Topshop and Topman get top marks from staff for job satisfaction
Some 6,500 employees at Topshop and Topman, part of the Arcadia Group, have responded positively to a staff opinion survey that was recently conducted in conjunction with online digital research specialist, eDigitalResearch.
Gaining staff opinion around job satisfaction and the core values of the Topshop and Topman brands, the survey revealed that 96% of staff were proud to work for the world’s largest high street fashion retailer, with a further 90% excited about the future of the brands.
With retailers currently having to ride out the recession facing increased costs and decreased revenues, employee engagement is a crucial element in building business resilience. Topshop and Topman have subsequently made it a priority to focus on maintaining and improving engagement levels by gaining regular feedback from its staff. As well as looking at motivation and job satisfaction levels, the brands wanted to measure how their staff experienced its core brand values.
Lisa Maguire, Head of Human Resources Topshop and Topman explains: “It is so important to listen to our people as we cannot succeed without their commitment. Having made investment in our brand values, we wanted to see how these were experienced by our staff. We wanted a research vehicle that would be quick, easy and accessible to staff so that we could ensure a good response rate. We needed a research company who could support both an online and paper-based survey method as some stores have restricted access to the Internet. eDigitalResearch ticked all the right boxes and the quick analysis meant that we could cascade the results with detailed store-level analysis.”
The survey was conducted over a two month period from July to September, achieving almost an 80% response rate, with 50% of staff completing the survey online. The brand values were measured and the results indicated that staff shared and supported the retailer’s core values scoring very highly.
Lisa Maguire continues: “The overall feedback was fantastic. eDigitalResearch presented its findings to our executive board and we followed this up with departmental feedback meetings across retail and head office. We were particularly impressed with the fact that eDigitalResearch was able to conduct keyword analysis on all the verbatim comments that our staff made and group them into key themes that our staff discussed most. This enabled us to focus on what really matters to our staff.”
Far from becoming complacent following the research, Topshop and Topman plans to continue to invest in annual engagement surveys so that it can maintain employee satisfaction and improve its overall business performance.
Michelle Fuller, Director of eDigitalResearch concludes: “Topshop and Topman understand the importance of not just surveying its staff, but actioning the insights from the survey to ensure a more inclusive working culture. Having an engagement score of 79% only becomes meaningful when the business understands how it can be improved. By listening to feedback and working at an individual team level, the group can celebrate its successes and take action on areas of concern.”
