STORES Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 34)

NUTS AND BOLTS / HUMAN RESOURCES and labor it took to put together programs was excessive. “We just weren’t good at it,” Hernreich admits. “The programs were relatively old and didn’t hit the mark in terms of the type of [product] knowledge needed by sales associates. We weren’t giving them the guidance they needed to be experts. We knew we either had to build a new department or use an outsourced solution.” Revamping the in-house program would have meant hiring staff to devel- trainees to “learn by doing” and, in most instances, involves the use of headsets. Start with merchandise info The first programs are related to the merchandise. “As you can imagine, our merchandise is unique and its features and benefits are very important to our guests,” L’Heureux says. “As such, the ability to speak in an educated manner is crucial to sales.” Training also focuses on how to size clients properly at both dialog and music to keep them engaged in what they need to learn.” Retail staffs “are lean these days, and the goal here is to keep associates on the sales floor as much as possible,” Suriano says. “They can stop the training when the store gets busy and start up again when it gets quiet.” L’Heureux and her sales team are in the midst of developing three years worth of content — everything from programs for newly hired sales associates to more detailed programs for working with the store’s clientele. op new techniques, documenting the results and distributing a complete program to the stores. “It was a lot to tackle and it simply wasn’t feasible,” L’Heureux says. “We needed something with immediate impact.” TSI “seemed unique and demonstrated their expertise in this area,” Hernreich says. “They came to us with a packaged solution, but then customized everything for us.” TSI performed a full assessment to determine Casual Male’s training needs. Shortly thereafter, a three-year training plan was put in place. TSI’s InfoTrain Outsource team began developing and producing custom training modules, many of which utilize TSI’s LTraining methodology. Developed specifically for the retail industry, LTraining allows 34 STORES / JULY 2008 Training schedules vary Casual Male has about 500 MP3 players available to employees, and the frequency of usage varies. “We have blackout dates depending on traffic,” L’Heureux says. “For example, we leave the stores alone at Father’s Day and other holidays. Other than that, associates have at least one module per month and we usually give them three or four weeks to complete the training.” Through outsourcing, TSI is able Training focuses on how to to produce custom training modsize clients properly as well as ules quickly and maintain the flow “instruction on how to sell of new modules to the stores at a key seasonal items.” steady pace. Since InfoTrain Outsource, an extension of TSI, is a Casual Male and Rochester stores, as self-contained service, clients simply pay well as “instruction on how to sell key a monthly retainer with everything inseasonal items.” cluded. TSI offers other training methEmployees use headsets and MP3 ods, as well, but the recordings and acplayers to listen to the training sessions, companying documents seem to be hitwhich run from 20 to 35 minutes in ting the mark for Casual Male. length. As they listen, “they are looking According to Hernreich, “The green at the merchandise or demonstrating pasture here is getting our sales associwhat they are listening to,” Hernreich ates more in tune with how to treat our says. “We tested the system for about six guys and how to wardrobe them. We months [last year] and found it was a haven’t made investments in this area very effective form of delivery.” All Cabefore, but progress is being made in sual Male and Rochester stores are now steps and we have a big appetite to fill in equipped with the players. terms of moving the sales culture ahead StORES “LTraining by means of a headset dein our stores.” vice enables us to put trainees on the Len Lewis is a veteran retail industry sales floor in front of what they need to journalist and commentator and the learn about,” says TSI founder and editorial director of Lewis CommuniCEO Art Suriano. “We use the term ‘Incations. foTaining’ since there are sound effects, WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - July 2008

STORES Magazine - July 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Dearth of Retail Creativity What Shoppers Think Wow, Is That a Wawa? 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Merchandising Strategy Concept2Watch Point of Sale Outsourcing Human Resources Top 100 Retailers Store Design RFID IT Operations Systems Managements LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Cover Story Emergency Response Systems Background Checks LOEB Retail Letter Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - July 2008

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