Daniel Cyganek is Head of Retail at Digitec Galaxus. Helping the approximately 100 employees in our 10 stores advance professionally is a matter close to his heart. Whether you’ve got an apprenticeship or a degree is irrelevant. Your own motivation, the joy of the job and an interest for change lie in the foreground.
Your academic degree doesn’t play a role in making a career in retail.
Daniel Cyganek
Do you want to develop yourself as well? Based on my skills and my interests, I currently have the perfect job for me. At the moment, I want to define our Swiss retail strategy for the coming years. But I make no secret of the fact that I’d be happy to be on board if we were to open a store outside Switzerland one day. That would then be a nice further development for Digitec Galaxus as well as for me (laughs).
I sniff out the best behind-the-scenes stories the Digitec Galaxus universe has to offer. Why? Because I'm fascinated by people and stories. In my other life, I act on all types of stages, sometimes even in graveyards. As a voice-over artist for commercials, I've dubbed a pumpkin and a cow to name but a few.
Behind the scenes
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Promotion and developmental opportunities for store associates are very important to you. What positions are available within retail, i.e. in your stores? Most of our employees work as Customer Service Representatives, i.e. salespeople. In addition, there are three positions of increased responsibility per store: a Supervisor or Shift Manager, an Assistant Store Manager and the Store Manager. With 10 stores, that adds up to 30 jobs where you can gain experience as a leader.
You and the POD department (People & Organization Development) have launched what we call a «Retail Development Journey». How does this «journey» look? Our sales crew wants to continue their education, but can’t see the forest for the trees. That’s why we launched our «Retail Development Journey» and invited all interested colleagues from Retail to take part. We conducted workshops and showed in various steps what career planning can look like. We first addressed the following questions: what departments and positions are there at Digitec Galaxus anyway? What should you look for when applying for an internal position? And how do you subsequently convince at the job interview? Afterwards, everyone dealt with their own development visions and we supported them in this. The clue is in the name. It’s a journey, one that takes place over a period of time and goes on for a while.
What is your goal with your employees? Above all, we want to awaken employees’ interest in different areas and support anyone who wants to get ahead and find their own career path. We try to motivate people and make them think about their professional future. Where do they want to be in six months and where do they see themselves in two to three years? Every starting point is individual. That means we’re not trampling anyone’s career path. But we offer assistance for those who want support.
Let’s say I work in retail and my next target job is the social media department. Is that possible? Sure, it’s possible. You need a certain affinity for it, of course. For example, if you’ve been blogging on the side for years or maintain your Insta account with a lot of joy, creativity and passion, the opportunity is certainly there. A good example of this is our photographer Tom. He also started his career at Digitec Galaxus in retail. Today he’s capturing me, among others, for this interview (laughs). We’ve had quite a few changes in retail this year: The Store Manager in Wohlen is now a Business Engineer, i.e. the interface between Retail and Engineering, and optimises the technical processes involved in our day-to-day store operations. There were further changes to Category Management, Aftersales, Security and a transfer from Deputy Branch Manager in Zurich to Branch Manager in Wohlen.
On my last job application, the recruiter told me, «A CAS would do your resume some good!» Do you see that in your field? Is such further training absolutely necessary? No, it isn’t. We focus on interest and enjoyment of the job, curiosity and the will for change. However, sometimes you can’t avoid further training. It’s important to become aware of what you cannot learn «on the job» and what external training could be taken advantage of instead. There’s a whole list of ways to do this on the company’s internal website: from self-study to internal training courses or workshops to external continual education.
So if I want to be a store manager, I don’t need a CAS for that. No, not even a master’s degree (laughs). Your academic degree doesn’t play a role in making a career in retail. It’s certainly helpful to deal with the topic of leadership sooner or later. However, you don’t have to submit an external diploma. I think the more you study leadership, the more comfortable and competent you feel with it. Internally, we offer the Digitec Galaxus Leadership Learning Path, a mix of self-study and various courses. In terms of content, it’s about considering what makes you stand out as a personality and how you want to come across as a supervisor. But topics such as dealing with conflicts, feedback or employee development are also included in this educational path.
You encourage your employees to develop. They may then also look for a new job outside Digitec Galaxus. Isn’t that counterproductive? (He laughs). We see it the other way around. We prefer someone who has a clear vision of where they want to go and is fully motivated as a result. Those who constantly strive to develop and learn do a much better job. With a plan in mind, you automatically release more energy and have more passion for the job. And this in turn results in exciting additional projects through which one learns further skills.
