Article: Shopper's Stop's HiPo story

A Brand Reachout InitiativeEmployee Engagement

Shopper's Stop's HiPo story

 

Right Management's expertise in talent management helped Shopper's Stop create the right plan for HiPo development
Shopper's Stop's HiPo story

One of the examples of Right Management’s expertise in identifying and developing potential talent for mid-level positions in an organization is the work we did for Shopper’s Stop in helping them identify the right candidate for the position of Area Controller.

Shopper’s Stop is one of the largest retail companies in the country and is promoted by the K Raheja Corp Group. The company started in the year 1991 with its first store in Andheri, Mumbai. Currently it has 68 stores in India. Shoppers Stop Ltd has been awarded "the Hall of Fame" and "the Emerging Market Retailer of the Year Award", by World Retail Congress at Barcelona, on April 10, 2008.

Every Store of Shopper’s Stop is headed by a Unit Head who reports into an Area Controller. Typically an Area Controller will have 6 to 8 stores under him / her. With the organization’s continued growth through last year, there emerged a need to fill-in an additional position of an Area Controller. True to its philosophy of promoting internal talent, the organization decided to invest in a structured process of identifying possible candidates from the current Unit Heads and then groom them to the position of Area Controllers.

Shopper’s Stop partnered with Right Management to drive and manage this process end-to-end. Step one was to define the success profile for the role of the Area Controller. This was done by having a series of conversations with stakeholders in the system. Once the success profile was defined and validated, Right Management designed a robust process to map the identified candidates against the success profile. This was done using Right Management’s 4P’s of Successful Leadership Model.

Shopper’s Stop used individual performance data to narrow the pool down to ten candidates. Post that the participants were put through a robust assessment process to gather data on their Potential (Assessment Centre) and Personality (Birkman Tool). All the participants were given feedback at the end of the process on their strengths and areas of development. The key outcome of this phase was the identification of three candidates who displayed high potential and were a likely match for the position of Area Controller.

The next phase was to put the three high potentials through a structured development process. Right Management deployed a 6 month development roadmap using the 3E principle of Experience-Exposure-Education. The process was initiated by first identifying focus areas of development for each individual by using data from the previous phase and further inputs from their managers. The three participants were then assigned individual executive coaches. In addition to this, they were assigned specific workplace assignments besides having to attend classroom workshops. Right Management also deployed a Study Mission to one of India’s leading airlines for the participants to help them understand how customer experience was being used as a strategic driver. This unique mode of learning was highly appreciated by the participants and gave them some unique ideas to implement at Shopper’s Stop.

Basis the participant feedback for the development interventions and their progress at the workplace, the organization took a call to promote two participants to the role of the Area Controller basis immediate need. The overall engagement was a success because it tied in to the company’s philosophy of promoting internal talent for critical roles and also followed a transparent process in identifying the high potential individuals.

Participants’ Feedback

“This was the first time Shopper’s Stop has introduced coaching session for its employees. My experience was very good because as an employee I was able to devote time for coaching inspite of having a busy schedule. Coaching has developed and polished my skills to interpret data through different angles before we take long term business objectives.”

“It has been really helpful. I have applied learning from the program in my day to day activities and it has helped me in both areas of coaching skills and understanding strategy.”

“The coaching is built on trust. The sessions are meaningful and help in self-introspection. The probing style is intelligent and helps in self-awareness. Also the tasks given are thoughtful and tailored to suit my requirement.”

“To begin with, I’d like to thank the Right Management team for conducting the Study mission. The study mission with one of India’s leading airlines and their best practices has been very insightful. The best take away was the way each company/function of the organization is aligned to the 3 core philosophies and scans every sop through them before implementations.”

“The teams were very hospitable and shared a great insight about their HR Policies, focus on people management, operational excellence at the corporate office strategy and at the ground (airport operations) to benefit and be aligned with their values. The most unique and amazing trait that kept flowing through each associate at one of India’s leading airlines was their focus and alignment of each function to the values.”

“The “Pit Stop” process at the airport ground level shows how we can manage people to process, manage time, ensure lower costs and still keep associates unburdened”

Benefits for the Leaders

  • Enhanced Awareness through validated feedback on their Areas of Strength and Development
  • Structured development opportunity enhancing their competencies to further their career growth

Benefits to the Organization

  • A validated view of their high potentials for the specific role
  • “Role-ready” individuals for the new role
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Topics: Employee Engagement, #HiPoWeek

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