Podcast: Eye-tracking powers the next generation of workforce training

For an episode sponsored by his company, Tobii’s director of products and solutions, Keith Bartels, joins Smart Industry’s Scott Achelpohl for a conversation about how visual data is helping teams streamline onboarding of employees, reduce errors, and strengthen standard operating procedures—all without adding complexity to day-to-day work.

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Sweden-headquartered Tobii is the global leader in eye-tracking and a pioneer in so-called “attention computing,” and Keith and Scott’s conversation touches on Tobii’s technology and how eye-tracking enables organizations to better understand how skilled professionals perform critical tasks.

By capturing visual attention during real work—not in labs or simulations—teams can more easily identify what works, where processes break down, and how to create employee training that mirrors real-world conditions.

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Keith has more than 10 years of experience within eye-tracking across a range of different commercial fields. His expertise is in wearable eye-tracking, focusing on mobile UX, shopper research, and training and assessment within manufacturing environments.

Below is an edited excerpt from this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast.

Scott Achelpohl: In this episode, we'll cover these topics: the limitations of traditional training methods in industrial settings, how visual insights help teams document and scale best practices, why capturing expert knowledge is key to closing skills gaps, and what makes eye-tracking a simple, practical addition to training programs.

Whether you're refining onboarding, updating safety protocols, or looking for ways to improve consistency across your teams, we'll provide during today's episode a fresh look at how eye-tracking technology can train more effectively without disrupting workflows.

So, with that in mind, let me introduce our podcast audience to Keith Bartels, who is director of products and solutions for Tobii. We're really interested in hearing what you have to tell us, so please take it away.

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Keith Bartels: Scott, I'm excited to be here, and thank you for having me on today's episode. At its core, eye-tracking is really about making the invisible visible and, specifically, what workers are paying attention to while doing their jobs. Like training, quality control or safety, it really does open the door to real gains and efficiency. And, of course, return on investment or ROI.

And if we look at industries such as manufacturing, heavy machinery, energy and utilities, for example, this really is a game-changer when it comes to training because, as we all know, modern operations are only getting more and more intricate, requiring advanced skill sets and precise execution.

At the same time, global competition is only increasing, and this leaves less and less room for inefficiency and any mistakes that companies might make. It leads to huge risks. Risks such as safety risks, financial risks, even reputation risks, and traditional training. There's multiple significant pain points across the industry.

As I mentioned, things such as lack of data to track. Employees learning and retention difficulty in ensuring you're following those training policies. Poor documentation with things such as paper standard operating procedures, or SOPs as they're known. And also the very large, aging workforce, which can leave huge gaps in knowledge transfer. Recent research, Scott, actually highlights that a company that is using eye-tracking has sortened onboarding times and improved retention, and they have significantly reduced those costly chores.

In fact a fun one to share, from one leading global manufacturing company: They recently reported a 66% reduction in onboarding times for new employees, and that's a huge number.

And what's really so powerful about eye-tracking data is that it's captured doing actual work. I'm not talking about simulation, not talking to VR/AR headsets. This is training data in real environments, reflecting real conditions with the actual products and environments.