Your store may already sell good products, have a consistent flow of new and returning customers, and provide customers with satisfactory return policies. But all of these will prove to be successful if you have well-trained retail staff that continuously provide a wonderful customer experience and move your business forwards.
Your employees are the first friendly faces your customers see when they walk into your business and the ones with whom they have the most contact. As a result, it stands to reason that good retail staff training should be one of your top objectives.
It may be possible that you want experienced employees, but handing out everything to them on the first day may cause a little chaos. This is where onboarding comes into the picture.
When you successfully communicate with and train your staff, they are able to understand your expectations and their role in your store. In other words, your store’s success is dependent on its training and development programme.
However, 32% of retail employees report receiving no formal training. This is a larger proportion of untrained workers than in any other industry.
Why it’s important to invest in retail employee training
If you want to improve retail management, you have to invest in training your employees. But training has so many benefits for both you and your employees that you’ll quickly begin to reap the rewards.
Increase employee productivity
When you train your employees, they’re more likely to perform their tasks well. That’s because employees who know what they’re doing are more efficient.
Training also indirectly affects productivity. When your employees are efficient, they have more time to do their tasks thoroughly and spot problems that need attention. That means that training can bring you increasing returns on your investment.
Boost employee morale
According to Glint’s recent report on employee well-being, career development is one of the key drivers of employee satisfaction. And when you offer your staff members training that’s both relevant and useful, you’re saying you value them as team members and want to invest in their professional futures. That can increase employees’ feelings of self-worth.
Training also sets employees up for success and satisfaction as most people are happier when they feel capable in their workplaces.
Attract employees and increase retention
The LinkedIn 2022 Workplace Learning Report revealed that businesses are twice as likely to hold onto their employees when they offer effective training. That’s because people want employers who support them in their current roles and offer them the opportunity to learn new skills so they can progress in their careers.
Beyond retaining employees, training can help you attract new hires for the same reasons. Consider mentioning your training programs in your job ads and on your LinkedIn profile, and maybe even include some current employee testimonials on your careers page.
Promote autonomy and avoid micromanagement
Having under-trained employees on your team is a lose-lose situation. Either you have to watch those staff members closely — which is stressful for them and a poor use of your time — or you have to leave them to learn on the job and hope they don’t make too many harmful mistakes.
All in all, training allows employees to manage themselves better, which is beneficial for the whole business. It means you don’t have to monitor your team as much and feel confident everything will continue to run smoothly.
Increase revenue
All the benefits we’ve mentioned above can also make your business more profitable. For example:
- Productive, happy employees deliver better customer service. This can increase sales, earn you more returning customers, and build a great reputation for your business.
- Higher retention rates reduce your hiring and onboarding costs.
- Self-sufficient staff members allow you to focus on running your business instead of constantly monitoring their work.
- Truly satisfied employees can also become brand ambassadors for your business if they talk about working for you positively to others — especially on social media platforms like LinkedIn, where their posts and comments are visible to other professionals.
When to train your employees
Training shouldn’t just be part of your onboarding process — it should be a continuous activity that you can adapt to suit your changing business and employee needs. Although you can offer extra training whenever you see fit, here are some situations when businesses often need to train their employees:
Onboarding new employees
When you hire new team members, even if they’re experienced salespeople, they’ll need to receive training about your specific business expectations and processes.
Onboarding new roles
Likewise, when you promote an existing employee, you’ll need to make sure they’re well-equipped to carry out their new duties.
Product or service updates
When you introduce new products or services, employees need to learn about them in detail so they can sell them effectively.
Software updates
If you change or update software like your point of sale (POS) or scheduling tool, you’ll need to tell staff members exactly what to expect. Otherwise, they may end up using the software incorrectly.
Regular employee performance development
Performance reviews reveal staff strengths and weaknesses, as well as business skill gaps. And this kind of information can help you organize relevant, effective training sessions.
Seasonal training
When you hire seasonal employees, they still need onboarding. However, it may look different than usual as you have to tailor it to your short-term needs, which might vary depending on the time of year.
Types of retail employee training programs
Here are some of the most common types of retail employee training. However, this isn’t an exhaustive list, as different retail industries have different training needs. For example, shoe shops need to teach their employees how to fit shoes, and garden shops require staff to take care of the plants in the store along with selling them to customers.
1. Retail sales training
Retail sales training is the process of teaching your employees how to:
- Approach customers on the sales floor
- Build a rapport with customers
- Showcase the business’s products and services effectively
- Talk about a product or service’s features and benefits in detail
- Compare and contrast other similar products on the market
- Overcome objections to or questions about pricing
- Cross-sell other complementary products and services
Effective sales training includes mapping the customer journey from the moment they walk in your shop’s front door to when an employee closes a sale. Teaching popular sales techniques is also important, like telling a story and creating a sense of scarcity or urgency.
Keep in mind that retail sales training is different from other sales training because employees have a much shorter time frame to make sales when compared with other industries. So, make sure your techniques and training materials are specific to retail sales.
2. Customer service training
Customer service training teaches team members how to improve the customer experience in your shop. And while customer service training may have some overlap with sales training, it also encompasses developing the soft skills necessary to deal with customers effectively like:
- Communication
- Empathy
- Attention to detail
- Problem-solving
Customer service training also shows employees how to handle more complex and difficult customer interactions like complaints, returns, and inquiries. This kind of training is vital for situations when customers become irritated, angry, or behave inappropriately. For example, it’s handy for your employees to know how to delicately handle customers who skip the queue or want to return a product after the return period has passed.
3. Product training
Product training should go a lot deeper than simply telling staff about new products. Ideally, it should also involve teaching team members how to showcase those products effectively. For example, most successful products reflect a specific brand that customers buy into. So, you wouldn’t want your sales team to showcase a mountain boot with a tough, practical image as a fashionable item.
You should also teach your sales team to tap into customer needs throughout the sales process. Show them how to quickly uncover customer pain points and the products that can solve them. For example, you can role-play offering a customer more affordable options when they’re unhappy about the price of a certain high-end product.
3. Management training
If you have different levels of seniority in your shop, you’ll also need management training in your roster. Management training focuses on both the soft skills necessary to lead a team and the hard skills required to run a business. You’ll also have to teach senior staff members how you’d like them to report back to you when they manage shifts where you aren’t present.
What to include in your employee training manual
You may wish to create a training manual for your employees. Training manuals are documents that contain all the essential training information employees should have on hand. They can come in paper formats, digital formats, or both, but they should be stored somewhere all employees can easily access and refer back to.
Here are some examples of what they can include:
Training timeline
An overview of what your business’s baseline training covers, when it happens, and how long it takes.
Mission and vision
The reasons why you started your business in the first place and what you hope to achieve in the future.
Company policies
A list of your core rules and guidelines, like dress code, staff discounts, and acceptable use of mobile devices.
Information about products and services
An in-depth guide that covers all the most important products and services you offer.
Roles and responsibilities
A description of the tasks and responsibilities different people are responsible for during their working hours.
List of technologies and training resources
Extra resources that employees can use if they want to find out more about your processes, business, or industry.
Safety and compliance information
All the information staff members need to protect their health, safety, and emotional well-being at work.
Build a training program for retail employees in 6 steps
Now that we’ve covered all the resources you need to train your retail employees, here are the steps you can take to create your own effective training programme. This is a general guide for retail stores, so make sure you tailor each step to your specific business model.
1. Hire retail employees with the right attitude
It’s easier to train employees who are already a good fit for your business and have the right attitude for customer service. So, look for people who:
- Are customer oriented
- Share your company values
- Have a positive outlook
- Want to acquire new knowledge and skills
- Also, keep in mind that it’s often less work to train an unskilled employee than an experienced worker who’s picked up bad habits.
To test out candidates’ soft skills, try conducting group interviews. You’ll be able to see how they talk to each other firsthand and assess their interpersonal abilities in a way that’s difficult in one-on-one interviews.
2. Get to know your new hires
Standard training programs can act as helpful reference points and ensure you cover all the essential information. But each employee is different, so be sure to tailor your training to their specific needs.
The more that you learn about your new hires, the easier it will be to adapt your training programmes to what they need to know. Here are some ideas on how to get to know your team better:
Devote time up front to get to know your employees. Learn about their hobbies, what they like to do outside of work, and what achievements they’re most proud of. Ask them how they like to receive feedback. And be sure to share information about yourself, too, so you keep a casual tone and avoid making the conversation feel like an interrogation.
Organise informal meet-ups
Take your new hires out to lunch or arrange an informal get-together after hours, like bowling, karaoke, or some casual drinks. You’ll not only find out who your new hires are as people, but you’ll also show them how you like to lead your team in a casual, low-pressure environment.
3. Choose your training methods
Once you’ve learned more about your new hires, you’ll better understand their learning styles. For example, some employees might be visual learners, while others may have dyspraxia and require more time to process certain information.
People generally retain information better if you use a variety of teaching methods that can resonate with different learning styles. So, try to mix up your training activities and materials as much as you can.
Here are some ideas to consider:
Job shadowing
Also known as on-the-job training. New hires follow experienced employees around to learn by observation.
Online learning
Sometimes referred to as eLearning, new hires can use a website or mobile app to learn about your business or industry at their own pace. You can find many courses like food safety and sensitivity training available online on sites like Udemy and EDX.
Video
You can create your own videos or buy pre-recorded lessons on specific techniques for new hires to watch. For example, Homebase has a Youtube channel full of tutorials on how to use their software.
Classroom-style
If you have several new hires starting at the same time — like seasonal workers — you can onboard them together. But this isn’t as affordable for individual hires because the costs will quickly rack up when you schedule sessions for employees one by one.
Checklists and handbooks Written resources let new workers study on their own and give them a useful guide to refer back to.
Team building activities
These are low-stakes tasks that let your team practise their communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, like scavenger hunts, trivia, or escape rooms.
Orientation This is usually a guided tour of the business premises with an introduction to each of the employee’s new coworkers.
Simulations These are tasks that test your new employees’ abilities to carry out their job duties. For example, you might ask an employee to ring up some items on the till without actually processing a sale.
Quizzes and games
You can test new hires’ knowledge with a quiz to encourage some healthy competition.
Role-playing
This is a training method where employees act out their job duties, often with another employee playing the role of the customer. Role play can help employees build confidence in performing certain tasks before they have to do them with real customers.
4. Keep training sessions short
Studies suggest that 15 to 30 minutes is the most effective length for learning sessions. If they last for too much longer, new hires might get distracted, tired, and even forget most of what they’ve taken in.
So, if you have a particularly long or complex training workshop that you need to share with new employees, break it down into short, self-contained modules. That way, you’ll give everyone a chance to understand and process the new information before they move on.
5. Evaluate your training program
To be sure your employees are getting the most out of their training, check if your program is working effectively by evaluating your approach on a regular basis. A proven method of assessing job training is the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model, which consists of four levels:
Reaction – Use surveys and one-on-one discussions to collect feedback from your employees.
Learning – Measure what the employees learned through testing before and after your training programs. You can test their product knowledge or observe whether they’re performing their tasks more efficiently than before.
Behaviour – Observe your employees’ performance and attitude in the workplace after training. And if you want to know how they act when you’re not there, ask their team members for private feedback, too.
Results – Check whether training has affected your overall business performance with metrics like profits, turnover rates, sales, and customer reviews.
Focus on the training methods that help produce the results you need for your business. And don’t be afraid to reassess and update anything that’s not working for you or your employees.
6. Make employee training consistent
Although most people expect to go through an onboarding process when they get a new job, training should be ongoing. Your employees are only human and will forget what they’ve learned about products, policies, and other internal ways of doing business. They’ll need an occasional reminder or refresher course.
Plus, your business, your employees, and your industry will keep changing over time. For example, nobody could’ve predicted the pandemic, but its impact on retail was unprecedented. Now, social distancing and disinfection points are a huge part of the in-store experience. You’ve got to make training continuous to stay ahead of and prepared for changes like these.
