Manager, Head of Retail Training & Development, Kate Spade SEA

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always stood for optimistic femininity. Today, the brand is a global life and style house with handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, gifts, home décor and more. Polished ease, thoughtful details and a modern, sophisticated use of color—Kate Spade New York’s founding principles define a unique style synonymous with joy. Under the vision of creative director Nicola Glass, the brand continues to celebrate confident women with a youthful spirit.

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands powered by optimism, innovation, and inclusivity.

Job Title: Head of Retail Training & Development, Kate Spade SEA

Primary Purpose: This person will own all learning and development activities for retail employees and is responsible for implementing regional strategies and harmonizing the brand/customer experience across Singapore and Malaysia DTC stores, in both in Specialty and Outlet, with measurable success.

It is mission-critical to partner closely with Kate Spade SEA Retail Management and Global Customer Experience teams to deliver training solutions that address talent gaps and positively impact guest experience, elevate store leadership, enhance selling capabilities/culture of our associates to achieve business goals.

This person will have 1 direct report based in Kuala Lumpur to support the Malaysia retail fleet, also responsible for executing local training and development initiatives for the Singapore retail team. 

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Retail Training & Development to...

·       Analyze, adapt, implement, develop and measure global onboarding and training curriculum in alignment with retail management team to achieve company business goals, foster brand loyalty, increase customer engagement and build an internal talent pipeline.

·       Lead field training that includes but is not limited to: new store opening training and on-boarding programs, foster sales and service culture of our brand through one-on-one coaching and interactive learning workshops, elevate clienteling through improved customer engagement and relationship building skills that enhances brand loyalty, and ensures our associates are confident product experts.

·       Work closely with retail management team to conduct training needs analysis in alignment with short, medium, and long-term business priorities and initiatives.

·       Provide regular feedback and develop local initiatives that continually improve the training experience, to further develop our teams and drive sales.

·       Conduct frequent store visits to observe best practices and opportunities of our teams, and deliver in-store training and field coaching to enhance performance.

·       Deliver training programs directly, or with the support of internal / external partners

·       Prepare and consolidate statistical reports and feedback surveys of training programs

·       Develop, organize and maintain an updated database on training programs

·       Drive Mystery Shopper results in partnership with store leaders

·       Lead and inspire as a brand ambassador, representing the voice and culture of Kate Spade, and be a key motivator with our sales teams to achieve goals while delivering exceptional service and building brand awareness.

• Develop cross functional key relationships within the organization in order to assess ongoing training needs and be collaborative in strategizing global, customer-centric solutions.

·       Lead workshops and content development for the annual store leader conference.

The accomplished individual will possess...

·       Degree holder with 5 years of training experience in retail, luxury, or FMCG sector

·       Holding professional training qualifications is definitely an advantage

·       Field coaching experience is an advantage

·       Ability to travel up to 50% of the time in SEA

·       Adaptable to fast pace and flexible during times of change

·       Strong communicator, both at verbal and written level; strong classroom facilitation skills with audiences of different seniority / cultural background

·       Passionate about retail, with a deep awareness of the fashion / luxury industry

·       Self-motivated, independent, energetic, with excellent interpersonal skills

·       A strong collaborator, with an open mind and enthusiasm toward building cross-functional relationships

·       Strong project management skills in completing multiple tasks within tight deadlines

·       Flexible to work both in office and stores, and at times, before or after store operating hours, with a good degree of inter-state travel involved

Our Competencies for All Employees

• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
• Perseverance: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; seldom gives up before finishing, especially in the face of resistance or setbacks.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.

Our Competencies for All People Managers

·       Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.

·       Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale

and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.

·       Managerial Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.

Kate Spade is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.