The last 20 months have rocked the retail industry like no other time. During this period of turmoil and uncertainty, people turned to leaders to navigate through the disruption. Now, organizations and employees have discovered new ways of working, motivating employees and keeping them engaged.

At the 2021 Women in Retail Leadership Summit earlier this month, four executive women shared what they learned about themselves and their companies as they worked to keep their employees healthy and safe during a global pandemic. The session, titled “Leading in the ‘Next Normal,'” was moderated by Phyllis Marcus, a partner at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.

On Recruiting Workers

Sarah Engel, chief marketing officer and chief people officer at January Digital, a digital leadership consultancy, said employees looking for work have shifted their priorities, and hiring is no longer as easy as increasing compensation and creating stability. She found that workers were itching for a sense of belonging and wanting to be respected by the company they work for. “We were incredibly clear — we have pay equity. We’ve done the external studies, we talk about it. We talk about the sense of belonging, we talk about inclusion, we have all of those conversations,” said Engel.

On Being Flexible 

As Ralph Lauren stores reopened, Sharonda Weatherspoon, senior vice president of stores at the fashion brand, had to grapple with how to accommodate both store employees and the company’s corporate population. “We had to go to a model that was very flexible, and really understand the needs of the individual to say, ‘OK, how does this fit?’ Because we’re all dealing with something that might be unique, that might be really different,” Weatherspoon said.

The issues that Ralph Lauren workers were facing during the pandemic — lack of access to childcare, inability to stay home from work, etc. — were even more apparent for the company’s minority population. Weatherspoon said the company adapted to accommodate its workforce, sometimes by shortening store hours or taking an individual approach for each employee or store.

On Embracing Experimentation 

At Victoria’s Secret & Co., Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Melinda McAfee said employees will be in the office for “meaningful moments,” which can be anything from business meetings with internal partners to training to working with product more efficiently than behind a screen. “We’re not putting a lot of guidelines on paper for people,” McAfee said. “What we’ve learned over the last almost two years is that people are working just as hard at home. You can trust your employees to still be committed and dedicated and hardworking and get their job done and passionate from home.”

On Adopting New Leadership Skills 

Brynn Evanson, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at The Michaels Companies, is good at staying calm when there’s chaos. What she wasn’t prepared for was not having all the answers during a pandemic, and it forced her to become vulnerable.

“I think as leaders, we always feel like we have to have every answer,” Evanson said. “And it threw us into a place where there were no answers, and we’re still trying to figure it out. The transparency of that humanity and sharing that with the teams ends up being important, because then people feel like they want to get in there with you and help and be part of the solution vs. ‘Let’s just do what the leaders tell us.'”

Women in Retail Leadership Circle members can access all video recordings of the 2021 Summit keynotes here. Not a member? Apply today!