04 Mar Why We Retailers Should Invest in Our Employee’s Development
Retail is one of the industries with the highest employee turnover rates. Retaining staff remains one of the toughest challenges within our industry. On the other hand, replacing employees requires a lot of energy and costs. So, should you still invest in your employees’ development?
“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
~ Henry Ford
Employees are your company’s most important assets and ultimately, the strength of your organization will be based on the quality of your people, and how well you train, promote and treat them. Hence, their training and professional development is something you should invest heavily in. Here are the 8 core reasons why:
ADDRESSING WEAKNESSES
A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely heavily on others to complete basic work tasks. Providing the necessary training creates an overall knowledgeable staff with employees who can take over for one another as needed, work on teams or work independently without constant help and supervision from others.
IMPROVED EMPLOYEE EFFECTIVENESS
A report from Hewlett Packard revealed that untrained employees take up to six times longer to perform the same task as a trained employee. The right kind of training can help your employees develop stronger sales skills and greatly increase their productivity.
For example, trained staff may be to make the distinction between a customer looking for assistance and one who wants to be left to browse undisturbed. Sometimes this is a hard call to make, but training can help your employees learn to assess what customers really want.
IMPROVED EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND MORALE
The investment in training that your company makes shows your employees that they are valued. This creates a supportive workplace environment. Employees who feel appreciated and challenged through training opportunities may feel more satisfaction toward their jobs.
REDUCED EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
Staff is more likely to feel valued if they are invested in and therefore, less likely to change employers. Training and development are seen as additional company benefits. You’ll get to lower your recruitment costs due to better talent retention.
ENSURE CONSISTENCY
A robust training and development program ensures that your employees have a consistent experience and background knowledge. This is particularly relevant for your company’s basic policies and procedures. Increased efficiencies in processes result in a consistent customer experience which would generate financial gain for your company.
HAPPY EMPLOYEES, HAPPIER CUSTOMERS
Since your employees are the ones who are actually in contact with your customers, how they think and feel is actually a better representation of your company than all your marketing and advertising material ever could be. Employees who are engaged are more likely to improve customer service which could result in up to 20% increase in sales. As Jim Rohn puts it, “One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10000 worth of advertising.”
GROW INTERNAL LEADERS
Retail training is a perfect way for companies to develop their own leadership and, as a result, retain top talent. Companies need to learn to promote from within, whenever a situation arises. In short, give your top employees a reason to work for you by investing in training techniques that grow leadership skill sets.
ENHANCES COMPANY REPUTATION AND PROFILE
A retail business that invests in its staff will be recognized as being forward-looking. This makes your company more attractive to potential new recruits who seek to improve their skills and the opportunities associated with those new skills. Workers who stay with a retail outlet for many years usually do so because they feel contented with their employer’s dedication to staff development.
Providing regular training to your employees not only optimizes their competencies, it increases employee engagement as well. Seeking for a reliable and experienced partner to conduct training programs for your employees? With decades of experience in the retail sector, we at SH Retail Academy can act as a catalyst to help you solve your challenges by improving the level of your employees and making them energetic about the workplace every morning!
To know more about our courses, please visit here >> SHRA Programs
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