Inside Sofology, a Furniture Retailer That’s Anything But Ordinary

In the 40 years that popular furniture retailer Sofology has been around, the company’s never been shy about pivoting in the face of change, whether that means adapting for the digital age or simply updating the company’s values to more closely align with the culture. Now, fresh off of a rebrand, the company’s doubling down on their efforts to become more committed, caring, trusted, fun, progressive and exceptional than ever. And employees — or Sofologists, as the company calls them — agree. Sofology’s received an overall Glassdoor rating of 4.3, with 84 per cent of Sofologists willing to recommend the company to a friend and a full 92 per cent approving of the CEO. To get to the bottom of what makes Sofology stand apart, we chatted with Alyson Fadil, People Director at Sofology. Below, she shares her thoughts on the company’s innovation, unique rewards system, training programs and more. A Retail Company for the Modern Age Being at the helm of Sofology is something that CEO Jason Tyldesley has (literally) been preparing for his entire life. While his parents founded the company, Tyldesley has been involved in the business from a very young age, when he started accompanying his father to deliver sofas at eight years old. But while the company’s stayed in the family, the business has always been on the forefront of innovation. Indeed, Sofology, in its early days, was one of the first companies to bring iPads into the salesroom floor, show what their sofas would actually look like in customers’ rooms and offer “inspiration stations” — in-store stations that offered customers interior design and consultation services. “Sofology changes constantly — there are always new ideas and new things happening. We’re always focusing on how to move forward, rather than what everyone’s used to doing,” Fadil says. A Different Way of Defining (and Rewarding) Success Traditionally, retail companies offer fairly straightforward commission — if somebody sells £X worth of merchandise, they’ll earn £Y. But rather than assessing Sofologists solely by the revenue they bring in, Sofology takes a more catered approach that factors in the strength of the relationships that Sofologists build. “We have a completely different system based around the NPS (Net Promoter Score) of our customers,” Fadil says. “Each customer decides on the reward that the team should earn for each transaction — this is based on the NPS score given by the customer.” And this sense of fairness and transparency extends to Sofology’s customers as well. “Our industry is known for yo-yo pricing where one thing or another is ‘on sale’ every week. We don’t do that. We have everyday low pricing, the best price all year round,” Fadil says. “It doesn’t suit everybody — if you don’t want change, it’s probably not the business for you. But we’re honest with candidates about the culture of our business. To have the best chance at hiring the right person for the role, we need to be.” Investing in Existing Talent There’s a well-documented skills gap occurring throughout the U.K., which has resulted in many employers struggling to find the highly-skilled staff that they need. Sofology, though, has taken a unique approach to tackling this problem. Rather than only hiring candidates who already have specialised backgrounds, Sofology chooses to teach their existing workforce the skills they need to do their jobs through on-site academies. “Our Operations academy enables us to train our Sofologists in warehousing and distribution, including how to upholster furniture. It started because we needed to fill a skills gap, but it grew into something so much more special,” Fadil says. “When they’re finished with our program, employees have accredited external certifications that carry a lot of gravitas.” But the academies aren’t just limited to warehouse and operations. “We are launching a retail academy which trains people on modules such as people management, coaching and train the trainer, which enables individuals to train specialist subjects to other Sofologists,” Fadil says. All of this reflects Sofology’s ultimate philosophy on their corporate culture. “At the end of the day, we believe candidates and employees are just as important as customers — and that means they shouldn’t be treated any differently,” Fadil says. Want to learn more about Sofology? Visit their Glassdoor profile, and find open jobs here.