Find out how The Men’s Wearhouse uses tibbr today to meet the challenges of a modern retail environment in “The Future Of Work ― A Retailer’s Perspective” from his breakout session presentation at TUCON 2013.
Intro/BioJamie Bragg – EVP Operations at MW. I started working for MW in June of 1992 as a Summer job, and it’s officially the longest Summer job I have ever had.Responsibilities:Distribution & Logistics network supporting over 1,000 stores in North America – Tux Rentals, Retail & e-commerceCall Center Operations – Customer Service, Store Support, Outbound Marketing & Online Sales Support and ChatProcurement – shared service that supports all brands (MW, K&G, Moore’s) and depts. (DC’s, Transportation, Marketing, etc)Manufacturing (recent acquisition of JA in New Bedford, MA)Talk about geographic spread of over 17,000 employees
Realized that messages relayed “to the field” can be interpreted quite differently when communicated from team to team.. With 17k ees it’s a bit like playing a massive game of “telephone” and the results you get can be disappointingPart of the problem we have is our geographical spread.. The bulk of our ees being in stores with 6-12 employees in each – looking for a way to make a common connection, share knowledged and experience as well as create forum for ideas and feedback that was interactiveAll of our employees have e-mail, but very few of them (particularly at the staff/hourly levels) use it. Use of personal device to get messages is big. One way Intranet sites are not engaging – we know that, we publish a monthly video newsletter with CEO message, product information, and highlight markets (va Direct TV in all stores) but that wasn’t being viewed as often as we would have liked either (again – one way communication)
As a retailer typically take a wait & see approach to new tech – wait for others to prove out the emerging tech before we would follow suitWhile ES may be commonplace for tech companies or those with large # of office-based ees we felt as a retailer this would be a chance to be progressive – understand and work out the kinks in ES and make it a competitive advantageCost factors were low compared to so called “freemium” platforms – Free apps that could eventually serve as vital use cases for employee basePlans to roll out iPads in stores were on the horizon – getting ES figured out now can make a rollout to all ees later much easier to accomplishWe were making our final connections of enterprise and legacy systems to TIB and saw this as a future advantage to using Tibbr
Initial rollout was to leadership group, followed by select groups of line/hourly employeesWanted to onboard the leaders first and make sure they understood the purpose of ESAlso wanted to give them the opportunity to collaborate & share best practicesMany projects managed by this group of leaders were more easily accomplished with ThreadsHou/Atl collaboration on MOSWCCS initiativeMeeting planningLMS selectionDisparate groups of leaders had Private groups to utilizeForum for sharing ideas or asking for assistanceExplain opportunities and challenges to solicit feedbackPost thought provoking or informative articles, essays or Blogs to spark discussion and idea generation
It’s important at MW to inform our employees of company direction and initiativesProviding context around their jobs and how it relates to the big picture is key to providing a high quality work environment and allows people to understand how they can make a difference in the companyInclusiveness examples:Monthly CEO message (video) via “MWTV” (middle left)Updates on advertising (top left) campaigns – new commercials or promotionsUp to the minute information on significant company decisions/acquisitions*Quick story about the JA transaction and my visit to the factory – employees in our call centers (Threads users) were probably more informed about the purchase than many of our executives as a resultInitiatives examples:Wellness initiative – informing employees of incentives they are eligible for specific wellness activities (the viral effect of DC locations publicly updating the Threads communities about their own independent Wellness programs)ACA – with all of the changes that are occurring with benefits due to this giving people the opportunity to see this information is crucial – particularly during our Open Enrollment periodSafety – Allowing others in the company to note and learn from accidents or “near misses” that have occurred in peer locations (and celebrate successes – 1 Million safe miles driven by Ken Leonard or 120+ days accident free with our last mile fleet earlier this year)
Our culture is the backbone of the success we have had at MW over the last 40 years. We consider ourselves at the end of the day, a Service organizationSpecifically, it starts with how we treat one another and that manifests itself in how we treat our customers.We believe that if you create what we refer to as a High Quality Work Environment (i.e. your employees are happy), your employees will pass on that feeling to their customers by providing excellent customer service.In the past we kept focus on service culture through the use of “tribal story telling”. Simply put, telling the stories about service, a great holiday party, a charitable event, or a peer’s achievement allows others to understand that this is the kind of thing that is expected when you work at TMW. The inefficient thing about Tribal Story telling though is that it had generally been passed on via word of mouth (we even published a book of some of the best stories atone point). Enterprise Social has allowed us to share these valuable lessons and make them a permanent recordWe have a lot of “Spirit Events” at TMW. Every market in North America has a black tie Holiday Party complete with a company DJ, a great spread of food, awards and even a balloon drop at the end of the night. One day every year, we order pizza for EVERY store, DC, Hub and office (nearly 7,000 pizzas – totaling around 13M calories), but in addition to these “company-wide” type of events, we encourage our stores, offices, DC’s and hubs to plan their own vents. Every P/L has a line item for “Spirit”. Like Tribal Story Telling, it’s hard to know what is going on throughout the company at any given moment – Threads has changed that. Employees post pictures from the many local spirit events they have had and it really gives you a great perspective on the rest of the country. I have on many occasions been told by employees in the field that seeing these kinds of posst on Threads has helped them “Connect” with the rest of the company, and feel genuinely like a part of the big picture.Recognizing one another for their achievements is a big deal at TMW. My personal belief is that when someone has done a great job or achieved a milestone you should make a really bug deal about that and preferably in front of as large a group of people as possible. Threads gives us the opportunity (eventually) to have the entire company as that audience. Recognition can come from a peer, a manager, a customer or vendor. We get tons of compliments via our customer service department and we make sure that not a single one of them goes unrecognized.Stories about service are also a great way to recognize one another; it has it’s own subject on Threads because we get so many calls, e-mails & chats from our customers about the experiences they have had with our employees that we call it out separately. It’s a full time job for 3 people in our contact center in Houston to respond to these communications, not only to thank the customer for reaching out, but also to acknowledge to our employees they gave world class customer service to someone.
We have already begun the journey into make handheld technology (phone and tablet) the central focus in our storesBeing able to support our customer on the floor with any conceivable request as well as manage the stores “back of house” operations will all eventually reside on this technologyEntering tailoring requirements electronically, budgeting time in the back room and sending a text or e-mail to a customer when alterations are complete is a better level of serviceBeing able to support the customer’s in store purchase by locating and ordering merchandise from another store or fulfillment center is a better level of serviceBeing able to book tuxedo rental reservations, enter sizing audit orders and take payment on a mobile device is a better level of serviceHaving the ability to provide our store employees with timely and meaningful content around the direction of the company, their benefits and a perspective of the rest of the company is a better level of service (THREADS)Being able to schedule employees via WFM, swap schedules via mobile phones and intelligently schedule them on hours they have previously indicated they are available is a better level of serviceBeing able to provide asynchronous learning opportunities for all employees in order for them to gain new skills and potentially advance within the company is a better level of serviceThe funny thing is, Great Service is what we are known for as a company – it’s how we have continued to grow for 40 years. It’s very exciting to know that the next level of service is available through these technologies, and not surprising that a company that has been founded on and continues to thrive with a Culture of Service is pursuing this next level without hesitation.
We’ve built up the user base to this point to where is is extremely active and there is a high level of quality content being added on a daily basisWe started with leadership up front. Those who chose to participate, provide quality content, and recognize that ES is “not about them” have seen some great results. We will move forward by adding their employee bases in our next phaseThe unique challenge we are presented with in this case however is the large % of ees who are hourly. Access on personal devices is great, but very clear guidelines need to be communicated and signed off on in order to mitigate any future risk associated with employee use of system during non-scheduled work hours.Applications like Tibbr Tasks and Tibbr Communities will change the game. Project management will move to an entirely different plain – the ability to track and delegate tasks, have a dashboard view of all of your projects or ones you merely participate in is going to be huge.Since ES is a “closed loop” network, once you have had it, you will feel the urge to invite others “in”. Typically for projects, initiatives, or maybe the maintenance of long-standing relationships with an outside firm or vendor. Communities allows you the ability to do so without opening up the rest of your ES environment to a “non-employee”