MorePeople are delighted to announce that their training business MorePerformance received recognition at the recent Garden Retail Awards.  The Horti-Licence training programme developed in association with our client Homebase was awarded 'Highly Commended' status at the event, held at London's Grosvener Hotel on November 12th.  These awards, held in association with the HTA, are a focus for the garden centre industry and bring together suppliers and retailers in one unique event.

Commenting on the award Guy Moreton says 'We are delighted with this award.  For such a new programme to receive recognition like this in only its first year of operation is a great tribute to all the hard work put in by the team and our clients, Homebase, to get this innovative idea off the drawing board and into action within such a tight time frame'

MorePerformance and Homebase worked together over the summer of 2006 to produce the first Horti-Licence, designed to deliver horticultural knowledge and retail awareness skills to a large workforce in as ‘user friendly’ and high impact a way as possible.  Since its launch in Nov. 2006, over 340 training days have been delivered across UK and Ireland and over 1000 employees have attended.

Homebase’s project manager for the Hortilicence programme, Will Caddick, says “We’ve always tried to set ourselves apart from the competition in our sector by providing all our staff access to a structured horticultural training programme. However, we increasingly felt that the traditional route we had been using, whilst providing a good level of general knowledge, could be improved, to the benefit of our customers as well as to the business.  The programme developed by MorePerformance and ourselves is designed not only to educate but also enthuse our staff about horticulture in general and particularly the product range we offer. Our job is then to channel that enthusiasm into improved customer service levels and give Homebase customers a first class retail experience.”

The Horti-Licence programme has proved so successful that it now forms a core part of the training plan that all Homebase junior retail managers must complete in order to be eligible for promotion.
Commenting on the programme’s achievements Will says “The practical, hands on nature of the training, which relays horticultural knowledge through team centred exercises has been enthusiastically embraced by all concerned. Feedback from colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive and we have already seen the benefits in the overall performance of our garden centres this year.”

Plans are already afoot for the development of the Advanced Horti-Licence!