Retail Work Builds Valuable Skills
How should people go about developing a mix of skills that will be valuable in the job market of the future? One option is to work in retail.
Sitting at a key nexus of the economy, retail is a sector where people can develop hard skills through work with technologies like point-of-sale systems and handheld inventory devices while also building harder-to-define employability skills by providing customer service and learning to work as members of teams.
JFF research (funded by the Best Buy Foundation and Walmart Foundation) demonstrates that retail careers help people develop three types of cross-industry foundational competencies:
- Technical Competencies: Retail employees use a number of computer-based tools, including cash registers that are the front ends of sophisticated point-of-sale systems, merchandising and inventory systems, and various software applications.
- Employability Competencies: Retail jobs require a certain type of disposition and attitude, as well as the ability to communicate effectively. Workers must understand standard business English and know how to use word processing and email systems in order to produce written work is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatical.
- Entrepreneurial Competencies: Retailers encourage their employees to innovate and come up with new ideas, and that requires an understanding of design thinking, idea generation, and product and business development.
Stores May Close, But Opportunities Emerge
Of course, the retail industry does face a major challenge: the decline of brick-and-mortar operations. But even as stores close, many retailers are finding ways to retrain employees to take advantage of opportunities that are emerging in ecommerce and ancillary ventures like tech support services.
Best Buy is one of the merchants that is being proactive about preparing workers to adapt to the future of work in retail and other industries. The electronics retailer offers innovative work-based learning programs through its Geek Squad Academy and Pathways to Success initiative. Here’s a quick look at each:
- Geek Squad Academy: The primary purpose of this training program is to engage young people in STEM disciplines and get them interested in tech careers, but it also provides opportunities for current Best Buy employees to gain valuable employability skills by serving as classroom facilitators. Employees interested in becoming classroom facilitators participate in a 6-to-8-hour training program in which they are introduced to the activities they’ll be helping with and learn behavioral management and teaching strategies.
- Pathways to Success: Offered through many of Best Buy’s community-facing Teen Tech Centers, this initiative provides young people from underserved communities with opportunities to enter into employment with Best Buy. With a mix of classroom training and extensive work-based learning, the nine-month program focuses on both technical and employability skills.
Best Buy has also put together a network of employers that share the goal of helping retail workers develop skills for jobs in IT and other sectors. Building upon the work-based learning opportunities available in retail, the network will give employees options for the next steps in their careers.
Nurture Newly Developed Skills
People can only benefit from the competencies they develop in retail jobs if they are given the time and resources they need to articulate and build upon them. Education and workforce development professionals can leverage their relationships with retail employer partners to position retail operations as places to nurture the skills of the future.
Here are three ways to work with retailers to help them help their employees develop critical employability skills:
- Create mentorship programs in which entry-level employees are paired with managers. Mentors can draw on their own experiences to help mentees understand career advancement opportunities within the workplace, and they can point mentees to learning opportunities. Senior staffers can also serve as advocates for their younger colleagues—opening doors that may otherwise remain closed.
- Ensure that all workers have opportunities to take advantage of tuition assistance programs, online training, and other professional development benefits. Currently, employers tend to offer perks like tuition assistance primarily to longer-term workers, and as a result, few employees make use of such benefits. Work with employers to make sure they’re aware that offering professional development programs to employees with less tenure can improve retention and help them build a more skilled workforce.
- Build apprenticeship programs for retail managers, or encourage retailers to join similar efforts in the hospitality or restaurant industries. Apprenticeships can position workers to advance within the retail industry or pursue customer-facing management roles in other sectors. Employers can also sponsor a pre-apprenticeship programs for employees interested in careers outside of retail. For example, Lowe’s has recently expanded pre-apprenticeship initiatives for retail employees interested in the skilled trades through a program called Track to the Trades. The pre-apprenticeships help employees build develop skills while still supporting Lowe’s stores.
The Future of Work Is Upon Us
If researchers’ predictions are correct, there could be significant changes to the skills required for jobs in the near future. The future of work is up on us, and equipping students and young people with the right skills is critical.
Helping people develop employability skills through retail careers should be one of the strategies employers use to boost their employee value proposition and brand, especially given the large number of people who work in the retail today. Educators and workforce professionals should also support their populations in teasing out and naming the competitive skills being developed in retail. Programs like Best Buy’s Geek Squad Academy provide promising examples of practices that other retailers can implement.
We shouldn’t wait to react to challenges after the future of work has arrived. We can start shaping the future now.
JFF is eager to work with your employers to think creatively about ways to help retail workers develop skills for the future. We can work directly with employers or in partnership with your organization. For a free consultation, check out JFF's Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning On-Demand consulting service.
This blog was made possible by the support of Best Buy Foundation.
