Woodlands Local is set to launch a new online training programme for the team with partners Bolt Learning to help our staff stay on top of all their training requirements.
by Antony Begley
It’s a phrase that gets over-used, but people are indeed a business’s greatest asset, and nowhere is that truer than in a people industry like convenience retailing. Unfortunately, however, the cost of people is going up continuously with constant rises in minimum wage, pensions and more. All of these costs are unavoidable so the logical conclusion for retailers to draw is that if they are going to spend a huge amount of money every month paying staff, it makes complete sense to make those staff as effective and efficient as possible.
Woodlands Local is no different. Staff costs are by far our biggest overhead, which is why we have hooked up with Glasgow-based training specialists Bolt Learning to invest in our staff, help them develop their skills and help them keep on top of all training requirements. That doesn’t just mean the legally require training like alcohol; it also means helping them develop their skillsets across the board that will help them make better, more efficient contributions to our business. It’s also rewarding for the team to know that we as owners are interested in their development and are helping them improve their skills.
The Bolt Learning model is purely online and is module-based so staff can complete the modules at their own pace in the comfort of their own homes without the pressure of managers looking over their shoulder or pressure to complete things to set timescales.
The system enables the organisation, management and distribution of learning modules, but is also capable of being tailored precisely to the needs of individual stores, to ensure that the training is 100% bespoke for the requirements of each store.
Naturally, there are aspects of working in convenience stores which are mandatory and modules have been created on compliance issues like alcohol, health and safety and so on.
But there might be other skills which c-store managers want their staff to become competent in. This might be skills like ‘upselling’, for instance. Hardly a legal requirement, but a great skill to have nonetheless.
These modules have been created so that a suite of training options is available for the entire team in a store.
As well as helping strengthen the team and their skillsets, the platform also takes away huge amounts of administration workload, something that should appeal to all stores as the red tape mountain continues to pile up.
Store managers can sit down and consider what type of training each job role and each staff member should undertake. This might mean an induction module for every new start, training on age-related sales, food safety training for those preparing food and so on. Once these ‘rules’ have been set, the automation takes over and the platform simply follows the rules which have been set by the retailer. It will even send out reminders as deadline dates approach and refresh dates can be set to ensure that, for instance, all staff do an age-related module at least once a year.
The e-learning modules don’t simply state whether a team member has ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ the training, it will use complex analysis to analyse and identify exactly where candidates struggled in any particular questions and help them target their weaknesses.
The learning modules are designed to be highly engaging (so staff remember the content) and end with tests to prove retention of knowledge. This way, retailers can be confident that their team members are truly ‘trained’ (as opposed to ‘I gave them the handbook to read – I hope they’ve taken it all on board’).
But it’s not just e-learning modules which can be distributed via the system. Literally anything which management wants employees to read can be distributed to everyone (either ALL staff, or certain groups or sub groups of colleagues) – each person is tagged and then groups are made of people with matching tags.
Management of the store can have full visibility 24/7 of who has done what, when, and a dashboard reports everything back in real time. It’s an exciting prospect that will solve a lot of problems at Woodlands Local, particularly as we are recruiting and re-training all our staff at the moment. Look out for an update in the next issue.
