National Delivery of Classroom Training in a Startup Environment

National Delivery of Classroom Training in a Startup Environment

Industry: Retail

Challenge

A wireless communications retailer was launching a new joint venture and opening 1,000 U.S based retail stores over a 3-year period. The newly formed JV included a formative team of wireless communication professionals, but talent development professionals had not yet been hired and they sought outside consulting assistance.

Action

St. Charles Consulting assessed the training needs and rapidly developed a 2-week boot camp in a 6-week period. Content included wireless packages, product knowledge, retail management and POS technology, and a new customer service methodology.  St. Charles Consulting also procured and trained a team of 18 facilitators in advance of the new store openings. At the height of training rollout, St. Charles Consulting was facilitating 8-12 training sessions per week in 5 markets across the U.S.

Impact

The client opened 93 stores and trained over 1,000 new hires in the first 12 months.  At the end of the first year, St. Charles Consulting had fine-tuned the training and delivery processes allowing the retailer to bring the established ongoing training in-house. Stores trained by St. Charles Consulting performed at a markedly higher rate than base line stores launched prior to St. Charles Consulting’s efforts.

Outlook and Trends Impacting Learning & Development

On today’s episode, we look at Part 2 of the current business landscape for L&D, what are the trends that are driving change, and what are the implications on Learning within organizations.