A 2014 survey by Retail TouchPoints discovered that budgets for employee training and engagement of responding organizations were generally staying at the same level as in 2013. The fact that these budgets aren’t decreasing is good news for trainers and HR managers, but if the money available for training was already insufficient for the goals you want to achieve, the status quo may seem like a step back.
Retailers are always seeking ways to improve their bottom lines, and effective training is one path to that objective. A small training budget does not have to be a deal-breaker in this quest. Increasingly, tablet-based training is helping companies teach their employees requisite skills without breaking the bank. Today’s retail reality means doing more with less, and you might be surprised how easily, from a training point of view, this is achievable. Here are some ways tablet training can bridge the gap between small budgets and high expectations:
Faster Learning
When operating with a small budget, you simply don’t have time for employees to dally through training sessions and courses. Furthermore, a binder of printed content, intended to be read at a worker’s own pace, can take too long to be consumed—if it’s ever thoroughly read at all. Tablet training zips your workforce through the process much quicker than with traditional methods. You won’t need to assemble employees together in the same room to be taught when they can read or watch content whenever it’s convenient for them during the workday or on their own time. Employees will be trained faster, thus making them more productive sooner.
More Effective Learning
Study after study has shown that video-based learning—such as the kind tablet training offers and excels at—is far more effective than printed materials. Limited budgets necessitate that training must be absolutely outstanding to get the best ROI and produce workers thoroughly ready to apply the skills they have been taught. The video capabilities of tablet training offer a way for employees to increase their level of proficiency in less time.
No More Paper, Binders, or Manual Syncs
Stretching your training budget as far as it can go is difficult enough without worrying about the thousands of dollars necessary simply to print content, whether it’s bound in books or assembled into binders. Space is an issue as well: You have to house all that material somewhere in your stores, possibly in space that would be better suited for something else. And even if you are using tablets to deliver training content, those devices, if not using a quality solution, must be synced by hand, one iPad at a time. Do you really want to pay overtime just to plug in dozens of tablets for one simple update? Tablet training that includes automatic sync delivers content without all the busy work and will allow you to ditch all the printed materials. The money saved on these incidental expenses instead can be spent on concrete, more urgent training initiatives.
How tight is your training budget, and do you think tablet training can help?
