learnability matters

I would be a fool to reiterate that India is going though a revolution in retail. Indian giants like Reliance, Godrej, ITC, Bharati, Tata, RPG, and others have committed billions of rupees in setting up stores, running them, supply chain, etc. Every conceivable type of store is being planned and every product will be for sale — Indian shopping habits would not be the same again.

In this mad rush to the market, they forget to see the impending danger! Where are the trained people to run all these fancy stores? Some would say that India produces huge number of undergraduates and they can man the stores, can’t they? I would say, yes and umm no! Yes, they are literate, but are they really educated? Do they have sound understanding about operations to man a store? Do they have basic communication skills to communicate with peers, supervisors, or customers?

With no schools in India training in retail and therefore unavailable trained manpower, the retailers have no choice but to have extensive in-house training programs. Do you think that they will be able to have trained manpower for all the stores? I don’t think it will be possible with the current state of classroom training. They would need to think out of the box to deliver great and timely training to all — classroom training will be grossly inadequate. So how does retail learn? How will retail in India perform?

The answers should be pragmatic and innovative. However, the answers are difficult as retail works from early morning to late night — some even work round the clock. People in retail are hungry for vertical growth — they are ready to put in late hours (and they do!) — they have no time to learn. The answers are difficult as many in-shop retail people are not educated — many of them have not completed their schooling while many others struggle with English, Hindi or the regional language. The answers are difficult as the things that people sell are new to them, they come from backgrounds where they either could not afford these or did not know such things existed — people are not familiar with the products they sell. The answers are difficult as organizations would rather put people to work than put them in training as “some untrained hands are better than no hands on the floor” and they convince themselves — “they will learn on the floor.”

So the big question is how do you train such a huge number of people in retail skills?

The answer is that they can be trained using multiple media and out of the box thinking about training. If Indian retail giants continue to use only classroom training, they are doomed.

The media that can be used to train depends upon many characteristics of the learners — education, time for training, type of training, organizational hierarchy, family background, economic background, age, gender, etc. The media does not depend on whims and fancies of VP Retail.

Let’s understand media that can be used for shop floor people — people who ensure that things run properly on the floor. They man the shop helping customers find and choose the right product, ensure that aisles are clear, ensure that merchandise is properly displayed, ensure that merchandise is never finished, man the cash register, etc. This kind of job does require basic education and skills. As these people are required all the time to run the store - from early morning to late night, they do not have time for structured learning in the classroom. So we need to use media to bring the classroom to them.

a. Audio training: Each retail store usually has a public address system or a CD/Cassette player that runs background music for customers. Now there are times when customers are not there — early morning while cleaning and maintenance is going on or late evening when floor people are winding up to close to the store. At this time, audio training sessions can be run in the public address system. These audio sessions could ideally teach a new language, customer handling skills, grooming skills, or organizational policies and values. Ideally these are short nuggets of 2-3 minutes each and many of such nuggets must run daily. They must be repeated periodically. This repeated learning will increase retention and greater recall.

b. Video training: Many stores do have TVs that run advertisements in the store. Retail chains use these very effectively to train about how to use products, training for new products, arranging products on the shelf, cleaning, appearance, etc. These are 5-10 minute sessions that people take in small groups once a day. These training run during lunch or scheduled breaks.

c. SMS training: Hard to believe but true — most low paid shop floor people do own a mobile phone. Retailers use SMS as a very powerful way to learn in extremely short messages. The short messages teach about today’s deals and things that are very dynamic.

d. Flash Cards: Written word and pictures are a powerful medium of instruction. Flash cards can be distributed to all people in the morning and rotated the next day. Each flash card can have one concept about the business. By doing this, each person can learn about one aspect of the business in a day and in some months many concepts are clear.

f. Sales Terminals: Point of sales terminals are effectively changed to ensure that they can be used for product learning. This learning can happen as people are punching in orders. A small nugget about what the punched product does or what can be made out of it or how it works can enhance the knowledge of the learner. This positively affects business in the short term.

And yes, retailers can use classroom training for mid- and senior-level managers. eLearning is also a very effective tool for mid-level managers or shop supervisors.

A combination of the above techniques can ensure that retail organizations are learning and thus growing organizations. This will ensure low attrition and high morale of employees. Most importantly, this will ensure a more informed and efficient set of employees to man these fancy stores and consequently offer far better customer experience.

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