Digital Learning in Retail

Recently I was speaking with a retailer who was proudly telling me how they were ahead of the game when it came to creating online learning for its employees, excitedly I wanted to hear more, but was disappointed to hear that this only constituted in scanning documents and emailing them out to employees to view. Ahead of other retailers - some maybe, digital learning - definitely not. Another company proudly announced that they were high tech in their training by using static slides and a robotic voiceover, I was already falling asleepzzzzzzzzzz. In both examples the L&D department can, of course, tick the box concerning putting some focus into employee learning, but is it effective – no, does it engage employees – not really, will it improve the results of the organisation – unlikely.

The retail world of today is one of the most competitive, most complex, most transformational and yet most exciting landscapes we have seen in decades. There is no let up in pace as we enter into the digital revolution, which touches all aspects of the industry. I love retail, but it can be at times frustrating; slow on the uptake, risk adverse and traditional in its approach! One such area is in the retail learning & development space where L&D in the industry hasn’t changed much over the years. The retail mindset is still defaulting to bringing employees together into a room for training where most of which will be forgotten before the employee arrives back at their workplace.

With increasing pressures on sales, wafer-thin margins and profitability it is the training budgets that are cut 1st, and in reality, this will never change, so there needs to be a shift in the way in which retail businesses approach, structure & deliver training. With the increasing trends available with digital learning, retailers can now train their employees the right skills at the right time, with courses that can be accessed on any device, in particular via mobile. Digital learning gives the ability to learn faster while retaining up to 40% more of the information learnt and with microlearning, where employees learn in small bite-sized chunks often via short videos, learning can happen on the go whilst doing the job. Meaning costs are less and learning is more efficient which is a very attractive proposition to both retailers and retail professionals - happy days!

But digital learning isn’t just about online learning; it requires a holistic approach to how technology interconnects with social, cultural and commercial nuances, along with an understanding of how the modern leaner learns. The largest workforce is the Millennial or Gen Y demographic cohorts who apart from citing professional development as a key value-add, have different expectations of how they get trained. Impatient, only want to learn what is needed today, distracted, needs to be kept engaged but having been brought up with Facebook are comfortable sharing and supporting other learners. With social learning, there is a benefit of sharing the learning experiences among employees and organisations incorporating social media groups & online discussions. Gamification is another way to engage leaners by making learning fun (when we are happy, it is proven that our brains are 68% more active, allowing us to absorb 86% more information) & given we are all competitive in some shape or form gamification encourages you to get better, ask any user of the Duolingo app.

A company’s biggest asset is its people, & the most important investment that a company can make is the investment in people, in this digital age & with a mindset change, retailers can do so at a fraction of the cost. 

#globalretail.academy #digitallearning #mlearning #retaillearning

Mark Johnson is the COO & co-founder of Global Retail Academy