Sponge Video: Retail Rework
Onboarding and talent
Posted on Oct 02, 2017
Learning strategies
Elearning
Sponge’s Liam O’Meara looks at how to get retail associates up to speed quickly and keep talent in the business in the first of our five part video series.
Transcript
Emma Brock
It's time to re-think retail learning, In this 5 part video series we'll look at a variety of topics, including product knowledge and customer experience. We'll look at the challenges your retailers face on a day to day basis.
Our experts will share their insights on how to best equip your workforce for success.
So let's start form the beginning, Onboarding and talent development. The bottom line is, Onboarding matters but the figures suggest that the retail sector is struggling to provide effective onboarding programmes
Vox pops
"This is my fifth retail job in 2 years"
"My introduction to retail was, here's your uniform, there's the till"
"I like my job, but I don't see it as a long term career"
Emma Brock
So, what needs to happen to change the onboarding process in retail?
Digital has a major role to play in terms of the retail onboarding process, one of the key opportunities is the fact that we can actually pre-onboard people so that when they come on day one they actually know everything there is to know about your organisation and can hit the ground running.
Not only that, for a global organisation, we can create consistency across the whole workforce, so no matter where your customers come in to one of your retail stores, they're getting that consistent experience from the people within the store.
There's also the opportunity of using mobile, people can actually access their learning on any device so that they can get access to it when they need it, at the point of need.
Emma Brock
In the next episode of Retail rework, we'll be focusing on sales and product knowledge, just how do you enable your sales associates to thrive when the knowledge gap is ever widening? Find out in our next video.
Retail Rework video series - coming soon

2: Sales and product knowledge
Julie Wedgwood, Head of Learning Strategy at Sponge looks at how to close the employee knowledge gap in retail.

Charlotte Bryce of Sponge looks at how to make sure learning solutions meets the needs of busy retail associates.

How to rethink retail safety, compliance and ethics training with Katie Hall, Senior Learning Designer, Sponge.

5: Customer service and experience
How to strengthen customer service skills and empower store associates to keep customers coming back.
Download our workforce training guide and put the lessons from Retail Rework into action in your business.