Things were getting ugly in the cosmetic departments at Bon- Ton Department stores and something had to
Question:
Things were getting ugly in the cosmetic departments at Bon- Ton Department stores and something had to be done, fast. “Beauty Advisors” in their 277 stores were leaving the company at much higher rates than salespeople in other parts of the stores during their first few months on the job. It didn’t make sense. Beauty advisors received more training and had higher income potential than most other selling associates in the Bon- Ton chain, yet turnover was much higher than all other selling positions in the store. Bon-Ton already had an assessment in place that was supposed to determine if an applicant was a good fit, but it clearly wasn’t working for the Beauty Advisor position. Bon-Ton HR started asking some tough questions about what it takes to be successful in a beauty sales position.
Since cosmetic sales require getting up close and personal with customers, much more so than other sales positions, they wondered if a Beauty Advisor needed to have different personality traits than someone in the same store selling clothing or bedding. Consultants interviewed hundreds of high performing Beauty Advisors and managers at Bon Ton to try and determine the traits essential for job success. The results were surprising. Prior to the survey, managers assumed that friendly, customer service–oriented people who loved fashion and beauty were good candidates. Those factors certainly didn’t hurt, but the most important traits turned out to be cognitive and problem-solving ability.
Successful Beauty Advisors, they found, are intelligent problem solvers as much as they are sales people as they help customers with very personal skincare, makeup and fragrance needs. As a result, ten questions were developed for store managers to ask when interviewing applicants. All applicants for cosmetic sales associate positions are now required to take an 80 question assessment test—it takes around twenty minutes to complete— and the results have been positive.
Cosmetic associates now remain with Bon-Ton stores 12 percent longer than they did before the assessment test was implemented and turnover is the lowest of any sales group in the store. New associates also achieve 2.1 percent more total sales per hour than associates hired before the assessment was developed.
Q.No.1. How could Job Analysis be used to assess the skills necessary for success as a Beauty Advisor
Q.No.2. How training employees can serve as a solution to the company’s problem?
Q.No.3. Being a manager at Beauty Advisors, what strategy would you implement to incorporate best possible talent in the company?
Expert Answer:
1 Job analysis is basically the process that is used to study a job what are the tasks that are needed to be done in the job and what are the roles and responsibilities involved with the completion of ... View the full answer
