How Europe’s leading beauty retailer made the skills of 2,200 people across 370 stores visible in 5 weeks
2,500 employees across nearly 400 stores, zero visibility on skills, high turnover. With Skillvue, Douglas built the first complete skills database of its entire workforce.
Douglas
Retail
Douglas Group
€521.5M (Italy)
2,500
370+
Learning & Development, Internal Mobility
The Company and The Context
Douglas Group, with 1,972 stores across 22 countries, a European revenue of €4.58 billion, and an expansion plan of 200 new openings and 400 renovations by end of 2026, is Europe's leading omnichannel beauty retailer. The quality of in-store advisory is the primary competitive advantage of physical retail over e-commerce — yet it is also the least measured and structured variable in the sector. In Italy, Douglas operates with over 370 stores and approximately 2,500 people in the commercial network, in a beauty market worth €14.2 billion in domestic consumption.
Despite a context of very solid growth, people-side gaps were emerging. The Italian HQ had no objective data on the skills of its sales network: the only source was feedback from store or area managers. In a sector where sales staff turnover ranges between 25% and 35% annually — and can be directly linked to opportunities for growth and development within the company — the need to adopt a more data-driven approach to talent management became clear.
The Structural Problem
Across 2,500 employees in nearly 400 stores, the HQ had no structured data on skills. In a high-turnover sector, the absence of data meant losing talent, training poorly and being unable to plan internal mobility.
No visibility on high-potential profiles
The only information available was subjective feedback from managers — inconsistent and not comparable across locations.
A wide gap between HQ and the retail network
Employees had no way to surface their skills and aspirations. Talent remained invisible, with direct impact on engagement and retention.
High turnover and in-store advisory at risk
With 25–35% turnover and the growing complexity of beauty products — scientific skincare, niche fragrances, clean beauty — retaining and developing internal talent is a non-negotiable strategic asset.
Competency analysis: necessary but unsustainable
With 2,500 people distributed across the territory, in-person observation meant long timelines, high costs and inconsistent results.
Development reserved for only 5–10% of the workforce
There was no capability to offer growth opportunities at scale — only to the few already identified.
No structured feedback to employees
The absence of objective feedback left development initiatives entirely in the hands of each individual manager.
What needed to change
Map the skills of the entire retail network objectively and immediately: a standardised assessment across all roles (Beauty Advisor, Sales Assistant, Store Manager) and all seniority levels.
Optimise the time and cost of internal skills analysis: make it sustainable given turnover rates and the pace of the labour market, replacing in-person observation with a scalable system.
Promote internal career paths and reduce turnover: identify high-potential people and propensities for different roles to facilitate horizontal and vertical internal moves, reducing the need for external hiring.
Work proactively on training and development: build a shared skills database to activate customised learning paths that close existing skill gaps and plan workforce development.
AI Assessment with Skillvue
The Skillvue People Science team worked to align the assessments built on the platform with the company’s leadership model, creating evaluations grounded in the real working situations of store employees.
Key Metrics & Impact
Quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the Skillvue x Douglas project.
Skills finally visible
For the first time, a clear and comparable view of the skills of every person across the retail network — a picture directly actionable for decisions on growth, mobility and training.
Hidden talent and predictive potential
The analysis identified predictive propensities for different roles, facilitating horizontal and vertical internal moves and revealing talent where no visibility previously existed.
Customised training and skill gaps closed
With the collected data, customised training paths were activated to close existing gaps and define internal redeployments more quickly. A key lever for optimising costs and performance.
Time and cost optimisation
Analysis timelines optimised and the burden on managers reduced, freeing resources for higher-value development activities.