Earn retention & performance with an employee engagement strategy built for retail.
Sound familiar?
Thank you for helping us raise the bar, we are excited to continue our partnerships in 2023. I know having you by their side really encourages the team to think differently and alleviates so much of their day to day stress as well as they have such a great support network around them with you and your team.
Director, Talent Planning & Development, Empire | Sobeys Inc.
The Problem
The Engagement Activity Trap
You spend big money running and analyzing employee engagement surveys, then pouring time, more money, and energy into programs, apps, and campaigns to address low scores.
They look promising, but year after year the same results come back: flat engagement scores, high turnover, and store teams who are skeptical that anything will change.
After multiple cycles of this, budgets get scrutinized while store teams grow increasingly cynical of each new initiative.
What Most Retailers Think is Happening
It feels like an awareness problem.
"If we run an awareness campaign and increase visibility maybe engagement will improve."
The Real Issue
The problem isn’t effort—it’s approach.
Engagement keeps getting bolted on top of work through apps, programs, posters, or campaigns instead of being built into the work itself.
Store teams live in a different reality—95% of their time is spent serving customers on the floor, not in front of screens.
So these digital tools fight for their already scarce time and attention—creating more work, not improving it.
The result is inevitably Engagement Bloat & Fatigue—a costly buildup of disconnected efforts that overwhelm teams, stall performance, and breed organizational cynicism.
The Solution:
Operational Engagement
The path forward isn't another initiative. It’s a system that makes engagement part of the work itself.
The Outcome?
This is something I've been trying to describe/communicate for years, and was only able to be this succinct because Bekki has phenomenal questions and, more so than anyone I've ever talked to about these things, is really listening and able to excavate ideas I know I have but up until now haven't been able to explore.
12+ year Retail Leader, including Old Navy, Starbucks, Whole Foods, William Sonoma
Our Process
We facilitate cross-functional sessions with the relevant function leaders to align on priorities and define shared goals.
Surveys show what’s wrong—but not why. We uncover whether your issue is:
• Substance: the driver doesn’t exist or doesn’t feel relevant.
• Awareness: employees don’t know it exists or don’t understand it.
• Experience: they’ve seen it, but don’t trust it.
Most retailers assume it’s awareness and launch another comms campaign. In reality, substance and experience gaps are usually the real problem.
We identify opportunities to integrate engagement into existing store and company processes—while removing operational barriers that keep initiatives from landing.
We build a phased roadmap that connects your brand promises to store realities. It allows for regional flexibility while ensuring alignment at the enterprise level.
If you need support beyond strategy, we can help translate the roadmap into creative concepts, toolkits, and messaging assets—always using your existing channels.
Engagement fails when it’s treated as a campaign or a bolt-on project. It only works when it’s embedded directly into the store experience—consistently, clearly, and without adding complexity.
That requires expertise across domains most internal teams can’t integrate on their own:
• Store-level reality
• Corporate priorities and processes
• Brand storytelling
• HR and L&D systems
• Internal communications
• Performance expectations
CATO brings these together in one unified approach. Your internal teams may be brilliant, but this isn’t their full-time job—and it shouldn’t be. Ours is.
Three Ways to Start Working With Us
Thank you for your time, your patience and your positivism throughout the project. It is a real pleasure to work with you. Having accomplished this work together, I think that nothing is impossible for us.
Manager, Talent Development, Empire | Sobeys Inc.
Frequently Asked Questions
Let's Connect
Your teams are asking for a better day-to-day experience, and your organization has already invested significantly in addressing this need.
If you're interested in maximizing the return on those investments by connecting them directly to where work happens in your stores, we'd love to explore how our approach might complement your current strategy.
Book a no commitment call.
As the partner bringing our organization's employee experience brand work to life through pictures and words, there was no question who I would collaborate with when it came to establishing the mental wellbeing brand and narrative. My interactions with Bekki and her team were easy, energizing and excellence-focused. Thank you for your patience, creativity and diligence. Together, we created something special.
Manager, CoE Integrated Health Management, Mental Health Program
I see this collaboration as an extension of our team that knows our business, and is able to challenge certain things – always with respect and for the benefit of the team. We can sometimes be biased in some of our interventions and having an external person who questions us, allows us to see certain things differently; which is a good thing.
Manager, Talent Development, Empire | Sobeys Inc.
I worked with Bekki in creating some graphically designed documents for a major company initiative. I was extremely impressed by the quality of the work she provided, her professionalism, attention to detail and excellent service. She made recommendations that were valuable in realizing the vision of the document and always responded in detail and promptly. I would very much recommend her for other individuals who are looking for similar services.
Human Resources Director, Sobeys Inc.
It's been such a pleasure working with Bekki and the CATO team. They're always so creative, flexible, collaborative and dependable. Thank you for finishing the project well ahead of schedule. This achievement not only highlights your commitment to excellent work but also strengthens our professional partnership. I look forward to more successful projects in the future.
Sustainability Manager, Sobeys Inc.
I run a boutique fitness studio where my entire business model is situated around face to face interaction. With a deft hand, Bekki has helped me transition online (social media, youtube, and other avenues) and has allowed me to continue to support my customer base, despite the global need for social distancing. She has provided input when needed, suggestions when warranted, and has taken my vision and executed it perfectly. Bekki's ability to produce top of class digital content on a moment's notice is single handily saving my small business.
Owner, Breaker Strength
