Mark Fletcher management tip: train your new employees

Employees can make or break a retail business, they have your livelihood in your hands yet how often do you let a new employee loose on the business with a fraction of the training they would receive before being allowed to drive a car? Too often, I bet.

A small independent business needs a new employee induction process that includes minimum training necessary before they can undertake any work. There also needs to be an on-going training program that ensures new and even existing employees are properly trained to best serve your business and its customers.

I am not talking here about the formal courses in retail available through the public education system or privately, no I am talking about training you prepare about your business. Yes, you. Your business is an asset to be nurtured for you and your family and that can only be done by people who are trained in what you need and how you want things done. So, you need to develop training.

If you think your customer service is a unique selling proposition for your business then structured training of new employees is essential.

You should also look for training from your product suppliers. They may have training available in their products.  Ask your suppliers how they can help train your staff. You should speak with your EPoS software company. Tower Systems, my software company has a 130 video curriculum for newsagent employees with each video running 8 to 10 minutes.

A consistent approach to training new employees, and your longer term people will improve the consistency of your business and this will reflect in the performance of the business.