Nationwide Retail Chain Builds Gamified Leadership Training for Newly Promoted Managers

Client:

An American multi-channel specialty retailer with stores all over the country

Category:

Service

Industry:

Retail

Business Objective The program was created by a specialty retailer involved in the sale of hard surface flooring and related accessories. Our client’s business had been growing, with new branches opening across the country that required new managers and staff to operate. The primary business objective was to quickly and effectively train new managers to lead these new stores and to fill positions of existing store managers who were being further promoted. Our client also felt strongly about hiring internally. Our client wanted to maintain its company culture by promoting from its own ranks rather than sourcing individuals who were already proven managers but might not understand how the company does business. Eager to train new managers and expand its offices, our client was interested in creating a leadership training program to educate top performers to cultivate these individuals for leadership roles in the company. Since most of these workers are young members of Gen-Z, our client was excited about a gamified program that would retain the attention of the young learners and improve their interpersonal and management skills to make them effective leaders. Based on the feedback we received, our program succeeded in both these requirements, with learner responses indicating they both enjoyed the program and found it very informative.

When they approached Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS) to find a digital learning solution, they had specific need

An agile & robust learning platform to enhance the competence of sales staff at the dealerships.
A learning solution which can be scalable, cloud-based, and gamification friendly to engage the learners.
Easy access to various formats of learning contents and a tracking mechanism for training delivery and outcome.
Ability to provide elearning and blended learning that makes workforce knowledge ready quickly with new products and features.

Learning Objective

The client had a clear vision for the gamified training program they wanted to build. After the initial discussion with Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS), we arrived at several prototypes and went through several more stages of feedback with the client before coming to the final iteration. The program uses an interactive, gamified approach to learning, operating on the “watch, learn & play” training infrastructure. The program guides learners through several scenarios that guide learners through effective leadership in various difficult scenarios, such as a customer complaining about a product failure or a sales representative failing to perform. Learners are guided through each scenario with a simple, colourful interface, and navigate through content that teaches them to be mindful of the contributing factors involved in making the right decision.

Learner Profile with Number of Learners

High-performing, leadership-ready employees of a large, nationwide retail chain. Primary target of over 500 individuals, with more in the future.

Learning Principles/ Approach/ Strategy

The program focuses on educating employees through building comfort and experience with company policies and procedures, new and old, utilizing the following techniques:

Game Based Learning with interactive gamified content and assessments that give learners an opportunity to express their learning in tactile ways and receive enthusiastic encouragement for their successes
Cognitive Load Theory utilizes progressively complex concepts to build a foundation before discussing more complex objections and customers.
Modular Learning that segregates learning programs into several short modules that can be taken separately or in succession, allowing participants to customize the pace of their learning and pick and choose modules based on their unique learning requirements and what they already know.

Solutions

Our client partnered with Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS) to create a training program that serves a very particular niche. While leadership training programs are far from uncommon, each organization operates differently and for a client with such a specific niche it was important that their leadership training program be custom-built to respond to the specific business problems of the industry. The major advantage of this kind of customization and specification is the familiarity that many learners have with the content, and the ease at which they recognize that the information in the program is applicable and useful to them. Many generic leadership training programs can suffer from low motivation levels by learners because they feel like large segments of the content are not relevant to their business needs. With content that is so well-customized for the target audience, however, learners become significantly more receptive and eager to learn. The course takes the learner through multiple levels, each focusing on an important leadership scenario in a fun and interesting manner, making the learner want to learn the content. Learners are taught to ask questions and be decisive.

Implementation / Distribution Process The modules were designed and built using Articulate Storyline, with all assets built by our award-winning instructional designers. The content was vetted by experts from our client organization as well as business development experts and learning experts.

Learner Assessment Assessments were gamified and included symbols and heuristics that learners were already comfortable with. Questions were multiple choice, with scenarios specific to the client company that many of them might have already experienced from the agent perspective. As the manager, they were tasked with navigating through each scenario by selecting the correct option. After each question, if the learner got the question wrong, the correct answer was displayed with an explanation. If the learner was correct, they would be congratulated for their success.

Business Impact

85% of learners completed the training in one sitting without interruption
97% of learners stated that the training program was easy to understand and follow.
95% of learners rated the program as more informative and educational than any other eLearning program they had attended.

Feedback The response to the course among both stakeholders and volunteer testers was resoundingly positive. The client vice president of education had this to say: “We’re incredibly happy with the way the program looks and feels. Initial testing has found the program to be engaging and impactful, and our people are glued to their seats completing it, and I am proud to say that everyone involved in the development of this program is directly responsible for uplifting many of our talented associates into leadership roles. We are grateful to our friends at G-cube who went above and beyond to make an incredible learning program.”

Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS) Resources Used Instructional Designers, Media Experts, Language Specialists, Subject Matter Experts, and our Quality Control team. Totalling at 2431 work hours. Program Learning Hours 2 hours Number of Modules 4 Post Learning Support N/A Tools & Technology Used Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Flash, JavaScript Find out More Learn more about Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS)’s Game-Based Learning Initiatives here.