A new survey of convenience retailers has identified what has been called “a significant gap in training” in the UK local retailing industry.
Carried out by Bolt Learning, the survey of 125 symbol retailers across seven symbol groups identified that:
- 1-in-5 admitted that they do not carry out induction training for new starters
- 1-in-3 convenience retailers consider training to be a significant challenge in their business
- 1-in-3 say keeping records of their teams training is an administrative ‘headache’.
The survey also clearly identified that symbol retailers aren’t yet embracing new technology to help with the ‘headache of training’ – but that they do want to.
The biggest limiting factors to training were, according to symbol retailers:
- Manager’s time (77%)
- Employees’ time (25%)
- Cost (7%)
However, only just over 1-in-10 retailers currently embrace online learning, with more traditional methods of training clearly preferred:
- Face-to-face in-store (94%)
- Shadowing a colleague (33%)
- Online (11%)
Despite the figures above, over half of retailers say they’re open to trying eLearning in their stores, and even more want help from suppliers specifically.
Many don’t trust current info/training from suppliers, and much doesn’t get passed on to sales staff. Around 20% of symbol retailers say the information they receive from supplier sales reps is sometimes inaccurate, on important areas like over-riders, rebates, POR and even product knowledge.
“The convenience sector needs to look at digital training and communication to help stay in growth, and suppliers have a huge role to play in this, as well as symbol groups”, says Tom Fender, Director at Bolt Learning.
“A lack of time shouldn’t need to be an excuse for lack of training and education.”
