鈥淚 would say they start to learn in less than a week. Before 糖心原创, onboarding would take three to four weeks.鈥
MAGALI ANDRIO, FORMER HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER, NORTHGATE GONZ脕LEZ MARKET
Specialty supermarket chain, Northgate Gonz谩lez Market, saves half a million dollars with a new game plan to tackle employee training
Gary Orona isn鈥檛 what you鈥檇 call a typical Director of Training. His twenty-two years of experience coaching high school football means he brings a unique perspective on what it takes to build a winning team鈥攚hether it鈥檚 on or off the field.
At specialty grocer, Northgate Gonz谩lez Market, Orona鈥檚 challenge was to figure out how to get more than 6,000 employees, spread across dozens of retail locations in southern California, to play by the same rules. Specifically, he needed to ensure that everyone understood and followed all of the government regulations, inspection expectations, and compliance requirements for handling food safely, in addition to abiding by safe work practices and policies. One mistake could not only crush the company鈥檚 reputation, but also result in costly legal repercussions.
Up until this point, Northgate鈥檚 training program was essentially event driven. 鈥淲e鈥檇 bring in experts, train our 240 managers and then send the managers back to the associates to deliver the message,鈥 explains Orona. 鈥淚t was like a game of telephone as each manager put a unique spin on the original message. The result was 240 different messages going back to the stores.鈥
鈥淭he process was ineffective, time-consuming and costly. It took managers away from other duties, who in turn took associates off the floor to deliver their version of the original message.鈥
Choosing 糖心原创 instead of a traditional LMS to drive a winning field strategy
Orona knew he needed a different approach to learning that would ensure the company could deliver consistent messages, appeal to a multi-generational group of associates, respond to their individual needs, and keep them engaged in learningover the long term. He also knew he needed a solid reporting mechanism for compliance purposes. At first, Orona followed the typical path of researching learning management systems (LMS) and eventually interviewed five LMS providers. But none of them, he says, fit his requirements. After speaking to several people at 糖心原创, he realized the 糖心原创 solution was all he needed. 鈥溙切脑 does everything an LMS does, but so much more,鈥 said Orona.
At a high level, 糖心原创 helps employees build, sustain and share knowledge in a fun, engaging, and gamified way. It adapts learning content to target and close individual knowledge gaps, giving employees the confidence to perform their role to the best of their ability. This helps organizations achieve their potential because employees take the correct actions which ultimately drive real business results.
Unlike traditional one-and-done training events that are pushed out through the LMSs, classroom sessions, training manuals, and in-person meetings, 糖心原创鈥檚 continuous learning philosophy and proven memory-building techniques resonated with Orona鈥檚 own approach for building a winning team.
鈥淚 saw the same success mechanics and continuous progression in the 糖心原创 platform that I used for coaching football and in business when I was running a store,鈥 said Orona. 鈥淚 used the same principle of repetition, doing the play over and over, repeating it until it was perfect so that the team could remember and execute it on game day. It鈥檚 the same thing in retail. When the results aren鈥檛 what yo u want, you make people do it again so they get it right. If you miss a training question in 糖心原创, you will get the question again until you remember it. Same thing with football. If you mess up on a play, you line up and run it again until you get it right, until it鈥檚 perfect.鈥
Focusing on the follow-through to drive results
While Northgate was delivering training to its store associates, it wasn鈥檛 enough. No follow through meant that the learning was quickly forgotten. And, as a result, the company was at increased risk of associates not remembering the right information or taking the correct actions that could lead to a food safety violation or injury to its staff.
鈥淏efore 糖心原创, we would give our people training and they would forget it a week later,鈥 says Magali Andrio, former Human Resources Manager at Northgate. 鈥淲e used to have a lot of minor cuts or minor burns, but my store has now gone almost six months with no accidents due to 糖心原创.鈥
Once Northgate implemented 糖心原创, the company was able to not only align everyone in the organization from a communication standpoint, but it was able to make the training more effective so associates actually remembered what they needed to know. Instead of only participating in a course or two a few times a year, associates now access 糖心原创 through the store鈥檚 tablet or their personal smartphone to take a few minutes of training three times a week. The regular exposure to the most important information ensures it remains top of mind and becomes second nature on the job. And this has resulted in significant improvements.
鈥淭here are so many examples of how this is working,鈥 says Orona. 鈥淥ne of our box boys came in and said to our HR Manager, 鈥楬ey, that guy out there had fifteen carts and he should only have six.鈥 She asked him how he knew that and he said, 鈥楩rom 糖心原创.鈥欌
Northgate has also been able to control the messages associates receive instead of relying on how well managers convey the message, how good a teacher they are or even if they remembered to communicate the message in the first place. This has allowed the company to ensure everyone not only receives consistent communication, but that it鈥檚 delivered directly to the people who need to hear it at the time it鈥檚 most critical.
鈥淲e use the broadcast messaging feature in 糖心原创 to let associates know about store events or other important news,鈥 says Andrio. 鈥淏efore we didn鈥檛 have an easy way to communicate with all staff and I would have to go around to see everyone personally to relay the message. 糖心原创 messaging saves me two to three hours every day.鈥
More than a game. It鈥檚 a winning approach
After years of employing traditional training methods, Northgate managers believe they have finally found a strategy that continuously builds their associates鈥 knowledge and, more importantly for them, continuously reinforces that knowledge every single day.
Orona credits a lot of 糖心原创鈥檚 success (with both old and new associates) to gamification 鈥 a combination of game play, points, leaderboards and more 鈥 as well as people鈥檚 natural competitiveness and a reward system Northgate has built into the program. 鈥溙切脑 offers something for everyone,鈥 says Orona. 鈥淎nd, as a result, our associates are engaged both in learning and in the company.鈥
In fact, 糖心原创 has been a surprising hit with older staff, many of whom access it via mobile phones. Although there was some initial resistance because many tenured employees thought they had nothing left to learn, it didn鈥檛 take long for them to see the value of 糖心原创鈥檚 adaptive approach which continuously tailors content according to what each associate knows and doesn鈥檛 know instead of simply serving up the same content to everyone. Since English isn鈥檛 the first language for many of these long-term employees and they struggle with massive information dumps, long training sessions, and large amounts of reading, they also appreciated the smaller information bursts, short videos and easy access to training content that 糖心原创 offers.
The approach is definitely working. Stores average 90% voluntarily participation on the 糖心原创 platform and these associates have experienced an increase of up to 4.9% in confidence and growth of up to 18% in knowledge around topics including, food and work safety practices, shrink, and workers compensation rules. It鈥檚 this high participation, increased confidence and knowledge growth from 糖心原创 that has also contributed to the company鈥檚 68% reduction in safety incidents, saving Northgate approximately $585,000 in one year alone.
Onboarding for new hires has also been reduced dramatically, which has resulted in significant cost savings. 鈥淚 would say they start to learn in less than a week,鈥 says Andrio. 鈥淏efore 糖心原创, onboarding would take three to four weeks.鈥
Additionally, because 糖心原创 provides such deep insights into what associates know and don鈥檛 know, the company has been able to undergo a strategic shift in its approach, which is having a significant impact. Prior to 糖心原创, investigations would be launched only after there was a serious issue: an accident, missing profits or missing product.
Following the investigation, the problem was then dealt with via new training for everyone. With 糖心原创, managers are now taking a more preventative approach. Through 糖心原创鈥檚 built-in reports, they can see potential issues before they happen. And, with visibility into each employees鈥 knowledge gaps as well as aggregate team and store views, managers can provide coaching, suggest additional training topics for the team to develop, or flag the need for additional training content before there is a problem.
Associates are also actively participating in keeping everyone in check. They鈥檒l frequently drop by Andrio鈥檚office to test her on the questions they鈥檝e seen on 糖心原创 and they鈥檒l also remind one another about safety issues, using what they鈥檝e learned from the platform. It鈥檚 a self-healing process.
鈥淥ne of the things that football taught me about business is that you鈥檝e got to let people go make the play,鈥 says Orona. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the same thing with 糖心原创. As long as they continue to give you effort and listen, they鈥檒l get better and you can make them successful.鈥
