September is almost here – and We Card Awareness Month this September – is a great time to plan and execute your annual employee training. 

 

Re-Training Employees periodically is a vital step to helping keep your store in compliance with age-restricted product laws.

 

We Card learned through experience, thousands of surveys and research that successful training is an ongoing process, not a one-time encounter. Initial training followed by constant reinforcement will teach your employees what they need to know and do to prevent underage tobacco, alcohol, or vapor sales. 

How often should employees train?

When new employees start their job and at least annually for veteran employees. When an employee is promoted to manager, this is also a great time to offer manager-level training.  It is important to get employees started with training designed to prepare them to start their jobs. As a general rule, we recommend annual refresher training for all employees, but employees who don’t perform properly (such as failing a mystery shop or improperly “carding” customers) can receive remedial training more frequently.

New Employees

New hires go through an initial training period to learn about their roles, company policies, and procedures. We encourage retailers to prioritize training about how to prevent underage tobacco sales so new employees have time to practice the skills before working behind the counter.

Current Employees

Even experienced employees need repeat training to refresh their knowledge or learn about new laws and other developments. Ongoing training can help them stay up-to-date and maintain high performance. At a minimum, we recommend annual refresher training for all employees.

Managers & Supervisors

The We Card Manager’s Course complements current training processes by emphasizing the importance of responsible retailing of tobacco and vaping products. The training includes videos of in-store scenarios so managers can learn skills and gain the confidence they need to implement effective age-verification policies. Managers should receive training annually to stay current.

 

Learn more: Set Employees Up For Success With We Card Training Courses

 

We Card’s eLearning courses incorporate effective strategies.

• Employee Training Course – an hour-long, interactive course covering both federal law and FDA requirements of retailers and state law requirements.

• Refresher Training Course – a 30-minute subset of the longer Employee Training Course that is suitable to re-train veteran employees.

• Manager Training Course – a course rich with much of the content of the other courses along with a variety of manager-focused content, articles, videos, and downloads.

 

Learn more about eLearning for convenience store employees in our article, eLearning: The Wave of the Present. Once your employees are trained, make sure they have the in-store training and education materials to do their job effectively.

 

Order your 2024 We Card Kits and Calendars on September 1st!  Learn more at WeCard.org.