6 min
Provalliance Group Builds a Scalable Solution to Support Rapid Growth
Written by
Alexandre Diard Provalliance Group is an operator of an international chain of hair salons and cosmetic services. Headquartered in Paris, France, where the first salon was opened in 1975 by Frank Provost, the group is recognized today as a European leader in the hairdressing market and #2 in the world. The group was established after the merger of Frank Provost and Regis Corporation in 2008. Provalliance Group is currently made up of 18 brands, such as Franck Provost & Jean-Louis David, operating more than 3500 salons and boutiques in more than 35 countries across 5 different continents.
Following the purchase of a majority stake in Provalliance by Core Equity Holdings in 2021, the company has set forth ambitious objectives in terms of growth for the upcoming years. In 2022, they planned to increase the number of new salon openings to 70 and additionally to 80 by 2023. In the next five years, the group aims to double its revenues, a goal that comes with many challenges and ultimately, the need to digitally transform its business.
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Starting the Transformation Journey
To support the ambitious goals that they have set, Provalliance Group started its digital transformation journey with PeopleSpheres in early 2021. The team was open to exploring how PeopleSpheres could help them create a modern and agile solution as a foundation for their growth strategy.
Provalliance came into this project with the vision to unify their previously siloed HR functions and transform the role of HR within their organization. On the administrative side, this meant eliminating time-consuming tasks and putting in place a better alternative to the emails, fax, and Excel spreadsheets they were using to free up time to focus on higher value-added initiatives.
On the strategic side, Provalliance Group wanted a solution to combat the high employee turnover that is prevalent in the hairdressing and beauty industry. Employee turnover is a crucial challenge in this industry because training new hairdressers is often a long-term process.
No one wants their hair cut by a hairdresser that has only had one week of training.
Jenna Pignerol, Human Resources Director at Provalliance
To retain employees, the group sought to deliver the best possible experience and conditions that will allow employees to work effectively and autonomously. In addition, it was important to develop a strong employer brand that stayed true to their core values of family-like stewardship and guarantee of Salon excellence. This employer brand is the key to attracting top talent in the industry, especially experienced independent hairdressers.
Lastly, it was also crucial that the solution put in place would be adaptable to the needs of the two main business units of the organization: the hairdressing unit and the distribution of professional haircare and cosmetic products through their brands Bleu Libellule and NYX respectively. While the hairdresser business unit was in dire need of modernization, the distribution unit needed the ability to practice their more innovative management style.
We needed a partner who would accompany us in our desire for growth.
Jenna Pignerol, Human Resources Director – Provalliance Group
Achieving Scalability with a Composable Mindset
How does a large multinational like Provalliance Group quickly go from a fractured HR tech stack to a global ecosystem that scales to their growing business and evolving needs? They found that adopting a composable mindset enabled them to deliver value fast and stay on track for their long-term goals.
The first step was to deploy a unified core platform that acted as a solid foundation for HR policies and existing HR systems. Then over time, scale up with additional tools that talk to one another and that are integrated into a global HR ecosystem. This composable mindset will allow them to adopt the right tools to answer to each one of their employee and business unit needs as they evolve in their ever-growing business.
Embracing the PeopleSpheres solution
To modernize and scale the HR department at Provalliance, Pignerol looked for a provider to offer an intuitive and agile solution for her team. Without any internal HRIS expertise, Provalliance turned to PeopleSpheres as a source of HR technology expertise for their digital transformation project.
Why PeopleSpheres? The short answer is flexibility and freedom.
Every time a new requirement arises, PeopleSpheres is able to provide several options to evaluate and select. For example, Pignerol explains that at the time of the project launch, they had made the choice to work with a time management vendor that was not satisfactory.
Their testimony :
Very quickly, PeopleSpheres found a solution that was suitable for us.
Jenna Pignerol, Human Resources Director – Provalliance Group
Today, Provalliance Group continues to grow its ecosystem in an ongoing partnership with PeopleSpheres either with partners that are proposed by PeopleSpheres or vendors that they themselves have identified to meet their requirements.
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Equipped for Long-Term Success
Provalliance’s transformation initiative is a continuous journey. Having a centralized, flexible platform in place means HR leaders can easily add or switch tools without straining or depending on their internal IT resources.
Provalliance’s HR team can now work more efficiently by having all their digital tools at their fingertips, more reliable data, quick access to important documents, and a more effective way to communicate with employees. Unifying their ecosystem has also allowed the team to better monitor their key HR processes such as training and onboarding and be more reactive to outstanding issues. This has had a positive impact on the employer brand and the ability to retain and attract new talent, especially as the company opens new salons and boutiques.
For employees, PeopleSpheres’ platform has provided autonomy through employee self-service and document generation tools. The solution also brought simplicity and modernity over the previously archaic way of doing things. Most importantly, it has delivered transparency to employees as they can access information in real-time via the mobile application.
For Provalliance Group, the goal of deploying an HR platform was not to save costs in terms of reducing headcount, but instead to enable a more valuable contribution from each employee to the business in a time of rapid growth. By implementing the PeopleSpheres platform, Provalliance Group has been able to free up time for their teams to focus on improving customer service, offer more availability to clients, and develop their skills.
Ready for your own customer success story? Contact our team of knowledgeable experts and learn how to customize your transformation journey to fit your specific business and employee needs.
