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Techlearn
Orlando, Florida, November 2002
Retail case study: Home Depot
Key learning points:
- Customer service is Home Depot's unique selling point - therefore
staff training is vital
- Training reduces staff attrition
- Execute at speed
- E-learning (motivating, little text) with coaching is their
preferred delivery method
- Emphasis on service and product training
- Future commitment to customer
e-learning
The learning in this organisation is definitely led from the top,
with the CEO getting his hands dirty on the shopfloor and pushing
training as a core business activity. Interestingly, the two founders,
who started the company 23 years ago, were both teachers. Learning
is seen as being second only to real estate, when opening a new
store. The vision is entirely around customer services and knowledgeable
staff. They have calculated a rise of $2.5 per customer in stores
where successful staff training has been introduced, Data has also
been gathered in comparative studies, comparing similar stores,
with and without such learning initiatives.
The real emphasis was on service and product training. Employees
were encouraged to find out about the products in detail and respond
to customer needs intelligently. This was their big differentiator.
Nothing gets sold before the staff are trained on the product. Everything
is designed in 15-minute segments with the use of graphics and audio,
rather than text. Execution at speed was also important, they don't
spend huge amounts of time on development. Note also that all training
is validated with staff before release and the success rate is phenomenal.
They have achieved 90% plus completion rates by at 90,000 people
in 10 months. On the back of this, the new CEO accelerated the rollout
plan by 1.5 years from 2005 to mid-2003.
They believe fundamentally in shop-based learning using e-learning
for their 300,000 staff selling 40,000 products across 1500 stores.
A new store is opened every 43 hours. They have found it difficult
to hire knowledgeable staff and therefore train themselves. Informal,
'belly to belly' training is still common but traditional training
methods are too slow. You can't pull people off the floor in groups
to learn. Consistency and scalability is an issue. Their e-learning
does not shy away from testing and employees seem to appreciate
concrete rewards for training i.e. merit badges for being experts
in, let's say, lighting.
One final point was their commitment to customer
e-learning:'no question, we'll do this'.
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Techlearn 2002: Intro
Retail case study: McDonalds
Retail case study: JC Penney
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