Turkey's school system doesn't provide relevant preparation for its retail workforce, so food retailer Migros had to develop its own program.

Migros is Turkey's largest food retailer, with about 18,000 employees working in 950 stores in Turkey, Macedonia, and Kazakhstan selling everything from jam to jewelry. In business since 1954, the company achieved $3.6 billion in sales last year. But socioeconomic and educational conditions in its home country drive Migros's most critical business issues: low market penetration, insufficient secondary and post-secondary education, and a workforce unprepared to serve the luxury segment that Migros dominates with its Macrocenter brand.

Historic and cultural factors are at work in this centuries-old country, explains Demir Aytaç, chief human resource officer: Although Turkey has the world's 17th largest economy, supermarket penetration is at only 40 percent, versus a rate of 70 percent in Europe. Turks are still accustomed to daily shopping and buying their food from small businesses and open bazaars.

"Although we expect market penetration to double in the next decade, we still have a long way to go," Aytaç says.

The educational system does little to help prepare the company's—and the country's—future retail workforce. There are no high schools, vocational schools, or graduate schools that specialize in retail. Therefore, Migros has had to grow its own.

The Retail Academy, as the learning organization at Migros is known, collaborated with a university to create a Retail Certificate Program. Courses include such standard fare as business, accounting, and marketing, as well as specialty retail courses. The program is nationally accredited and takes 2.5 years to complete.

"Increasingly, we are facing very tough competition. Our future success depends on our customer service quality. The learning organization must ensure that our employees meet customer expectations. Repeat and referral business is the only way for us to grow," Aytaç says.

Macrocenter's domination of the luxury market was unchallenged until 2012, when new competitors entered. The need to prepare employees to serve high-end shoppers was intensified—but how do you recommend and sell what you do not know? That conundrum inspired the creation of the company's most innovative learning initiative of the past year, "Perspective."

"The majority of our employees come from families with traditional values and lifestyles," Aytaç explains. "But they were being asked to serve customers in a totally different, upscale segment."

The program was designed to help employees gain an understanding of luxury products. Fifty participants—store managers and assistant store managers at the upscale stores—received in-class training combined with experiential learning opportunities that included weeklong trips to London and New York. There, the participants visited luxury department stores, dined at world-class restaurants, and attended cultural events. The program also included training on etiquette, personal care, hair and makeup tips, and meetings with customer focus groups.

Although the program cost $50,000, Aytaç believes he received strong return on his investment. "The program definitely generated business results," he says. "Although not all of the results can be attributed to this one program, annual sales in those stores increased by 9 percent after the program, and employee loyalty increased by 13 percent."

The Retail Academy employs 67 staff and uses subject matter experts throughout the company as instructors. It is overseen by a management board that includes the CEO and other C-level executives, and that ensures alignment to corporate strategy and lines of business. One hundred percent of executives make public statements in support of learning and have responsibility for developing employees in their performance goals.

The academy comprises six schools:

  • Retailing Vocational School of Higher Education (the accredited program described above)
  • Store Management School
  • Fresh Foods School
  • Administrative Sciences School
  • Leadership School
  • Supplemental Programs (such as foreign language courses).

Company leaders sponsor the schools and serve as faculty chairs. It's their responsibility to convey strategic goals and provide direction on program design to support those goals. The CEO serves as sponsor of the Leadership School. A curriculum committee oversees content to ensure consistency.

Store managers are required to hold college degrees and many earn them through the Retailing Vocational School. Yet attrition among managers was unacceptably high even after they had earned their degrees and promotions—more than 16 percent. A survey showed that store managers felt anxious about uncertain career paths in the company.

"We reviewed the survey results and saw that competencies, prerequisites, and career paths needed documentation. We wanted to be straightforward and set crystal-clear expectations," Aytaç says.

The learning organization designed a graphic, the Store Management Career and Development Path, that shows how candidates, both internal and external, can progress in their careers and how long it should take. After rolling it out, turnover declined to 11.2 percent and employee satisfaction scores increased by 8.6 percent.

As a company that employs many young people—72 percent of employees are members of Generation Y—Migros has been intentional about promoting and enhancing social learning. A proprietary internal social learning platform, Akademig, allows online interactive functionality that is safe from the curious eyes of the competition.

Aytaç pursues his own social learning as he works to bridge the generation gap: He has a Generation Y mentor with whom he meets weekly.

"My mentor updates me on technology and how to communicate with the Retail Academy team members," Aytaç says. "Gen Y thinking and mentality is totally different from that of other generations. He helps me draft announcements so that they sound warmer."