Clients / Case study

Thinking out of the box at Dixons Carphone

How do you develop a fresh perspective on core skills and behaviours?

The brief

As a key player in a competitive marketplace, Dixons Carphone was interested in some new thinking around competencies and behaviours to give them an 'edge' and to better reflect their changing organisation. So they asked us to give them some fresh perspectives.

The challenges

Specifically, the were looking for a bespoke but practical competency framework that would improve skill levels and standards, targeting and addressing development gaps and provide a consistent basis for their learning curriculum. They also wanted the framework to support other aspects of their ‘People Management Strategy’, providing a foundation of core expectations in terms of competencies and behaviour.

The solutions

We stepped up to the challenge, using a combination of desktop research, structured interviews and focus groups to make sure we developed a practical framework that reflected the reality of all those working for the organisation. Our final solution was a simple and powerful set of competencies and behaviours that avoided 'HR speak' and resonated for everyone, whether they worked in the warehouse, stores or support centre.

The results

The framework was successfully launched to the business together with a ‘How to’ guide – a concise and user-friendly handbook to help support line managers to apply the framework within a performance discussion, recruitment interviewing and generally within the workplace. The competencies were also translated into a series of conversation tools, including sets of competency cards and support tools to enable managers to have productive and open discussions with colleagues based on the competencies. Successfully embedded in the organisation, these were also extended to include a more detailed template for selection and recruitment.