A key to how Pandora cut turnover by 25%

Since 2021, global jewelry manufacturer and retailer Pandora has increased revenue by 35%. The people function—which has prioritized leader and employee development and strengthening the employee value proposition, including an emphasis on the companywide commitment to sustainability—has been core to that success.

The organization’s attrition rate dropped by 25% since 2002, “which from a retail perspective is very valuable,” says Byron Clayton, chief HR officer. “When we’re reducing attrition, we’re contributing directly to the profitability of the company.”

As employees extend their tenure, they’re taking advantage of enhanced development opportunities, Clayton says. He notes the investment in employee development has been critical to boosting engagement rates, which now rank Pandora in the top 5% of its industry for employee satisfaction.

“We want everyone in Pandora to have a career, regardless of whether they’re working in one of our stores, in our factories or here in headquarters,” he says about the organization’s Denmark operations.

The American-born executive now heads up HR from Denmark, after a career that has included HR leadership positions around the globe, for brands such as Nokia, Microsoft, AstraZeneca and IKEA. Clayton recently spoke with HR Executive about how his global perspective helps him lead with inclusivity—and how this strategy landed Pandora on Financial Times’ recent “Europe’s Best Employers” list.

Clayton: We want to be an amazing global employer, and I think that’s where our engagement comes from. One of the things we really try to drive is an extremely inclusive environment. One of the successes Pandora has had is that we really want to embrace people so they can bring their whole self to work, truly be who they are. We don’t ask our customers to be different when they come in the door; we want our employees to be the same. I think that’s one of the secrets that Pandora has had: taking that inclusive approach a step further in our stories, in our factories and really giving people the opportunity to embrace who they are and be their best selves at work.

HR Executive: Where has Pandora been most innovative in employee development?

Clayton: One of the things we do when someone starts with us—whether it’s in a store or a factory—is tell them what their career options can be, so they start to see a bit into the future. It’s not just “You’re here as an hourly salesperson in a store.” You can actually see, “Here’s a roadmap for how I can build myself up to become a sales director or regional manager or have the opportunity to go into one of our regional offices.”

Then, we really focus on the role of the manager. What’s key in this process is making sure we have the best possible managers to support the employees. The career path itself is less valuable if the manager doesn’t actually spend the time, show the interest. We invest a lot in our manager training. Since 2024, we have had a program called RISE; we have put over 650 different leaders in the organization through that to help them be equipped [to lead].

Then, of course, we’re also looking at our engagement scores. We’re looking at attrition. There are four key factors that impact attrition: One, of course, is compensation. The second is manager time, which is probably the most important. There’s also a big component around development and career opportunities, and also the tools and schedules and hours. One of the things we’ve implemented in a pilot that supports managers is a new AI-developed tool to help with recruiting. This new tool saves 60% of the time our managers usually spend on recruiting, which is a lot, particularly in the store. The manager can use that time to spend with their employees—coaching them, caring for them, developing them.

See also: Is co-innovation the key to empowering talent in the age of AI and uncertainty?

HR Executive: What was the feedback like when that recruiting tool rolled out?

Clayton: It was pretty phenomenal. In the beginning, they were pretty hesitant to believe that we were going to be able to use this tool that was going to help. I think the greatest compliment is we had many new hires who came into the store asking if they could meet the chatbot because they thought it was a real person. The interaction was at such a high level, with such a good connection with the applicants. They didn’t realize they weren’t talking to a real person, and that was time we saved from the managers.

We’re also looking at the retention and satisfaction of our managers. We’ve seen quite an increase in both—and being able to retain them longer; our overall manager attrition now is getting below 20%. When we look at our engagement, across all of Pandora, we’re in the top 5% of the consumer sector.

HR Executive: Has Pandora been impacted by any of the hesitance among younger workers to ascend into manager or leadership roles that some organizations are seeing?

Clayton: In our retail stores, where we have a huge population—almost 21,000 people—I wouldn’t say that we necessarily see hesitation there. I think it depends on where somebody is in their career lifecycle. We have a lot of people who work with us as students, a lot who work with us part-time—and they may not be interested in that career path at the moment.

But for the people who are full-time, they are really quite engaged. Particularly here in Denmark, where our headquarters is, with the younger generation, there is a very different expectation around how they think about leadership and the responsibilities that go with it. Although I would say that the people we hire tend to be extremely ambitious. [For those who hesitate to pursue leadership,] it’s not that they lack the ambition, it’s that they want the tools to help do the job, which is where this RISE leadership program comes into play.

HR Executive: How is Pandora weathering global economic uncertainty, including from the tariff discussions in the U.S.?

Clayton: We do live in extremely uncertain times. We, as an executive leadership team, meet every week to discuss what’s happening with tariffs, new legislation that might be coming out. We’ve gone back to some of the principles we learned during COVID and also during the financial crisis in 2008. What we learned during that time was “stick to the strategy.”

We have a long-term strategy. We don’t have a six-month strategy; we have a multi-year strategy. We don’t want to make rash decisions. We want to have a lot of integrity and consistency in our approach to the market.

We also look at how we pivot and adjust. The U.S. is just one market out of many that we operate in. It’s a super important market for us; we have over 8,000 employees in the U.S. and over 500 stores. It’s very big. [Right now, we’re] looking at, what is our supply chain? How do we make sure we’re getting enough product there? How do we make sure we’re getting a lot of communication to our employees and investors around what we’re doing? [We’re focused on] creating a lot of transparency in what we know.

So far, our challenge in dealing with it has been quite good. Our investors have responded really well, our employees feel really supported. We have regular town halls where we share the information we have, and we stay very connected to our leaders.

So, it is a challenge. It is something we’re keeping an eye on. But right now, our business is healthy and it’s performing really well. As things continue to change, we’ll need to adjust but without taking any drastic actions.

HR Executive: Given your global HR experience, what do U.S. HR professionals need to learn from their global counterparts?

Clayton: If I was an HR professional sitting in the U.S. today, it goes back to being inclusive—understanding that there are a lot of different, diverse views. Having a more open and accepting perspective to understand and appreciate that people are different and bring different things to the table is hugely rewarding. And it’s also something that helps you to learn. It’s finding that appreciation to understand that one size doesn’t fit all. The U.S. is such a strong market—rich with talent and so many big corporations in the world that started from the U.S. But you need to really appreciate the other, really interesting values that come from other parts of the world. How can that be integrated into what you do?