Brown Thomas Arnotts: Customer experience at heart of what we do

Nicola O’Driscoll readily admits that there is no such thing as an average day in her position as People Director at Brown Thomas Arnotts. “I can often be involved with the strategic development of our learning and development programmes, and in the same day I could find myself working closely on senior leadership recruitment campaigns,” she explains.

“As we say in Brown Thomas Arnotts - ‘there is no positive customer experience without a positive employee experience.’

The customer experience is at the heart of everything we do, and we pride ourselves on leading in this space. Brown Thomas and Arnotts focus on continuously developing excellence in customer experience by fostering a spirit of innovation and creativity, setting ourselves apart through continuous investment and driving ideas sourced from all areas of our business,” she adds.

Given the company’s established status as a respected brand, a pride in its unique heritage combined with a dedication to evolving with the times is at the core of its operational ethos. “We place tremendous importance on fostering a spirit of innovation and creativity, setting ourselves apart through continuous investment and by driving ideas sourced from all areas of our business.” Recognising the importance of investing in its people, from career development opportunities to competitive benefit packages, the company is committed to giving each member of the team everything they need to reach their full potential.

“This helps us stand apart from our peers in terms of attracting top talent, and the interest among applicants for roles at both stores is incredibly high. For example, our Christmas drive will see us meet some 3,500 people over the next few months,” she says.

“While we are in a fortunate position to see such strong interest in roles across the business, we are also aware that it is not enough to simply get the candidates through the door; we must strive to meet their needs and ensure our entire people feel engaged and valued within their roles.”

Despite the fact that unemployment now stand at 4.6%, the lowest since 2006, such a situation does bring its own set of challenges. “It is clear that Ireland is facing a skills shortage with many top tier positions and roles struggling to secure the appropriate talent. It is an employees’ market out there with businesses vying for the best in class talent,” she points out.

While salaries and benefits are important to prospective employees, a variety of other contributing elements can often be a determining factor in the decision of who to work for.

“A company’s culture and set of values, their sustainability agenda and learning and development programmes, while not directly linked to a particular role, are becoming more and more influential in a candidate’s decision of who they want to work for. Businesses need to show prospective employees that they are forward thinking in order to remain competitive.”

Over the last number of years, Nicola notes how the style of working has dramatically changed: “No longer do we have a culture of a ‘job for life,’ but one where millennials reject the traditional trends of one organisation. The average tenure now is 4.4 years, with 91% of millennials expecting to stay with an organisation for less than 3 years, and 25% planning to leave their job within one year.”

Retail, among many other industries, is changing and adapting at such a fast pace that the evolving workplace structure is one that must adapt and change in line with these advancements, she believes. “While the ‘job for life’ approach is not widely practised anymore, many of our Brown Thomas Arnotts people have been with the company for decades, developing their personal skill set and progressing through the business from retail to buying to head office.”

In today’s market prospective employees are increasingly conscious about the impact they can have within their roles, and want to work where the culture aligns with their own personal values and in a role that is purpose-led. “Employees want to feel like they’re making a difference in their own way, and are playing their part in something bigger. We see this across Brown Thomas and Arnotts where areas such as diversity and inclusion, environmental impact and contribution to communities are now often the deciding factors for an employee in accepting a role or not, and in whether they connect to the employer brand.”

In addition, sustainability is an ever increasingly influential factor for prospective employees: “Our sustainability strategy is completely ingrained in all areas of the business and is an integral part of our monthly key performance indicator as a management team. Our sustainability champions, employees from across the organisation, help to hold leadership to account with regards progress in this area and shape our policies and programmes of work.”

In today’s aggressive marketplace, establishing clear career paths and providing opportunities for continuous learning can offer the competitive advantage needed to attract and retain employees. “To be successful, Learning and Development programmes need to be engrained within your management structures with line mangers encouraging their people to develop new skills and allowing progression through the organisation.

At Brown Thomas Arnotts, our leadership have put in place dedicated initiatives to support employees and this has seen real results for us in terms of our retention – particularly within our internship programme where both brands recently on-boarded 25 interns across buying , multichannel, IT and marketing.” Another successful initiative is the company’s Future Leaders Programme, which allows employees the opportunity to self-learn and to take part in a series of intensive and diverse learning experiences to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to effectively flourish in a leadership roles.

“We encourage open communication between all of our people,” Nicola explains. “We have our individual ‘Ask’ sessions which allow all people engage with senior leaders in the business to learn more about them, their role and their experience within the business. This encourages active conversations, an interest in the business and a platform for all members to have their voices heard.” Regular career panel discussions focused on careers also allow individuals demonstrate how they have navigated their career paths, tips on what has worked for them and establishes an open platform for learning and growth across the businesses. As part the Selfridges Group, employees also have the opportunity to develop their careers on a global scale through the LEAP mobility programme, where they can transfer to new opportunities across the group. In addition, research has shown that companies with a high impact learning culture achieve better business results. “We pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer experiences,” Nicola concludes. “Our guiding principal when it comes to the employee experience and lifecycle is: ‘Are we as good on the inside as we are on the outside?’”