New System Training
Key Takeaways
- PartSource head office deployed a new point-of-sale system and needed full adoption across all franchise locations.
- Franchise owners and staff had previously developed their own processes; head office anticipated pushback.
- The solution was a series of short training videos about the key chances and benefits of the new system.
- Head office presented the videos at the national conference to help managers and owners become change ambassadors.
- The videos were shared across all stores to prepare staff for the new POS rollout.
Planning for change: Partsources’ new POS system
The PartSource head office developed a new point-of-sale system that would bring all stores in alignment with the corporate policies. They knew it would change some well-established habits but would ideally make it easier for stores to save time and raise profits. To mitigate pushback, PartSource took a proactive approach with rollout training.
The national manager of central support reached out to Enable Education for help. He understood that they’d have better adoption if they provided targeted support and training instead of leaving individual store managers and owners to figure out the new system on their own.
Enable consulted with PartSource to identify key changes and benefits of the new system. To avoid overwhelming the end user, they defined ten specific areas to highlight in laser-focused lessons. These lessons covered everything from how to set up and manage sales accounts, to printing price labels, to simplifying accounts receivable.
Planning For Change: Partsources’ new POS system
After meeting with Enable, PartSource had a clear vision for building their PowerPoint presentations. A few days later, the national manager and senior business analyst teamed up in Enable’s unique training studio to record their presentations. In just a few hours, they captured all ten topics with multiple camera angles and high-quality audio. The Enable production staff edited the videos using the client’s corporate colours and delivered them back within two weeks.
PartSource presented the videos during training sessions at national conference to help managers and owners become change ambassadors. Enable’s CEO Ben Zimmer and Director of Creative Services Karina Sinclair attended the conference to observe the training sessions. The sessions were held in concurrently in two different rooms. In one room, the facilitator really engaged the attendees, drawing their attention to key messages, sharing anecdotes, and sparking conversation. In the other room, attendees were distracted by their phones and much less engaged in the experience. The facilitator was interacting less with the audience and energy was flagging.
Blended Learning: the ideal solution
While video was a key component of the training session, Enable believes in blended learning experiences. Ben and Karina noticed the diverging experiences and advised the national manager of support to remove the divider between the two rooms. It was important to complement the videos with the dynamic rapport the first facilitator had with his audience. Once this happened, the remaining rollout training sessions livened up, and feedback forms revealed high scores from attendees.
Now that store owners and district managers were trained, they could share their learnings with their staff with enthusiasm and support. PartSource also distributed the videos to all stores so staff would be ready for the new POS rollout. The videos helped staff feel prepared and resistance to change was mitigated.
Challenges
A widespread franchise network needed to be convinced to adopt a new mandatory point-of-sale system. Their main challenges included:
- Individual stores valued their own proprietary procedures and were resistant to change.
- Regional managers wanted to see benefits before they’d champion the change.
- Developing a library of content that would enable staff to learn specific skills just in time.
- All levels of staff had to be made aware of the benefits of the new system to entice them to change habits.
[The] videos are so well received. They want so many more.
Thank you so much for your kind partnership in this. We have made major strides in winning store folks over.
Results
By consulting on training topics and attending the client’s conference, Enable provided invaluable feedback from an educational point of view.
There were multiple benefits:
- Identifying key topics helped PartSource focus their attention on high-impact messaging.
- Breaking the training into short videos (3-6 minutes each) gave learners a chance to learn how to use the POS system and understand the increased value it would bring to store operations.
- All-inclusive video production experience made it easy for PartSource presenters to create these videos while focusing on their software development and QA leading up to rollout.
- PartSource has begun to build a library of knowledge for current and future employees.
- Staff have access to the videos for refresher courses at any time from the comfort of their location.
Enable Education bridges the gap between learning and doing to keep employees engaged and productive. Reach out to us to start brainstorming your company’s path to success today.
