Online training is good...
As a fashion retailer, when you look to implement training in your stores, face-to-face training might seem like a good place to start. But, in today’s retail environment, face-to-face alone is not enough to create a positive shift in the sales and service culture of your team.
The millennial generation have grown up with access to the world at their fingertips, and so much of their life is spent fusing real-world interactions with online ones, so it makes sense to deliver training in a way that’s accessible and familiar to them. Trainees want flexibility, interactivity, and ‘on-demand’ training.
We know that online training gives all the obvious benefits like:
With Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) like RedSeed, it’s easier than ever for fashion retailers to create, deploy and manage training in-house which meets the basic needs of the business. But, one question we get asked often by retailers wanting to make the leap from face-to-face training to online training is; “how do you teach soft skills in an online learning environment?”
...But, blended learning is better!
Blended learning is where a training programme takes the best aspects of both types of training (face-to-face and online) and merges them into one cohesive training experience. A study by the United States Department of Education uncovered that trainees enrolled in a blended program were 25 percent faster in achieving the same learning outcomes as their classroom-based counterparts.
What does this all mean for you, the Retailer? It means that if you want to get the best results from your training, you need not say goodbye to the traditional training we’ve all become accustomed to.
It’s been shown that the number of staff reaching and exceeding target increases by 25 percent when a formal coaching process is in place. That’s why we take a blended learning approach to our training.
Our technology can facilitate face-to-face coaching interactions in the form of practice activities, where a coach must conduct a coaching session and mark each task as complete before the trainee can continue.
Real-time practice and feedback means learning is more effective, suited better to the retail environment, and provides an accurate overview of the trainee’s understanding of the new skill.
The ‘Coaching Feedback Loop’ is fundamental to the success of our training because it gives coaches an easy way to keep track of coaching and monitor engagement.
