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Building an effective employee training program is integral for the success of your business and expanding your team without one can cause more harm than good. At Southside Lumber & Design Center, located in Herrin, Illinois, manager David Gamble is looking to revamp his employee training, specifically in his lumber and building materials category, one that can be challenging for new hires.
Recognize the Need for Change
The current training program at the store relies heavily on pairing new hires with seasoned employees to learn the ropes on the job. While this mentorship approach provides valuable hands-on experience, it’s led to inconsistencies in training progress.
Gamble, a student in the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) Retail Management Certification Program, used the program’s coursework to analyze these shortcomings. A major piece of the Retail Management Certification Program includes identifying an aspect of your business and developing
a business improvement project.
Critically thinking about how his store approaches training, Gamble’s business improvement project focused on
making his training program more well-rounded and expansive for the overall operation but specifically for
the operation’s building materials categories.
Southside Lumber & Design Center sells everything from wood framing for houses to shingles and siding to
cabinetry hardware, so Gamble’s employees need to be well-versed in all aspects of home building.
“I realized our training needed to be more structured and comprehensive,” Gamble says. “We’re not just hiring people to fill positions—we’re preparing them to succeed in a complex, evolving industry.”
Historically, the store has sought applicants with prior farming or construction experience to reduce training time. However, Gamble noticed this approach limited his hiring pool, especially as workforce demographics
shifted. Today, he says fewer applicants have hands-on experience in lumber and building materials.
The shift prompted Gamble to embrace a broader hiring strategy, focusing on equipping employees with the skills and knowledge needed, regardless of their background.
Building a Well-Rounded Program
Critically thinking about how his store approaches training, Gamble’s business improvement project focused on making his training program more well-rounded.
“We have a little bit of everything,” Gamble says. “There’s not much we don’t have, and if we don’t, we’ll order it.”
Gamble’s revamped training program addresses multiple facets of employee development. The first step immerses new hires in the store environment, beginning with a store tour and a scavenger hunt-style exercise to familiarize them with the layout and product categories.
This activity ensures employees understand where to locate items and how the store flows, creating a foundation for efficient customer service.
The next step in the new training program involves employees diving into tailored online training modules based on their roles, including NHPA’s Building Materials Retailing. The course covers basic product knowledge in eight core building materials departments. Lumberyard employees receive training that walks them through the steps of building a house.
“We don’t just teach them to locate materials—we help them understand the why and how of those materials being used,” Gamble says.
After the new employee has finished their initial training, Gamble’s final step is for the employee to be assigned a mentor in their specialized area to guide them as they continue working. By assigning the new employee a mentor in their department, that one person is in charge of their training, rather than whoever is available.
“We’ve been doing this new training program for a while, but this project is formalizing it,” says Kent Smith, owner of Southside Lumber & Design Center. “When a new hire comes in, a calendar is made and we pair them with anybody available. This program will help them grow in their roles.”
Safety is another cornerstone of Gamble’s program. Lumberyards come with inherent risks, and Gamble’s updated training emphasizes safety protocols and best practices to minimize accidents and ensure employees feel confident in their roles.
Part of Gamble’s lumberyard safety training includes NHPA’s forklift training and refresher course. Both courses help employees meet OSHA training requirements for forklift operations.
Although the new training program is still in its implementation phase, Gamble expects the overhaul to be operational early this year.
“Better training leads to better customer service, which directly impacts our business’s success,” Gamble shares. “When customers trust that our team knows what they’re doing, they keep coming back.”
Delivering on Customer Service
While training is important, finding other ways to set your business apart from the
competition is also a part of finding success in the lumber and building materials category.
Southside Lumber & Design Center has relied on delivery service to set itself apart. Their operation delivers around 60 orders daily, and ensuring every customer receives their order on time is integral for success.
“Our customers favor cost over everything,” Smith says. “These contractors can’t leave a job site, so they pay extra to have their orders delivered because they need to keep their business running and rely on us to help them.”
Forklift Training
The revised training program at Southside Lumber & Design Center will integrate both online learning
modules and hands-on experience. For forklift training, Gamble says new hires will first watch a video, then pass a written test before passing a hands-on skills test to ensure safe operation.
