Forging the New Dufry

We have had the chance of discussing with Salvatore Aricò, Dufry´s Global Organization and Human Resources Director, the latest developments at Dufry. The cultural transformation that ONEDUFRY is to bring to our company is probably one of the things that keeps this astronomy lover busier every day. However, the Human Resources function is no different to the rest of Dufry and is constantly evolving and learning how to serve its “customers” better.

The word “transformation” is becoming very popular at Dufry lately. Can you elaborate on how you see the transformation at Dufry?

Well, it’s true that transformation is probably one of the most popular words during our dialogues today. The center of the transformation is our customer. Nothing matters if the travelers are not entering our stores, enjoying the experience and buying our products. Are they entering our stores? Are they converted to customers? Are they increasing their spending? Three simple questions but so complex to address.

Transformation at Dufry is about focusing on customers more effectively and more efficiently than we are doing so far; we must keep improving. We know that we need to react faster to customer needs, to provide exceptional service, to meaningfully respond to our local colleagues, to stay focused on what really matters.

All of us need to be more commercial and get closer to the stores and the customers. We need to speak the same commercial language, have clear goals and constantly fight to improve our retail KPIs. Our size, as well as our global outreach are often challenging for us. The transformation is about addressing these precise areas; and we are doing so through several initiatives.

Despite it being kicked off last year, 2019 should be the year when ONEDUFRY comes to life across all the layers of the organization. How is the program progressing?

There are different ways through which ONEDUFRY may influence your thinking and your actions. Personally, I started questioning my team’s tasks by introducing the following question: does this task in some way improve our employee´s experiences, our customer experiences and/or our business results? And if not, then we may need to reconsider its prioritization. It’s true that we have multiple priorities, and often we focus on the details without paying attention to the bigger picture. ONEDUFRY gives us an easy way to stay focused on what really matters. ONEDUFRY has been successfully launched in all our operations, all countries, all divisions, stores and offices as well as HQ, through our Store and Office Leadership Training. Now, it’s being delivered to our Store & Office Associates through our newly created Retail Champions Program. Every new employee will be receiving a rigorous induction training, which includes all those critical aspects. Simple things, such as the use of the “Morning Message” or the “Mid-Day Catch Up” by several stores, the consistent reference to and use of the desired behaviors, the focus on the target of the day and the implementation of bonus schemes for target achievement are now increasingly evident. They are becoming the norm and will undoubtedly deliver a bigger impact for our business.

How can a cultural initiative like ONEDUFRY have a business impact?

During the ONEDUFRY implementation we selected several pilot stores in two important operations, Greece and Switzerland, where we stayed focused on the very basics; following a daily plan with a daily target, motivating our teams with individual or team bonuses, optimizing numbers of employees especially for the high-traffic hours and securing the core customer service behaviors were some quick wins. The pilots worked very well and, together with Retail & Ops department and the divisional colleagues, we are now scaling up the project all over the world.

Diversity and equality are areas of concern, not just at Dufry, but on a global basis. What are the plans regarding these topics?

Diversity@Dufry is another global initiative. Pay equality, flexibility, diversity in talent attraction, diversity in successor’s positions, diversity in managerial positions are different areas we are now focusing on with meaningful actions. And it is not only about gender, it is much wider, and includes diversity of age, nationality, backgrounds, etc.

I am extremely proud that in January 2019, Dufry was the first travel retailer globally to become EQUAL-SALARY certified in Switzerland. This certification is an important step in further developing our corporate sustainability and our commitment to a fair and unbiased reward structure. We can focus on fostering a diverse and inclusive culture and our employees can develop their careers, both of which ultimately enable us to achieve our strategy of profitable growth.

The topic of equal pay is receiving unprecedented support from society. Equal pay is now, more than ever, a relevant business, cultural and social matter. We, at Dufry, have taken concrete steps to demonstrate to our employees and customers that we lead by example.

As next steps, we are going to use the important learnings from the certification process to improve our HR processes globally. We would like to adopt parts of the statistical evaluation process as standard and apply these to our global reward methodology. In the future, we would like to refocus and potentially grow our other EQUAL-SALARY certified countries.

Dufry is evolving its learning and development structure to ensure higher quality education and skill acquisition of its staff. What are the main developments and projects that HR is currently working on?

Now that we have concluded the biggest part of the integration initiatives, there are areas where we need to “personalize” our global offering. For several areas “one size fits all” is not an option, and our Learning & Development (L&D) is definitely one of them. We have introduced the angle of “people groups,” whereby we focus on the differentiated needs of the groups and the individuals and differentiate our programs.

We are creating lots of interesting programs and partnerships with universities - including the University of St. Gallen and Harvard University - and with other specialty consultancy providers such as McQuaig or Russell Reynolds. These programs are designed to address the demanding needs of key people groups such as general managers, functional leaders, retail leaders, high potential individuals and retail teams. They follow a blended model with in-class and on-the-job modules, job assignments and online learning and so far we have had very engaging participation. For example, our Coaching & Mentoring Program, our General Managers Program, our Retail Champions Program and our Future Store Leaders Program have all been newly designed and are ready to elevate our teams around the world.

The recent appointment of Yves Gester as CFO of Dufry is a clear example of a robust company's succession plan and the talent of our staff...

I was recently reading some interesting research regarding the most used channels for hiring. Surprisingly, and despite the undoubted benefits of internal hires and promotions, companies are overlooking internal talent and spending resources on outside hires. The internal-first approach has always been my preference. We must find ways to identify charismatic and promising individuals within our operations and give them the opportunity to shine. Not easy, but I can assure you that we have been working hard on it. Over the past months we are enriching our relevant practices including the creation of success profiles by position, the successor’s referral program and the development programs for high potential individuals. Yves is a great example of internal succession planning and career development, and we are proud of him and what he has achieved.

BOM, ONEDUFRY, reorganization… it´s been a year of continuous change and organizational evolution. What's the feedback from staff after so many changes introduced in recent times?

You are right, many changes over the past years, which is a demanding exercise for all our people. We should not forget, though, that all those change initiatives are grounded in our values. They are all aiming at reinforcing our global outreach, our focus on customers, our efficient operating model, and our solid character. The size of DUFRY dictates the need for us to pursue constant improvement, we must stay ahead of the curve, even if sometimes it makes us feel uncomfortable. This year we are introducing a partnership with Wills Towers Watson for measuring and improving our emplo­yees’ engagement levels. I am sure this will help us to get closer to our people, understand their needs and quickly address their issues. The voice of our employees is as important as the voice of our customers. Our new tools will give global, divisional and country leaders the opportunity to listen to their people and react faster.

By Jorge Muñiz