TRAINING AND

DEVELOPING
EMPLOYEES
TRISHA GENETA
GROUP 8
 Retailers wanting the best return on their human resource investment should provide training
and development for both new and existing employees. Training and development are
consistent with the concept of human resource planning.

 Training is not a one-time event. It must be ongoing because employees will not enjoy their
jobs without the necessary knowledge to perform their assigned tasks.

 Employees are taught not just technical skills but also administrative and people skills such as
functioning as a team. Each phase of development is built on the training that preceded it and
includes training in merchandising, operations management, motivation, decision making,
problem analysis, and time management.

 In addition to developing a pool of future managers and assisting employees with current
duties, training and development programs enable the employees to know their status within
the firm; that is, where they stand and how they are doing.
NEW TYPE OF TRAINING TOOL AVAILABLE TO
RETAILERS:
 Online training – one of the fastest growing ways of training employees at
small retailers who cannot afford to have a complete training staff.

Many of these smaller retailers use services such as www.videomedia.net to

train their employees in sexual harassment issues and thus minimize their
liability.
IN THE EVENT OF ANY FUTURE CLAIMS, THESE
RETAILERS CAN PROVE THAT THEIR EMPLOYEES
WERE REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS
TRAINING AND THAT THE RETAILERS MADE AN
EFFORT TO ELIMINATE SUCH HARASSMENT FROM
THE WORKPLACE. UNLESS OTHER
CIRCUMSTANCES PREVAIL, THE RETAILER WOULD
PROBABLY NOT BE LIABLE.
TRAINING AND
DEVELOPING
CUSTOMERS
 The typical mindset of retailers or general businesspeople is that they train employees but not
customers. Such thinking is myopic.

 Three retailers that have made training and educating customers a core part of their value
proposition are:
ANOTHER EXAMPLE FROM THE CURRENT ECONOMY IS THE HARLEY-
DAVIDSON, WHICH PROVIDES DRIVING SCHOOLS, ESPECIALLY FOR
BOOMERS AS THEY RETURN TO THE BIKES OF THEIR PAST IN ORDER
TO REDUCE TRAVEL EXPENSE.

*AS HIGHER GASOLINE PRICES CAUSE SOME CONSUMERS TO TRADE-

IN THEIR CARS FOR BIKERS, HARLEY-DAVIDSON PROVIDES DRIVING
SCHOOLS FOR THESE NEW BIKERS.
EVALUATING
EMPLOYEES
 Performance appraisal and review is the formal, systematic assessment of
how well employees are performing their jobs in relation to established
standards, as well as the communication of that assessment to employees.
Moreover, the appraisal system also has an impact on other human resource
processes such as training and development, compensation, and promotion.

 Informal appraisals tend to take place on an ongoing basis within the retail
firm as supervisors evaluate their subordinates’ work on a daily basis and as
subordinates appraise each other as well as their supervisors.
 CRITERIA FOR THE OBJECTIVE REVIEW AND
Merchandise
APPRAISAL OF SALESPEOPLE
Is accurate in counting and inventorying merchandise.

Procedures: Prevents merchandise shrinkage due to mishandling of merchandise.

Keeps merchandise in a neat and orderly manner on sales floor.
Knows the design and specification of warranties and guarantees of the merchandise groups.
Gets merchandise on sales floor quickly after merchandise arrival.

Customer Service Provides courteous service to customers.

Ability: Handles customer complaints and/or service problems as indicated by store procedure.
Follows proper procedure concerning merchandise returns and layaways when conducted
through credit transactions.
Suggests add-on or complementary merchandise to customers.

Sales Ability: Has strong ability to close the sale.

Promotes sale of merchandise items having profit margins.
Acts as a resource to other departments or other salespeople needing assistance.
Works well with fellow workers in primary merchandise department.

Product/Merchandise Knowledge: Knowledgeable of design, style, and construction of merchandise group.

Knowledgeable of special promotions and/or advertised sale items.
Knowledgeable of material (fabrics), color coordination, and complementary accessories.

Store Policy Provides accurate and complete paperwork related to returned merchandise.
Provides accurate and complete paperwork related to work schedules.
Provides accurate and complete paperwork for cash and credit transactions.
Shows up on time for work, sales meetings, and training sessions.
Accurately follows day-to-day instructions of immediate supervisor.
Employee’s overall job-related attitude.
 In larger retail operations and for middle to senior management positions, the
retailer may use a committee, frequently consisting of the vice president or
assistant vice president of human resources or personnel and one or two other
executives, to evaluate each middle to senior management employee.

 Some retailers, especially smaller ones, sometimes forgo the formal evaluation
process and judge a salesperson on the basis of dollar sales, number of
transactions, errors, on-time performance, ratio of returned merchandise, and
customer complaints.
KEY FACTORS IN CONDUCTING PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

 1. Evaluation should be an ongoing process, not just a periodic review.

 2. Employees seek feedback, or information about how well they are doing their jobs, and this
feedback should be provided on a timely and relevant basis.

 3. The person doing the review should know what the job being reviewed entails and what the
performance standards are.

 4. Different supervisors are likely to rate personnel with different degrees of leniency or
severity.
EVALUATING
CUSTOMERS
 It is important for employers not only to evaluate employees on their performance but also to
evaluate customers for their contributions to the retailer’s financial objectives.

 Retailers doing this have discovered some interesting information about their top shoppers, or
that 10% to 20% of customers account for nearly 80% of their sales.

 Therefore, the critical building blocks for CRM include some type of customer-identification
process coupled to product or service identification codes.

 However, now the retailer can know the precise sales and profit of all loyalty card shoppers
and can use this data to decide which customers should be offered special services or special
prices.