Your Store Teams Forget 90% of Your Program in Two Days. Redesign It Around Practice.
A deck at the front of the room feels like school, and store associates tune it out. We rebuild the program you already run into practice your teams carry back to the floor. At Arla Foods, a 9-day program built on more than 400 slides became 6 days, and use of the skills on the job went up.
Your existing retail programs rebuilt so associates create the approach together and practice it, instead of being told.
- Level
- Store and service teams, Frontline leaders
- Group size
- 4 to 400+
- Time
- Sessions over weeks
- Format
- In person · Virtual · Hybrid
- Languages
- English
- Business outcome
- Customer loyalty, Execution
Proof
Turnover 80% → under 15%
Columbia House call centre: onboarding cut from 20 days to 10, sales up $18 million in year one
How we measure
The team leaves with a written action plan, each item tied to a name and a date. Thirty days later we check which items moved and report that back to the sponsor.
IBM’s Value of Learning Report explains how companies lose 10 to 30% of its capabilities per year due to turnover, retirement, process changes and technology changes. By year 3, an organization retains only 41% of it original capabilities, dwindling to 24% by year 6. You will experiencing brain drain if your experiences fail to reinforce existing capabilities and build future capabilities. Older experiences based on PowerPoint and slide talks no longer engage today’s generation of retail store associates. The old approach requires days to “install” the skills with less than 10% retention after 48 hours. Now learners only need to create the new approach together and practice the skills in similar application environments rather than be told what to do.
How Our Redesign of Existing Retail Experiences Works
Learn2 conducts a comprehensive Needs Assessment to ensure the design approach matches your target community’s preferred learning approach. We align the desired learning outcomes with your required business results and time constraints. We identify the specific behaviors expected of participants and the environments where those behaviors get applied.
We distill your existing retail content for the practices, job aids & tools then build interactive exercises to deliver the learning that fits your retail store associates’ needs and the organization’s desired results.
Learn2 can often leverage our Library of “participant-centered” best practices. Learn2 accelerates your existing retail experiences with skill-building simulations and on-the-job application to reinforce personal ownership of outcomes.
You receive award-winning retail facilitators to deliver pilots as part of your Train-the-Facilitator certification. Everyone benefits from your investment in learning by aligning processes, creating feedback loops from the stores and metrics to achieve Level 4 ROI business outcomes. Your program becomes established, sustainable and evolves internally as your business grows.
Success Stories
We’ve redesigned hundreds of existing learning courses in communication, leadership, team and sales for call centers, engineers, orientation programs and we can work with any size of organization. Arla is one example.
Arla Foods is a global dairy co-operative owned by dairy farmers from Denmark and Sweden. With production facilities in 13 countries and sales offices in another 20, Arla has more than 19,000 employees. Learn2 has been working with the Canadian and US operations since 2009.
Learning programs can actually produce greater impact even while reducing length.
The original learning content developed in Denmark included a 3 module program that was 9 days in duration using a more traditional slide talk and exercise approach including 400+ PowerPoint slides. Learn2 was asked to reduce the duration, increase the learning and localize the content.
Learn2 added best practices from the Learn2 Library. Learn2 eliminated duplication of models, reinforced the selected models consistently to reinforce learning & retention, removed slide talk to increase practice and application in the work environment. For example, a slide talk and series of PowerPoint slides became a series of application exercises reinforced in all three modules even allowing coaching practice based on participation in the exercises. The application of the learning drove projects and efficiencies in the plant and sales environment increasing application after the program delivery.
Learn2 delivered the Arla Leadership Program (ALP) to all Managers – first in Canada and now in the United States. Arla chose to use content added from the Learn2 Library with additional participants not in attendance and is now adding an ALP Light for lead hands/supervisors.
The Results
Arla’s existing ALP program materials were modified to reflect the North American business culture and best practices for learning. ALP was reduced to 6 days saving 3 full days while dramatically increasing engagement and application of skills.
“Arla will benefit by improved pro-activeness and contingency pre-planning by slowing down and ensuring adoption [adopting change]. – Laura Fineberg, Vice President, Human Resources, Arla Foods Inc.
In addition, our experience redesigning retail experiences, Learn2 has won over a dozen awards for amazing learning designs in the last 10 years.
I will be better able to connect with colleagues across the color pallet.
What Participants Say
“Always great to learn new tools. Doug walked us through this exercise in a non-threatening and supportive way! Thank you!”
“The energy and passion for this program is outstanding and makes the process engaging and fun!”
What Your Team Takes Away
Who is Arla Foods?
How is this project relevant?
Reduce length of courses
Improve quality of learning through practice, application and simulations
Ensuring the most relevant skills and behaviours get learned
Change their attitude about the value of learning
Reinforce your organizational culture and employee engagement
Deliver consistent customer experiences
Ask better quality questions to get better results
Engage your team to collaborate quickly
Practice contributing to meetings to achieve the desired outcome
Build best practice implementation guides to enable everyone to take action
Transcribe the inputs within 48 hours to share
Full immersion makes remembering faster and easier
Find out your Natural Approach and how you impact others
Let the learning begin earlier
Gain traction across your organization as everyone starts talking about your program
This program includes videos and images to deepen learning
Your leaders and teams can apply this learning to anything
Sustain and amplify the learning
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can you redesign the retail program we already have?
- Yes. We start from your existing content, not a blank page. Learn2 runs a needs assessment, matches the design to how your store teams like to learn, and ties the outcomes to the business result you need and the time you have. Then we pull the practices, job aids and tools out of your content and turn them into exercises where associates practice the skill instead of hearing about it.
- Why do store teams forget what they were shown?
- Slide talks lose them. With the old approach, less than 10% sticks after 48 hours. Associates keep what they build together and practice in a setting that looks like their own store. A redesign swaps telling for practice, application and simulations.
- How much shorter can a redesigned program be?
- Often a lot. At Arla Foods, a 9-day program built on more than 400 slides became 6 days. That saved 3 full days, and engagement and use of the skills on the job went up. Most of the time comes back from removing repeated models and slide talk.
- What does it cost to leave an old retail program as it is?
- Your capability drains away. IBM's Value of Learning report found companies lose 10 to 30% of their capabilities each year through turnover, retirement, and changes in process and technology. By year 3 an organization keeps only 41% of its original capabilities, and just 24% by year 6. A program that does not rebuild skills lets that drain run.
- Who runs the program after the redesign?
- Your own people. Award-winning Learn2 retail facilitators deliver the pilots while your facilitators earn their certification. Feedback loops from the stores and Level 4 ROI measures keep the program tied to results, so it keeps growing inside your business after we step back.
Interested in This Experience?
See a demo of a participant-driven experience, then we design an experience that solves it.