Recession-hit retailers still need to invest in staff to drive their businesses, argues Liz Morrell

During the recession it’s easy to think of staff training as a luxury you can do without, and for many retailers it’s one of the first costs they trim.

But with headcounts being reduced, morale disappearing faster than a retailer’s bottom line and great customer service more important than ever to clinching a sale, training is vital to retain and motivate staff and to increase the productivity of an often reduced workforce.

Cutting the training budget doesn’t bode well for the future either. Research from the Chartered Management Institute suggests employers risk losing future leaders by failing to provide adequate training or career opportunities for their staff.

More than 82 per cent of respondents argued that their employer should focus on skills development as a route out of the recession. Chartered Management Institute deputy director of membership Huw Hilditch-Roberts says: “Continuous development is vital, otherwise management is in grave danger of becoming stale.”

But retailers need to make savings, so where should they focus training budgets? Hilditch-Roberts says managers must be trained to motivate staff. “Leadership is key because in this economic climate the development of people to ensure they can motivate and carry staff with them is vital as well as developing people that can manage and execute change,” he says.

Athito Consulting partner James Doyan says retailers should also focus on the basics. “The big training programmes where you are looking to improve the spirit of the team and so on are all well
and good in a buoyant market but in this market it should be very much a focus on the customer and product,” he says. “You have to empower people with the product you sell. It’s around the brand and how you interact with the customer to make a sale or make a sale for tomorrow. I would drop any other training programme that doesn’t fit with that.”

Phones 4U is one retailer that is investing significant amounts of money into training despite the recession (see box). Operations director Tom Shorten admits the nature of the mobile phone industry dictates training requirements. “There is no option for us to cut back on training in our industry because staff need to know about the products,” he says. But, he adds: “We want to ensure our staff are the most knowledgeable on the high street. It is a massive error if people underestimate the value of training in this climate. It’s knowledge and quality of service that will help you to gain market share.”

Investing to impress: PHONES 4U

“We want to ensure our staff are the most knowledgeable on the high street,” says Phones 4U operations director Tom Shorten.

In May Phones 4U opened a £1m training and induction facility in Birmingham and has invested £3m in the training and development of staff in the past 12 months.

Phones 4U will also spend a further £5m this year. The money will be spent on about 10 days of training per person and could be more if staff or technology advances make it necessary.