Canadian Retailer - Spring 2013 - 41

Vitapath believe they can be a single destination for Canadian health enthusiasts.

And because of this, Vitapath’s store
associates called “health enthusiasts”,
are core to what the company is and
what they do, which is serve customers.
“We want to wow our customers by
impressing them by the level of engagement offered in our stores. We
want that to be our differentiator.”
Enthusiastic about health

To achieve this, the company
knew that it needed to hire the right
people—people who would believe in
what the store stands for and become
ambassadors for its products and
values. It also knew that it could not
stray from its objectives during the
recruitment process.
“We hire on three filters—empathy,
knowledge and passion—and we never
compromise on these core attributes
when searching for talent,” he says. “But
we’re particularly mindful of hiring
people who want to serve customers
and who are enthusiastic about good
health and about nutritional education.
We’ve found that if we hire with these
criteria in mind, we get great people
who are tremendous for our brand.”
In its search for the right associates,

the company talked to a lot of people
and posted on job boards. But there
was a very active aspect to their efforts
which included visiting nutritionist
colleges and job fairs associated with
nutritionist colleges to find talent. The
company asked for recommendations
from its suppliers and vendors in Canada, and also scoured LinkedIn to see
if it could find interested people connected to the industry.
“In the end, we just talked to as many
people as we possibly could,” says Balbale. “And, we’re really pleased to say
that we found the right people who fit
our profile and who are enthusiastic
about the opportunity.”
Trained to serve

The right people, with the right attitude and knowledge level were hired
to join the Canadian team, however,
their journey was just beginning. Vitapath invited senior members of its
store team, including the district manager and store managers, to spend
three weeks in The Vitamin Shoppe’s
Buffalo stores close to the border to
impart the softer cultural side of what
the company is and what it aims to do.

The team then enters into a sophisticated year-long training program that
the company developed.
“We call it Vitapath University,”
explains Balbale. “It’s an online training program that provides our health
enthusiasts with the tools to become
more knowledgeable and improve
their customer service abilities.”
The training combines online curriculum with in-store training exercises that focus on three things: 1)
building category health knowledge,
2) building specific brand and product knowledge, and 3) focussing on
developing empathetic customer engagement skills. Time is scheduled
for each team member to train during
store hours to complete three modules, each with three levels of learning within them, with a test at the end
of each module and level.
The training program has been
very well received by the retailer’s
health enthusiasts as it prepares them
to properly offer the service that Vitapath are building their brand on.
And, what’s more, the company’s instituted a pay for knowledge program in
which individuals receive an increase

www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer | spring 2013 | canadian retailer |

http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Canadian Retailer - Spring 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Spring 2013