Change is the only constant and that certainly holds true for the retail industry that continues to evolve rapidly, resulting in the need for employees to constantly learn, adapt, and evolve. Employees have to keep up with the current trend to deliver in their roles.
The modern retail workspace is characterized by relatively young employees who are impatient, overwhelmed, and distracted. They are busy meeting stringent deadlines and constantly making an effort to keep up with their ever-changing roles and responsibilities. So how can the employee experience be improved in such an environment of unrelenting pressure?
To feel empowered in their challenging roles, employees need to gain knowledge on a regular basis, and the information should be easily accessible in the moment. While traditional classroom training still continue to have its place, the retail sector should consider learning solutions for their employees that give them the ability to access information at the point of need and are just right sized to fit their downtimes. Enter microlearning. Microlearning doesn’t necessarily refer to breaking down classroom training manuals into short nugget-sized modules. It offers the learners focused and practical information to help them achieve a specific and actionable objective.
The Salesforce forms the backbone of any industry (including retail) and their job demands them to be always on the move. It becomes really difficult for retail employees to log into their company Learning Management System on a desktop to complete a 30 or 60minute long training course. Instead, the smartphone can provide access to microlearning lessons on-the-go to give the essential information required to perform a task.
The retail industry, in particular, demands a lot of physical tasks to be performed on the floor and microlearning lessons (in the form of simple animated videos) can facilitate the demonstration of such activities.
It is very important for a new team member to reduce their learning curve significantly and get onboard faster, be more responsive to customers, and increase customer loyalty. Microlearning can be a blessing here.
Those who work on-site (the manufacturing units), they are usually provided with a safety manual which employees tend to ignore (they are too lengthy and mundane in nature). Delivering training content for workplace safety in digestible and specific nuggets can help them act fast in case of any emergency. Job-aids in the form of videos, infographics, and flowcharts should be provided to improve knowledge retention. Employees can even access safety information through their mobile phones by scanning a ‘’Tag’’ QR codes.
With microlearning, your staff can access the Learning Management System on their mobiles search and find relevant micro nuggets like short videos or checklists. These nuggets (usually 3-5 minutes long) impart learners concise and relevant information easy to retain and that can be applied immediately. When designed well, such short nuggets of content can help learners’ master difficult concepts through spaced repetition. Microlearning and mobile certainly makes a very potent combination.
You may like check out the verdict on mobility in our new eΒook Mobile Learning: Let’s Not Phone It In!