When your retail leaders and team members complete training, whether it’s on-the-job, e-learning, classroom-based, or a blend, there’s a sense of accomplishment. They’ve checked the box and completed the event. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what they now know. Big questions remain:
Do they have the knowledge they need to be successful on the job? Will they apply what they’ve learned? How will their behavior change? Just as important, what happens a year down the road? Are they retaining the knowledge? What do they know now? Did the learning stick?
In fact, research shows that, without reinforcement and manager involvement, just 16-24% of participants will actually use what they learned back on the job. On the other hand, when they have some kind of regular reminders or questions by their manager, that percentage skyrockets to more than 85%.
There’s a tremendous amount of value that comes from understanding the capability of your workforce and knowing what people know now so that you can more effectively coach people and put people in the right positions based on their strengths. Understanding how knowledge changes over time is a critical part of upskilling your workforce.
In a webinar we conducted earlier this month, JD Dillon, Chief Learning Architect with our partners Axonify and the author of “The Modern Learning Ecosystem,” emphasized how important learning enablement and reinforcement are for getting a full return on your training investments. Together, we explored some of the key insights from Axonify’s science-backed approach to reinforcement and the lessons we’ve gained at MOHR Retail from our 40 years of working with retail organizations to achieve sustainable learning and business results.
Read on for key takeaways from that discussion, including 7 strategies for increasing the ROI of retail training, tools to help you provide continual learning within the cadence of the retail environment, and tips for getting buy-in for your initiatives.
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