We all want to know the secret to engaged and motivated employees - especially those willing to grow within your company and pursue internal career opportunities.
What’s the answer? Exciting and comprehensive onboarding training.
And why? Well, if you get your onboarding right, you can ensure your new employees are not only well-equipped for their roles but feel that they can grow within your company.
In fact, after a negative or lackluster onboarding experience, new employees are twice as likely to look for another job than those with a positive experience. It's vital to get this right for your employees and your company. Because let’s be real, it’s time-consuming and costly to continuously recruit new employees.
Swedish fashion retailer Gina Tricot discovered the secret to employee growth and retention with their revolutionary digital onboarding program right on their Relesys app.
With more than 1900 employees in over 160 stores in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, alongside a booming e-commerce business throughout Europe, Gina Tricot needed to ensure that their onboarding was perfect.
Before
Missing out on information
Like many companies, Gina Tricot used to rely on several methods for communication and training. We’re talking:
- Emails
- Paper documents
- Heavy handbooks
- In-person training
This just wasn’t feasible for such a big company in this digital age.
All training communications were emailed from HQ to the stores and warehouse. Employees were missing important information, especially as the only people with email access were those in managerial positions.
This placed a large amount of responsibility on one person to relay the information, and it was especially difficult to ensure all employees were up-to-date.
With their GinaNow app, they can now secure company-wide access to information right on the employees’ mobile phones.
And onboarding? Gina Tricot relied on handbooks and in-person training with the new hire’s immediate manager, leading to two core issues:
- In-person onboarding meant the manager used their limited resources for onboarding every time a new hire started, rather than using this time for other tasks.
- Paper-based training made it difficult to update information. Even one small update required reprinting the entire handbook, resulting in outdated information.
As everything is now digital, updates are easy to implement, meaning employees get the correct information right from the beginning. They can also take the training in their own time and at their own pace.
Sara Janström, Gina Tricot’s Training Manager, has played an immense role in digitizing their training. Having worked in retail for more than 10 years, as an area manager at Gina Tricot for 5 years, and now in her current position, she knows what works and what doesn’t for her employees.
Our focus with the app is to provide a source of information that makes the daily work tasks easier and more efficient for our employees.
Sara Janström
Training Manager
The solution
Digital and accessible onboarding training
The partnership between Relesys and Gina Tricot began in 2019 with a focus on communication. They have since expanded the app’s reach by implementing their internal training program, Smile Academy.
The Smile Academy is built on its company values: Passion and Commitment. So much so that the two parts of its training are named just this.
The ‘Passion’ section is all about pre-boarding and onboarding employees. A new hire is granted access to the app one week before they start, so they have all the information needed for their first day. They can also speak with their manager via the chat function to help ease those first-day nerves.
Once they start their job, the new hire will then have access to the entire onboarding training alongside other features not accessible in pre-boarding. This was to ensure they focused their attention on only the most vital information.
Onboarding can last several months, depending on the department or role. For retail workers, it can take up to 6 months as they must apply their knowledge on the shop floor, whereas HQ and the warehouse have a shorter period.
The benefits of having a structured pre-boarding and onboarding program is that new hires have a good foundation and platform to stand on when they start working with us, and they can feel a part of the Gina Tricot family from the beginning.
Sara Janström
Training Manager
The second section, ‘Commitment’ features more advanced courses on topics like sustainability, visual merchandising, product knowledge, and personal sales.
These are taken at a more leisurely pace and allow employees to take charge of their own development.
And what is the best part of their digital training? Learning however and whenever you want.
You can take courses however you want and whenever you want. You can educate yourself at home, at the beach, or wherever suits you
Sara Janström
Training Manager
The result
Passionate and committed employees
The GinaNow app has become integral to Gina Tricot’s onboarding program. And it’s incredibly effective, with a 98% performance rate for training.
The app targets information, ensuring only the right new hires receive what’s most relevant to their role. This eliminates information overload because starting a new role is overwhelming in itself, let alone sorting through a pile of information to find what’s necessary for you.
The information is language-targeted, securing inclusivity as employees can read everything in the language most accessible to them.
With their performance rate, it’s clear that Gina Tricot has created an engaging and motivating training program.
The app is filled with compelling content that utilizes multiple formats, such as videos, images, different texts, and emojis. Motivating messages and popups remind the employees of their great work, adding those little engaging touches.
But the big winner? The badges that employees can collect and display on their personal profiles so they can earn while they learn.
The app's social wall feature has also proved incredibly popular. It’s where employees can share best practices, fun work stories, and news with each other. This has resulted in increased app activity, making everyone feel part of the Gina family.
I love the social wall. We try to motivate each other, especially in our daily work. We always encourage employees to use the app in fun and different ways.
Sara Janström
Training Manager
The future
What's next for Gina Tricot?
What future updates does Gina Tricot have in store for their app? They are exploring how to further segment their training with specialized sections for visual merchandisers, store managers, and other roles.
And their training courses are consistently being developed to further enhance the information and make them even more motivating. HQ also creates a survey for employees to provide feedback about what they are missing and what should be put into the development pipeline.
All this leads to a better customer experience because we have more knowledge of our products, we have all the communication there, and we have all the information.
Sara Janström
Training Manager
Want to learn more about Gina Tricot’s onboarding with Sara herself? Watch her webinar and discover more.
