Company Blog

You Got Schooled

by Adam Zack — March 9, 2016

Reap the rewards

Sometimes I wish I was back in school. From nap time during kindergarten (and who wouldn’t pay now to have to take a nap every day?!) to creative writing and your first crush in middle school to lifelong friends that you made in high school and keggers in college. School was the best. Oh, and the learning part, that was a pretty great benefit. And while a lot of people claim to have hated school, it literally laid the groundwork for everything we know. And then one day it stops. Stops cold. And you’re pretty damn happy to not have to write term papers and cram for calculus finals and you actually do work that pays you money instead of costing you.

In our beloved grocery industry the formal education and training for the vast majority of employees stops after orientation. The reasons (or excuses) that retailers use for not educating their employees further are: 1. Too expensive. 2. Can’t spare them out of the department. 3. The school of hard knocks is all the further education they need. 4. What education? 5. Too expensive. But the really great companies – those with the lowest turnover and highest employee satisfaction treat continued education of employees as an investment. An investment in their greatest asset: their people. They budget for it, schedule it and reap the rewards.

School is no longer considered a mandatory chore, but a reward that the best employees actually get paid for. And what kind of education are you talking about Adam, pray tell? Well, it’s anything from a one-day seminar for new supervisors to paying key workers to attend a food show and report back with three ideas on products that will improve their department. Yes, the ability and endorsement to attend local food shows as a representative of your company creates an incredibly positive buzz in your store.

And you want to know a secret from my penny pinching days in operations? You can authorize any employee who would like to attend a wholesaler food show on their own time, to do so. You will have a surprising number who want to attend. Have a meeting with all that did attend (paid this time) and compare ideas to implement. It’s elementary, Watson.