Teach Your Retail Employees to Draw Customers Back with Enterprise Learning Management System

While technology dependency has been growing in all industries for years now, the face of retail industry changed after Amazon started its multilevel eCommerce business surpassing Walmart. By 2015, consumers had become so internet friendly that brick and mortar stores were facing a crisis quite unknown to their business till date. However, they were still popular because it is intrinsic to human nature to trust their tactile experience more than just audio-visual while making a purchase. Also, buying from a store was always faster than ordering online. But the pandemic changed it all. 85% Americans have said that Covid-19 impacted their shopping habits in some way, including reduced overall spending, increased online shopping, and increased use of delivery services, reported by Statista.

 

But things are taking a brighter turn. While a recent McKinsey reports, 60-70% adults are now omnichannel consumer with both sales in brick and mortar stores and eCommerce growing, an eMarketer survey projects that 81% customers are willing to go back to the store.

 

Growth Market specialist, Bharat Jain at G-Cube suggests, ‘The trends are positive and retail owners should jump to the occasion. Training plays a very important role in this phase of adaptation which will enable the employees to keep up and draw the customers back to the stores.’

 

 

Promoting Your Employees as Brand Ambassadors

 

While the willingness to return to stores is increasing, the affinity towards online shopping is not reducing. Retailers have to step up to encourage the willing customer to take an action and that is possible only by giving them a great experience. As your in-store employees are in charge of the customer experience, this is where your employees can become the true ‘brand ambassadors’.

 

 

Train to be an Expert than a Sales Support

 

A very important part of the online shopping experience is the abundance of information about the product, usage and also comparison charts which is completely unavailable at the stores. Retailers have to fill up this gap by training their employees to become product experts. Providing a continuous learning environment with small nuggets of information based on the category of product they are handling through an automated workflow on the mobile LMS shall help the employees retain knowledge better. The information is also available to them at the point-of-sale where they can not only provide demo of a particular item but compare the features while giving sales advice to the customer.

 

 

In-person Search Optimization

 

While looking for an item on the shopping app, a customer gets choice of both browsing and searching. So basically, they have the option to look through a lot of items and also search for anything specific they want. In a store this search engine is your employee who is helping the customer find the right product. At times, they cannot find the right items while searching manually and this leads to higher waiting time and dissatisfied customer. Integrating your retail management system with your LMS can bring all the information regarding the shelf, storage, and product details in one place which the employees can access with simple keyword search which is far more efficient. This reduces customer’s wait time replicating the online shopping experience helping your retail employees give a great experience to the buyer.

 

 

Keep Your Employees Motivated

 

According to National Retail Federation, the attrition rate in retail in USA is just above 60%, which is very high considering the overall average of 19%. Therefore, keeping your employees motivated to put in the extra effort is essential. An enterprise LMS provides you the opportunity to gamify the learning strategy for your retail employees. With easy integration with multiple business systems, you can give redeemable points to the employees based on their real-time KPI data, create leaderboards, and track the star performers. Getting recognized for one’s effort always makes them put in some extra.

To ensure the above you will have to invest significantly in developing and delivering training programs that can inculcate these habits and behaviours. However, that is not the final step, as the learning content has to be distributed along with follow-up trainings. Assessments and post-training support has to be delivered as well. To manage such a mammoth operation a learning management system which is equally effective on all the devices and is configurable to adapt to your organization’s culture is necessary.

 

 

G-Cube Learning Management Suite is being used by top retail industry players with positive results. To know more about the implementation strategies, write to us at info@gc-solutions.net and talk to a learning consultant.

Curiosity to Learn Leads to the Sustained Popularity of LMS: Push vs. Pull

Before looking at the popularity of LMS today or the kind of strategy needed to train learners, let’s first establish the current status of LMS. How in demand is it, and by who? Is it job-critical? How important is it for organizations?

 

Let’s dive deep into the world of LMS!

 

Out of all the software markets that boomed after COVID-19, Learning Management Systems is one of the biggest. As of April 2020, most companies went remote, and more than 90% of higher education moved online. These changes created a sudden, urgent need for LMS software. As a result, the LMS market exploded. According to a report by Forbes Business Insights, the market is projected to grow from USD 13.38 billion in 2021 to USD 44.49 billion in 2028, with an annual growth rate of 18.7%. The LMS market has been propelled forward by several factors:

• the increasing uptake of digital learning
• extensive government initiatives to promote LMS
• the growing inclination of companies to implement bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies
• the rise of AI and ML in LMS technology.

As a result, revenues for key players in the LMS industry are increasing every day, and so is the popularity of LMS.

Push vs. Pull Model in LMS learning

Be it a Push or Pull learning method, learners are looking for definite outcomes and want to know “What’s in it for me?” Today, the ‘Pull Model of Learning’ is much more popular and in demand than the ‘Push Learning Model’. This is well explained by the definition itself, “Pull learning puts the learner in control of what they learn and when they learn it. Pull learning is a type of on-demand learning whereby the experience is tailored to the learner’s need. The focus is on autonomy and the learners take ownership of their training.” On the other hand, Push learning states, “is a traditional learning technique where learners are informed of what to learn, usually in a given timeframe.”

 

Let’s look at the reasons why learners prefer LMS Pull content:

• Curiosity to learn, which makes them seek answers from accessible content.
• Self-motivation to acquire new skills and knowledge and apply them in a way that leads to on-the-job change.
• Staying updated with the latest trends and innovations in the market from one comprehensive source.
• Accessing just-in-time learning for needs-related knowledge to accomplish a task.
• An innate desire to grow as a professional.
• To gain a specific certification or accreditation.

Above is the list which will help you understand that Pull learning is the “new in”. The good news being, pull learning is within everyone’s reach!

 

The shift from Push learning which is the more traditional method to that of the modern shift, pull learning is like the shift from TV channels to Netflix. Don’t watch what TV channels have programmed for you, instead watch what you want to and whenever you want to. If adopting Netflix was possible and infact so smooth, why would it be difficult concerning learning?

 

To ensure the success of your training and development efforts, whether push or pull, you will have to invest in three areas: creating feedback loops, curating the learning ecosystem, and providing guidance. All of this is possible if you have a cutting-edge LMS provider in place.           G-Cube LMS and our team of skilled experts will help you implement and advance your training in alignment with your business goals.

Automotive Industry: Maintaining Customer Service & Satisfaction, Adopting systematic approach

The Automotive industry is witnessing lot of change in how human being’s travel. Innovations in machine & technologies and the use of shared vehicle is creating avenues of experimentation in the concept of vehicle ownership. There are multiple cab services and car hire options available for the customer where they can easily book these services and owning a car is not a requirement.

 

However, one of the biggest challenges to the automobile industry is coming from environment concerns, availability of fossil fuel and alternative sources like solar, electric etc. are also seeing a massive transformation. The hike in fuel prices, possibility of future ban on petrol & diesel vehicles is also creating attraction towards electric vehicles & development of alternatively fueled vehicles.

 

Along with the ongoing sales crunch in the automobile, consumer behavior has also changed. They are active on digital media and belong to a generation of knowledgeable and well-researched consumers. Thus, there is a change in their mind set while purchasing vehicles. Hence, sales approach must be modified to accommodate constant transformation in vehicle production and keeping with customer preferences. The sale executive need to possess advanced product knowledge to adapt to this new customer behavior.

 

 

Impact of good Customer Service in the Automotive Industry

 

There is competitive race going on among the number of vehicle manufacturers and they are striving to provide good quality products at a lower price. However, over a period, the customer expectations are soaring due to one or more features or benefits provided by other manufacturers. Thus, the industry is focusing more and more on improving the relationship with customers by making high investment in training employees on various facets of customer service.

 

For an industry as huge as the automotive, just think about the gap between customer expectations and experience when it comes to service and support. The deciding factors for good and bad customer service can be many –  slow service times, poor product knowledge, phone-based appointments, and a lack of transparency when it comes to expenses. Also, it’s easier to sell a new car to a customer who already had a satisfactory experience with the brand and the dealer.

  

 

How can Customer Service be improved —the relationship and dialog with customers

 

• The need for maximum awareness “inside” the company
• Need to define a common purpose, a common mission, at all levels from higher management to the front line.

 

• Analysis of the Customer Journey
• The purchase path for a new vehicle can be very long and goes through various touchpoints. It is important to analyze this path in an omni-channel way, to be in the right place, at the right time, and with tailored communication. To achieve this, a deep analysis approach is required.

 

• Personal Attention on each customer
• Personalization of customer experience needs to be done by following traditional ways from email marketing campaigns, to restructuring the dynamics of assistance and service. One can even look at creating personalized sites or applications for smartphones and tablets.

 

 

How to manage the complexity of Training & Learning process

 

For any automotive company, apart from creating great learning content – the management of the entire training or learning process of the customer service executive can be very complex. The high level of soft skill required for unmatched customer service and huge number of trainings results in a complex training need. Being geographical distributed with huge number of learners only adds to the level of challenges.

 

To manage this show for learners, training providers, management and extended enterprise partners – a company must not only use corporate LMS systems, but constantly innovate its system. To imparts great experience for their customers and make an impact on business the learning management system facilitating training should be able to provide –

 

• Quick updates on industry changes
• Just-in time learning
• Relevant learning
• Reporting & Analytics
• Blended learning approach

 

 

We at G-Cube, provides learning management systems that enables you to train & develop your workforce to achieve all your business needs. Thus, goal of generating more revenue by increasing customer satisfaction and becoming a standalone brand can be achieved.

Share on facebook Share on linkedin Share on twitter Onboard and Retain the Best Talent in the Pharma Industry with an Enterprise LMS

 

There is a lot of development in pharmaceutical research, manufacturing, storage, distribution, quality control, logistics, and sales. Every day, new drugs are introduced based on this research. Simultaneously, several drugs are discarded or banned based on the same findings. In parallel with this, there is also a lot of research and innovation in related technologies. Subsequently, new processes and policies are being put in place by organizations like the FDA. To cater to such a complex business environment, the Pharma Industry is constantly in need of highly skilled employees, and talented candidates are scarce, making hiring a complicated path for the Pharma business compared to most other industries.

 

To bridge the gap between required and available talent, the Pharma industry relies on corporate learning and development initiatives. The most important of these initiatives being the onboarding of the new hires.

 

Along with hiring, retaining talent is also a challenge. According to a survey done by BioSpace, 67% of biosciences employees were looking at changing their jobs in 2020. However, due to destabilized markets during the pandemic, people refrained from moving, but now the trend has returned with the post-pandemic growth spurt. The regulated nature of the industry makes employee churn an issue, and the BioSpace survey reports:

 

“In fact, at least one study indicates the cost of each employee’s turnover ranges from 70 to 300 percent of the annual salary of that employee. And the replacement costs are about 2.5 times the salary of the individual.”

 

To find the appropriate solution to these two talent-related issues, it is important to understand what motivates employees to join companies and stay with them. The Work Institute Retention Report 2020 states that the top three categories for leaving in 2019 were Career Development (19.6%), Work-Life Balance (12.4%), and Manager Behavior (11.8%). The same reasons featured in the article by job-search website, ‘Indeed’ in 2021. It is notable here that the Work Institute Retention Report 2020 also mentions that over one-third (37.9%) of interviewees exited their organization within 365 days or less. Two out of three employees who leave in the first year do so in the first six months.

 

Two of the reasons cited above, career development and manager behavior, account for 30% of the attrition. Also, the main reason for employees leaving the organization within 365 days or less can be linked to the initial 3 months’ experience of the employee when they are onboarding with the organization. We believe that most of these issues can be solved by effective training and development programs. In this article, we will examine the role of an enterprise LMS or Learning Management System in solving onboarding and retention problems.

 

Amit Tyagi, Customer Success Head at G-Cube shares: “The modern learning management suite is capable of doing a lot more than just manage learning. With the right insights, a corporate LMS can be easily used to train, engage and give a growth vision to your employees.”

 

 

 

Some Elements of the Enterprise LMS that helps onboarding and retention

 

 

Pre-Onboarding Engagement

 

Working remotely is the future, and it serves your purpose perfectly. With a cloud-based learning management system, you don’t need your new hire to come to the office to initiate them into the organization. With multiple formats of content support, the LMS can start engaging your new hire even before their onboarding process begins. LMS, as a repository of content, makes knowledge transfer easy and hassle-free. As such, it helps reduce the anxiety among the new joiners who can then access this information without waiting for a manager or HR.

 

 

Abundant Training and Timely Certification

 

Pharma has a complex knowledge requirement. Product, process, policies, compliance, risks, safety – managing the plethora of knowledge in an easy-to-access search is important to create a suitable learning environment for employees. A major cause of concern among new hires is the requirement of rigorous training and certification related to their job role. Having to manage that manually can result in various clerical errors, which can result in serious implications with auditory authorities. Having the training content available at their fingertips boosts the employees’ confidence, and the LMS automatically tracks the certification requirement and expiry, relieving them of the pressure of monitoring it manually.

 

 

Provide Growth Vision

 

Research suggests people are less likely to leave their jobs if they have a career development vision. Use your LMS to assess the current level of skill and expertise of your employees, gather inputs on their vision of their career, and offer training based on these attributes. This practice demonstrates that employers are taking their career development needs seriously. For new employees, engaging with senior management can be daunting. With the LMS helping them visualize their path and growth with constant support, employees feel comfortable and give their best.

 

 

Improve Employee Feedback

 

In any organization, feedback should be a two-way process and as Pharma comprises a highly skilled workforce, it is especially important that they feel heard. The enterprise LMS can help you gather feedback from individual employees on their experience with their peers and even managers without running from desk to desk.

 

 

Predict Employee Churn

 

Everything is based on how you read your data. An enterprise Learning Management System helps you track a multitude of data. By tracking scores from relevant workplace assessments and correlating them with employee longevity, employers can identify risk factors that require intervention to prevent employee churn.

 

 

Traditionally, a paper-driven process like onboarding has been treated mostly as a formality, but researchers have highlighted the impact it has on the new joiner and how important it is to give them an immersive experience in the first few months. G-Cube Learning Technologies unit has a dedicated customer success team who can help you envision all possible solutions to your business challenges through the right learning and learning-tech interventions.

Seamless Onboarding Solutions: From Surviving to Thriving

You just got done with the onboarding process of a great new employee after doing multiple rounds of screening and interviews. You are hopeful that this new addition will be an asset to the organization, and you might even get a thank you email from your manager.

 

You are happy that this employee has joined the organization. But after a few days you see the employee standing near the coffee machine, alone, and she doesn’t look happy!

 

You approach her, you smiled, she smirked!

 

You already know that all new hires face multiple unknowns and are probably anxious about what lies ahead, who will be on their team, and what kind of culture they will they be working in.

 

Did you know that 93% of employers agree that the quality of the onboarding process influences candidates’ decisions to stay in an organization? An effective introduction is key to avoiding early communication barriers and enabling long-lasting relationships.

 

What do your new hires want?  

 

Generally, new hires want to feel a part of the company as soon as possible. They start out with the intention of supporting your company’s vision, but unless they connect with the rest of the organization, they won’t.

 

In the age of digital onboarding some remote operations can prevent a new employee from developing a proper feel for the company.

 

The things that make a difference are:

1. Culture clarity
2. Clarity of expectations
3. Sense of belonging
4. Policies and other mandates

How To Help New Team Members Fit In

 

Immerse them into the culture and communicate their purpose in your company!

 

When this strategic initiative is crafted for a customized experience capable of addressing new hire hesitations, it becomes an excellent onboarding program. The efficient pre-onboarding, induction, and post-onboarding phases not only encourage new hires to explore the company further but also assist them to actively engage with the corporate vision and culture.

 

Before we dig in, a note—every organization will onboard differently. The key is to make sure that your unique onboarding process complements the company and provides opportunities to develop culture awareness. We recommend cognitive-friendly content for new hires.

 

Culture

 

A robust onboarding process starts even before an employee is hired. An engrossing organizational history that shows the growth phase in which new hires are joining, the organizational structure, and key team member involvement will help new hires settle into their positions.

 

An initiative such as multiple avatar options that introduce your organization virtually promotes diversity.

 

A virtual treasure hunt designed to explore hidden facts on culture, compliance, and policies involves the new hires and they learn sub-consciously.

 

Discussing key competencies and sharing other employee’s success stories encourages them to replicate crucial behaviors. It is always a good idea to highlight the most positive parts of your culture, such as, for example, your open-door policy.

 

Expectations

 

Providing new employees with clear expectations for their roles and responsibilities, key result areas (KRAs), required behaviors, and standard operating procedures will help them greatly.

 

Onboarding should have meaningful, engaging, and customized content linked to the employee’s KRAs. The content should suit all learning styles.

 

Impress your new hires with the best experience that utilizes custom content regarding location, department, profile, and desired workflow. This swiftly introduces them to your brand in a unique way.

 

Utilize microlearning as a best friend at work, which can help them access required information, so your new hires never feel lost. There can be tips on how to use technology, your platform, and any other information required to do their jobs.

 

It is also important to share emergency contact numbers, single point of contact details, and contact information for the key members of their team.

 

Sense of Belonging

 

Since a lot of information about the company is presented to new hires, regular two-way communication will help them feel they belong. Engaging interactions that communicate welcoming happen in great places to work.

 

Providing new hires with opportunities to interact with their teams, express themselves, and ask questions as well as making them feel valued will encourage them to want to contribute to the overall success of your organization. Things like chatbots, fun quizzes, flipped classes, and micro mobile content can be used for this purpose.

 

Introducing a multi-player activity in induction programs enables social learning and acts as a great relationship building platform for anyone joining your organization.

 

Policies and Other Mandates

 

Create an impactful introduction to company policies and guidelines for your new employees. It will not only make them want to adhere but also revisit the policies to stay compliant.

 

If new hires get inducted correctly, it will boost their morale. The principles and science of learning understand the knowledge, skill, and behavior requirements of your employees. Utilizing this science in the best way to deliver a cognition-friendly onboarding experience is the need of the hour. Blend it to connect people with love and empathy.

 

Your new hires want to fit into your organization. Contact G-Cube today to make your new hire process the very best it can be.

Learning Performance Platform: The Synergy of Learning Objectives and Your LMS

 

At the heart of all learning initiatives in the corporate training space, there is supposed to be a business objective which needs to be achieved with the right kind of training intervention. However, most organizations fail to understand the importance of aligning learning initiatives to business goals which leads to a lot of redundant efforts. A Learning Performance Platform (LPP) builds a bridge between learning and business goals for an organization eliminating redundant processes and costs, and it’s all based on Instructional Design Theory.

 

 

Researchers across domains have unanimously voiced the need to have an application-based approach to learning or education. It is a circular process where acquiring knowledge should be directly related to the task it helps us perform.  According to K. Hibbard, “Performance-based learning and assessment achieve a balanced approach by extending traditional fact-and-skill instruction”. Learning in the workplace takes place in the context of use thus the learning outcome is embedded in the performance or work practice. In the paper, Performance-Based Learning and Knowledge Management in Workplace, the authors opine –

 

“To drive effective performance-based learning in the workplace, learning management should consider organizational structure, policies, practices and system, that will link individual performance to organizational success.”

 

Performance-based approach represents a set of strategies for acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and work habits, which are called ‘Learning Objectives’. According to Dr Robert Mager, the three things that define the learning objectives are Performance, Condition and Criteria.

 

 

How does a Learning Performance Platform bring performance-based learning to the corporate space?

Ensure Learning Management Solution is linked with the KPI model

 

Business Performance Management Systems or BPMS holds the performance information of the employees. These systems may vary according to the department or function. However, the learning performance platform can integrate with these systems to fetch individual performance data or the KPIs of the employees according to their job roles, departments, KRAs. This helps the learning management platform to identify the business goals or learning objectives if we take the language of theorists.

 

Delivering Performance Based Training and Infrastructure

Based on the information received from the BPMS, the LPP performs training need analysis for the learners. The rule-based engine identifies performance gaps and triggers training accordingly. What an Instructional Designer does to create a curriculum design is exactly what the LPP does to figure out the coaching and performance support required to achieve the KPIs set out. KPI models built into the system creates a direct path from knowledge gain, leading to business goals.

 

Conducting Evaluation and Providing Feedback

KPI measurement in a business happens at three different – Organization, Department, and Individual job role. For the smallest unit and action area that is the individual job role, measurement of KPI depends on the KPI Item, Rating criteria and the KPI value or proficiency level. A Learning Performance Platform enables on-job-evaluation (OJE) with flexible checklists and multiple levels of feedback models. This creates a continuous learning environment eliminating defects and shortcoming through regular

training intervention. With an in-built OJE feature, the performance-oriented learning process is completely aligned with business growth.

 

 

Commenting on the need of a Learning Performance Platform, Ankush Jagga, Business Head – Learning Technologies, G-Cube shared ‘When it comes to training initiatives becoming redundant, I feel, we were not looking at the core of the issue which is to – Integrate with Business. That’s the key to successfully define the outcome of learning programs, technology, and strategy.

 

 

At G-Cube, we have developed the Learning & Performance Platform (LPP) which integrates with your core systems – CRMs, ERPs, Quality systems etc. This allows you to set rules to trigger learning and it can integrate and work with any LMS. Now you don’t have to look for business impact data and plan training. It’s all automated and that’s business integration.’