In the past, learning was often regarded as an unavoidable expense, but increasingly, training is being held accountable by stores that want measurable results in terms of performance outcomes. As a result, more supermarkets track training costs and results and weigh their return on training investment. Because of network connections provided by the training technology, many chains are able to track training outcomes, including compliance and employee certification, and compare what they find with key performance indicators such as sales and shrinkage. And they re finding a correlation between strong training and strong results. The understanding is such that savvy trainers now know that a focus on ROI will protect them when jobs are cut.
Management sees that training isn t any longer about soft dollars, but hard dollars.
Learning emphasizes speed. As supermarkets get more nimble, training likewise has to emphasize speed. Computer-based training compresses learning time by as much as half, and it s available on demand, even for new employees starting on a late shift. More learning is outsourced. While the retail industry has generally lagged in both benchmarks, there s evidence that this may be changing.