A prominent global luxury brand known for its sophisticated and well-crafted designer products faced challenges with low associate engagement — keeping them from meeting service standards for their top-tier customers.
Recently, they experienced rapid growth that saw them doubling their footprint from one building to two and operating four shifts. This expansion exposed significant leadership gaps that couldn’t be ignored.
After hearing our principal and co-founder, Seth Davis, speak about effective labor management, the company’s senior vice president discovered Joshua Tree Group (JTG). Motivated by Seth’s insights, the SVP closely examined the company’s employee engagement and leadership effectiveness.
The brand struggled with low leadership survey results and poor employee engagement, which were only exacerbated by its rapid expansion. The transition left the team with a leadership gap and a workforce needing stronger guidance and motivation. This is where JTG stepped in to collaborate with the company to transform its leadership approach and operational methodologies with AMP.
THE PROBLEMS THAT PROMPTED ACTION
While the company had a labor management program in place for nearly 20 years, it wasn’t yielding results. The system provided little usable data, leaving the company struggling to address its engagement issues effectively.
This left the company facing ongoing operational challenges that hindered their productivity, including:
Relying on temporary labor: Despite having stable turnover rates, the company relied heavily on temporary labor, which disrupted continuity and contributed to performance inconsistencies.
Low business results and service standards: The brand struggled to achieve its desired business outcomes and maintain high service standards, which are crucial for its luxury image.
Volatile costs per unit: Fluctuating costs per unit made it difficult to manage budgets and maintain profitability.
THE AMP PROCESS
The JTG team first assessed its existing labor management practices and leadership proficiency to address the luxury brand's challenges. Based on the assessment, the Associate Principal, Karen Warren, built a detailed roadmap to enhance employee engagement and achieve better supply chain outcomes.
Karen identified four areas of concern:
Communication Breakdowns
Karen discovered significant communication gaps between shifts and departments. The lack of cooperation between the finance and operations teams ultimately led to overstaffing, causing the operational flow to move in fits and starts. The team completed work quickly and then waited for more work to come in, wasting hours of productivity and lowering morale.Inefficient Use of Tools and Techniques
The company wasn’t implementing its existing staffing and performance reporting tools and techniques in the most optimal way.The Silo Effect
Ultimately, it came down to silos. Each shift, team, and building worked independently with little communication or visibility into the rest of the department.No Forward Thinking
Without access to meaningful data, leadership struggled to reach a consensus and make decisions. Discussions about the same issues dominated weekly meetings, preventing them from making significant progress and planning for the future.
IMPLEMENTING A COLLABORATIVE AND ACCOUNTABLE APPROACH
JTG shifted the brand's philosophy to a more collaborative approach, giving ownership and accountability to the right people. They revised the staffing models with comprehensive data input from the engineered labor standards the JTG team built to ensure accuracy and fairness. Additionally, the team created several routines, including one around their staffing tools that added the right people to optimize efficiency.
Karen spearheaded the creation of this roadmap in partnership with the company’s internal team.
The Implementation Strategy
To effectively implement the new strategy, JTG employed a phased approach:
Review the policy and routines: Conduct a thorough examination of existing policies and daily routines to identify areas needing improvement.
Set new standards: Partner with leadership to establish clear, achievable standards to guide operations and performance.
Identify and train “super users”: Select leaders who will champion the new program and ensure its long-term sustainability. These super users received specialized training to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge.
Stage-by-stage implementation: Roll out the new practices and routines in stages, ensuring a smooth transition and allowing for adjustments as needed.
INSTANT AND SUSTAINABLE RESULTS
The implementation strategy paid off at every stage. The savings created by the previous stage paid for the next step, ensuring the project remained cash flow positive throughout its duration. Each operation saw 15–20% process improvements before the standards went live, with additional testing and tweaks leading to further performance enhancements. The client saw further improvements when they put their leadership routines into practice — coaching associates and seeing those results.
As a result, the entire project paid for itself, and the improvements continually generated the necessary funds.
A simple but pivotal change to the company’s process was including their temp agency in their routines. By teaching the agency how to read reports and understand roles, the company saw a 20% improvement in on-standard % and a 10% performance boost within just two weeks. This integration broke down silos and significantly enhanced overall efficiency.
Leadership and Cultural Transformation
This project didn’t just change the process — it transformed the team’s leadership and culture.
Instead of facing performance improvement plans (PIPs), leaders began promoting and growing their staff, leading to “Hall of Fame” status for their department's monthly performance.
JTG identified that supervisors were distracted by inconsequential data and helped them refocus on the right metrics. Now, supervisors spend more time on the floor, engaging with associates and leading by example. This increased leadership visibility has boosted associate confidence and performance, leading to a significant culture shift within the department.
The leadership team is now more forward-looking, with better planning and a clearer path ahead. By dismantling silos and barriers, the client transformed the culture of the building, propelling their business into new levels of success and setting the stage for sustainable growth.
Want to see a transformation like this in your organization? Schedule a consultation with our expert team at Joshua Tree Group.