Rethinking Retail Management Across Canada
Find out how 1750 managers across 1200 Dollarama stores built the best management behaviours, a consistent leadership culture and stronger team cohesion.
Dollarama is a recognised Canadian value retailer offering a broad assortment of general merchandise, consumables, and seasonal items.
The challenge
Dollarama recognised a gap between its leadership expectations and actual management performance and set an ambitious goal: to strengthen management consistency and effectiveness across its network of 1200 stores.
Committed to employee training and development as a key competitive advantage, the organisation sought an experienced partner to develop leadership capabilities, structure management practices, and improve leaders’ performance nationwide.
The approach
Through a three-phase rollout, our dss+ Humex experts supported Regional District Managers, District Managers, Store Managers, and Assistant Store Managers across Canada, helping them develop stronger leadership behaviours through field coaching.
The solution standardised daily management by clarifying roles and introducing an Ideal Day and a District Manager Cycle to align priorities and improve store visits. Active supervision and structured audit tours reinforced health and safety, customer experience, merchandising, product availability, sales, and employee engagement.
A train-the-trainer approach ensured sustainable nationwide deployment, with approximately 1750 managers ultimately coached and developed.
Impact on the ground
The inflection point
“The programme has allowed me to spend more time developing people, strengthening relationships, and creating greater value during store visits.”
- Jean-Paul Nelson, District Manager, Dollarama