How a Retail Chain Streamlined Compliance Across 12 Locations

The Company

A Growing Retail Chain with Locations Across Southeast Queensland

Sunshine Coast Retail Group operates 12 retail stores across Southeast Queensland, primarily in shopping centers and high-street locations throughout the Sunshine Coast region, with additional stores in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Founded in 2011, the company has grown from a single boutique to a recognized regional chain offering fashion apparel, accessories, and homewares under their "Coast & Home" brand.

With 145 employees spanning their dozen locations—including 117 sales associates, 16 store managers, and 12 corporate team members—Sunshine Coast Retail Group has experienced consistent growth over the past decade. The company employs predominantly female staff (approximately 80%), with a mix of full-time, part-time, and casual employees across their locations, creating a complex workforce management environment with high turnover rates typical of the retail industry.

The Challenge

Ensuring Consistent Policy Implementation Across Multiple Locations

When Queensland's sexual harassment prevention regulations were announced, Emily Zhang, Sunshine Coast Retail Group's Chief Operations Officer, immediately recognized the challenge of implementing consistent prevention measures across their dispersed retail network. "With 12 stores, some with as few as 6 staff and others with up to 20, we needed to ensure the same high standard of compliance at every location," explains Zhang. "But each store has different physical layouts, operating hours, team compositions, and even distinct customer demographics."

The company initially attempted to create a single, generic prevention plan for all locations, but quickly realized this approach was insufficient. "When we distributed the plan to store managers, we immediately got feedback that it didn't account for the specific risks at different locations," says Melissa Torres, HR Director. "For example, our late-night shopping locations have different risk factors than our daytime-only stores, and our mall locations have different considerations from our standalone stores."

Another significant challenge was managing reporting and documentation across all locations. "We needed a centralized way to monitor compliance implementation, track training completion for all staff, and ensure consistent reporting mechanisms that would work for both full-time and casual employees across different locations," Torres explains. "Our existing HR systems weren't designed for this kind of specialized compliance tracking, and we were looking at a massive administrative burden to maintain proper documentation."

The Solution

Enterprise-Level Platform with Location-Specific Customization

After evaluating several options, Sunshine Coast Retail Group selected QLD Compliance Plan's Enterprise solution with multi-location management. "The platform was designed exactly for our scenario—a business with multiple locations needing both consistency and customization," says Torres. "It allowed us to create a master prevention plan template that established company-wide protocols while also enabling location-specific risk assessments and customizations."

The platform's multi-location management dashboard showing compliance status across all stores

Each store manager completed a guided location-specific risk assessment through the platform, which identified unique factors for their particular store—such as late hours, isolated areas, customer interaction patterns, and staffing arrangements. These assessments were then automatically incorporated into location-specific prevention plans that maintained the company's core policies while addressing the unique characteristics of each site.

"The centralized reporting dashboard was a game-changer for us," explains Zhang. "We could instantly see compliance status across all locations, track training completion rates, monitor incident reporting, and identify any stores falling behind on implementation. Store managers had access to their location-specific data, while corporate could view the entire organization, creating transparent accountability at all levels."

The Results

Streamlined Compliance with Greater Visibility and Consistency

By implementing QLD Compliance Plan across their retail network, Sunshine Coast Retail Group achieved complete regulatory compliance with 84% less administrative time than their initial estimates. "We originally projected that creating and maintaining individualized prevention plans for all 12 locations would require approximately 120 hours of work from our corporate team and store managers," says Torres. "The platform reduced this to about 20 hours total, focusing our time on thoughtful risk assessment rather than administrative paperwork."

The centralized approach also improved consistency in policy implementation. "Before implementing the platform, we had significant variations in how policies were communicated and enforced across locations," explains Zhang. "The dashboard allowed us to identify these inconsistencies immediately." The company documented 100% training completion across all staff within 60 days, with a standardized incident reporting process now used consistently across all locations.

"An unexpected benefit has been the positive impact on our broader HR practices," adds Torres. "The location-specific approach has become a model for how we implement other policies and training across the company. We've extended the same approach to our customer service standards and loss prevention protocols, creating a more consistent experience throughout our brand while still accounting for location differences. As we continue to grow and potentially add new locations, the scalable nature of the platform means we can easily incorporate them into our compliance framework."