Chief Executive Officer’s Report / Inspirational people

Building a winning culture

Our 13,450 team members are critical to the success of our business. We want to be viewed as an employer of choice, we want team members to be proud to work at Myer, and so we are working hard to develop an environment in which team members can contribute to the fullest extent of their abilities, and share in the success of the business. Importantly, we are building a service-based culture which puts the customer first.

As our business grows from 66 stores to 80, we are building a team to support our new stores, while continuing to drive improvements and growth across our existing business.

Our philosophy is to grow talent from within and we do that by investing in skills development and leadership programs, such as the Store Management Development Program which we launched in 2007 to reward and recognise high-performing store-based team members. The program has been particularly effective in grooming the next generation of Store Management, with 50% of participants having attained new roles after completing the training program. In turn, the Store Manager Development Program was established in 2010 to build competency among high-potential senior store team members to take on senior leadership positions at Myer. Since the reintroduction of the Graduate Program in 2007, 40 team members have successfully completed the program.

We have established strong relationships with universities such as RMIT and the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) at Monash University. So far, we have engaged, and subsequently employed, a number of talented product development interns from RMIT in our buying and merchandise areas, while over 240 team members have gained valuable insights into key national and international retail trends through seminars, international study tours, and training programs conducted by the ACRS.

Accountability and empowerment are the hallmarks of the permanent and positive changes that we have made to our culture over the past four years. Store managers have more accountability and autonomy than ever before, and store-based team members are well versed in the 10 operational imperatives upon which their performance is measured and managed.

A number of initiatives have been developed to support improved customer service in-store, for example automating administrative processes to allow store managers to spend more time on the floor, and the introduction of Product Knowledge Fast Fact cards, which provide sales staff with the information they need to confidently sell across a range of product lines. We acknowledge that we need to make some real improvements in our customer service, and that will continue to be a core focus over the next year. Myer has instigated a number of initiatives to help attract, retain and reward talent and ensure the continued commitment of all staff to improving the business and delivering superior customer service. Our CEO High Performers Club is the key plank in our drive to better incentivise exceptional sales performance, by recognising and rewarding our top sales people. We have invested around a quarter of a million dollars through reward programs (in FY10) in the CEO High Performers Club, which now has close to 350 members whose sales are 60% above that of the average team member.

The annual Inspirational People Awards formally recognise excellence and outstanding contributions from team members across the business, while other programs recognise service, innovation and the contributions of some of our younger team members through participation in national retail awards.

A variety of incentive and bonus programs ensure a focus on sales and productivity across the organisation. Over 1,600 managers are incentivised against business and service metrics and over 300 managers participate in equity incentive programs, aligning them directly with the success of the business.

We have reinforced our commitment to team members with a diverse range of employee benefits available through the ’MYER for Me’ program. This program is designed to acknowledge the contribution of our team by offering rewards, benefit packages, lifestyle and health initiatives, together with the career development opportunities available at Myer. This exclusive program is constantly evolving and now includes a wide range of incentives, including financial, employment and family benefits.

With a workforce that is close to 80% female, Myer is proud to be the first Australian department store to offer paid parental leave, and we are committed to helping our team members to balance work and family responsibilities to enable them to have long and fulfilling careers at Myer.

Our team members make a difference in the community through their active involvement in the Myer Stores Community Fund, raising money for over 80 charities nationwide.

The opening of our new Support Office facility in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct in March 2010 has enabled us to bring all our support staff together in a fabulous work environment, which is already providing a real boost to the development of a winning culture at Myer.