Name of Scheme Purpose Duration
Step on Development within role & for new salaried staff 6 months Step Up Promotion - Moving from one level to another 2 – 3 years Graduate Trainee management external recruitment 2 years Internal Graduate Develop internal qualified employees (Stores) 1 - 2 years
The ‘step on’ program was an accessible development for all and also for new employees (e.g. those who just ‘stepped-in’ from hourly paid roles in stores and preparing for
management role) that focused around ‘in role’ opportunities that could be tailored depending on where a colleague currently was positioned on the 9 box vs where they wanted to get to. Employees on this role are classified as ‘well placed in role and develop in role’. These employees were not yet ready for promotion and received development
opportunities specific to their roles which involved completing certain required training modules in order to move to the next level as described by a talent pool member in stores: “The step on meeting involves doing certain modules, I can’t remember what they are but they all based around management paths e.g. planning. So they’ll come up and talk about planning and things and state why they think planning is important and how they plan. There is time management and there are other different factors but I can’t remember what they are but that is where we identify people who understand what we are looking for. As they demonstrate the right behaviours because it is all around behaviours and attitude. Retco it is about the highest attitude and behaviour and strength of skill...” (Talent pool member 1).
The ‘step up’ program focused on employees on Q1, Q2 and Q3 on the 9 box at all levels. The organisational plan of action for these employees is a ‘ready to move plan to next role’. This meant they could be moved to another role as part of career progression which might
174 be a promotion or lateral move and this transition would be within 12 months including plans to backfill roles (succession planning).
The ‘Internal Graduate scheme’ was set up to enable fast tracked management development for Retco employees with 2.2 degree in comparison to the normal Graduate scheme which had a 2.1 requirement for applicants. This was in line with corporate policy of 80% internal recruitment and 20% external.
8.6 TALENT IDENTIFICATION PROCESS IN RETCO
A summary of Retco’s Talent Identification processes are presented below in Figure 8.1. Detailed discussions of the processes are provided in the subsections following.
8.6.1 Retco Talent Grading Structure
A first place to begin understanding the talent identification processes in Retco is understanding their employment structure which is split between employees working in stores and those in the Head Office (HO) which is their headquarters. Retco’s employee structure is split between those who are described as ‘hourly’ paid who make up the entry roles (zone D, see below) and ‘salaried’ employees who make up the management roles.
175 Hourly paid employees do not occupy permanent roles as they comprised temporary,
seasonal workers amongst other roles, but they have the opportunity to apply to become ‘salaried’ employees through a process called ‘step in’ which means stepping into the first rung of management in stores or entry level in the Home Office C8. Talent identification occurred for hourly paid employees through career conversations and identified employees made up the talent pipeline for future section manager roles as expressed in the statement by the regional operations manager (ROM):
“So we are always proactively working with our colleagues to ensure that we get them on
development programs. Once a colleague progress from an hourly paid position to a section leader position, that’s when they then get swept into an appraisal process and maybe then formally capture, literally their potential. But the talent pipeline that Miss X talked about earlier on, will capture people that don’t get an appraisal but are still part of a pipeline. So we will still consider them within a succession planning”.
The expected tenure in any given ‘salaried’ level was between two to three years but there were opportunities to move sideways on job rotations for career development purposes. A summary of the different job grades/levels in Retco at HO and stores are provided and expanded below:
Zone D (entry level) →C8 (non-manager (HO) Section Manager (Stores)) →C10 (middle manager (HO) Trading Manager (Stores)) →Zone B (senior manager (HO) Store Manager (Stores) →Zone A (Head of Department (HO) Regional Operations Manager (Stores)) →Director →Executive Board.
Three of the interviewees were talent pool members. One was in the HO and progressing from C8 to C10 and undergoing promotion development for the new role, the other was progressing from a C10 to a Zone B role and the final employee just moved from a General Store Manager (GSM) Zone B to Zone A Regional Operations Manager (ROM).
8.6.2 Performance & Behaviour Appraisals & 9 box Grid Assessment of Potential
Employee Performance appraisals and 9 box grid assessment for potential held bi-annually, at the end of the year which is January to February and then a mid-year review from mid- July to August. Performance appraisals were based around measuring employees’ performance against Key Results Areas (KRAs) which were about the extent of achieving job role objectives. Company communication about TM describes this process as: “An
176 opportunity for reflection, performance, conversation and calibration of talent with focus on performance and behaviours”.
8.6.2.1 Scoring of Retco definitions of performance were (“What”)
4: Outperforms, 3: Consistent delivery, 2: delivered key KRAs and behaviours but some improvements required, 1: Not delivered. These were also aligned to their parent company’s 5 point scale rating of: Role model, Exceeds, Solid, and Development needed, Below
Expectations.
8.6.2.2 Assessment of Behaviours (“How”)
Part of the measurement of performance involved appraising Retco employee behaviours. This has to do with exhibiting leadership behaviours and Retco values. The Regional Manager describes the process below:
“We do have what we call our leadership framework. So basically, we would expect our managers to behave and this, to drive their performance based on the leadership framework. So the leadership framework is made up of 3 different pillars. And within that is ‘Leading our people, leading to win and leading with vision’. Now with each of those pillars, they all have behaviours identified with each of those pillars. A combination of where they sit is agreed from 1 to 4 across each of those behaviours will drive their performance…or their measurement of those behaviours. So that grading of 1to 4 if someone is either not demonstrating those behaviour, they are 1, if they demonstrate some of those behaviour they are 2 and if they demonstrate those behaviours successfully they are 3 and if they outperform on those behaviours they are 4. And because they measure their performance against those 3 pillars, if someone does 4, 4, 4, and then they are outstanding”.