Pandora’s 35% revenue surge since 2021 stems from aligning HR strategy with sustainability, says CHRO Byron Clayton
Four years ago, Pandora, one of the world’s largest jewellery brands, unveiled a muti-year growth strategy, to take it from charm bracelets to a full jewellery brand, while committing to using only recycled silver and gold and phasing out mined diamonds.
The revenue growth since 2021 is more than 35% but the success of the strategy goes well beyond the bottom line according to Chief Human Resources Officer Byron Clayton.
“When we look at Pandora's growth, the biggest challenge for us is how we motivate, engage and retain our 37,000 employees, and being in retail, employee turnover is a huge item for us,” he says.
“The longer we keep people, the more they can have careers, the more they're excited to stay here. That has a big impact for us.”
By focusing on the company's HR pillars, what he calls the “North Stars” of Pandora’s HR agenda, the organization has generated nearly $200 million in added product value, reinforcing the link between employee experience and commercial outcomes.
The HR framework that drives this is rooted in Pandora’s Phoenix strategy, the corporate blueprint designed to expand the company beyond charms and bracelets into a full jewelry brand. Clayton outlines the four pillars of the people strategy: attrition management, becoming a talent factory, embedding performance and culture and strengthening reputation through sustainability.
Embedding sustainability into the employee value proposition
Sustainability, however, is where Pandora sets itself apart. The convergence of people, communications and sustainability under Clayton’s leadership allows the company to weave environmental responsibility into its employee value proposition, he says. As a result, 25% percent of applicants cite Pandora’s sustainability leadership as a factor in wanting to work there.
Long-term incentives for executives are directly tied to CO2 reductions, and the company has introduced sustainability-backed loans that link financing terms to environmental performance.
“We switched to completely recycled gold and silver last year, which was a huge milestone for us,” he explains.
This matters for employers because workers are putting more weight on sustainability when making career decisions. According to Deloitte, only 38% of employees feel their company is doing enough on climate and sustainability, down from 45% in 2021. The same study found that around one in four employees worldwide have thought about leaving their job for a more sustainable employer. Likewise, about a quarter of job seekers say they will factor in a company’s sustainability stance before accepting an offer.
When the company’s leaders host annual global meetings, sustainability consistently tops the list of topics employees want to engage in, Clayton says.
“Employees ask us to give them more information on sustainability and how they can contribute to helping to make Pandora more sustainable,” Clayton says.
For HR professionals elsewhere, the lesson is that embedding sustainability in organizational DNA requires both leadership accountability and employee ownership.
“We couldn't do this on our own. From the people function we would have limited success if we were just driving this without having that overall leadership commitment,” Clayton explains.
Rethinking talent sources to strengthen engagement
This combination of HR and sustainability has not diluted focus but instead strengthened employee engagement. Programs aimed at developing managers as leaders are helping maintain this momentum. Engagement is also supported by Pandora’s openness to multi-generational workforces and diverse career paths, Clayton says.
“Some of the most engaging people with our customers are people who've already retired from their primary career and decided they wanted to shift to something else, and they love engaging with people,” he says.
By thinking differently about where talent comes from, Pandora has tapped into underutilized labor pools – from health system veterans seeking a new environment to food and beverage workers frustrated with late-night schedules, he says.
“We've really shifted our mindset around thinking about where we add value to a potential employee who has a skill set that we want and thinking in a very different way,” Clayton says.
This approach underscores the broader lesson for HR leaders: retention, inclusion and sustainability are not separate priorities. They are interconnected drivers of growth.
For HR leaders, one of the pressing challenges is balancing long-term capability-building with the realities of cost constraints. Clayton acknowledges that discipline. For Pandora, value is created both in product desirability and in the customer experience, which hinges on frontline staff.
“One of the things that sits behind this process is having ruthless prioritization around what we focus on. For us, that's being clear around where we create value as a company,” he says.
