Should you move your head office to a co-working space? Three retail leaders share their flexible working strategies

At the inaugural Retail Week People & Leadership Summit, experts from an array of retailers gathered to share their experiences and offer advice on key leadership topics including culture, colleague retention, diversity and inclusion, AI and, of course, flexible working. 

There are countless factors to consider when deciding a company structure that promotes a healthy work/life balance while maximising productivity, and there’s a lot of fear around going too far either way.

During one panel discussion, attendees at the summit heard from three retailers who have been working on their flexible working policies: The Very Group chief people officer Sarah Willett, Curry’s chief people officer Paula Coughlan and Wickes chief people officer Sonia Astill. 

Our experts weighed up the pros and cons of ditching the traditional big shed headquarters for a co-working membership, discussed how to best support staff when asking them to come into the office more regularly, and explained how store managers can benefit from these new ways of working, too.

HQ vs co-working space

While many retailers have pulled back on flexible working as we move away from the pandemic, Curry’s has opted to embrace it. 

“What we wanted was a version of omnichannel but for our colleagues,” says Coughlan. 

“The same way you can shop with Curry’s in-store or online, or a mix, we wanted colleagues to be able to work in an office, online or a mix of both. The problem was that the in-office bit was a big shed in Acton – no one could really get there and when you were there, there was nothing to do. 

“What we wanted was a modern, fresh workplace that had a sense of community and would inspire people and give them a reason to come together.”

To make the dream a reality, Curry’s went as far as to close its Acton HQ and take out a partnership with WeWork, a co-working service. The partnership allows Curry’s employees to work from a dedicated Curry’s space within the flagship WeWork in Waterloo, as well giving them as an access-all workplace pass for any of the co-working spaces across the UK. 

“I have to say, the results have been fantastic so far,” she says. 

”We’re on record levels of colleague engagement, and we’re in the top 5% of the Microsoft global employee engagement survey.”

Another benefit to the move has been in recruitment.

Coughlan adds: “We’ve never attracted so much talent as we’re attracting today. We have thousands of applications from people who are desperate to work with us and one of the reasons is the hybrid-working benefits, people absolutely love it. 

“We’ve also never had more people join the corporate headquarters from the stores because they don’t have to come to Acton, they can work from anywhere. So it’s creating that mobility as well.”

Keeping a community culture

A common stressor around allowing employees more flexibility is that a business can lose its sense of community, and that’s something The Very Group’s Willett had to overcome when the business shifted to a hybrid model during the pandemic. 

“We got some things wrong as well as getting some things right,” she admits. 

“We’re a real warm, welcoming, Northern business and we were worried we wouldn’t get that back. So we were really clear from the outset that it was a responsibility for everybody to show up for your teammates and show up for new colleagues that you’re trying to onboard – and that is hugely important.” 

Willett continues: “We started with quite loose guidelines but we had to make some adjustments because we found we were seeing the same faces all the time and not seeing some faces at all. It was as if we were starting to create little micro cultures and we were becoming this very different business.

“So that was the first change we needed to make, and we really underscored the responsibility to each other, our new people and our growth in showing up.” 

What about store staff?

One of the reasons cited by retailers like THG and JD Sports for increasing the number of days their staff spend in the office is that their hardworking store staff don’t have the luxury of working from home. 

While working from home is unlikely to become a reality for store staff, some retailers have made strides in ensuring in-store workers can create a better work/life balance in other ways. 

For example, Wickes has partnered with Timewise, a consultancy that specialises in hybrid working solutions to redesign the working patterns of their store managers in ways that suit their lives. 

“Working in stores is inherently quite flexible if you’re a colleague, but if you’re a manager, it’s historically been one of the most inflexible jobs,” says Wickes’ Astill. 

“People love the job, but you could see that for some it was taking its toll. It was quite a hard nut to crack, so we contacted a social enterprise that had done this sort of work in organisations with customer-facing roles to get more flexibility into those types of jobs.

”It’s been an interesting journey because at first, we didn’t trial different types of flexible working; instead we had to look at the design of the jobs and satisfy ourselves that it could actually be done. Because if you don’t get those types of things sorted out, and you then give people a load of flexibility, you can imagine that could quickly go downhill.”

The retailer then spent a year analysing the job of its store managers and began stripping out tasks and inefficiencies in the role, before beginning to upskill its managers with an emphasis on training and communication, and then embarking on trials of different ways of working. 

“It’s hard work, but it’s absolutely worth it and it’s working well,” she says. “Engagement was high anyway, but the thing that has really changed is – without exception – everybody who has experienced flexible working is talking about how much better their lives are. 

“The other benefit that we’re starting to see is that although the store manager roles are quite male-dominated, female office managers who have been encouraged to apply for the roles and have previously felt it was too much are now putting their hat in the ring.”