Reimagining workforce engagement: How a leading Australian retailer transformed employee growth and mobility

The challenge

As a leading and iconic retailer with more than 1,600 stores and 28,000 employees, the organisation’s HR team was seeking a way to build engagement and retention across its diverse employee base. The retailer’s internal sentiment surveys highlighted a growing challenge — employees felt disengaged, uncertain about their career progression, and lacked clarity on their development opportunities. This lack of engagement was leading to high turnover rates and difficulty in retaining top talent.

Despite previously implementing several capability frameworks to address internal mobility, the organisation found them too restrictive, offering only fragmented insights rather than a unified, organisation-wide view. Leadership teams struggled to assess and leverage internal talent effectively, making it difficult to align workforce capabilities with future business needs.

Without a structured way to understand and map employee skills, the retailer faced challenges in talent mobility and succession planning. Managers lacked visibility into the skills their teams possessed, leading to a mismatch between business needs and employee capabilities.

Additionally, the absence of a dynamic and scalable workforce development strategy made it challenging to inspire employees to explore new possibilities and take ownership of their growth. The retailer needed a solution that provided a clear, real-time understanding of workforce capabilities while fostering ambition and career development opportunities for employees.

The solution: Implementing Greenbeam

To overcome these challenges, the retailer adopted Greenbeam, a solution designed to map employee skills, identify capability gaps, and facilitate internal mobility. Starting with a pilot program with 100+ team members in their Marketing Division, the HR team was able to demonstrate ROI and scalability, ultimately establishing the platform as a viable model for organisation-wide expansion.

The software provided leaders with a dynamic and real-time understanding of their teams and workforce, allowing managers to make informed decisions on talent placement and development.

The platform also provides employees with a transparent view of their skills, career pathways, and opportunities for growth within the company. Through personalised learning recommendations and structured development plans, employees can see clear progression routes, increasing their engagement and motivation.

Outcomes

Since implementing Greenbeam, the retailer has seen significant improvements in workforce engagement and talent retention. Key results include:

• Increased internal mobility – Employees now have clearer career pathways, leading to a rise in internal promotions and cross-functional movements.
• Enhanced workforce planning – Leadership has gained deep insights into skill gaps, enabling better alignment of talent with business needs.
• Higher employee satisfaction – Team member feedback has improved as employees feel valued and supported in their career development.

For HR and technical leaders seeking a strategic solution to workforce engagement and capability management, Greenbeam offers a transformative approach. By shifting to a skills-based framework, organisations can foster a more engaged workforce.

Learn more about how you can future-proof your workforce, and empower your employees.