One of the main concerns for retailers in preparing for the holidays is making sure their store can handle the volume of foot traffic and sales associated with the busy holiday season. Along with expanding their IT infrastructure – namely their POS systems – most companies will hire seasonal employees to help accommodate the increase in visitors.
The greatest challenge for many retail stores, however, is in training these employees. The large number of hires need consistent training, and need to be trained efficiently and quickly. Retailers will often deploy a Learning Management System, or an LMS, to handle the training of all their employees.
Your stores may already have a service that provides an LMS. However, that is only half of the story. The way the LMS is implemented at your retail locations often matters as much as the quality of the content that the LMS provides. This is especially true when it comes to seasonal employees: hiring a substantial number of people in a short period of time needs a sophisticated system in place to manage their training.
Why You Need A Modern LMS
If you aren’t already a believer in using an online LMS over traditional word-of-mouth or training manual, there are a few reasons you should consider investing in an LMS. Namely, modern learning management software don’t just go through the basics of company protocol and etiquette. Most retail employees will likely have experience with a POS and cleaning the stores, but only a few will have the natural inclination that comes with making sales.
The modern LMS emphasizes branded experiences and increasing conversions. That means that even through seasonal employees, who may have the least commitment to your brand of all your staff, will be able to still convey your brand values through every small interaction with your customers. In addition, you will be able to help your employees better deliver on chances to upsell and “build the basket.”
What’s more, learning management systems follow the same tenets of retail that we have discussed about omnichannel and customer engagement. A comprehensive manual on your branding and day-to-day protocols is not tremendously useful if your employees don’t read it. An LMS helps all of your employees, especially those who will only be with your company for a short amount of time.
Your LMS As Part of Your IT Infrastructure
Typically, training with an LMS is done on a networked computer on-site. At least, this has been the case in the past. With the expansion of the Internet-of-Things, many retailers are opting for a new approach, especially in light of training a large number of seasonal employees.
New LMS services allow your employees to drop right into their training from any computer or tablet in the store. Alternatively, kiosks that are already integrated into your store’s network can be used to deliver training. Having multiple touchpoints for employees to train allows your company to train more employees in a shorter amount of time, and train from anywhere in the store.
In addition, most of these training programs are self-directed. Though they have deadlines associated with the modules, not having to set specific dates and times for training adds the flexibility needed to make sure training isn’t rushed nor missed. Rather, this style helps to lower the amount of missed or inadequate training days, as scheduled dates are too rigid for the dynamic retail environment.
Make Training a Part of Your Retail Network
Your retail stores depend on the skills of your employees to create the branded experience that ensure repeat customers. With the holidays fast approaching, bolstering your existing IT framework by adding more computers, tablets, or kiosks can help speed up the training of your seasonal employees without sacrificing comprehensiveness.
If you’re looking to build out a network that can support the scale of your training program for your employees, seasonal or year-round, Worldlink Integration Group has your solution. Our experience in delivering on IT projects for mid-sized businesses speaks for itself. We can supplement and assist your IT department and make sure projects get delivered on time.
The holidays are only a few months away. If you need to expand your IT network, contact us today.