Business Issue

A leading luxury department store faced the challenge of redefining Sales Associate roles to align with new expectations. This initiative required a comprehensive overhaul of the rewards strategy and compensation plans to incentivize desired behaviors while ensuring financial prudence and maintaining a high-performing workforce. Leadership was aware of limited understanding regarding associate responsiveness to change and capability to execute under the new expectations, necessitating a robust change strategy and communication plan.

Approach

To combat these challenges, we helped the organization implement a strategic approach focused on change management and strategy development:

1. Assessment of Current Talent Strategy: Evaluated existing performance management practices and their impact on customer experience and retail outcomes.
2. Redefined Sales Associate Roles: Identified opportunities to redefine roles to align with the new rewards strategy to incentivize high-performing behaviors.
3. Change Readiness Assessment: Conducted a comprehensive assessment of stakeholder readiness across key dimensions for successful change implementation.
4. Stakeholder Mapping: Mapped identified stakeholders across align and equip scales, highlighting where change efforts required the greatest focus.
5. Seller Persona Development: Created detailed seller personas to inform and differentiate change strategies by group.
6. Communication, Tools, and Training: Developed a targeted communication plan, identifying required communications, tools, and trainings required for successful change adoption across various stakeholder groups.

Business Impact

Our implementation of the new talent strategy and roles yielded significant business benefits:

• Potential Savings: Identified potential annual savings of $12.2 million and optionality to customize plan design by role before testing with pilots.
• Increased Change Adoption: Increased the likelihood of change adoption by identifying and capitalizing on “quick wins” throughout stakeholder alignment.
• Gap Analysis and Targeted Improvements: Enhanced understanding of existing gaps in tools, training, and resources for Sales Associates and store management, paving the way for targeted improvements.

Strategic alignment of roles, incentives, and change management practices can drive substantial business impact in the luxury retail sector. Our work with this luxury retail client helped ensure both operational efficiency and workforce motivation.