Culture, Confidence & Change in HR: In Conversation with Maxine Granville, Head of HR UK & Ireland at KIKO MILANO

Insights From  MAXINE GRANVILLE, HEAD OF HR AT KIKO MILANO

When KIKO Milano's UK and Ireland stores were losing staff at a rate of 70% a year, Maxine Granville didn't reach for a new policy. She gave store managers simple, practical tools, and within nine months the number of leavers in May had fallen from 16 the year before to just six.

Maxine, Head of HR for UK and Ireland at KIKO Milano, joined us on day one of the Summit to talk about culture, confidence and change in one of the most demanding environments in HR: retail. Here's what she shared.

Trust starts with transparency

In times of uncertainty, Maxine sees HR's role as creating clarity and consistency. Her guiding principles are simple: be transparent, open and honest.

"If they trust you, then during those difficult times they're more likely to be engaged and be on board with what the business is going through," she said.

To keep teams confident when there's lots of ambiguity, she helps people focus on what they can control. That means being clear on where the business is heading and what each person's objectives are, so they can see how their work contributes.

It's OK not to have all the answers

Asked what she's learned from fast-growing, fast-changing businesses, Maxine's first answer was "survival". Resilience is key, she said, and it comes from being pragmatic about difficult situations.

"A lot of leadership is about being OK to say, I don't know the answer to this, but we're going to figure it out together," she explained. "People really lean into that and trust leadership during those times."

That honesty also builds psychological safety. Leaders don't need to share every fear, but by admitting they don't know everything, they make it easier for others to speak up, challenge or say they're struggling. "It comes from the top," Maxine said. "Leaders have to lead by example."

Good listening matters too. Hearing someone out, then asking a single well-chosen question, shows you've understood what matters most. It also turns a conversation about problems into one about solutions.

Wellbeing and performance go together

Some businesses worry that focusing on wellbeing, whether that's more flexible shifts or more home working, means lowering performance standards. Maxine disagrees.

"A lot of the evidence suggests that the more you lean into the wellbeing side, the more you trust employees, the less you penalise them for having a sick day, the more they're actually going to give you," she said.

Keeping the human touch in an AI world

Maxine is also seeing a new challenge. AI saves HR teams time drafting policies and scripts, but employees now use it too, sending in AI-written complaints full of bold text and bullet points.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing, she said, but it removes a lot of the human interaction. The job for HR leaders is to respond to those messages while bringing the human element back into the conversation.

Tackling 70% attrition

When Maxine joined KIKO Milano around nine months ago, attrition had ended the previous year at 70%. In earlier years it had been 100% and 120%.

Part of the problem, she said, was that store managers were focused on KPIs such as conversion and sales. They weren't thinking about the cost of people leaving and the need to keep retraining new starters.

Rather than adding more theory, policies and emails, her team gave managers practical tools:

• Coaching moments  that help managers feel confident leading their people
• Short, simple learning, such as Brené Brown videos, in 20-minute bursts
• Permission to make mistakes, so managers aren't afraid of getting it wrong

The team also rebuilt onboarding and the wider employee experience. New starters now get quick check-in surveys at months one, two and three, covering their onboarding, what they need and the support they're getting from their manager.

The early signs are encouraging. In May, six people left, compared with 16 in May the year before. Last year's exit interviews talked about too little training and not knowing where to go on day one. Now, new starters are describing their onboarding as brilliant.

"It's those small incremental things, not just one big thing, that can massively contribute to the employee experience," Maxine said.

What retail employees want now

Maxine has seen employee expectations change sharply. Wellbeing and flexibility matter more than ever. With recent rises in the minimum wage, she's also noticed a slight shift away from pay as the main concern.

"They want the whole package," she said. "They want to work for a company they feel proud of, that their values align to, and where they feel their work is really meaningful."

The most common mistake she sees during transformation is poor communication. Businesses are often afraid of saying the wrong thing, but silence only breeds anxiety. Explaining what's changing, and above all why, lets people decide for themselves whether they're in or out.

Why retail is worth it

Asked what she'd tell future HR leaders considering retail, Maxine admitted it's demanding. But for her, it's also deeply rewarding.

Store teams show up every day for long shifts and modest pay. Being able to motivate and inspire them to drive results, she said, "is what gets me out of bed in the morning".

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