High staff turnover demands flexible training.
See how M&B solved this with a simulation.
High turnover is a fact of life in many sectors. How do you train managers who may not stay for long? They still need to be competent.
Here’s short story about how M&B handled it:
M&B is the UK’s largest hospitality chain. They must train hundreds of bar and restaurant managers to manage their P&L effectively and profitably.
But staff turnover in hospitality is high so they must train a stream of new managers which is a logistical challenge. And good hospitality managers are not always natural accountants, so P&L training must be engaging and relatable as well as flexible.
Their existing 2-day instructor-led course wasn’t engaging and the cost was high. Levels of knowledge and competency around P&L was low.
So, M&B asked Totem to reinvent their P&L training. Speed, flexibility and improved competency were vital ingredients.
Complex subject with low engagement.
How do you train thousands of field-based managers on a new process that is unfamiliar and potentially uncomfortable?
This was the situation that M&B found itself in.
They were updating their financial management to a single and expansive P/L system across hospitality 9 chains. They had to train thousands of managers quickly and be confident the new system was being used effectively.
Out with the old, in with the new.
P&L training was delivered by trainers in 2-day courses using PowerPoint. Trainers were on the road every day travelling the country.
M&B managers are great at running bars and restaurants, but many are not financial experts and they were confused by the new P&L structure.
The training wasn’t delivering the knowledge and confidence they needed to manage their P&L competently.
M&B had to try something new and different. This is when they approached Totem Learning.
Engagement at scale.
M&B wanted to make the new P&L process accessible and deliver training at scale. They wanted managers to practice using the new process in a ‘safe space’ before using it in their business.
Totem proposed a high-fidelity simulation of a pub-restaurant that managers would be familiar with. It would present P&L in a relatable way and create a safe environment for managers to develop and prove their understanding.
It would be delivered online and completed in 60 minutes not 2 days.
Managers could replay whenever they needed to refresh their knowledge.
The simulation was called Profitability.
More than a game.
Profitability is interactive and encourages a discovery-based approach to learning. Managers interact with realistic scenarios to manage a virtual bar/ restaurant for a year.
Profitability presents a complex financial simulation set in a visually stunning environment, embedding the learning in a rich, believable and context-specific environment familiar to managers.
Profitability offers learners the opportunity to demonstrate their understand of how P&L works by making business decisions within the simulation.
How we did it.
First we learned about the company culture and managers’ reactions to the new P&L to inform the design of the game.
It was important to build knowledge and understanding gradually and avoid overwhelming managers.
We used constructivist learning principles and split the content into digestible segments. As the game unfolds challenges become more complex and require a better understanding of P&L.
Because learners ‘own’ their simulated pub/ restaurant they take responsibility for the decisions they make. The game encourages managers compete against each to run the most profitable simulated pub.
The sky’s the limit.
This approach to training field-based staff and managers is not limited to hospitality P&L.
We can apply it to any training or engagement challenge.