TRAINING
TRAINING THE FUTURE T
KENT BLAXILL:
In a time when the industry is facing the truth that unless a business can evolve it won’t survive, how is one of the oldest builder’s merchants in the country continuing to thrive? Elizabeth Jordan spoke to Kent Blaxill about their latest Rising Stars Training Programme...
he Kent Blaxill Rising Stars twelve-month programme is for Kent Blaxill employees who
have been identified by the senior management team to have the potential to be future supervisors and or team leaders. It aims to broaden an individual’s exposure of the mechanics of a successful branch and create a thirst for progress. The programme is aimed at individuals who are currently in a customer service role and who form part of the sustainable people strategy of “grow your own talent” within Kent Blaxill.
The programme is primarily sponsored by the HR Director, Allanna Docherty, together with the Senior Leadership Team, while each of the Rising Stars line managers play a pivotal role in pre-workshop coaching activities to enable the skills and knowledge applied within the work place.
Training of trainers The genius philosophy behind the programme is that the initial round of training is used to create the trainers of the next level of training. This means that all the knowledge acquired comes from within the company and is kept alive by employees through the multiple levels of the company, creating a deeper sense of inclusion and investment in the overall success of the training. Lewis Clarke was one of those trained to become a trainer within Kent Blaxill and has now just become the Branch Manager at their Saffron Walden branch. “I started as a trainee in the glass department with Kent Blaxill in 2012 after seeing a job advert. I progressed to a glazier and
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the minimum aware of them all. We could be serving ironmongery in one sale and the next could be sub bases for a patio.” Despite this, Clarke says he loves the fast pace of his role, “Every day is different, and it keeps you on your toes. I also love the freedom we are given to be proactive in problem solving or making improvements. My biggest passion is dealing with people.”
window fitter and stayed doing this for four years. When this part of the business was shut in 2017 I was offered a counter assistant role while taking part in a year- long training programme focused around leadership. From there I worked up to supervisor and then manager of the heavyside shop, which has now led to the branch manager opportunity at Saffron Walden.”
Each workshop underpins the Kent Blaxill behaviours together with the fundamental curriculum instilled from each of the Knowledge Experts with the overall aim to provide excellent customer service both internally and externally. “Last week I was in branch for 2 days and I was working through a stock report for most of those days. On the remaining 3 days I was delivering customer service training. The
customer service training I have been involved from the beginning, writing the training specifically for Kent Blaxill. I have delivered every training session for the whole company.” says Clarke.
Testing, testing... Throughout the year, delegates’ knowledge is validated by the Knowledge Expert in the format of pre and post knowledge reviews, general quiz, company in-branch audits, product add- ons, self-evaluation, action plans and 1-2-1 reviews with line managers. “The biggest challenges I would say would be the volume of customers we serve and the range of products we deal with.” Clarke adds, “The building industry has a huge amount of different areas, and we need to make sure we are at
When it comes to being a trainer himself, Clarke has taken to it naturally and become Kent Blaxill’s Customer Service Trainer: “Seeing people develop is my biggest motivating factor and I love working with my team to improve. I also love dealing customers, making sure they have the best experience with us as possible. This can be by understanding what type of service they expect, making sure their account is managed with terms/pricing and building on strong relationships to ensure they keep coming back to us.”
Developing training skills
“My biggest achievement in my role so far would be delivering customer service training to the whole business. It meant delivering 30 training sessions across 3 months in 4 hub branches. This has been something completely new to me and meant managing my department whilst not always being in-branch. I faced new challenges which meant I had to adapt my management skills, it was very helpful. It was also a great way to get connected to the whole business as I got to meet every individual. I not only got to develop my training
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2019
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