Large Retail Chain gets a Flipped Classroom Solution for their Logistics Associates

Our Client

Our client is one of the largest retailers in the world, serving millions of customers daily. With a global presence in over 28 countries, they operate a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. They were ranked as one of the largest private employers in the world, and have established themselves as a global leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity.

The Business Challenge

Our client’s Logistics Department is responsible for moving merchandise from the supplier to the retail stores through their country-wide Regional Distribution Centers (RDC). In each DC, the merchandise moves through three key processes – Receiving, Orderfilling and Shipping. The hourly associates working at these centres have to be trained to perform their duties responsibly without any delays or damages, while also ensuring adherence to processes. This is the only way to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of goods to stores. In an effort to meet this objective, traditional classroom sessions were conducted for their new hires, wherein they would acquire the necessary knowledge, observe procedures, and then perform the tasks based on the same.

Despite this however, it was observed that DCs across the country had varying standards and procedures for completing the processes, caused by a lack of performance consistency. This led to confusion amongst management teams, job dissatisfaction, and eventually higher attrition rates.

Some other challenges that our client faced included:

• Physically demanding tasks with repetitive steps, and inadequate practice time.
• An enclosed work environment with freight, electrical equipment, and other employees; where safety becomes a top priority.
• Hourly wage earning employees who are not well-versed with the technical know-how of the process, or the rationale behind using correct techniques.

To overcome these challenges, our client required a classroom-based training solution–one for each process–that would provide an overview of the entire logistics process, and then drill down to explanations of the relevant sub-processes. The training would serve as an onboarding program for new hires, as well as a refresher course for existing employees (showing unsatisfactory job performance). The core objective of the new training program was, to instill a sense of responsibility in the employees, in order to ensure that they performed their daily tasks optimally, with minimal quality compromise.

Our Solution

DelphianLogic analyzed all challenges faced by the client, and concluded that the target audience (employees) had to learn, assimilate, and perfect a set of highly technical processes, without a proper initiation to the process. The new training therefore needed to be engaging, interactive, and focussed on application. This would involve teaching of appropriate techniques to perform tasks, as well as elaboration on the impacts of non-compliance with the right procedure.

In order to give learners a space where they could learn about the fundamentals of the process, we adopted a Flipped classroom training environment.

Flipped classroom provides a blended approach, wherein participants engage with the relevant content through self-study material, prior to attending the sessions themselves. These study-materials were made to be more visual rather than text based, yet specific and detailed enough to provide a good deal of clarity to learners.

In the classroom sessions, the trainer assists them in building upon the self-study content, through engaging activities, and informal discussions. Learners are then given on-the-job demonstrations, as well as problem-solving activities, so as to further augment their understanding. They are then made to perform the same tasks in a safe and controlled environment (outside of the classroom) with the help of visual cue cards and step-lists that support them in developing the required practical skills.

Salient features of the training:

• A visually-enriched Playbook explaining the fundamentals of the process, making it easier to understand and recall the information
• A facility tour of the DC to help learners observe, and become familiar with the work
• Instructor-led sessions to reinforce understanding and see the practical applications of the Playbook content, as well as practice the steps in a safe environment
• A Pocket guide as on-the-job reference with visually illustrated step-lists for on-the-job assistance

The training culminates in the following benefits:

• Motivates learners to learn about the process in advance
• Enables learners to make sound decisions, which in turn drives quality
• Encourages learners to practice, thus boosting their level of experience, and confidence
• Allows learners to discuss, ask questions and clarify doubts