Joe Kennedy's Professional Journey

Skills applied: Training design, employee coaching, stakeholder collaboration, data-informed problem solving, employee experience mindset

While working as a front-end supervisor in grocery retail, I noticed a disconnect between how performance was measured and how customers actually experienced checkout. Speed metrics dominated training and daily feedback, but customer satisfaction scores told a different story. Fast transactions did not always translate to positive experiences.

After receiving specialized coaching from a customer engagement specialist, I began to rethink how frontline training could better balance efficiency with human interaction. Drawing on those insights, I partnered with store leadership to design a pilot training program focused on customer perception, communication, and foundational checkout skills such as proper bagging and engagement.

The proposed program included two comparison groups: one continuing standard operations and another receiving targeted coaching. The goal was to evaluate whether small, intentional changes in employee behavior could meaningfully improve customer satisfaction scores over time. While the program was fully designed and supported at the store level, it was ultimately not launched due to timing, staffing constraints, and shifting operational priorities.

Although the pilot was never executed, the process of designing it was formative. It taught me how to translate observed workplace challenges into structured training concepts, align ideas with leadership priorities, and think critically about how employee experience, feedback loops, and performance metrics interact. That mindset continues to shape how I approach people operations today: focusing less on enforcement and more on equipping people with the clarity, support, and context they need to succeed.