Q&A: JBN Congress Speaker Dale Parmenter on Retail Communications
11 Aug 2021
Ahead of his talk at the NAJ JET Business Network’s annual Retail Jewellers’ Congress on Monday, September 13, we asked Dale Parmenter, CEO of creative communications agency, DRPG, to share his words of wisdom on internal and external communications for retail businesses.
Parmenter is one of many speakers who will be taking to the stage at the NAJ Summit 2021 to offer tangible and practical business advice and solutions to retailers and brands alike, covering topics such as marketing, staff retention, business growth ideas, social media promotion and more.
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For retail jewellers with one, two or many stores why should they be prioritising internal communications and what would be the benefits of making this a more structured part of their business?
I believe internal comms and the way we engage our employees is as important as external customer facing comms. No matter what the size of an organisation, to create an employee experience which puts your teams first so they feel engaged, listened too, empowered and rewarded, means they will put the customer first. Therefore, effective internal communication is vital for all retailers whatever their size.
For those with sites in different geographic locations, how can internal comms help to keep business running smoothly and keep employees happy?
Once you have more than one location, you need to ensure the way you communicate is inclusive and fair. We certainly don’t want employees feeling they are second class or missing out on messaging. So, a consistent, inclusive and equal solution is key. And it’s not just about pushing information, it’s also about sharing feedback, recognising best practice and achievements.
From your experience helping businesses with employee engagement, what are some of your top tips or strategies that you could share with us?
Transparency is essential, even if the communication is bad news, share warts and all, let the employees feel they are involved and part of one team. Internal comms in retail can be extremely challenging so you must work hard at it, be authentic, ask and welcome feedback, encourage what we call at DRPG ‘Radical Candour’; you may not like what your being told, but listen and it could save you a lot of time and money.
Most solutions to most problems in an organisation sit within the front-line teams so ask them and then don’t just pay lip service, take action and share the results. There are times when the retailers HQ becomes the centre of attention, beware the ‘ivory tower’ syndrome, get your HQ teams out onto the shop floor and make sure HQ is seen as a support function not the driver of the business.
Can you explain the ‘5 Voices’ concept that you will be discussing at the NAJ Summit and why you think it is relevant and interesting for business owners?
5 Voices was developed by Steve Cochran, who recognised that traditional personality training such as Myers Briggs, while incredibly effective, was not user friendly and is, at times, limited. So, he came up with a simplified technique that everyone across an organisation can remember and use every day. What it does is identify everyone’s ‘First Voice’, whether that be a Pioneer, Connector, Nurturer, Guardian or Creative. It then means as employees communicate with each other or their customers they are trained to understand how to see things from multiple perspectives, recognise the ‘voice’ of the person they are communicating with and adjust their own so they can communicate more effectively. Every one of our 380 employees has been through the programme, and we have seen dramatic results. Where without the 5 voices we may have seen dis-engagement or miss-understanding, now we see solutions to effectively understand and communicate.
Employee attitudes have changed, and they now expect more holistic support from their employers, especially after the experience of COVID-19, can 5 Voices help with this?
One size doesn’t ft all when it comes to employees, they will all have different needs, ambitions and skills. 5 Voices helps managers understand someone’s personality and helps them be more open and/or assess a situation. For example, a Guardian will want clarity, they love processes and procedures, they dot the ‘Is’ and cross the ‘Ts’. If you’re a Connector trying to communicate with a Guardian this would be a challenge, as you don’t like processes, you can live in a world of uncertainty and you love to people please. So, you can see in this instance both the Guardian and the Connector would need to give ground and understand each other to effectively communicate.
Finally, what is your advice for businesses who are seeing lots of staff turnover and/or struggling to retain their best staff, do you have any top tips or places to look first to discover the weak points?
It always starts at the top, what’s your leadership style, what’s the leadership style of you managers? Undoubtedly if you have an issue with retention, it will be down to first and foremost culture, not pay. And culture is set by the leaders. I would encourage some honest and open feedback; this won’t be easy and there could be mistrust in the team and suspicion as to why all of a sudden you are asking for feedback. It may be worth running some small informal focus groups in an informal environment. You may find it’s down to an issue with a colleague or a single manager. You need to deal with it quickly, these things if left spread like a disease through an organisation.
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About DRPG
The DRPG team comprises over 380 specialists across 10 locations in Worcestershire, London, Windsor, Leeds, Manchester, Germany, Ireland, and the United States. It has appeared in the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For list and has been awarded the Investors in People Platinum standard. Today DRPG is recognised as one of the leading integrated, full-service presentation and communication groups, winning agency of the year multiple times.
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Source: The NAJ