A training and development program is designed to equip sales employees with the hard and soft skills they need to perform their jobs effectively.
What is Employee Training and Development?
Employee training and development programs aim to provide each team member with the skills needed to perform their job in the best possible way. These programs are typically intensive training sessions offered when a new employee joins the company, but they also continue as the employee progresses in their role.
Why is Retail Employee Training Important?
Employee training is critical to the success of your store, as they are the people who deal directly with customers and spend most of their time with them. Effective employee training can provide numerous benefits, such as increased revenue, productivity, improved employee retention, and a boost in morale.
How to Build an Employee Training and Development Program
To train your employees effectively, you need to build an effective training and development program. You can do this by following these steps:
Choosing Employees Who Align with Company Culture
Company culture describes the values, beliefs, and attitudes held by your company. Every employee should embrace this culture to provide consistent customer service and feel they are working towards a larger vision. Therefore, the process of building company culture should start early by hiring the right employees.
Aligning the Program with Business Goals
What do you want to achieve through your retail business? Goals can vary, such as opening new global stores or providing in-store experiences that encourage customers to share their experiences with friends and family. Each of these goals requires a slightly different development program, depending on the role of the sales employees in achieving them.
Identifying Needs and Gaps
Managing a retail store requires a balance between many moving parts. Employees may have specialized skills in one area, but they might be weak in others. You need to identify any needs and gaps in your current team. Are they proficient in using your point of sale system? Do they have a good knowledge of the products they are selling? How well do they excel at product display design?
Gathering Feedback from Employees
An employee training program is not something that is set up and forgotten. When starting your training program, your employees may have ideas on how to improve the content or delivery method. Gather feedback from team members to see if they have any thoughts on how to enhance the program. This can help you build a training program that convinces employees to work for you instead of competitors who offer limited training.
Providing Constructive Feedback
Giving constructive feedback is a crucial part of your employee training and development program. It should be an essential component of the program to provide employees with constructive feedback and receive it as well. This feedback can help improve employee performance and empower them to make better decisions in the future.
Setting and Tracking Goals
Once you have received feedback from your employees, consider how to incorporate goal-setting into the development program of each team member. Inform employees how to define success for their initial period on the job from day one. For example, you might expect them to be proficient in a specific computer system, to produce a certain number of suggestions, or to have a sales database of a particular size, etc.
Common Types of Employee Training Methods
1. Instructor-Led Training
Instructor-led training occurs when a current team member teaches new employees how to perform a specific task. This is a good option if you are teaching hard skills through a rigorous process, such as inventory stocking or using your point of sale system.
2. E-Learning and Online Training
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You want your employees to continue in the training and development program outside the store? You can upload training courses to an online learning platform like Teachable or Podia. Stores can also rely on professional online training resources like Shopify Compass.
3. Hands-On and Personal Training
Hands-on training is another method that stores can use to develop employee skills. Hands-on training involves asking experienced current employees to observe new employees.
4. Lectures
Lectures are used to present important information, answer questions, and facilitate group discussions.
5. Group Discussions and Team Building Activities
Team-building activities are powerful ways to bring the retail team together, especially when mixed with training. Research shows that communication among teams improves by more than 50%. Additionally, more than half of employees say that a strong sense of belonging convinces them to stay with the company longer than they expected.
6. Periodic Performance
Periodic performance occurs when team members role-play a certain scenario. You can use this type of training to teach retail employees how to handle customer issues, deal with complaints, negotiate prices, and more.
7. Self-Directed Learning
Self-directed learning works through self-talk. You can incorporate it as part of your employee training and development program by asking them to explain the steps they are taking and the reasons behind it.
8. Audiovisual Training
Audiovisual training uses videos, presentations, and audio files to teach employees.
9. Mentoring and Coaching
Direct mentoring can be used to train new employees in retail and develop their skills.
10. Case Studies
Case studies are real stories about how your products help customers solve a problem or achieve their goals. They can be used to train your team.
How to Choose the Right Method for Employee Training
Once you are familiar with the different methods of training employees, how can you choose the right one for your business? You should consider the goals of your training program, the target audience, and how to track and improve success.
Continue to Improve Your Training Program
Your employee training program is an ongoing process. Regardless of the method you use, you should know that you probably won’t achieve perfection the first time. Use feedback from your employees to continuously improve and refine your training program.
Don’t Leave Retail Employee Training to Chance
As you can see, there is much more training in retail than just teaching employees about company policies. Provide small training sessions on how to use your order management system. Role-play customer interactions. Train sales employees on the tactics needed to convert first-time store visitors into repeat customers.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/retail/10-retail-staff-training-tips-from-experts
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