American companies are expected to hire as many as 800,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday rush. Many of these temporary employees will be in jobs for which they have little or no previous experience. Quality, knowledgeable workers are still important to maximize sales and productivity, even during the crazy holiday season. However, getting these employees up to speed quickly, and only for the short term, is a challenge.
Tablet training—on the iPad or Surfaces, for example—can provide an effective option to teach holiday workers the skills they need for the six or so weeks they will be on your payroll. Seasonal employees don’t need long training sessions or company orientations; they just need to learn their jobs fast. Here are some ways retailers can use tablet training to prepare for the holiday shopping season:
1. Efficient Training
Because the time seasonal employees spend with your company is so brief, elongated training strategies make little sense. You want holiday workers on the floor as quickly as possible. At the same time, you can’t send them out clueless. Tablet training allows the information temporary employees need to be easily accessed and quickly consumed—potentially on their own devices before their first day. Fifteen minutes of training that can be referenced again when needed is much more efficient than an hour-long lecture in a windowless back room.
2. Product Displays
Holiday displays are important to increase sales and to make products look as attractive as possible. However, they take time to assemble, and temporary employees might not have the retail skills to set up a display as quickly as a permanent worker does. Tablet training enables step-by-step directions, or even video, to help with the setup process. Instead of trying to decipher written instructions from a binder, seasonal workers can watch a video on an iPad on the floor, and rewind and pause as needed to be sure the display is created correctly.
3. Product Knowledge
This scenario is frustrating for consumers: Asking an employee about a product, and getting a blank stare in return. Holiday workers may not have the working knowledge about an item that a regular employee might. Tablets are great not only for training seasonal employees about the products they are selling, but also as a reference in case a worker does need to look up an answer to a customer question. With this approach, holiday workers will be more likely to close the sale, as opposed to letting customers walk away—or out the store—without purchasing the item they might have been willing to buy had their questions just been answered.
4. Black Friday
Black Friday—which now starts on Thursday for many retailers—is crazy enough without seasonal workers not knowing what they need to do. Tablet training can make the busiest 36 hours of the shopping year less confusing and more productive for temporary employees. An iPad or two in every department allows workers to brush up on the job’s procedures, quickly view the sales flyers, receive inventory or on-the-fly training updates, and communicate with managers and other departments. Furthermore, if a tablet training solution doesn’t require a continuous Internet connection, you won’t be taking away bandwidth from the cash registers that surely will be in hyper mode on Black Friday.
What strategies does your company employ to train holiday workers?
