Restructuring a national branch network

The problem

A national property services business operating around 700 branches across sixty brands was under sustained market pressure. Revenue was declining, the cost base was unsustainable, and the existing operating model had been built for a market that no longer existed. The branch network needed to shrink significantly, but there was no clear people plan to support it. Job design, career paths, pay structures, commission arrangements and terms and conditions varied wildly across the brands with no consistency or commercial logic behind the differences. The senior leadership team needed to close over 100 branches while maintaining service continuity, and the people function had to lead the restructure, design a new target operating model and deliver it at pace across a workforce of around 5,000.

Approach and outcome

Working closely with the Retail Managing Director and senior leadership team, I designed and implemented a new branch operating model covering job design, career paths, remuneration, commission and terms and conditions across all sixty brands. This was not a paper exercise. It meant rationalising roles, aligning reward to sustainable commercial outcomes rather than short-term revenue, and giving the network a structure it could actually run on. In parallel, I led the people side of a large-scale cost reduction and restructuring programme that included the managed closure of over 100 branches. Consultation was handled properly, redeployment was offered where viable, and service continuity was protected throughout. Onboarding quality and consistency across the remaining network improved through tighter core processes and stronger collaboration with Centres of Excellence. The programme delivered £9m in operational savings. Senior leadership reward was redesigned to shift focus from short-term results to profitability and customer outcomes. The business came out of it with a leaner, more consistent operating model and a people infrastructure that could support the shape it actually needed to be.