The success of any enterprise directly depends on the efficiency of its employees. Therefore, staff training has long ceased to be a routine necessity. Now it is a convenient and effective tool for strengthening the attractiveness of the company's brand and increasing business performance.

When training "field personnel," you should organize the learning process using a holistic approach. It is the largest category of employees, which is responsible for the final result of the company. Ensuring the correct and timely display of goods on the store shelf is the main task of the merchandiser, and the sales volume of the manufacturer and the reputation of the merchandising agency depend on how well he performs it. Although the concepts of KPI and motivation have long become a part of the lexicon of every employer, it is sometimes difficult to imagine how exactly they should work in this area.

The specificity of the profession of a merchandiser is its accessibility and relative simplicity. However, this is the main snag: simple does not mean primitive.

• The merchandiser lays out the goods on the shelf according to a certain standard. He works following the planogram of the distribution network or manufacturer, which the manufacturer agrees with the distribution network.

• The merchandiser controls the availability of goods on the shelf and fills in the gaps if they occur.

• He also regularly checks the relevance and correctness of price tags. In addition, he conducts an inventory of the product on the shelf and in the warehouse, checks expiration dates, and maintains relations with the store administration to resolve emerging issues promptly.

• Sometimes, merchandisers also order products, and even in the case of traditional retail, receive payment for delivery on the spot.

To perform these tasks, you do not need special education or long-term training, but you do need to be active, communicative, attentive to details, and, in a good way, meticulous. The training before the work will help the merchandiser understand job basics. At this stage, work begins with an employee's motivation - with the identification of his goals.

IMPORTANT: KPI is not just a method for assessing the effectiveness of personnel; it is an indicator of the success of our work with a person. The training of an employee ensures a constant improvement in the quality of the services provided to them and opens up opportunities for professional and career growth, positively affecting the company's image and key indicators.

For training to be efficient and influence the results of the work of field agents and merchandisers, it is necessary:

1. Synchronization of company goals and human goals

KPI and staff motivation are important as a set - and therefore, it would be wrong to consider one in isolation from the other. One of the main challenges today is balancing the company's goals and those of those working there. It would be best to link KPI and motivation into a single learning and career development algorithm to achieve maximum efficiency.

• Conflicts at work due to incompetence
• Loss of staff due to lack of understanding of their future
• Loss of business volume due to errors (sales, customer churn)
• There is no confidence in your future and understanding of your place
• Lack of visible tools for your own career development
• There is no understanding of their strengths
• There is no recognition of his great contribution
• Heterogeneity of the approach to personnel adaptation and development in different departments.

The foundation of effective learning is the definition of human goals. It is better to do this during personal communication, for example, with a supervisor or a regional manager. And the learning platform will be where employees' goals match their career track.

2. Career track

A career track is a scenario of employee development in a company, which includes the growth of his competencies and the role and material component.

The career track is based on the goals of the business and the employee and includes:

1. Necessary competencies for development
2. Specific training and courses for learning
3. Test points in time
4. Practical training directly with colleagues and supervisor
5. Points of collection of feedback and control of work with this feedback
6. Of course, the timing of each of the stages, the exact grades, and % growth of the material component

As already noted, the basis of corporate training is career tracks. It includes:

• training program
• practical assignments from the manager, so the employee tries and applies gained knowledge at the workplace

A feature of merchandiser programs is the so-called field training. During training directly in the store, the merchandiser can get feedback on what is going well and what growth areas can be. In addition, the movement along the career track motivates the employee to study and achieve a high business result, which is decisive when moving from one level to another.

In Key2WorkSkills, we have implemented the ability to flexibly set up a career track for field employees (merchandisers, sales representatives, supervisors):

• For each position, we develop a career track with the possibility of moving to the desired position
• Courses are assigned automatically
• We set up the sequence of doing both training and individual learning elements.
• Interactive activity calendar
• Online reporting of the manager or coach
• Certification based on the results of training

The K2W Skills platform allows you to track the results of employees and conduct additional training with those with underrated scores. We suggest holding regular online meetings or face-to-face consultations with them during the month. Targeted training allows you to identify problem areas and help the merchandiser build a more efficient workflow.

3. Material and non-material motivation

In companies with more than 500 field staff, effective performance requires employees to express a desire to show their professional qualities. A motivated employee, as a rule, do more than his job descriptions need; he participates in the team's life more often, is active, and takes on additional tasks for self-development and team development. The right motivation, in this case, can be a driving factor.

There are different motivation tools. Usually, they are:

1. Material

An essential part of the material motivation is the timely payment of wages and the precise formation of the final amount. When an employee understands what exactly he receives his salary and bonus for, he begins to have a clearer idea of tasks. In addition, the merchandiser can influence wages by increasing additional points of sale and display.

2. Non-material

Non-material motivation includes factors that create comfortable conditions for the merchandiser and allows him to consider continuing his career within the company. It includes the proximity of the place of work to home, good working conditions, loyal relations with management, and, of course, the possibility of career growth. When moving along a career track, an employee can learn and develop from an intern to a personnel reserve for any position. At the same time, he understands that he can grow professionally and in his role, which is often an essential and powerful motivation.

Practical tasks built into the training based on actual projects

Any theoretical knowledge is absorbed more effectively when followed by practice. And if this practice is also implemented based on his current tasks, then the employee immediately sees the value of this training and understands why he went through it.

On the other hand, if he needs help understanding how this training can be helpful to him, then feedback tools highlight it and allow him to carry out further work on the mistakes.

For example, real shelf work in one of the stores on the merchandiser's route can follow an introductory course on layout rules.
And a course in persuasion skills can help in a real challenge to convince a store manager to expand shelf space.

Built-in processes for collecting feedback and subsequent work with it

A critical component of the learning process is the ability to give and receive feedback. Employees and their managers can rate learning content:

• Business result: correlating the fact of completed courses and test results with the employee's business results, that is, KPIs
• Gathering data on employee expectations. K2W has a form builder, and you can schedule questionnaires to run
• Each of the courses and training is evaluated by the management and the trainees and adjusted based on feedback (likes, comments, questions, course time, number of errors)