August 15, 20207:01 AM ET
We’ve long known there’s a digital divide in America. The pandemic, which has forced the country to jump headfirst into an immersive, all-encompassing digital existence — is only exacerbating it. Most of the discussions focus on elementary school children, but college students get stuck in this disconnected abyss too. Research shows 10 percent of the nation’s college students — that’s about 2 million people — don’t have access to a laptop for school.
While this story focuses on access to college, there is a similar challenge at the moment in professional training – especially for new-hire training – where employees must be provided hardware and software to even attempt onboarding. This may present a higher risk for the organization in a time of strained resources. One option is to reopen the workplace for socially distanced training and then send preconfigured hardware home with the new hire. But the organization may quickly see the limitations of expecting new employees to support work by paying for Internet access (equipment and service) that they can’t yet afford. As always, employee performance is the reward in this equation. -MW-
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