National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Retail

CVS Pharmacy: Regional Learning Centers

The Challenge:

To supply a skilled and steady long-term workforce to a rapidly expanding retail chain.

The Solution:

Create a comprehensive training program complete with simulated workplace experience for each of the various career tracks available to potential employees.

The Partners:

CVS is the largest drugstore chain in the country with more than 4,000 stores in nine states and the District of Columbia.

Local Government Agencies, including the Department of Employment Services in Washington D.C., the Maryland Department of Human Resources, and the Baltimore City School District work with CVS to train employees.

Non-profit Organizations, such as Goodwill Industries, Job Corps, and the National Urban League, support CVS's job training programs.

The Story:

Tashica Pearson, a single parent with two children, walked into a CVS training center as a welfare recipient with no work experience. She began her training as a crewmember with aspirations of eventually joining the management team. CVS programs target people going from welfare to work, students, and older workers for seven different job tracks. Each job track, from pharmacy technician to cosmetics specialist to management, receives relevant training specific to that position in addition to the basic customer service skills that are taught universally. Training lasts from several weeks to one year, and is held at CVS regional "learning centers" throughout the country.

Tashica completed her training as a CVS crew member at the CVS-sponsored Learning Center, located at the Washington, D.C. Department of Employment Services' One-Stop Employment Center. As part of her training, Tashica learned basic customer service, communication, and leadership skills, how to keep track of inventory, and cashier skills. CVS partnered with the Department of Employment Services and built a mock store, complete with a photo lab. The "store" is located in one of the city's One-Stop centers where employment counselors, job coaches, and a variety of trainers work with everyone who walks in the door.

CVS staff members work hand in hand with city employees and teach workers how to do everything from manage inventory to run the photo lab. Additionally, all senior management up to the vice-presidential level trains alongside entry-level workers. Both executives and crew-members find this practice to be beneficial. It provides motivation and examples for entry-level workers, and allows managers to connect with their employees.

Each trainee who receives a national training certificate is guaranteed a job at a CVS with the opportunity for career advancement. Those working at least 30 hours per week receive full benefits including health care, eye care, 401(k), and a stock option purchase plan. Part-time workers receive a 20 percent store discount. Since 1996, CVS has hired 8,700 people through this program. Today 6,000 - nearly 70 percent of the trainees - are still working at CVS. This rate is phenomenal in an industry with a standard turnover rate of virtually 100 percent.

Tashica has since worked her way up through the ranks at CVS, and is currently an assistant manager making more than $35,000 annually with full benefits.

A Model of Innovation:

Duplication of an office environment at a training facility is one thing, but a mock store, complete with inventory is something else. While such facilities may require more up-front investment, these mock arenas mimic the positive effects of on-the-job training without any of the sacrifice in productivity that might accompany the task of training workers in the actual work environment.

Contacts:

Steve Wing
CVS/Pharmacy
Regional Business Office
920 Enterprise Parkway
Twinsburg, Ohio 44087
330-487-6957 (p)
330-963-0641 (f)

Wendy Ardagna
CVS/Pharmacy
11729 Beltsville Drive Calverton Shopping Center
Beltsville, Maryland 20705
301-572-4268 (p)
330-572-5946 (f)