How Unicomm is building a new talent management system across a network of 270+ stores
With Skillvue, Unicomm is transforming its HR infrastructure into an agile, skills-based system that responds to hiring, confirmation and internal development needs across its entire network.
Unicomm
Large-scale distribution
Unicomm Group
~€2B
8,000+
270+
Hiring, Learning & Development, Internal Mobility
A group that doubles revenue in three years needs people ready at the same speed.
Gruppo Unicomm, part of Selex Gruppo Commerciale, is one of Italy's leading organized grocery retail groups. Over the past 3 years, the group has recorded growth nearly double the sector average, with a declared objective to continue — through new store openings, strategic integration with Etruria Retail, and new logistics infrastructure. In this context of accelerated expansion, the ability to hire, confirm and develop the right people becomes a priority for both HR and the business, especially given that in Italy's grocery retail labor market, 50% of positions are classified as "hard to fill" and a store manager requires an average of 90-120 days to recruit.
Optimization was not enough: they needed to build from scratch.
Unicomm was starting from a scarcely-digitized HR infrastructure, and doing so at the most intense growth phase in its history.
Distributed network, fragmented criteria
Two candidates with the same potential could have completely different paths due to the lack of a common framework. In a sector where store manager performance variance can account for 15-25% of a store's revenue, the absence of objective criteria was a commercial risk.
Three critical business processes to activate simultaneously
Unicomm needed to act simultaneously on hiring for new store openings, confirming dozens of new hires per month to permanent contracts, and internal development through the Academy for progression to department head and store manager.
HR digitization still at zero
Hiring, confirmations and development paths were managed manually and relied on the individual capabilities of store or area managers. There was no overview of talent quality across 7,000 employees.
Change management with no digital precedents
Introducing digital assessments into an organization that had never used HR technology meant driving a deep transformation at every level of the organization: quite a big challenge to take on for a small HR team.
What needed to change
Standardize assessments across the entire network: same criteria, same skills framework, regardless of brand, store or individual manager
Adopt a complete skills-based approach: assessments calibrated by objective (hiring, confirmation, development) and by role/department, with a mix of soft and hard skills
Build sector-specific assessment capabilities: develop selected assessments where the Unicomm model required it
Lead real change management: transform the organization's HR culture, not just introduce a tool
AI assessment across three parallel streams, calibrated on the Unicomm model.
Skillvue was integrated as a partner for building Unicomm's talent lifecycle, working with the HR team led by Giuseppe Curci to align the platform to the company's leadership model and the specifics of grocery retail.
Hiring
Selection for open positions across the Group's different brands, with assessments calibrated to the specific role.
Confirmations
Dozens of employees per month assessed for confirmation to permanent contract, with structured and traceable criteria.
Development
Two annual milestones for progression to department head or store manager, through an internal Academy based on objective skills data.
What is changing.
From zero to integrated system
Unicomm has gone from the complete absence of digital HR tools to a structured talent lifecycle covering hiring, confirmations and development in a single system. Not an incremental optimization, but a paradigm shift achieved during the most intense growth phase of the Group.
Industry-relevant skills now measurable
Sector-specific soft skills are now assessed with tools calibrated to the Unicomm model, not generic assessments. Measuring these skills is a business lever, not just an HR exercise.
Decisions based on data, not impressions
Assessments produce structured information that supports managerial decisions without replacing them. Managers decide with more data, and this raises the quality of the decision.
An ongoing change management journey
The cultural transformation is still underway, but the foundations are solid: the system is live, the three streams are advancing in parallel, and the organization is building familiarity with a skills-based approach that did not exist before.