Why frontline onboarding fails — and how to solve it
Blog | Onboarding
From hospitality and retail to healthcare and logistics – frontline employees are still onboarded as if they were office workers: long, complex, and disconnected from their daily reality. Without a laptop, corporate email, or fixed workplace, they simply can’t get off to a good start. The result? Frustration, mistakes, and high turnover. In some sectors, almost one in three new hires leaves within 90 days (Work Institute, 2023). Time for a new approach.
Why frontline onboarding often fails
The problem lies not only in what we offer, but also in how and when. Frontline employees often start without the right tools: no fixed workplace, no company email, and little time for long training sessions. Their onboarding is rarely visual or mobile-friendly and often misses crucial context about the organization. As a result, new hires feel disconnected, make more mistakes, and deliver less value in their first weeks.
The three biggest pitfalls
Wrong format: Content is designed for desktop and office hours. On mobile, it’s unreadable or impractical – people give up.
Too much at once: Hours of training on the first day are overwhelming. Frontline staff learn better in short, focused bursts.
No sense of belonging: There’s little context about mission, values, or culture. New hires feel like temps instead of team members.
According to SHRM, strong onboarding increases the likelihood of employees staying by 69%. In high-pressure sectors, that difference is crucial.
The power of microlearning
For people working on the shop floor, in the kitchen, or behind the wheel, learning works best in short, digestible steps. Microlearning delivers exactly that: 3–5 minute modules, accessible on their own phone, in their own language, at the moment they need it.
Research from eLearning Industry shows that microlearning improves knowledge retention by 17–20% compared to traditional training. And according to the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2024, mobile learning is the key to reaching “deskless workers.”
Here’s what effective onboarding looks like: ✅ Short 3–5 minute modules ✅ Accessible on any smartphone (no app, no login required) ✅ Multilingual and visual (icons, video, voice-over) ✅ Real workplace scenarios ✅ Smart quizzes to test understanding
I’ve written before about the power of microlearning — especially when you use AI to create it fast.
Marché Mövenpick: onboarding on the frontline
A great example comes from the international hospitality group Marché Mövenpick. With over 2,500 employees across dozens of locations worldwide, they faced a familiar challenge: how do you onboard new staff quickly and consistently without PCs or email addresses?
Together with Fellow Digitals, they adopted a mobile-first approach. The traditional onboarding filled with handbooks and classroom sessions was replaced by short, interactive microlearnings on hospitality, hygiene, and safety — all accessible via smartphone.
New employees now receive their first training before day one, so they start well-prepared. Everything is multilingual, visual, and tailored to each local team. The results:
Shorter ramp-up time
Fewer mistakes in the first weeks
Higher engagement
And most importantly: employees who stay
Managers can track progress in real time through the LMS dashboard, while new colleagues feel part of the team from day one.
AI as a learning accelerator
Many organizations still have piles of training materials — from handbooks to PowerPoints — but transforming them into engaging, bite-sized modules takes time. Not anymore.
With Fellow Digitals’ AI Course Generator, you can turn existing documents into interactive microlearnings within minutes — in any language. The tool automatically creates summaries, quiz questions, and visual explanations, translating content into clear, accessible language.
This enables HR and L&D teams to innovate faster without increasing their workload. More importantly, it ensures that everyone — regardless of background or language — gets the same opportunity to learn and succeed.
Start small. Keep it practical.
Whether you work in hospitality, logistics, retail, or healthcare, practical onboarding helps people perform faster. Start with one essential training — like safety or hospitality — and build from there.
A proven approach:
Choose one process or topic that truly makes a difference
Collect existing materials (manuals, PowerPoints, photos)
Convert them into microlearnings with the AI Course Generator
Test with a small pilot group
Measure results (ramp-up time, errors, turnover)
Scale up — and see the impact grow
Organizations that follow this approach see measurable results: shorter time-to-productivity, fewer errors, and higher retention.
The essence: everyone counts
Onboarding is more than transferring knowledge — it’s the first moment someone feels: I belong here. Frontline employees deserve that same experience, no matter where or how they work.
👉 Discover how Fellow Digitals helps organizations give every employee a great start — with microlearning, AI, and a platform that reaches everyone. We’d love to show you how this works for your organization in a personal demo.
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