trainees advance through stages of their training goals, gaming can be geo-localized. Let’s go back to the logistics changes for a minute. You have a new warehousing system, and new procedures for processing orders, locating the right products using the new system, and then ensuring that they are packaged and shipped in the most efficient manner. Trainees in Germany and Indonesia will the play their “games,” going through the process, but it will be geo-localized for their regions. These are essentially design issues, so your designers themselves will probably need some training to develop designs that are compatible with the language, culture, and unique characteristics of each location.
Virtual Tours for New Hires
If you have large operations in various parts of the world, you want to give your local new hires, no matter what their specific positions, a complete understanding of that operation in the locale in which they have been hired. Part of their on-boarding should be a virtual tour – perhaps of your corporate headquarters located in the UK and then their local facilities. Using geo-location in this regard is truly valuable. Employees only get the “tour” related to their circumstances which streamlines this part of training. And, there may be local and regional regulations and guidelines about which they need to be aware. These can be incorporated into geo-localized training modules. Virtual introductions can also be a part of these modules.
Non-Universal Unique Training Needs
There may be new laws, regulations, or economic/political news that will impact employees in a certain location, but not in others. Part of the ongoing training that employees will have to have is updates on these changing circumstances. At the same time, unaffected employees should not have to be subjected to training that is meaningless for them. Segmenting training modules, so that staff can access only the news and information relative to them, is a critical part of geo-location efforts. Notifications can be sent to just those who are impacted, and they can access the new training modules without having to search through meaningless titles and webinars you may have created. And if a scheduled training module or webinar must be re-scheduled, you can notify only those impacted, while the others go forward as scheduled.
Meeting Immediate Needs through Archived Geo-Localized Modules
When new or existing employees need to meet an immediate need, and they have not had a formalized training session, there is great benefit in having archived training modules, based upon employees’ geographic locations, to help out immediately. An employee in Stockholm, for example, who is trying to meet a unique customer need, can then access the archived module, and resolve that issue. If an employee in Italy is attempting to locate a product in the warehouse, geo-locaters can identify his/her position and direct him to the exact spot. If pricing should change in Cairo but not in Germany, geo-specific information/modules can ensure that the information gets to the right parties. Such personalization of training really streamlines everyone’s needs and tasks.
Corporate Level Training – Virtual Field Trips
When new staff is added at the corporate level, it is certainly not feasible to send them on a physical global tour of offices, distribution centers, etc. around the world. Having the ability to take virtual tours of these facilities as a part of the training process will give new hires the education and information they need to have a holistic understanding of the organizational reach, resources, and operations. When an issue arises in Paris, the corporate staff member already has a visual memory of the facility and has had a chance to be introduced to the major “players” with whom he will work to resolve the issue.
The Future
Geo-location technology is in its early stages, even though it has been in use for several years. The added technology of virtual and augmented reality will also have an impact on how this technology develops and how businesses can use it when they have global operations or simply customers all over the planet. Exploring how you can use geo-location technology and tools can only enhance your business goals.
