The 4th largest charity in the UK with over 200 shops raising money to fund research was about to embark on a major strategic change.

Situation

Having been experiencing falling revenues and stagnant performance, our brief was to help them respond to changes in the charity sector marketplace working with the Retail Division.

Working with the Retail Director it was identified that the field management (Area Retail Managers) were critical to delivering the change effectively. The Area Retail Manager role itself was found to be out-dated which contributed to poor performance levels.

There were a number of key elements which had to be addressed:-

• facilitate the Regional Director team in clarifying how the recommendations could best be implemented
• agree key performance indicators and measures for the ARM role
• ensure that another internal operational project integrated with the change project
• launch the new ARM job description
• clarify the gap between current, and required skills and abilities
• design and deliver development workshops that will meet the identified needs
• ensure that operational management actually use the new skills and measures the impact on the business

Solution

In order to deliver a successful and sustained change programme a three phase solution was developed.

Phase 1

A thorough job analysis was completed which looked at the current role vs. what was now required.

Phase 2

A two-day workshop was developed for the Regional Directors and a small number of selected Area Retail Managers, to review the job analysis findings, determine what the key performance indicators and performance measures needed to be going forward, and to finalise the new ARM job description.

Phase 3

Two-day, highly interactive, development workshops were developed and delivered for each of the regional teams. The workshops were themed to align with the new roles and key performance indicators. The workshops focused on key skill areas and behaviours identified as critical to success.

Results

The project was highly successful in enabling the retail management team to develop a strong performance management culture. The ideas developed through the workshops were adopted by managers and follow up feedback from both senior management and shop management supported the view that management style had shifted dramatically.

Revenue in the following 12 months saw double digit growth at a time others were seeing flat performance. The organisation actually moved to 3rd largest UK charity in this period and the growth continued.