Department Stores: exploring inner space

Q: What do you see as key differences between working within a department store and a more conventional retail environment?

House of Fraser
A big difference is the scale of the operation and how important it is to work as one team across all of the floors and back-of-house areas in the store so the customer really gets a cohesive message about what you as a brand stand for, across many areas, such as customer service, VM and retail standards.
There's a real opportunity with so many national locations and then departments within a store to learn new skills and develop your career either into a brand specialist or management roles.

Tripp
Aside from the obvious of not having to lock the store up at the end of the night, the key difference would be that as a concession you have two companies' rules and guidelines to adhere to, so as a manager it's really about managing both these relationships.

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle)
A key difference for someone working at a concession is the need to keep both the host department store happy as well as meeting the expectations of your own brand. Similarly, from a recruitment perspective, you have to take into consideration that employees have to be a 'brand fit' for both the concession and the department in which they are to be located.

Q: What are the key challenges of working in a department store?

House of Fraser
We all know working together as one team gets great results, however the challenge of effective communication to hundreds of people is a real art and needs to be mastered by all managers early on in their department store careers.
Making sure the message and service levels that the customer gets throughout the store is consistently good and all hangs together whatever department you are in is really key.

Tripp
As a concession a key challenge would be building a strong relationship with the host store staff. Key people that you need to rely upon in order for your department to run smoothly, staff in the loading bay/warehouse, cash office etc. These people aren't employed by Tripp, so it's crucial to build strong links.

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle
Being able to deliver for both your own brand alongside meeting the requirements of the host department store. Relationships and communication are the keys to success.

Q: What are the prospects for career development within the company?

House of Fraser
If you have a passion for providing excellence in customer service, a hunger for achieving sales targets, and an ambition for personal success then the opportunities within House of Fraser are boundless.
The department store environment offers a huge range of careers within sales management, stock handing, business administration, visual merchandising, HR and training, buying and merchandising to name just a few. But we see career development as a web of opportunities where you can develop your skills across a breadth of departments, not just up the traditional ladder.
At whichever level you join our business there is a career development programme to support you in progressing your career to the next level.
Our Management Trainee Programme takes front-line staff to first line management over a 12-month programme. The Fast-Track Programme facilitates your progression from first-line management through to middle management.
And our Management Development Programme focuses on our key senior talent within the business. All of our programmes depend entirely on your personal drive to develop yourself. We will support you with training interventions and open doors to development opportunities and projects - however the speed and success of your development is ultimately down to you.

Tripp
For our concession managers there is the opportunity to move to a cluster manager role, so looking after a handful of stores and report into our regional managers. This is one of the key roles within our business. Also there would be the opportunity as a manager to also look after one of our smaller unmanned stores and become a buddy manager.

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle)
For a concession manager there is the opportunity to move to a city manager role, which involves looking after a handful of concessions and reporting to the area manager.
Although we would like to retain all employees in our own brand, it does give the opportunities to move into other brands or even working for the department store.
In fact we recently lost an area manager who gained a senior manager role in a department store, but at the same time gained a great concession manager from another brand whom we had seen achieve results with them.

Q: What do you see as the positive aspects of working within a department store environment?

House of Fraser
Without a doubt it's fast-paced and fun working with hundreds of different brands who all have their own strategies and visions, it's how you tie that all up to deliver a great shopping environment for every customer.
There's a great team spirit and camaraderie where hundreds of people work together, support each other both in and out of work.

Tripp
A department store offers a lively, busy environment. We get to share the department store's customers, take part in some of the store's training, their promotions etc. By being in a department store we have the benefit of two strong retails heads, which will always be better than one!

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle)
Not only do you become a strong ambassador of your own brand, it gives the opportunity to gain understanding of other brands, alongside making some key working relationships with senior managers that you may not get the opportunity to within a standalone store.

Q: What is it like to work in close proximity to other competing concession brands?

Tripp
This doesn't affect us too much as we don't have to compete against any other luggage concessions within Debenhams.

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle)
Having previously never worked with concessions until joining Firetrap (Wdt), for myself as an HR manager it's given me the opportunity to balance working with concessions and standalone stores, building on new ways of best practice alongside greater business exposure and gaining some key relationships. Having said this, working alongside other brands to be beneficial rather than a case of just trying to compete.

Q: How far do managers in this environment tend to stay there because of their affinity for/enjoyment of the department store culture?

Tripp
We currently have a staff turnover of 16% and a management turnover of 9%, so we believe that through getting it right at the recruitment stage and by creating a good working framework to work within, managers stay with us. At Tripp we are able to give our managers a lot of autonomy to run their department within Debenhams as if it was their own business. We believe this is why we have so many that stay with us, giving us an average length of service of just under five years!

World Design & Trade
(Firetrap / Fullcircle)
Having concessions within both HoF and Selfridges gives exposure to premium large stores and we find that many of our people seem to get the department store bug once exposed to them. We have a very low turnover of concession managers and have seen some great succession moves with some of our people moving into some of our larger city concessions from smaller ones. The key to this is at recruitment stage, getting the right fit for both our brand and the host store.