Retail Training Continues to Change
By Michael Patrick

Training of retail industry employees has undergone major changes over the past five years. Traditional sales and manager-level training is increasingly being done by in-house specialists, while more retail organizations are outsourcing specialized training needs in areas such as retail negotiation or multi-unit management.

But change has always been characteristic of T&D in the fast-moving retail industry. There were always efforts to get the best from retail clerks and employees, but by the early ’70s industry training finally coalesced into a professional specialization. Training providers emerged that knew the retail business, and specialized industry products were developed and marketed to retail organizations. Until the ’70s training of retail employee was the responsibility of the personnel function, but soon a dedicated T&D function became the norm and employee development became the job of the director of training.

Change continued in the ’80s. Personnel became HR, clerks became store associates and training got more sophisticated. By the end of the decade training was reaching higher in the ranks, organization development became a common agenda and T&D was no longer seen as a single event, but an ongoing process that addressed business goals. And training was made more accountable as well.

Retail organizations asked how training fit with the strategy as well as how it was to be implemented, measured and assessed for effectiveness. During this time the focus of training moved from solely technical (POS, systems training, etc.) or interpersonal selling and service skills to higher levels of development for managers. Retail experimented with innovative approaches to developing leadership and stronger teams. Taking training out of the traditional classroom into the outside world, new offerings for “experiential” training in ropes courses and other physical challenges combined elements of interpersonal skill with more emotional components such as trust and diversity.

Another ’80s trend was the expectation that line managers themselves would take on skills-based training as a key part of their role in the organization. Soon training the trainer became a useful addition to the industry’s training mix.

Also in the ’80s, training was pushed down to the regional level so it was closer to the field and could address issues that arose on the selling floor. And as a consequence retail organizations found they needed specialized training modules to deal with particular challenges, such as loss prevention, interviewing, as well as merchant development and unique systems training.

The ’90s saw the maturing of the e-learning offerings moving from CDs to web portals. This necessitated development of more robust systems for tracking training completion and results.

A range of LMS (Learning Management Systems) began to emerge. Along with the improved graphic and response time of e-learning, the debate over which training approach was better: instructor-led or online. Eventually, research and results showed that each had its own strengths and “blended solutions” were born. Both of these options continue to evolve today. More attention is being given to granularizing certain training topics into quick, just-in-time desk-top modules for e-learning. Also, new focused, practice-rich instructor-led training modules were being made available for strengthening interpersonal or application skills in the classroom. In some cases, e-learning and instructor-led training are being combined to both shorten classroom time for participants as well as do pre-session work and post-session follow up and reinforcement.

Over the years, generalist training firms made efforts to work with retail organizations, but the experience was usually disappointing. These were highly-professional providers that were used to having abundant time to train and dealing with employees in an office setting. They tended to use sophisticated terminology and concepts, such as leadership and assessment…and as often as not failed to connect with their subjects.

They learned that retailing is pretty down-to-earth, and has its own pacing and dynamics. Stores are generally reactive and responsive to the day-to-day challenges of merchandising and selling…and less interested in overly ambitious development models.

Experience proved that in order to be effective in retail training the provider had to have an unusual mix of skills and expertise. On one hand, a thorough grounding in the business is requisite, but a capability in learning design is also desirable.

Today the retail industry does more training than ever, but no longer just training for training’s sake, and training has never more been on the industry’s mind. In fact, retailers have become sophisticated users and expect a training intervention to keep a focus on what’s essential to the store’s success. That’s because the industry has become so competitive and unforgiving, and store management is always looking for ways to gain an edge or a measure of uniqueness…and training is recognized as a key weapon for achieving it.

We recently did an overview of industry training and found variations at different staff levels:

Sales staff - A wide variety of training methodologies and modules abound as retailers rely on internal trainers to work with sales associates. Once accounting for the bulk of industry training, demand for external expertise has remained modest at this level. There is wide experimentation with various delivery modes, including the Internet and CD-Rom. And a range of off-the-shelf training products are available at competitive cost.
Store managers - Development of first-line managers is also being handled increasingly by internal T&D departments, and outsourcing has risen only moderately. Focus is shifting for this level of management from solely sales management to business management, which would include more analysis and interpretation of the business and the ability to persuade more senior levels about their unique store needs.
District managers - Demand has risen substantially in the area of multi-unit management training. Retailers are devoting greater resources to developing district managers since they have a wide span of control. But effective development at this level continues to be the greatest challenge for retail organizations and turnover remains unacceptably high. Leading at a distance is one of the most challenging situations for newly-promoted regional, district and area managers in retail.
Retail negotiation - What were competitive working relationships between retailer and vendor have become increasingly closer with impact on all aspects of the business. Retailers have aggressively restructured, modifying existing departments and groups as well as creating new ones to capture and leverage information about customers, markets and competition. Supply chain groups, database management teams, category managers and other innovations are putting buyers into new relationships that require more empathy and finesse. Greater retailer-vendor integration requires more sophistication on the part of merchandise managers.
Leadership development - The segment with the greatest growth has been T&D for the executive level as stores seek to close a lingering development gap in the industry. Lack of bench strength has emerged as a major concern of senior management. And emphasis is now on competency assessment so the job is clearly defined and effective career progression may be put in place.
Custom training - More retailers retain outside providers to develop specialized modules that address particular needs, such as fitting-room selling, converting just-looking customers into buyers, selling to friends, or selling technology to women customers. This segment, while small, may emerge as the fastest-growing.

Since the ’90s, growth in the demand for professional retail training has come largely from specialty retailers and new retail concepts that push the envelope of what we know as “retail” e.g., software manufacturers with retail outlets, sports or entertainment complexes with retail locations, etc. Specialty stores need to pivot quickly, to introduce a new line, to regain product focus, or to address an emerging need. They come to a training provider and say “We need ‘x’ and can you develop a training solution? It needs to be done in weeks, not months.” This kind of training intervention is becoming commonplace as large retailers must respond to customer needs and sudden shifts in the marketplace.

Reprinted from HRE's Workindex.com

Michael Patrick is President of MOHR Access, based in Ridgewood, NJ. Contact him at 201-444-4100. Find out more at www.mohraccess.com.