E-learning systems are learning new tricks for keeping up with workforce demands on retailers
By Paul Demery
When Cingular Wireless acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004, Cingular’s Jim Bowles, vice president of workforce development, had 30 days to train an army of people on how to sell the suddenly merged product lines of two major retailers of wireless phones and services.
“We went from the close of the merger agreement to operating as one company within 30 days and we had 100,000 employee-customer touch points across thousands of stores that had to be aligned as one selling team with products and services,” says Bowles, the top executive in charge of hiring as well as training.
Already in place
Luckily for Bowles, Cingular had already gone through other major changes since it had been formed in 2000 as a joint venture by SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. By 2001, the new wireless phone and carrier services provider had deployed a web-based learning management system from SumTotal Systems Inc. as a key part of its overall training system that helped to boost sales while lowering the cost of training.
“This was a perfect illustration of the power of a web-based learning management system,” Bowles says. “Were it not for this technology, we couldn’t have done it in 30 days.”
Mergers and acquisitions among retailers always place big demands on employee training programs. Managers and frontline salespeople must learn an expanded product line as well as new corporate policies on everything from how to greet customers to how to adhere to updated fire-safety procedures. But M&A activity is hardly the only thing creating new pressures on retail personnel and the executives like Bowles charged with training them.
Retailers are well known for high employee turnover, as stores often rely on part-time and seasonal help and attract short-term workers, many of whom jump ship for higher pay. At the same time, merchants face constantly changing product lines as well as competition in providing a high level of customer service. And there are endless internally as well as externally set mandates—for example, deadlines handed down by the CFO to learn a new price optimization system or how to account for sales and inventory, and new government regulations on maintaining employee safety in warehouses buzzing with forklifts.
At retailers like Cingular, the rate of change itself continues to quicken and makes keeping up even more difficult, Bowles says. “In the old days, telephone companies sold a landline service and two types of phones, one that hung on the wall and one for a desk,” he says. Now, wireless carriers offer numerous combinations of features and styles among phones that take pictures and can be used to shop the web, with service options also more complicated than ever. “Everything changes so rapidly, because it’s a very competitive business and wireless technology continues to evolve,” Bowles says. “Every time we turn around there’s a new application.”
‘Is anyone paying attention?’
With so many things to teach a constantly changing workforce across a distributed network of tens, hundreds or thousands of stores, headquarters-based retail executives have often been left in the dark about the effectiveness of their traditional training programs that have relied on the distribution of paper manuals, workbooks and computer discs, experts say. “Retailers often struggle with training programs, asking, ‘Is anyone looking at the stuff we gave them?’” says Sunita Gupta, executive vice president of retail consultants LakeWest Group in Cleveland. “They need a way to know if training was effective, or when to change a training course if too many employees did poorly on the test.”
In recent years, web-based computer-based training or e-learning management systems have begun to answer that call, Gupta and other experts say. With web-technology-based integration among multiple applications, it has become easier for human resources managers and other non-tech managers to build customized training programs with audio and video tools, spreadsheets, and graphical displays, then distribute them across the public Internet or a corporate intranet for browser access on a web-based platform from companies like GeoLearning Inc., Plateau Systems, Saba, Learn.com, ACS-Intellinex, Cornerstone on Demand, Element K LLC, InsightU and SumTotal Systems.
Not only does that make it easier for retailers to deploy e-learning systems, but it also makes the systems more interactive for employees and, hence, more effective in teaching skills. “We’re seeing more training that is more interactive, especially among retail companies,” says Waldir Arevolo, research director in the collaboration group at research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. “The more interactive the courseware, the more retention employers get from employees in the e-learning program.”
Training costs at Cingular now range from $8 to $9 per hour per person, far off the average industrywide costs in the high teens and low twenties, Bowles says.
Boosting the cross-sell
At Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., which three years ago deployed an Aspen e-learning system across more than 800 stores in the U.S. under the Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us brands, the retailer has seen a positive correlation between the completion of e-learning programs by store salespeople and sales of profitable product protection plans, says Frank Zahn, manager of talent development. Its Aspen platform is now part of the SumTotal Enterprise Suite version 7.
While retailers and analysts laud the ability of e-learning systems to teach skills efficiently and consistently to a distributed workforce, they also note that the systems work best when offered as part of what Arevolo calls a “learning ecosystem”—one that combines web-based learning tools with instructor-led training and performance management applications. The overall goal, experts say, is to provide the right level of training to different groups of personnel based on their levels of experience, knowledge and responsibility.
“A learning system is not just e-learning, but a learning ecosystem that includes formal classroom training and additional materials to make sure the program is addressing cultural issues and the needs of each group in training,” Arevolo says.
By leveraging built-in analytics and performance management tools in e-learning platforms, retail managers can view on computer screen dashboards the performance of individuals and departments in completing courses, then compare that information with other metrics, such as sales goals for the same individuals and departments.
And by offering a centralized, web-based learning system distributed and controlled from headquarters, along with instructor-led training and supplementary materials, retailers can avoid the historically common problem of learning silos that have plagued retail chains with pockets of inconsistent localized training, Arevolo says.
Customers learn, too
Before web-based systems, when most training was based on paper manuals supplemented by some computer-based training applications, separate departments within the same retail organization would often wind up with different versions of corporate manuals and training software, he adds. That’s because it was difficult for headquarters to track which departments had updated materials and because differing technology infrastructures across departments resulted in many departments having their own version of training applications.
And without centralized web access to e-learning systems, retail executives were unable to instantly monitor how departments and individuals were proceeding in taking and completing training courses, Arevolo says.
In a nod to the trend toward web 2.0, where retailers get more interactive with consumers on the Internet, it can even make sense for a retailer to extend deployment of e-learning applications to customers. An instructional program on how to operate a computer printer, for instance, could be present on a retailer’s web site for consumers as well as for employees. In that way, the retailer can benefit from feedback from both groups on the effectiveness of a training session. “A customer could share valuable information on a product, such as that it takes only three demonstration steps rather than five to learn its operation,” Arevolo says.
Reaching outside the walls
The learning continues with effective training programs in multiple ways, says Cingular’s Bowles. In the years since deploying its SumTotal e-learning system, Cingular learned the hard way that delivering training courses to each store’s POS terminals was not the most efficient way to reach employees when they needed the training. “Most of the time employees couldn’t do their training courses until the store shut down,” he says. “So we evolved to the point where we had a PC in each store dedicated to e-learning.”
But that only meets the needs of Cingular’s own employees, who access their e-learning courses on the retailer’s corporate intranet. With many of its sales processed by salespeople who work for retail partners, including several national consumer electronics chains, Cingular also offers a hosted application from SumTotal that lets outside agents access the same courses by signing on over the public Internet.
In pre-e-learning days, distributing and tracking training materials for such a widely distributed field of salespeople was difficult, Bowles says. And verifying that training was completed to satisfactory levels was nearly impossible, he adds.
“We’ve had a quantum leap in recent years in the information requirements of employees, and in management having a verifiable way to check that everyone has gone through required training,” Bowles says. “You couldn’t do that before web-based learning systems. Now it’s an expectation.”
paul@verticalwebmedia.com
How Nordica expects to win over the ‘kid on the floor’
Although Nordica is a venerable name in ski boots going back to the 1940s, its recent foray into the higher stakes and high-tech world of skis is less well known. And with a lot of technology and marketing invested in boots and some 48 different versions of skis—a single ski-and-boots package can retail for well over $1,000—its goal of winning customers often comes down to how well its products are known by the local sales associate, or “kid on the floor,” at some 1,500 ski shops throughout the U.S.
“Even with all of our research-and-development and marketing, if we don’t have the support of the kid on the floor our stuff doesn’t sell,” says Tyler Kipp, promotions and marketing coordinator for Nordica U.S.A., part of Tecnica Group. He refers to the sales associates as KOTFs—code for brash young skiers passionate about their sport, but often not around the store long enough to attend training sessions conducted nationwide by a thinly spread team of nine Nordica reps.
But in an industry where the competition introduces flashy new styles and technology almost every year, Nordica is taking the training up a notch this year with an online training and employee incentive program delivered over the web into each of its retail locations. Working with web designers Cascade Web Development Inc., Nordica launched last month its Nsider Lounge, a web site that uses multiple forms of media to deliver training along with entertainment and a rewards program geared toward KOTFs.
“The idea is to make every KOTF as knowledgeable as possible, and to make sure every employee in every store is on the same page in explaining and selling Nordica products,” Kipp says.
The online Nsider Lounge shows computer-generated and video demonstrations of Nordica’s inner technology—the new XBS “free-floating” plate design, for example, that improves the flexibility and turning ability of skis while locking boots in place, and the new Gransport rear-entry boot, designed to be easier to put on than conventional boots. But to provide incentives for KOTFs to return frequently for product updates and selling tips, Nordica is providing a section where they can tally the points they earn for each sale—one for a each pair of boots, two for each pair of skis—that can be redeemed for merchandise. The site also entices visitors with the posting of action videos by hot-dog skiers and snowboarders.
“It’s very important to keep the KOTFs coming back to the site,” Kipp says. With so many models of boots and skis, Nordica says it’s virtually impossible for training reps to demonstrate features and selling techniques for all of them. Moreover, some store managers may overlook certain products, such as the Gransport, which may not appeal to experienced skiers.
But by enticing sales associates into online sessions, Nordica can get more products top of mind in store personnel, which can push more sales as well as persuade managers to order additional items, Kipp says.
