Research has found that only 29% of companies in the retail sector fund or arrange off-the-job training for employees.  However, this finding is skewed because provision of training depends very much on the size of the company.  Larger companies do provide off the job training but:

• only 20% of micro businesses (1-4 employees) provide off-the-job training
• just over half of small businesses (5-24 employees) provide off-the-job training

This means that in 52%  of companies with 1000+ employees more than half of employees have received off-the-job training but in only 14% of businesses with 1-4 employees and 18% of businesses with 5-49 employees, have half the workforce or more received off-the-job training.

In relation to the content of training in the retail sector this is as follows:

• job specific 71%
• health and safety 59%
• induction 44%
• soft and generic skills 44%
• training in new technologies 41%

Thus, job specific skills dominate, followed by health and safety.  This reflects the demands of employers that individuals are able to do their jobs in the company way and also that they meet health and safety legislation.

Induction training is regarded as one of the most important factors in improving customer service and also promoting employee retention. 

Employers in the retail industry tend to favour their own in-house programmes over formal qualifications.  Training programme quality is dependent on reputation with people in the sector having an implicit recognition of the value of training carried out in different companies.  Employees that have worked (and been trained) in the best regarded companies are sought after in the market place.

Source: Harris and Church 2002