The innovative staff training project for shopping centres

by Roberta Imbimbo
An important professional training project has recently started, delivered in a highly innovative and interactive way, specifically designed and conceived for shopping centre staff. Conceived with the aim of significantly improving the performance management of employees, helping them to increase the specialist skills needed to manage customers in an increasingly efficient and professional manner and to face the challenges imposed by an increasingly demanding and competitive market, the project – already active in the Carosello, Il Castello and I Gigli centres – bears the signature of two major brands: Eurocommercial Properties Italia, – one of Europe’s leading shopping centre specialists – and Piazza Copernico, a leading company in the e-learning training sector. ‘Investing in the skills of retail staff is strategic to increase the attractiveness of centres and to maximise customer loyalty, guaranteeing customers a better shopping experience. The idea is that training on high levels of customer care can represent a concrete opportunity to enhance the value of the Centres,’ says Viola Manzoni, Asset Manager at Eurocommercial. The training offer and the way the courses can be used are truly innovative and interactive. ‘In fact, the ECP Retail Academy offers a digital training catalogue, structured in more than 50 short online courses on crucial topics such as stress management; work-life balance; antifragility: how to excel in performance; the 4 rules of problem solving; gentle leadership; and knowledge sharing. There are also some interactive videos showing practical examples from everyday working life, so that employees can experience situations similar to those they might encounter in real life and learn how best to deal with them,’ explains Eraldo Colombo, senior partner at Piazza Copernico. In an increasingly technological world, training must also be at the cutting edge, providing agile, user-friendly training courses and always having people’s well-being and motivation at heart’. Eurocommercial and Piazza Copernico have combined their expertise to devise a training programme to be successfully exported to other shopping centres.