Training the Shop Floor

The Yorkshire-based supermarket chain Asda is well-known among its sector for having a unique approach to shopfloor customer service. Since becoming part of the US grocery giant WalMart a few years ago, Asda has added new WalMart-style elements to its own service style: it soon adopted, for example, the idea of having ‘greeters’ at its store entrance, welcoming customers inside.

To some, a slightly bubblegum US contrivance, certainly, but it does demonstrate that Asda is unafraid to approach retailing differently to its colleagues where it believes there is a different or a better way of doing things.

To this end, the company recently adopted a new approach to training its shopfloor staff, fixing things that it felt hadn’t necessarily worked as well as they might, and adding new training styles that it felt were more appropriate. The new training programme, which was introduced earlier this year, focuses much more on practical, physical and face-to-face training than the company’s old training delivery methods.

Getting physical

At Asda, the first training that is provided to new ‘colleagues’ – possibly a deliberate avoidance of the American term co-worker – is the ‘best welcome’, a two-day induction training programme designed to introduce staff to customer service and selling techniques, practical information and so on. The new training programme is divided into two parts – the first is the ‘service’ day, the second day is devoted to selling skills. ‘We have been going through a major change of style in terms of entrance training, so it is a very good time for us,’ says Anne Firth, people manager at Asda’s head office in Leeds. ‘As far as our hourly paid colleagues are concerned – the staff on the tills and working on the shelves – the need is there to provide the information in a manner that is interactive, fun and focused on the shop floor.’

Old style

Previously, Asda’s induction programme involved new-starters spending five days in a classroom. According to the company’s HR and training division, this method didn’t really allow staff to relate the know-how gained through training to an on-the-floor work environment.

‘To be honest, it was death by Powerpoint,’ says Firth. ‘The two days we run now are much clearer and more focused. Staff learn how to help and sell to customers better, so although the time given to training is shorter, it does seem to be having more real impact.’

The gameboard

After an individual has completed their basic exercises, their learning is then validated through what Asda calls a ‘gameboard’. This works like a standard Monopolystyle boardgame, but showing pictures that relate to a shopfloor. The development of the game was sponsored by the confectionery manufacturer Cadbury’s, and the game itself therefore follows a ‘day in the life’ of a chocolate bar.

‘The board is probably six foot by three foot, and it sits on a table in the training room,’ explains Asda’s Firth. ‘Around the edge we have pictures that relate to a store; in the middle is a game, and people have to refer to the board for the right answers. Essentially it follows a chocolate bar from production to distribution, to the shop floor.

‘The point is, it shows colleagues the different aspects of the shopfloor, it demonstrates the workings of our supply network, it gives good examples of health and safety and selling, and so on. The key thing is that it shows examples of what both a good and a bad job look like.’

Getting results

Although this all sounds like rather rudimentary, almost silly stuff, Asda has found that the game- board is extremely effective: staff enjoy the fact that it is slightly silly and fun, and it generates a healthy sense of competitive salesmanship between them. The company has also found that the visual nature of this game is extremely useful in an industry where there are a large percentage of non-English-speakers on the workforce.

‘People do get highly competitive,’ says Firth. ‘They are given a ‘shopping basket’ as they go around this board collecting tokens, the highest number collected determining the winner, and they get really involved! ‘We have found this game to be really effective so far, and we actually use a second simulated game on our second day, based on the snakes and ladders idea. Again, this really is a valid way of delivering training. People find it fun, there is the element of competition, and they remain alert and aware throughout the training and keen to learn about the business, which is great.’

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