District Manager Selection
A major US apparel chain is using the
APT Suite to identify the right managers
The Company
Major specialty retail chain with leading national brand.
The Challenge
As with most retailers, the client knew that store and district managers have a significant impact on store performance. The human resources department invested considerable resources in cultivating and growing talent. However, HR personnel had limited empirical analysis to help them identify
talented managers during the hiring process.
They used the APT Suite to develop a data-driven view of what makes for a successful manager. Their goal was to use this information to prioritize future searches for manager openings.
The Solution
Solving this important question required two steps. First, the client had to identify which store and District managers were high performers and which were low performers. This was done by efficiently and rigorously modeling the change in store performance after the manager was introduced as the indicator of manager quality. Then, APT automatically de-averaged the change in performance to see which stores had large performance improvements (good managers) and those with no lift (poor managers).
In the second step, the client used the APT Suite to automatically model and identify which background characteristics were the best predictors of success in a manager. The results were often contrary to pre-existing beliefs, resulting in a change in direction in hiring focus. For example, the client found that individuals with prior store manager experience within their company were far more likely to be successful district managers than people who had prior district manager experience
for other companies.
Results
The client is now using the analysis from the APT Suite to guide its manager hiring decisions. The
company's understanding of the drivers of manager success is helping its HR Department pick
the right candidates.
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