Your convenience store training has two primary goals. First is to ensure employees are following store procedures and are working in compliance with regulating laws. Good compliance training and new employee orientation programs can usually take care of your immediate training needs. The second goal is just as important: Establish an environment where employees are rewarded for performance and teamwork.
What Does Training Have to Do with Teamwork?
Teamwork and training go hand-in-hand. Implementation of your training efforts will be more successful when your staff is working as a team. And teams train better when they train together. Building a sense of teamwork among convenience store employees makes them more open to training, more productive, and more loyal. All this, in turn, leads to better customer service and higher sales in your store.
Setting Team Goals
The concept of teaming is taken from sports. Winning teams operate as a unit to reach their goal. Having a clear goal is key. Research shows that, both in sports and in the workplace, what sets high-performing teams apart from run-of-the-mill teams is setting clear goals. What are your goals? Tangible goals might include store sales numbers, and that’s just fine. To determine the strategies that help you reach that goal, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Identify key customer contact points, and train on those specifically.
Be a Leader
Behind every great team is a dynamic and team-focused leader. In the c-store environment, high-performing teams must have a leader that puts the success of the team first, treats all team members with respect, and keeps the team focused on their goal.
How Cross Training Fosters Teamwork
If you don’t cross-train your employees, it’s impossible to eliminate the “it’s not my job” attitude that leads teams directly into failure. A team member in a food preparation position, for example, needs to be empowered to leave their post at the pizza station to backup cashiers when the lines get too long. Managers, too, need to practice what they preach and dive in to help customers when the store gets too busy. The answer should never be, “That’s not my job.” With proper training and leadership, team members will respond to any situation with, “How can I help?”
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