Currently, almost 1000 people cooperate with Żabka Polska on the basis of other forms of employment than FTE, such as an agreement or contract. They serve as partners and managers in the following areas: adaptation, expansion, sales, auditing, training and development. Due to the organic development of the Żabka chain - assuming the launch of at least 1000 new stores this year - the company is constantly looking for co-workers in each of these areas. Therefore, it decided to build the so-called Journey Map, a set of rules and standards for the subsequent stages of the cooperation process.
In each of the stages of this process - from building the company's image, through recruitment, implementation, development paths of co-workers, training, salaries and benefits, to the termination of cooperation - it created new standards, as well as differentiators, so that its offer is unique in the Polish market.
As part of the implementation of the project, Żabka established a broad project group composed of representatives of the company's departments, a group of co-workers and external consultants. Such composition of the team combined the organization's know-how with market expertise.
Over a period of 6 months, all the processes and standards currently in force, the so-called "as is", were jointly identified and concepts of their development, the so-called „to be”, were created; also unique differentiators were indicated. The implementation and piloting of the developed proposals has also begun.
For example, the recruitment process will be centralized, a uniform standard based on the development of the so-called the Book of Standards (i.e. a document describing how in the future, in an ideal form, all processes in the organization should look) will be developed, a consistent recruitment and job position profile will be built, and an internal recruitment standard will be created. As a result of the proposed changes, each candidate at each stage of recruitment will receive individual feedback from the company. A welcome package was also introduced, to be handed out immediately after the signing of the agreement. The whole process - which is also characteristic of the organization that Żabka stands for - will be digitized through appropriate systems, which will significantly increase operational efficiency. The above activities are very important in a distributed organization where achieving a uniform standard is crucial for fulfilling obligations towards customers, franchisees and business partners.
Monika Dzikowska-Kujawa
HR Manager, Żabka Poland
New concepts in practice. Recruitment of sales partners
After the creation of the map and the approval of the management of Żabka for the joint work, the implementation process was started as a pilot. As a franchise company, Żabka has consistently focused on long-term relationships with people running individual chain stores throughout Poland. Already more than 6,000 franchisees operate Żabka stores in 950 localities, both in small towns and urban agglomerations. Therefore, it was a natural decision that the first stage of implementation would concern precisely the co-workers in the area of sales who cooperate directly with franchisees on a daily basis. The company is currently building a new image of the Żabka chain and is looking for new partners and managers, in accordance with the aforementioned Book of Standards and is implementing new solutions in the recruitment process. This process includes, among others. centralization of screening of submitted CVs in response to published recruitment notices, Development Center for people recruited within the chain and Assessment Center in the process of recruiting external candidates. Both DC and AC are run by professionally trained assessors who have been trained and certified within the Asser Academy implemented together with an external partner. Under the project a decision was also made to develop HR structures within the country's regions. Today, the first Regional HR Leader is working for Żabka, and soon more people will join him.
The project group is also currently working on the implementation in the chain of a development conversation for co-workers and development paths that will allow the training offer to be tailored to real needs. Żabka wants to offer two paths for partners and managers. A leadership path for people who would like to increase their responsibilities in the future as part of sales support, and a mentoring path for experienced people who, sharing their experience, will support the development and onboarding of other colleagues.
The Journey Map's subsequent areas of project work include salaries and benefits. Work is currently underway to communicate a new offer to increase market competitiveness. The Journey Map closes with the process of the termination of the cooperation. Żabka has ambitions to build a network of ambassadors of the company even among people who have decided to end their cooperation with the network.
After implementing the planned solutions in the sales teams, Żabka plans to implement them also in the remaining operational areas of the company. The results of the implementation are monitored on an ongoing basis, which after a few months of the project are already visible in the positive feedbacks of the co-workers and in the higher efficiency of the processes supported by a single standard inspired by best market practices.
The approach adopted has undoubtedly succeeded in combining a number of perspectives supporting the achievement of the common objective. Working together HR and operational teams ensure that the solutions developed are embedded in sales reality, but at the same time comply with HR best practices. In the following months of implementation, Żabka plans to continue work exactly in this model of operation.
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