Posts
Employee Empowerment Is Priceless at Dollar Tree
by Kellye Whitney
The first Dollar Tree store opened in Dalton, Ga., in 1986, and by the end of its first year there were five stores open. Growth, whether organic or by acquisition has long been a part of the retailer's business model. And more than 20 years later, the chain has grown to more than 3,500 stores in 48 states.
The company's work environment is very customer-oriented. The variety chain operates at a low price point and must empower its associates in order to operate profitably. Associate empowerment doesn't require a complicated talent strategy, only an efficient one that emphasizes the store's values for some 40,000 associates. Suzan Kaufman, vice president of organizational development at Dollar Tree Stores Inc., said a streamlined talent management strategy with values and rewards at the core has helped promote success.
TM: What is Dollar Tree's approach to talent management?
Kaufman: We break it down functionally. We look at recruiting and then selection, followed by training and on-boarding. Then we address development and finally performance and rewards. We find that having a structured approach to talent management gives us a path to follow, but it also demystifies what talent management is for our 40,000 associates.
TM: What processes or programs have you established to improve workforce performance?
Kaufman: Over the last four years we embarked on a formalization, or a re-engineered approach to talent management. The first thing we did was get everyone in the organization on a performance management cycle. I actually have three different audiences: I have my audience here at our corporate headquarters, the store support center, the SSC, and about 700 people here at the store-support center. Then I have nine distribution centers across the United States, so I have a DC audience. Then I have my field organization, which includes all 3,500-plus stores, the associates that run them and the leadership that runs our field operation.
Each audience has slightly different needs and processes around talent management, but all of those audiences are on their own performance appraisal cycle, and that's been a big help for us getting everybody on the same page. Second, we've automated our talent management approach. We work with Softscape. We've automated our performance appraisal system, our goals, our succession planning. The third piece just coming into fruition is we've established an assessment process to screen talent before we hire them and an assessment process for internal high-potential candidates.
TM: How is that re-engineering working out?
Kaufman: Five years ago everybody got performance reviews on their anniversary date, and we didn't have any way to look at our rewards, performance, compensation, merit-increase or our bonus programs. We didn't have the opportunity to look at people relative to other people in the organization, so getting everyone on the same performance management cycle has been an incredible way for us to manage our rewards program, and that includes merit increases, bonuses, compensation. And it's been a real eye-opening opportunity for us to look at the talent organization relative to everybody else.
TM: What kind of challenges impact talent management at Dollar Tree?
Kaufman: I would say the largest one is we have 3,500 stores geographically dispersed across the United States, and at the moment we don't have an e-learning or a distance-learning component to our training. So delivering consistent training to our associates across the 48 contiguous states is our biggest special need and our largest challenge.
TM: Have you developed any solutions to meet that challenge?
Kaufman: It's going to be imperative to implement some sort of e-learning or distance-learning approach to the training portion of what we do here so we can deliver a consistent message and be able to track people's history. We're working on that as we speak. It won't be solely e-learning. Most organizations adopt a blended learning approach, and we believe it will greatly enhance our instructor-led classroom learning initiatives that we have right now.
TM: How does Dollar Tree change or create leadership and management behaviors that lead to top-tier workforce performance?
Kaufman: That's been another challenge for us. I'll start by talking about our approach to performance appraisals. We have a twofold component to our performance management, or performance appraisal, process. One is the establishment of goals that support our corporate initiatives. In addition to people being evaluated on the accomplishment of their personal goals - and for us that represents what you did last year - we also have a set of responsibilities or behaviors that represent how you go about accomplishing your goals.
We're very clear what those behaviors or responsibilities are. Everyone in the organization in a leadership position is evaluated on their performance relative to those responsibilities or behaviors. That's also a part of our succession planning process, where we assess the talent in our organization relative to their behaviors. And then, depending on the individual, we'll either have them participate in internally developed programs or internally generated training programs or, for high-potential candidates with special needs, we'll send them to outside learning and development opportunities.
TM: How does Dollar Tree develop its culture and employee attitudes?
Kaufman: I don't know any organization that would say their culture wasn't important to them. But one of the difficulties in maintaining our culture is the significant growth that we've experienced over the last 22 years. Now we're in 48 states with 3,500 stores, and how do you identify that culture and maintain it? Our on-boarding programs for new associates, which can last up to a year, emphasize the Dollar Tree culture in a number of different ways. That's one aspect of it. There are two others.
One, embodying the behaviors and values of our culture is part of what people are assessed on in succession planning. If you were going to be a high-potential candidate at Dollar Tree, it's imperative that you embody the behaviors that represent our culture and values. The third piece we're working on right now is formalizing an associate engagement survey and a cultural survey so we can actually measure what people believe the culture is [and] then determine how far we are from what we actually want the culture to be versus how people experience it in the field. That will be a 2009 initiative.
TM: What programs have you established to attract, recruit and retain top talent?
Kaufman: Right now, the most important piece we have in place - and we're continuing to expand - is our pre-employment assessments. We're looking for characteristics that successful people at Dollar Tree demonstrate, but we're also looking for cultural fit in our pre-employment assessments.
Also, we've identified competencies that our best store managers embody, for example, and we've designed our compensation program around those competencies. For example, on a monthly basis, we have bonus potential that's tied to achieving key metrics. We know our best and brightest store managers have a tremendous desire to succeed and to attain goals. So we screen for that, we designed a compensation program around it, and we reward for that.
TM: How do you measure workforce performance at Dollar Tree?
Kaufman: We're just finishing our first full year of automating our performance management system. Now, instead of looking at 35,000 individual manual performance appraisals, we have a system where we can look at groups and divisions and audiences, but we know what our key metrics are in terms of organizational performance.
We're a retail organization, so sales, inventory turns [and] profitability are important metrics. Our performance-
TM: How has your performance management and talent management activity contributed to Dollar Tree's bottom line?
Kaufman: Again, because we're just coming off of our first year of automation, I would say that in past years we've been able to demonstrate increased performance at the sales margin and turn level. At the store level, we've been able to decrease turnover, which is another important component at the retail and the hourly associate level, particularly since the majority of our folks will be part time.
In a retail organization, turnover in excess of 100 percent would not be unusual, but we look at turnover, especially at our store manager and associate managers. We wouldn't accept anything close to that.
One of the key components that's been really important for us having been successful and anticipating success going forward is identifying with key strategic vendors relative to automation. We work very closely both with Kenexa and Softscape and attribute a lot of our success and progress over the last three years to selecting the right strategic vendors to help automate our talent management approach.
[About the Author: Kellye Whitney is managing editor for Talent Management magazine.]
Hari Nair
Vice President - Human Resources
Sona Koyo Steering Systems Limited
38/6, On Delhi Jaipur National Highway 8
GURGAON 122 001
Haryana
Mobile :
+91-98-102-89047
e-mail :
hari.nair@sonagroup
hari.nair69@
harinair64@gmail.
Web :
www.sonagroup.
www.haripassionhr.
http://finance.
http://haripassionh
http://www.orkut.
http://www.facebook
http://www.linkedin
"Send an e-mail to PassionHR-subscribe
" No one can predict to what heights you can soar, Even you will not know until you spread your wings "
"Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary. Spread environmental awareness."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PassionHR/
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=17331195369402941603/
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=36313142/
http://haripassionhr.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=551210263/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/passionhr
Post message : PassionHR@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe : PassionHR-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Mobile : +91-98-102-89047 {Hari Nair}
DISCLAIMER : This e-mail and/or all e-mail (including its enclosures/(s) or attachment/(s), if any) contains knowledge sharing information from PassionHR Group, which is confidential, proprietary, and/or copyrighted. Unauthorized disclosure, copying, distribution, or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information (either whole or partial) is strictly prohibited. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, displaying this transmission, or any part thereof, on any public domain such as a bulletin board. E-mails are susceptible to alteration and their integrity can in no way/cannot be guaranteed. PassionHR Group will/shall not be liable of this e-mail if modified or falsified. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail or received any link or derogatory material or article then kindly delete it immediately from your system, and notify the sender of the wrong delivery with the confirmation that the mail (with its enclosures/(s) or attachment/(s), if any) has been deleted. Disputes if any are subject to Gurgaon (Haryana), India, Jurisdiction only.
Moderator - PassionHR Group, India
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment