Bloomingdale’s Saves Millions Through Revolutionary Approach to Employee Training

How does employee learning impact business results? That’sthe million-dollar question most executives struggle with.

In fact, as the vice president of loss prevention and riskmanagement at Bloomingdale’s, I faced this challenge too. But, by approachingtraining completely differently, I discovered a way to identify exactly howmuch safety training is impacting the corporate bottom line. And, in theprocess, our organization has benefited from a safer work environment.

Confronting a universal problem

Today’s organizations, regardless of industry, face a commonproblem. Simply put, employees often lack the knowledge they need to take theright actions on the job, resulting in huge costs to the business.

At Bloomingdale’s, we identified an opportunity to reduceemployee knowledge gaps around safety. Although we already had a low rate ofsafety incidents, we just weren’t satisfied with simply meeting corporatestandards. We wanted to exceed them. Our main goal was to increase employee safety,but the problem was that status quo training methods weren’t cutting it.

Like most retail organizations, Bloomingdale’s relied on ahandful of standard training approaches—awareness posters, classroom training,LMSs, and pre-shift morning rallies—which weren’t doing the job. (Let’s faceit: Safe work practices aren’t exactly a topic that gets people excited.) And,like virtually every large retail chain, we found it hard to provide consistentstore-to-store training, let alone figure out which associates understood the informationand knew how to apply it correctly.

While this challenge was overwhelming, to say the least, it wasn’tsomething I felt we could ignore. I understood that a direct link existed betweeneffective and continuous safety training and the likelihood employees would followproper procedures, which would reduce injury rates. And enhancing employeeknowledge was the starting point.

Searching for an unconventional alternative

Without question, I believed we needed to step outside ofthe traditional training box. We had to find a progressive learning solutionthat would not only solve this current challenge but could be applied to any partof the Bloomingdale’s business to boost employee knowledge and performance. Afterall, retail training approaches in general hadn’t kept pace with the times. Wehad a workforce that was tech-savvy, multi-generational, and facing higherdemands to learn more information than ever before. And I felt there had to bea better way to reach this modern group of employees in a manner that wouldexcite them about learning, help them retain information longer, and increasethe likelihood of translating that learning into action on the job.

Although it wasn’t known if the type of cutting-edgeapproach we needed even existed, it was clear the ideal solution had to:

• Integrate into associates’ regular workday withouttaking them off the floor
• Appeal to a diverse and multi-generational workforce
• Offer flexibility to meet the unique challengesin different departments and stores
• Provide a way to measure learning progress andtie it back to business outcomes

Pushing beyond the boundaries of eLearning

It was during a chance meeting that I learned about Axonifyand, from the moment I saw it, I thought it was just what Bloomingdale’s needed.Not only did the solution meet all of our criteria, but I felt confident that onceemployees experienced this new way of learning they would keep coming back formore.

In a nutshell, Axonify is an employee knowledgeplatform that helps build, sustain, and share knowledge in a fun, engaging, and gamified way. Itpersonalizes learning to target and close individual knowledge gaps, givingemployees the confidence to perform their role to the best of their ability.And this helps an organization achieve its potential because employees take thecorrect actions, which ultimately drive real business results.

Since 2012, Axonify has helped deliver safety awarenesstraining to more than 10,000 Bloomingdale’s employees. Employees participate inthree- to five-minute training bursts during their shifts—eitherthrough our POS (point of sale) system or tablets on the store floor—solearning happens every time they’re at work instead of only during formaltraining events.

When employees first access the Axonify platform, they arepresented with an opportunity to receive learning within a game (arcade style, brain teaser, sports, or multiplayer)(Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Axonify platform presents employees with gamifiedlearning opportunities

As employees engage in game play, targeted questions appearon topics that range from ladder safety to how to clean up broken glass to thecorrect way to use box cutters and more (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Questions target specific safety topics

Employees not only compete against themselves to increasetheir knowledge, but also compete against their peers. Leaderboards display howthey measure up, driving friendly competition among employees to achieve thetop performing scores (Figure 3). Additionally,employees can earn points, badges, and prizes that acknowledge their successand foster increased motivation through recognition.

Figure 3: Leaderboards help to maintain engagement and motivation

Depending on how employees answer the questions, Axonifyadapts to target their individual knowledge strengths and weaknesses. Tomaximize learning and retention, questions reappear at certain intervals accordingto a proprietary algorithm based on proven brain science research. And because employeesparticipate in training on an ongoing basis, the information they learn isreinforced so it is embedded in memory and they can apply it in their real workenvironment.

Probably the most exciting part is that all learningprogress is tracked in Axonify to measure its impact (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Axonify tracks learning progress and impact

It’s easy to see how both teams and individual employees areadvancing, which topic areas employees are struggling with, and where they areexhibiting high knowledge growth. In this way, managers can continue to providethe best coaching to help employees achieve their potential. At Bloomingdale’s,these reports also allow us to see a direct correlation between safety traininginitiatives and safety incidents that we measure on an ongoing basis.

Proving the value of this new approach

Early on in Axonify’s implementation, two chief executiveswere walking in one of Bloomingdale’s stores. They noticed some broken glass onthe floor, so they began to clean it up. As they were doing this, an associatestopped them in their tracks, saying “You gentlemen aren’t following thecorrect procedure. Let me show you how to clean up this glass properly. Ilearned on Axonify how to perform this task.” The two executives wereastonished. From that point forward, all skepticism vanished. There was noquestion in their minds that the learning program was having a direct impact onsafety improvement in the workplace.

Proof of Axonify’s impact is also evident in hard data. By measuringsafety performance month-to-month it’s clear that there has been consistentimprovement. In fact, I am excited to report that by reducing safety claims by41 percent Axonify has helped save Bloomingdale’s $2.2 million this year alone.

Besides this, the results of an employee survey demonstrate ourassociates are embracing Axonify just as much as management—86.6 percent of associates reportedtheir job confidence increased; 83 percent said they believe Axonify helpsreduce shortage and prevent accidents; and 72 percent said they prefer Axonifyto other forms of learning.

While we are always looking for ways to enhance oursafety programs, which are all part of the matrix of understanding storeperformance, I don’t believe Bloomingdale’s would be as strong as it is or assafe as it is today without Axonify. In fact, in my 40 years of experience,this is probably the most innovative program I’ve put in place in any of thepositions that I’ve been in for retail safety and loss prevention. Axonify isgiving us the ability to educate associates, make them more aware, and change behaviorto really create a safer environment. And my vision is to see the Axonify platformimplemented in other aspects of Bloomingdale’s as well.