{"id":2490,"date":"2025-03-24T08:22:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T08:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hrintelligence.it\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2025-06-05T16:26:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:26:53","slug":"retail-excellence-from-an-organizational-perspective-a-skills-based-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/retail-excellence-from-an-organizational-perspective-a-skills-based-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail Excellence from an organizational perspective: a skills-based approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is retail excellence<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Retail Excellence is a concept that refers to excellence in the management and execution of retail activities. In practice, it means <\/span><b>achieving the highest operational and customer experience standards <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in a store or chain of stores.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But how to build an operating model that can bring companies to this milestone?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s look together at the path that led us to structure, for a client in the fashion industry, an organizational model that is efficient, flexible and able to support the professional development of key resources in the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Challenges to achieve high standards of retail excellence<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In more detail, the <\/span><b>challenges that <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were to be answered were aimed at achieving:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A flexible model that can adapt to the evolution of the network in terms of size (number of stores) and type of store (flagship store, outlet store, mall store, downtown store)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A model that can enhance and enable the professional growth of key resources (career path for retail resources)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A cost-effective and headcount-efficient model.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stages of the project<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project approach involved the Retail Operations, Organizational Development and HR Business Partner functions working together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two phases were conducted, a Co-design phase of the organizational model, and a subsequent Skill Gap Analysis and People Match phase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As part of the <\/span><b>co-design <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sessions of <\/span><b>the organizational model, the <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">following were defined:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The &#8220;task-based&#8221; and consequently &#8220;skill-based&#8221; organizational model (which we will explain in a moment) and the consequent association of existing stores with the proposed types of organizational model by Store type<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The coordination mechanism with back-end processes (commercial planning, logistics and procurement, returns management, &#8230;)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The skill assessment &amp; career development model for retail resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, in the <\/span><b>Skill Gap Analysis and People Match <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">phase were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Map the skills held by people<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Verified skill gap between skills held and expected for the role<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addressed skill development actions with respect to the most significant gaps and\/or on key Store figures.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building an effective retail excellence model: the stages of the project<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We now come to describe some of the <\/span><b>peculiar aspects of <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the organizational design and skill mapping methodology.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The organizational design<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>organizational design <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has &#8220;broken down&#8221; the main in-store activities (and the skills it takes to perform these activities), considering:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">front end activities (sales\/customer service\/cashier),<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">back end activities (orders, procurement, invoicing, returns management, &#8230;),<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The activities related to visual (window displays, merchandise arrangement, &#8230;)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">management activities (business planning, resource\/shift planning, absence\/replacement management, cost monitoring, safety management, search and selection, team motivation and performance management &#8230;)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Depending on the type of store (in terms of size and strategic positioning)<\/span><b>, organizational &#8220;models&#8221; were then defined with more or less generalist\/specialist roles, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thus going on to re-allocate activities (and skills) and thus build more rounded (more skills, less specialization) or more vertical role profiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, for example, larger or more visible\/strategic stores are therefore characterized more by specialized figures, while in smaller stores front end and back end activities may be carried out by the same people, or again in outlets the figures of Store Assistant and Visual are not expected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This model also makes it possible to <\/span><b>direct paths of growth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, starting with the skills already gained and expanding them through more generalist and\/or more specialized steps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Transitions from Store to Headquarters roles <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also follow skill specialization, so a person with specialized expertise in Back End processes might move into a Store Planning Headquarters role, or a person with Visual skills might move into Visual Merchandising Planning Headquarters processes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opening new outlets or changing the &#8220;destination&#8221; of existing outlets thus finds in this model an immediately available framework both in terms of organizational model and sizing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And such an approach also enables internal benchmarking logic and best practice sharing among stores, comparing homogeneous stores.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The <\/span><b>methodology of Skill Assessment<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Included in the scope of skills being assessed were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behavioral skills, assessed within the performance cycle for all employees, and whose assessment was therefore already available<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Technical skills related to the role thus defined, which were evaluated by Store Managers (for the first time involved in this activity), flanked by Area Managers, the latter &#8220;guarantors&#8221; of the logic of fairness\/balance in the evaluations made among the different Store Managers of the same Area.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The assessed competencies were compared with the expected competencies for each person in relation to the role held, and the &#8220;<\/span><b>skill gap analysis&#8221; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was finalized to highlight:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significant skill gaps that were targeted for high-priority skill development plans because they would potentially generate impact on store performance<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Less significant skill gaps, to be returned to the person as an individual improvement plan through coaching and on-the-job activities<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overskill in some people, who were evaluated to go into roles where the skills held could be put to good use.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, a <\/span><b>correlation analysis <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">between people&#8217;s skills and store performance was conducted as a food for thought to target a correlation algorithm that could consider some key variables.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project hit the mark with respect to all the challenges that had been posed, and with a Data Driven approach enabled the implementation of an organizational model that was efficient, flexible and able to support the professional development of key resources in the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also laid the foundation for building a <\/span><b>Skill to Performance correlation algorithm <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in fashion retail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Skills-Based Evolution of Organizational Models.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/books\/book\/5300\/Work-without-JobsHow-to-Reboot-Your-Organization-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>interesting study <\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recently published by researchers at Mercer, &#8220;Accelerating Change,&#8221; the demands for organizational agility, the automation of work and the emergence of alternative ways of working are revealing that the &#8220;traditional work operating system,&#8221; based on organizational roles (jobs) , is definitely unsuitable for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>It may therefore be necessary to redefine the organizational design in the direction of a more future-proof model, adopting a skills-based approach.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until now, organizational structures have <\/span><b>relied exclusively on the construct of roles (<\/b><b><i>jobs<\/i><\/b><b>), <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">understood as <\/span><b>containers of responsibilities, skills and competencies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, occupying a <\/span><b>given box on the corporate organizational chart, to organize <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such an approach, however, worked well when organizations <\/span><b>acted in a mostly stable and predictable environment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and when competition was based more on scalable efficiency than on speed, innovation and agility of organizational structure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its most radical form, adopting a &#8220;skill-based&#8221; approach requires the <\/span><b>&#8220;deconstruction&#8221; and &#8220;reconstruction&#8221; of work, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a key emerging capability for organizations:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Deconstruction <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of work <\/span><b>means reconsidering roles (jobs) to analyze their components (tasks)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, considering employees in terms of skills and competencies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Reconstruction <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">means <\/span><b>reassembling tasks differently, in new and more effective combinations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>In other words, <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LygiDfizxYs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>according to Mercer researchers<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the future of work will increasingly (and only) rely on the granular elements of occupations (tasks, projects) and workers (skills).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The infographic shows the transition we are witnessing: from jobs as the only construct for organizing work, to the need for a process of deconstructing jobs into tasks, and the following reconfiguration of jobs into new combinations (SHRM. &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/executive-network\/insights\/people-strategy\/beyond-job\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Beyond the Job: Skills-Based Organizations and the Future of Work<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SHRM Executive Network<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. November 2023, .)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The adoption of a skills-based organizational model requires comprehensive and up-to-date skills mapping, and can be said to be the <\/span><b>final stage in a <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/joshbersin.com\/2023\/07\/building-a-skills-based-organization-the-exciting-but-sober-reality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>much broader continuum of skills-based organizational solutions<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which can start <\/span><b>from a bounded intervention <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><b>a few key processes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to assessing the impacts of such a change on a specific organizational area.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is retail excellence Retail Excellence is a concept that refers to excellence in the management and execution of retail activities. In practice, it means achieving the highest operational and customer experience standards in a store or chain of stores. But how to build an operating model that can bring companies to this milestone? Let&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hr-transformation-e-intelligenza-artificiale-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/retail-excellence.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4039,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/4039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrintelligence.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}