E-training courses focused on conflict management, influencing and problem solving are the first of a new generation of interactive learning modules to be offered to staff at UK retailing operation TK Maxx.
Part of the business’ e-learning expansion drive, the new courses have been developed and enhanced post deploying the Mohive eLearning Publishing System this summer. TK Maxx’s expansion programme expects to see further collaborated learning tactics developed across the business’s 20-30 strong course portfolio in the coming months.
Collette McFarlane, learning and development manager at TK Maxx comments: “Learning options for retailers today are often inflexible and inaccessible, and the traditional departmental culture is not best equipped to encourage the degree of interactivity that’s required for really successful knowledge transition in retail today.
“Skills gaps may be identified at line management level, but they are solved by course modules that are frequently developed outside the real environment of day to day retailing. The solution is to get people to think different across the entire infrastructure: to provide a platform that makes injecting new training ideas and approaches easy for anyone, wherever they operate on our business.
“By delivering this platform via e-learning, we’re encouraging people throughout the operation not just to learn, but to think about how they learn.”
By introducing e-learning into its training mix, TK Maxx is embarking on a cultural shift that will see staff at multiple levels of the operation evolving into the next generation of Subject Matter Experts claims Mohive CEO Lars Unneberg.
“Success for the collaborative learning strategy depends on highly effective feedback opportunities that motivate representatives at every level of the business,” says Unneberg.
“The basic assumption is that the managers best placed to identify skills gaps are also expertly equipped to help develop the training solutions required to fill them. It’s actually quite frustrating for many managers in retail. Traditionally, they’re tasked with pinpointing knowledge gaps in their teams, but given very little opportunity to suggest the tactics that could be deployed to tackle the problems they find.
“Yet these people are uniquely placed to help shape the very initiatives most likely to work best. By introducing a new level of interactivity into the approach we can encourage the workflow process required to tap into that knowledge and develop better, more relevant, training solutions faster.”
McFarlane stresses that, for TK Maxx, the business case has been built around creating more personal accountability for training and more flexible training options. The retailer creates and runs its own courses internally so the efficiency created with the new system will mean learning and development staff can be more productive.
McFarlane concludes: “We turn things round quickly in our business, so it follows that we have a rapid system for e-learning”
