Blinds To Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion

1. Why is Blinds To Go having difficulty attracting and retaining retail staff?

Blinds To Go (BTG) started as a family company created in Montreal, Canada in 1954 by David
Shiller. By June 2000, BTG operated 120 corporate-owned stores with a unique 100% commission-based
sales model. Each store has a staff of between six and twenty employees. Across North America, BTG
expected to add an average of 50 new stores and grow 50% in sales during the next five years.
BTG Vice Chairman Nkere Udofia exclaimed, Staffing stores is our most challenging issue...
(Mark, 2001). Senior management believed the quality of their staff was the most important aspect
component of their company and an example was shared in one of their stores. There were four staff roles
within the store and the hope that within four to six months the most junior position (albeit a very good
one) would be promoted from a sales associate to selling supervisor. From selling supervisor/assistant
store manager you could typically be promoted anywhere from six to 18 months after starting that
position.
We believe that BTG is having difficulty attracting and retaining its retail staff due to the sales model
and compensation structure. The sales model at BTG involved a high level of interactions with the
customer. As a result of that, the BTG company placed a very high level of expectations on customer
service and satisfaction. At the foundation, even the president of the company, prided themselves on
being able to sell blinds to customers (Mark, 2001). Todd Martin, the director of retail planning and
operations explained that closing 80% of your sales isnt good enough; their employees need to close
100%.
All that changed in 1996 when the new vice president of store operations recommended a switch to
salary for sales associates. The thought behind that was to entice more employees. From 1996 to 1997,
sales declined between 10-30% and staff turnover increased 25%. In May of 1998 they basically admitted
defeat and changed their structure back to commission based compensation. Sales went up 10-30% within
a few months. The change to a compensation system was a huge failure.
BTG understood from a staffing perspective that in the US, employees seemed uncomfortable with
the 100% commission based sales and preferred a straight wage or salary. On top of that Todd Martin, the
director of retail planning and operations, believed that they were looking for people with the gift of the
gab, no ego, are honest, like sales, are driven and hungry for an opportunity, and have good leadership,
and good people stills. People have to possess these core values and went on to say, we pay for
performance (Mark, 2001).

2. What recommendations would you give Blinds To Go to improve their

staffing practices?

To solve the attraction and retention problems, Blinds To Go (BTG) tried a few innovative ways to
recruit quality employees. Enhancing the employee referral program, internet sourcing, readjusting
compensation, using salaried retail recruiters, and a few other ways. Once a candidate applied, they were
hired against six basic criteria that matched the BTG vision. From June to July 2000, the most successful
way of hiring staff was employee referrals and walk-ins. It is also important to note that there was a high
voluntary turnover trend in employees during their first four months due to sales underperformance.
In our opinion, BTG would be best suited to improve their staffing practices by developing a strong
employer brand. The culture of the organization has an impact on both the caliber of the employee
attracted to the company (recruitment) and how long that employee will remain happy, viable and loyal to
the company (retention). An online article titled Building a Strong Brand as an Employer explains,
Building a strong employer brand is important not only to attract a talented workforce but also to retain
high performers in your company. Employer branding helps in keeping the staff motivated and productive
continuously. (employmentcrossing.com, 2014).
 A strong employer brand signifies that your company provides a great work environment. The
benefits of this strong brand culture include attracting a better talent pool, a higher retention rate of
current employees, a savings in costs related to recruitment, and higher productivity which leads to
increased sales and excellent customer satisfaction rates. The organizational culture at BTG should be
communicated by example from top management and follow through the entire hierarchy of the company.

Employer branding suggests:

The brand should match the companys values.
BTG is, and has always been, a family business. From early on, their focus was on a high level of
customer service and quality.
Should reward & encourage employees successes.
This is a strength for BTG. They have historically rewarded top performers through promotion
and provided active encouragement through supervisor involvement in every sale. The piece that
is lacking is a formal program. Having established expectations and timeframes for promotion
would be attractive to potential candidates.
Send a message that you care about your employees and customers.
BTG needs to be an employer of choice. Incentive programs, employee benefits, work/life
balance, competitive pay, and perks like the stock options they implemented, etc. all factor into
employment decisions. Providing good programs and making them known will make them an
employer of choice.
The customer aspect is already addressed by BTG. Salespeople are expected to bond with a
customer Their sales process is built around the customer experience and seems to work.
Know what motivates employees (is it money, is it advancement, is it fairness).
This has been a challenge for BTG. With such a great focus on compensation changing the
structure twice the assumption seems to be that pay is what motivates their employees. While
money is always important to employees, it is not the only important factor. BTG needs to find
out what drives their people and implement creative responses to those needs.
Be sure senior management understands and knows how to communicate the brand.
BTG should hire a corporate communications manager. Senior managements expertise does
not include marketing or branding. Strong sales, customer service and management skills are
apparent. They need an expert to translate the brand to the employees and push it out to the
consumer.

3. What are the important characteristics of the HR system at Blinds to Go?

Blinds To Go (BTG) had a very ambitious goal to open an average of 50 stores every year for
five years. This also meant they need to increase their staff to effectively grow while sustaining the
quality and fast service that brought the company such great success. Senior management at BTG
believed the quality of staff was more an important than store locations, demographics, or advertising
(Mark, 2001). Similar to the company Netflix, BTG believed great teams accomplish great work, and
recruiting the right team is top priority (McCord, 2013). Their recruiting and training process was critical
to achieving their goals. Within the companys training manual were four operating guidelines that every
new addition to the sales staff needed to burn into their brains. The guidelines were to service and satisfy
every customer, never lose a sale, make the customer feel special, and finally to bring in the manager on
every sale to give the customer the feeling of old fashioned service.
The company also looks for the right people who had sales-driven qualities. As part of the BTG
process they liked to hire management from within the company and a good sales associate could be
promoted to supervisor within 6-9 months. Because hiring was so crucial they began to attract talent in
different ways. The most successful way was employee referrals but they also used Internet sourcing and
DSM recruitment. Hiring from within also ensured the companys sales driven culture would thrive. If
BTG had to search for candidates from the outside then they used six specific criteria to hire new
associates. The candidates must have the gift for gab, have an outgoing personality, be energetic and
motivated, be honest, like sales or dealing with people and be positive.
Compensation was also a vital characteristic of the HR system in BTG. The initial system in
place was commission based (they felt this fostered a healthy competition and motivation) and then in
1996 they decided to integrate a salary structure. This caused a large turnover and dissatisfaction for
employees. The company then reverted back to their commission based salary when sales declined 10%
to 30% in both new and existing locations. BTG also had senior management visit the top performing
stores to create a performance benchmark and sales and recognition program was implemented.