Autumn 2010 Newsletter

Why Made-to-Measure is a much better fit

More and more retailers are turning to First Friday to address their specific Learning and Development needs as the off-the-shelf solutions widely available are not sufficient to meet their requirements.

In today's market place where culture, values and branding are an integral part of successful retailing we pride ourselves on delivering bespoke learning solutions which blend seamlessly with the DNA of retail and deliver outstanding results.

From creating L&D strategies to developing learning and competency frameworks, from working with teams to become high performing to developing the personal effectiveness, management and leadership skills of individuals, First Friday has senior retail L&D experts who are best placed to offer solutions which are creative, flexible and highly effective.

As our clients know we very quickly pick up and run with what it is you want to achieve, so why not let us help with your people as well as your systems and process.

National Skills Academy for Retail - New Partnership

We are excited to be working with the National Skills Academy for Retail, hoping to become one of the first national training partners to design and deliver retail training programmes offered through the national Skills Shop network.

First Friday has designed courses focused on a range of technical retail content such as buying, merchandising, visual merchandising and management development in the retail environment. First Friday's team of retail consultants will deliver the content, designed for both individual retail employees and small to medium sized businesses.

First Friday will bring its unique blend of retail training expertise to the Skills Shop network to equip retailers with the best skills for the job.

Heineken UK: Communications Programme

We have recently started the development and delivery of the communication strategies for two major projects; one to introduce a new CRM system and related business process changes and the other to support the upgrade of their MSOffice suite.

Compass Group UK: Culture, Service and Selling training

Compass Group, the UK's market leader in contract catering and support services, has commissioned First Friday to design and deliver a programme of training courses to support their frontline teams to deliver service excellence whilst working within the Compass culture. The training is being delivered to team members in a variety of job roles ranging from catering and retail to reception, security and cleaning. The rollout will continue throughout 2010 and 2011 at Compass Group's client sites throughout the UK and Ireland.

SCREWFIX: successful trial of Diploma in Retail Skills

click here to read the full case study.

eLearning delivers cost effective training for retail

In the last 3 years we've seen a significant rise in the number of eLearning projects completed. For teams that are widely spread, eLearning can be a great way of delivering consistent training that is accessible at times that are best for each individual and can be repeated when needed.

First Friday use the same approach to developing eLearning training as for their courses - training covers best practice processes and ideal use of the systems as well as other key elements like customer service, commercial skills, etc as required. We have used eLearning in a wide variety of projects including EPoS change programmes, Stock Management / HHT projects and B&M / Trading systems projects. 

Upgrading from MSOffice 2003 to 2007?

Companies planning the upgrade of their Microsoft Office suite need to consider how to train their teams. First Friday can offer an innovative and cost effective solution for both the rollout training and, if required, ongoing new starter training.

The process involves individuals in your team completing an online diagnostic test to see what features they use in each application and what they already know. The individual is then presented with targeted eLearning training modules for them to complete. Training is relevant to individual needs and requires less time commitment.

Recent projects include:

• Providing Change Management support to a number of work streams as part of a programme to develop a Retailers future facing strategy
• Delivering Change Management leadership for a systems replacement programme
• Change Management for Merchandise Planning project
• Providing strategic support to develop an L & D strategy and a learning framework 
• Mentoring and coaching seconded project managers within role for a major retailer 
• Developed and delivered training for a new Merchandise Planning system for major retailer
• Design and delivery of a practical 'project management' workshop for senior executives in a fast paced fashion retailer
• Creation of a series of 'self-directed' training cards for store staff members in a national clothing retail group
• Development of a management skills course to prepare new food managers for their first trading Christmas
• Developed a comprehensive internal communications programme to support a significant IT change initiative
• Developed two store training workshops for a major high street retailer on the responsibility their store managers have for managing, influencing and controlling stock
• Developed and delivered a workshop on Critical Path Management
• WSSI training for well known Ecommerce retailer
• Development of eLearning to support store Epos system
• eLearning and classroom training for buying system rollout for major retailer
• Executive coaching support for the executive team of a niche retail business
• Merchandising best practice project for global retailer
• Development and delivery of training for core B&M systems replacement projects – for 2 retailers