Author: Seniye Groff

What’s Going on in Retail Training

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I was recently asked by a client to do some recent on current retail training methodology.  I did a tremendous amount of research and even connected with some old retail buddies to get a sense of what is going on out there.  I will write several posts in the next few weeks, sharing snippets of what I learned.  Comment back if you have additional insight or questions.

According to the National Retail Federation, almost 30 percent of all retail workers are age 30 or younger, and nearly half of them have college degrees. Today’s employees have been immersed in technology almost since birth, and based on their experiences as students and consumers; they have come to expect technology in the workplace as well. The pervasiveness of social media and social computing is a big part of this expectation, as well as, comfort with technology.  These expectations have to be factored in when trying to recruit, retain, motivate and train younger employees.

Many retailers have empowered their employees with the right mix of tools and information, and have invested in mobility solutions that help them answer customer queries, look up price, confirm item availability and know their customers. In-store associates are using handheld applications not only for information, but also for guided selling, check out and replenishment. Retailers have implemented new features for online chat so that associates can perform sales and support activities to better serve their customers during transactions.

Enhanced features in employee touch points have allowed customer service associates to use real-time information to provide product features, benefits, recommendations, product availability and price information.  Enhancing employee efficiency and customer experience are value drivers to implement mobility solutions at the store front. Concerns like security, infrastructure management and integrated solutions have been the primary reasons for slower adoption of mobility solutions. At the same time, improved technology, along with some killer applications to support functions and infrastructure, has helped faster adoption of mobility solutions. A classic example is Apple which took customer service to a new level by adopting mobile solutions for all business functions in their stores.  Apple offers the Genius Bar, free workshops, personal setup, personal pickup and EasyPay; all of this could not happen unless their staff was trained and trained very well.

 

The House of Tyneford

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I am reading “The House of Tyneford” by Natasha Solomons and it an engrossing read.  Nineteen year old Elise Landau is forced to leave her comfortable, bourgeois lifestyle in Vienna to become a maid in England because her parents want to keep her safe.  Being Jewish in 1938 is a dangerous prospect when her sister leaves for California, Elise goes to England and her parents stay behind waiting for their Visas.  Elise worries about her parents as she begins her new life as a servant.  Her life changes, though, so read on to find out what happens.

Today I Felt Like a Soccer Mom

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Let me be clear, although my daughter does play soccer, I DO NOT consider myself a soccer mom.  Meaning, I don’t have a minivan and cart kids all over the place!  Actually I try to be in the car very little, prefering to bike and walk as much as possible.  Nonetheless, I found myself as a field trip driver for Carli and five of her classmates yesterday.  They were going to visit their yearlong pen pals at a school about 30 minutes away. 

Once everyone was situated and the arguing over the front passenger seat was done, we proceeded to move along.  I had the radio on a pop station deemed appropriate by my 10 year old daughter.  All the kids (and I mean ALL), in unison, sang the lyrics and waved their arms crazily.  I was really surprised that the four boys knew all the words and were willing to sing aloud.  I really thought singing was a “girl” thing.  There was a lot of energy and happiness in the car!

On our return trip home, Carli asked if everyone could have a piece of gum.  I gave it to them and they proceeded to sing the entire ride home.  When the school bell rang and Carli returned to the car to go home, she informed me that the kids in our car were proclaiming to everyone that “They had the best driver in the class because I gave them a treat and no other mother had thought to do this.”  Carli beamed with pride that her mom was “cool”.  Although my “coolness” was not intentional on my part, I said to myself, “Who knew it was so easy to please a bunch of 10 year olds?!”  If only my coolness would last more than 10 minutes!  Oh well, motherhood is tough.

Books, Books and More Books

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I have been reading voraciously, as usual, and have a few books to recommend:

Trapeze by Simon Mawer.  The main character, Marian, becomes a special operations spy for Britain against the Nazis.  Her special skill is that she speaks French and therefore is placed in France, where she has some previous connections.  Read on to find out what happens.  Apparently there were lots of women spies during this war.

I also read two business books:  Results Without Authority and Quick Brainstorming Activities for Busy Managers.  Both are worthy of a place on your business bookshelf.

Last night I started The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan.  I am 70 pages in and hooked.  I am always amazed by debut novels and wonder how long the writer mulled over the contents of their story before pen met paper (or fingers met keys)!

Results Without Authority

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Just finished writing my review for Tom Kendrick’s book “Results Without Authority”.  If you are a project manager, or just tasked with managing projects, this would be a good book to add to your bookshelf!

Tom Kendrick’s “Results Without Authority” shares strategies, tips and tricks for project managers and the projects they manage.  The greatest challenge for a project manager is to keep a team and project on task, even though the team does not ultimately report to the project manager.  Kendrick believes that three things can keep a project moving forward:  project process, influence and metrics or measurement.  The first half of the book explores these three elements.  The second half of the book examines when to use these elements throughout the project.

Kendrick has a no-nonsense, practical approach to managing projects.  He gives key ideas and the end of each chapter and sprinkles the chapters with lots of example stories.  Although this book is dense, with more information than most 267-paged books, this is a book you will refer to time and time again.

Tiagi’s Four Door Model

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I learned something new yesterday and want to share.  I am working on a project that needs to be turned upside down!  I am talking to anyone and everyone about what new ideas are floating around in training.  Someone I met yesterday mentioned Tiagi’s Four Door model.  Anyone who is faintly familiar with training, knows Tiagi.  He is a master at framegrames and that is just the beginning.  He is an energetic, excitable presenter with lots of interesting ideas.  Here is what I found out about his Four Door model:

What is the Four-door Model?
The “four doors” represent four different areas or components of the learning environment:

1. The Library

2. The Playground,

3. The Café

4, The Evaluation Center.

Each of the components
The Library contains the content of the course or module—the information required to master the learning objectives and to successfully complete the final performance test. It typically contains pre-built or existing content, such as videos, documents, slide shows, photos, and audio files. Anything that contains meaningful content and could be put on the Web is used. Learners are invited to study the content in any way they prefer.

The Playground contains fast-paced frame-games that provide practice in recalling and applying the content from the library. They help increase fluency. The frame-games typically require the learner to type or choose short answers. Learners can play each frame game repeatedly at up to three levels of difficulty.

The Café contains social learning activities. A good example is the open-question game which uses open-ended questions to encourage the learner to reflect on the content presented in the library. Learners respond to each question by typing an answer in a text box. When complete, the learner can review the answers given by experts and fellow participants. The café may also include other social-learning components such as wikis, blogs, message boards, etc. Facebook and LinkedIn groups would fall under this category.

The Evaluation Center is simply the test center. It contains the performance test. Ideally, instead of using multiple-choice questions, the evaluation asks the learner to complete or participate in an actual job-related assignment.

The beauty of this model is that the learner can use or not use any of these components.  It allows the learner to decide based on what they need to know and how they like to learn it.  This really ties nicely with the just-in-time learning model that is so prevalent today.  Also, you could name these four components anything you wanted so that it reflects your business and culture.