Helping your people help your business

3rd Jun 2022

Retail is one of the country’s fast-growing industries, and it’s a vital one here in Kaikoura. It
provides an essential service for all New Zealanders. Whether you sell food, pharmacy,
footwear or fashion, guitars, sports gear or craft beer, or any of the millions more products,
it’s all things Kiwis and tourists alike want or need.
Retail also offers something else – a large and diverse range of career opportunities: from
in-store and online sales and fulfilment, stock buying and distribution, to marketing,
merchandising, administration, finance, and store management. Lots of successful retailers,
who started in sales, have gone on to manage a department, a store and even a company
by their mid-20s, or even own and operate their own business. It’s these people – your team
– who can also help the success of your business. And ServiceIQ can help you help them.
With ServiceIQ the training pathway for your business is with on-job training that takes place
in your workplace. It means that your employees gain essential skills and knowledge while
they are doing their job at work. It benefits both your business and your employees. Your
people learn the specific skills for your business and, by upskilling in the real work
environment, they gain the know-how plus proven experience to solve problems, meet
challenges and deal with tasks that they will face day to day.
The trainees and businesses I’ve spoken to in Kaikoura really value our ServiceIQ Retail
training programmes: your employee benefits by picking up new lifelong skills and getting a
formal NZQA qualification; the business benefits through increased customer satisfaction,
higher staff retention and increased business performance.
We are starting to see more growth in the Kaikoura region as the country begins to open to
tourists again. As they start returning to our shores, it is more important than ever to train
and upskill your staff to provide excellent customer service and make your business stand
out.
Right now, we have a group of hard-working trainees working in Paper Plus and Jade Kiwi
who have really taken to their Retail training programmes and have shown great progress so
far.
Personally, I see a lot of potential within the retail industry in Kaikoura for upskilling to
prepare for the eventual wave of tourists that’ll arrive on our shores. The Government also
recognises this and has extended the Apprentice Boost to help support workplaces with the
journey.

- Reon Hobson, Sector Management, ServiceIQ