In the first instalment of our new podcast, Excel Recruitment CEO Barry Whelan and Director of Grocery Retail Nikki Murran discuss careers in grocery retail, the current recruitment market and why COVID-19 has shown the benefits of a career in grocery.
Now in their 15th year, the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards once again recognised individual management excellence in the grocery sector and honoured the talent in each department that make up our supermarkets and convenience stores.
While the standard of entrants was as high as ever, this year’s ceremony marked a break from tradition due to COVID-19. Broadcast virtually live from the RDS, the audience tuned in to watch MC, RTE’s Karina Buckley, announce the winners of the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards. After a year like no other, the nation’s gratitude to our retailers was expressed by Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, who said “I wanted to congratulate you on your achievement but I also wanted to thank you…. I want you to know when we thank the frontline heroes throughout 2020, that includes the people working in grocery, that includes the people working in our petrol stations, in our convenience stores, in our supermarkets. The people who got up every morning and looked after us.”
The night’s biggest award, Supreme Champion for 2020 was awarded to Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu Blanchardstown with the judges praising Caffrey and her achievements, “Our winner has spent the last 18 months making the store more customer-friendly, more profitable and a more enjoyable place to work.” Excel Recruitment’s own Nikki Murran summed up Jamie as “a trailblazer in the world of grocery retail,” having started in the retail trade at only 16 and at only 23, having already been promoted to store manager.
Excel Recruitment is proud to be involved with the GMAs since the award’s beginning. We would like to thank everyone who entered the awards in what has been a strange and challenging year and say a huge congratulations to all 15 deserving winners.
Delicatessen / Food to Go Manager of the Year
Linda O’Sullivan,
Eurospar Cobh,
Co. Cork
Cash & Carry Manager of the Year
Tom Ryan,
Value Centre,
Hebron Road,
Co. Kilkenny
Off-Licence Manager
Shane McNulty,
SuperValu Ballinteer,
Dublin 16
Protein/Provisions Manager
Jason Mc Donagh,
SuperValu Lucan,
Co. Dublin
HR Manager of the Year
Carley Dennan,
SuperValu,
Blackrock,
Co. Dublin
Brand Marketing Team
Premier Lotteries
Small C-Store Manager of the Year
Rebecca Murphy,
Herlihy’s Centra Grand Parade,
Co.Cork
Medium C-Store Manager of the Year
Alan O’Donnell,
Daybreak Cahir,
Co. Tipperary
Large C-Store Manager of the Year
Briege O’Kane,
Top Oil Newhall,
Naas,
Co. Kildare
Small Forecourt Manager of the Year
David Martin,
Mace,
Glanmire,
Co. Cork
Large Forecourt Manager of the Year
Ian Leahy
Maxol Ballincollig,
Co. Cork
Supermarket Manager of the Year (Small)
Tanya McGarry,
Charlesland,
Greystones,
Co. Wicklow
Supermarket Manager of the Year (Mid-Large)
Doug Thompson,
SuperValu
Sundrive,
Dublin 6
Retail Team of the Year
Londis St. James Hospital, Dublin 8
Supreme Champion
Jamie Caffrey,
SuperValu,
Blanchardstown,
Dublin
As a country, we continue to balance the fight against COVID-19 with the fight to rebound against its effects on the economy. Businesses are also moving from focusing on operating safely to focusing on their longer-term goals; while still operating in an uncertain and constantly changing landscape. This leads many managers to question their strategies for hiring during post lockdown uncertainty.
What this means in recruitment terms, is that hiring someone new at any level is now a more important decision than ever. Even for business with bright long-term futures, the uncertainty that’s affecting the entire world has understandably hindered everyone’s ability to plan anything, from holidays to houses to new hires. Below are a few tips to ensure you maximise the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts for the long-term, even as things continue to change.
Now more than ever it is crucial to be clear on the needs and goals of your business, and who you may need to hire to achieve these. Taking a step back and actively assessing your current team’s strengths and weaknesses can allow you to identify potential gaps in talent or assess whether it may be a simpler issue of retraining, motivating or even promoting your current team. By refocusing on the long-term vision for the business, as well as current needs rather than just making the quickest/ cheapest/ most convenient hire, you are less likely to make a potentially costly mistake.
An unfortunate fact of this pandemic is that more people from a wide range of industries are now looking for work. Many are looking for a change of sector, either temporarily until things return to normal or permanently. Open vacancies, including those that were headaches to fill just a few months ago, are now seeing a huge spike in applications. While this sounds great, shifting through unqualified or unsuitable candidates can be time-consuming, particularly if you’re not looking with a focused eye. While it is important to stay open-minded to transferable skills and experience, by building the profile of your ideal hire before you start recruiting, you’re less likely to waste on unsuitable CVs or make a snap decision on who to hire for the sake of speeding up the process.
While we are no longer operating in the candidate’s market we were just a few short months ago, it is important to remember that to have high calibre staff, you must first attract a pool of high calibre candidates. While there are now more active jobseekers generally, grocery retail is still a competitive and thriving employment market and you want to ensure you’re attracting the best applicants possible.
Budgets are tighter and employers want to avoid having to offer candidates more and more money to entice them to move. But salary isn’t the be-all and end-all for candidates either. Factors such as commute, work/life balance, company culture and career progression are all still priorities to candidates regardless of COVID-19 and should be highlighted throughout the recruitment process.
Although there is a lot to be positive about as the country returns to normal, there is still uncertainty around the economy with government guidelines being revised and reassessed as needed. As frontline workers during the entirety of lockdown, those working in the grocery industry know more than anyone how crucial it is to be able to react and pivot quickly, while simultaneously remaining welcoming and friendly to customers. Resilience, adaptability flexibility and positivity are qualities in your team and potential new staff that cannot be underestimated as we continue to learn how to operate in post lockdown life.
Our Recruitment Consultant Sarah recruits across Retail Head Office and Supply Chain and always gets questions from jobseekers about careers in Buying. In this video, she breaks down the difference between Buying, Purchasing and Procurement and the skills employers look for when recruiting each.
As the Coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc both on local but also on the global jobs market, leaving many unemployed, furloughed or working reduced hours as employers implemented sweeping cost-cutting measures and forced closures, I think most of us either working in or supplying to the grocery trade, felt blessed to have taken a career path that involved food and food retail writes CEO Barry Whelan…
The age-old adage ‘everybody eats’ really made sense as we saw businesses that had survived the last recession forced to close such as hair dressers and of course pubs and restaurants, while supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations remained open for business.
The resilience of the grocery trade to recession and economic shocks, even those created by a pandemic, is heartening for those of us who work in the industry and attractive to job seekers who want to join an industry that survived these most challenging times.
I myself think to resilience isn’t just driven by the fact that because people have to eat every day, we will always have customers because of this, but I believe the resilience comes from deeper factors that include how well run the grocery trade is and how competitive the market is.
Firstly, a great example of how the grocery retail trade in Ireland is extremely well run, is when we look to the start of the pandemic and the panic buying that took place across the country. Each player in the industry, whether they are a multiple, discounter or symbol had to contend with this phenomenon, which came completely out of leftfield. Across the world, consumers really panicked, stripping stores of food and commodities, leaving empty toilet roll sections, pasta shelves and home baking isles. Later in the crisis, as the meat factories recorded outbreaks, freezers were filled with beef, lamb and pork. No buyer or planner or supermarket manager, no matter how much of a genius they are, could forecast what would be the next item to undergo a frenzied uplift, who knew the entire population of Ireland would don their aprons and go all Mary Berry on us!
Despite all this random frenzied buying, the supply chains held, the distribution centres ran, the trucks rolled and the store staff, management and of course suppliers worked tirelessly to restock shelves and alleviate the panic that had engulfed the Irish and indeed worldwide consumer.
Retail workers were propelled to front line employee status and thanked on billboards around the country and as the majority of the population sat at home growing out there hair and beards and probably drinking too much, we got to stay in normality, getting up each day and going to work, mostly with customers who appreciated that we had done so.
Competition in the trade had created diversification and some of our larger retailers had embraced online shopping. These retailers had to cope with unprecedented demand on this part of their business, using stores as distribution centres, with staff having to stock and then unstock the shelves themselves to fulfil ecommerce orders. Businesses prioritised at risk customers and got on top of demand as fast as possible, managing a complex and unprofitable part of their business to maximum effect, delivering needed groceries to those most affected by the pandemic. Retailers need to be commended for their efforts here both in food and non-food ecommerce, another great example of how well our retailers are run.
Never has there been a better time to shine a light on careers in food retail. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that food retail and those who supply into in, are resilient to economic shock, populated with extremely well-run businesses that are robust and can cope with change. This is truly a great industry to enjoy a career in.
Excel’s Director Shane Mclave gives his thoughts on the recent government guidelines ( and their ongoing updates) for the hospitality industry’s re-opening and what more needs to be done to support the industry.
The much-awaited guidelines for hospitality businesses reopening arrived last week, with further developments since and more expected to come. All have been met with a very mixed reaction. Some of these guidelines absolutely make sense in terms of keeping everyone safe, while some of them seem plucked out of thin air and do no more than hinder hospitality businesses trying to return to profitability. Under the latest guidelines, patrons are given a 105 minute limit on the time they can spend in a pub or restaurant. But why? This seems to be an arbitrary number plucked out of thin air, with no real basis in science from what anyone can tell. Another concerning guideline for wedding venues and hotels is the onus being placed on staff to maintain social distancing at all times, including on dancefloors. How can anyone expect this to work in real-life without placing an increased workload on staff or potentially jeopardising guest experience? One of the biggest questions for businesses of all sizes, from intimate restaurants to large hotels and contract caterers is in what world can chefs maintain a 2m distance in a busy kitchen during service?
According to latest updates The 2m social distancing guideline but this can be reduced to 1metre* in controlled environments . But what does this mean? Many who have already spent time mapping out 2m within their premises and have spent money on signage displaying a 2m distance. There are major differences in readying a space for 2m and readying the same space for 1m. With a little over a week to go until June 29th, businesses nationwide are right now doing the trojan work of figuring out what the recent government guidelines mean for them and applying the necessary changes to their premises while coping with unclear and rapidly changing guidance. While everyone is happy to be opening sooner than August as originally scheduled and hopefully salvaging some of the summer season, the one thing the government’s original 5 phase plan did give was certainty. We’re all aware that COVID-19 and the fight against it are constantly evolving but is it fair to ask individual businesses to bear the brunt of this uncertainty alone?
There needs to be a recognition that these recent government guidelines cost time and money to implement and enforce and businesses need to be given the supports to do so. There needs be further recognition that many venues won’t be able to operate under them; through absolutely no fault of their own. Many high-end restaurants and pubs whose USP is their cosy and intimate atmosphere and reversely, many events venues whose business model is large crowds will have to hold off until the virus is further suppressed.
Again, while an earlier opening date is most definitely a positive news story; more sustainable, long term supports will be needed. Many tangible suggestions have been proposed by the Restaurants Association of Ireland including 0% VAT rate for the tourism & hospitality industries for the period of the crisis & an entire year afterwards, then reverting to a 9% rate for a period of 5 years after along with relief on rates or rent for the rest of the year. It cannot be a case of “now you’re open, you’re on your own.” Everyone has been on the same side of closing to ensure public safety, that cannot swivel to the government and hospitality industry being on opposite sides when it comes to getting the country back running. One of the things that lockdown has shown is the resilience, creativity and desire to succeed of the hospitality industry in adapting to challenges in the market. That in itself is reason to be positive. Best of luck to all our clients and businesses reopening in the coming weeks and congratulations on all your efforts.
Covid-19 has had a profound effect on all our lives over the past few months. As we move through the phases of exiting lockdown, our attention is focusing more and more on the long-term effects the pandemic will leave behind. One thing I do hope for is that the outpouring of public appreciation and respect for our country’s frontline healthcare staff will not be forgotten quickly.
Through social media, health workers have collaborated across the board on a scale never seen before. Unfortunately, this was often about sourcing desperately needed supplies of ventilators and personal protective equipment for staff. We are all used to hearing about the trolley crisis and staff shortages, but this allowed us, the general public, to see the human faces behind the problems in a way we never had before. We were also introduced to many of the others who form the backbone of our health service from household staff to direct care workers.
Professor Arnie Hill of the Royal College of Surgeons raised the idea that our recent insight and exposure to the industry has greatly expanded people’s interest in healthcare as a career path. Health has moved to the forefront of global consciousness, with Tony Holohon and Tadhg Daly becoming household names and terms such as basic reproduction rate becoming part of our everyday vocabulary. Is it a reasonable assumption that we will see a greater interest in health-related courses over the coming years?
The last couple of months have been particularly challenging for our students especially those who had been due to sit the Leaving Cert. They were one of the groups most affected by the virus with the lack of clarity for months before the final decision to use predicted grades. H-Pat applications were of course closed in January before Covid came to prominence however nursing and other medical fields may see an uptake in demand for September. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation renewed its calls for extra undergraduate nursing places to avoid even more severe staffing pressures in the future. The INMO has also said it is likely there will be a drop in overseas recruitment because of the coronavirus pandemic resulting in extra pressures on nurses and midwives in the years ahead.
April’s announcement that fourth-year nursing students who are currently working as interns in hospitals are set to move onto the HCA pay scale was most welcome. Many observers believe the pay cuts which had been implemented in various formats since 2009 had contributed to the surge in nurses qualifying and moving abroad and to the difficulty in recruiting nurses to work in Ireland. This has in-turn contributed to understaffing and overcrowding in our hospitals and pressure on our nursing homes.
As we celebrate National Carers Week from June 8th, it is both sobering and inspiring to hear the tales and struggles of Ireland’s home and family carers who are notable frontline healthcare staff. It emphasizes the depth, breadth and diversity of roles which make up our “healthcare frontline”. With an expected increase in investment in healthcare globally over the next few years, it seems that it will become ever more challenging for the state and private employers to attract and retain the right people.
Brian Nixon leads the permanent recruitment division of Excel Healthcare and specializes in the recruitment of Nurses and other senior roles within healthcare. To discuss recruitment and how we can help, please call 018717676 or email brian@excelrecruitment.com
Pivot.. pivot… PIVOT!!! Everyone remembers the episode in Friends when Ross, Rachel and Chandler are trying to get the couch up the stairs and Ross is shouting “Pivot” to no avail! Well that is exactly what the hospitality industry is going through at the moment! We are holding the future of our industry in our hands, stuck on a corner, knowing we have to pivot but not entirely sure how to do it! So what is a pivot? A pivot is when a company makes a change to its business model after realising that they are unable to service the market in its current format.
So how do we accomplish that?
I spoke to a number of companies this week to check in how they are adapting and I was delighted to get such a positive response. For example, I spoke to senior management in Boojum and they told me how they decided early on to meet the challenge head-on. They left a small number of stores open for delivery only as well as click and collect and adapted the layout of all their kitchens to create a new workflow that kept the staff a safe distance apart while not affecting productivity. They are now looking at reopening more stores with the same template. Boojum also introduced initiatives for staff that were temporarily laid off, one of which was a free daily meal! This is a fantastic idea as it kept staff engaged with the brand while not working and highlighted to the staff how they are valued by management.
This echoes reports that I am getting when I speak to people in the Quick Service Restaurant Industry on the high street. Most have pivoted their business to service takeaway and click and collect demand which allows them to remain open and functional while working away in the background figuring out how they are going to manage to return to regular service. Amazingly, some QSR operators who have adapted to take advantage of the demand for home delivery are reporting that their sales figures are level with figures for 2019 with one operator that I spoke to admitting that he was in the middle of opening a new outlet!
What about hotels?
We are seeing that a number of hotels and restaurant are starting to reopen, offering a reduced menu for click and collect and home delivery. Earlier, I spoke to The Castleknock Hotel who is doing just that. They have been busy designing and implementing a new service for their customers which has been a massive success for the hospitality industry. They have adapted the kitchen, implemented new Health & Safety guidelines and also rotated the staff to ensure that social distancing protocols adhered to. By rotating the staff on smaller shifts, it also promotes employee engagement and give the staff a sense of purpose albeit in a limited capacity at present. Now doing a takeout coffee service, they will keep the call and collect model when the Hotel fully reopens and they also hope to expand by adding of a new outdoor area in the coming weeks!
There is a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks as we start to see the ingenuity and resilience of the Hospitality Industry adapt to challenges in the market. There are green shoots starting to spring up so get up off that couch and pivot…
Excel Recruitment CEO Barry Whelan gives his tips for recruitment in a socially distanced world
Even with lockdown potentially (hopefully) coming to a full end in the next few weeks, social distancing and remote working where possible are going to be the way of life for many for the foreseeable future. While things might seem all doom and gloom, there are companies actively hiring and many others planning their recruitment needs for when restrictions ease and life returns to its new normal. Whether you’re looking for a longterm leader to join your business or for an immediate scale-up of staff to meet extra demand, below are some tips for employers to help tackle safely shifting your recruitment processes during this time while still finding great talent to join their team.
Do a tech check
There are a huge number of technologies available to facilitate remote working, team meetings and video interviewing, From Zoom to Microsoft teams to Bluejeans, the list is endless. But before you fall down the rabbit hole and rush to invest in tech, assess what you need it for and whether you need it at all. Are your team structured enough that a group email thread will work? What about setting up a Whatsapp group so everyone can stay connected and in the loop? For interviewing new hires, does it need to be a video call or are you comfortable with just a phone interview? As with everything, remote working technology is only valuable if you need it.
Video call confidence
Many employers have embraced video interviews and while it’s great to be able to engage with potential new hires, it’s important to remember that video interviews should be fundamentally similar to in-person interviews. All the advice we’ve been giving to jobseekers about video interviews applies to employers and hiring managers as well. Dress the part, check whatever software and wifi connection you’re using are good to go, make sure you’re in a quiet space and that people know not to disturb you, turn your phone to silent and have a back-up plan should you need it. There are often delays and pauses in the connection that don’t occur face to face so practice not only using the tech but communicating through it.
Ask: who’s doing what?
One of the biggest headaches of remote working is keeping in contact with team members and ensuring everyone is engaged and on the same page. While it may sound obvious, ensuring everyone knows who’s doing what will save a huge amount of time, money and headaches for you and your team. Simple questions such as who’s taking charge of screening at CVs, who’s scheduling interviews/ contacting candidates etc. need to be clarified before the hiring begins. Often this happens organically when the team are all in the office at the same time, but now these details must be discussed ahead of time so everyone’s on the same page. Not only is this important to ensures a smooth running in-house but also improves the candidate’s experience.
Stay engaged with your current team
With everything so up in the air, making considered, thoughtful hiring decisions are now more important than ever. Open clear communications with teams and individuals at all levels of the business means you will be better able to identify where the real gaps and needs in your team are and work to fill these, instead of where you presume the needs are. Developing stronger communication with your team also means you’re in a better position to spot if employees may be unhappy and looking for a move and you can work to address any issues before they start sending CVs out.
Have an onboarding plan
Once you’ve done the hard work of recruiting a role, don’t forget the next crucial part of the process: Onboarding and training your newest team member. It can be quite disconcerting to start a new job at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a global crisis! Depending on your company/ the role, your new hire may be working from home without the opportunity to meet their team/ manager in person or if working in essential services may have a huge amount of information and policies or procedures to absorb. Having a clear training plan ahead of time along with regular check-ins will be key to ensuring your new team member hits the ground running.
Building Excel’s Commercial and Industrial Division was a project I was really looking forward to, but to not be able to go to all the meetings I had arranged with some very well-known and exciting companies made it far more of a challenge than I had anticipated!
Over my twelve years in recruitment, the highlight of any role has been getting out to meet potential clients, spending time onsite with them and learning their business. This is how I have always built relationships with my clients and in many cases, has led to real friendships. Not having the ability to do this was something I was really going to miss and an obstacle I was unsure how to overcome.
Thankfully with the wonders of technology, these meetings have been able to happen, albeit virtually. To be able to keep some sort of normality while nurturing my relationships with my clients is a blessing.
“We are all in this together” has become the slogan for these times and it has proven true over the last few weeks. Clients have, at times, been unsure of next steps, nervous about what was going to happen and how long it may last. I have heard first-hand from many, that knowing they had our back-up put them a little more at ease. The knowledge that we would pull out all the stops to help them in any way possible gave them peace of mind. Many clients came to us to help ensure their workforces that were temporarily laid off were looked after, a goal we achieved in many cases.
The positives
Excel’s reputation for success nationwide in the retail and hospitality industries meant we were able to adapt to what was happening rapidly explains Jennifer Maher. Rather than lose our hospitality and events workforce, we redeployed them into other workspaces like warehousing, logistics, administration etc… while also helping out our clients’ employees by finding them temporary work.
I have always met with all my candidates face to face to learn about them and to ensure I put them into jobs they will do well and be happy. Now the ‘new normal’ means these interviews are telephone / Zoom based. A lot has changed in the past few months, but I’ve found people being more isolated means they are happy to have telephone conversations and are opening up a lot more in terms of their goals and where they want to see their future. This has given me more opportunities to steer them in the right direction, even sometimes in directions they may have never considered before.
With Excel’s reputation for being professional and trustworthy and our extensive network of clients and candidates, we have been able to break into a new industrial division and place excellent people in various roles. Excel Recruitment has always prided itself on its ability to form new and lasting partnerships with clients and we still work with clients today that first came to us when we opened in 2002. I count us very lucky to have formed new relationships and partnerships during this time and I am confident the new clients that we have gained since the beginning of this pandemic will be clients we will work with for years to come. Going from beginning a brand-new division to three months later, having over 250 temporary candidates on-site nationwide across a large portfolio of clients is something we will be forever grateful for and I am proud of the team for rising to the challenge.
I am looking forward to the days where we can all meet again face-to-face but until then I count myself lucky to be part of such an amazing team of people with a management team who really care for their employees!
As this crisis lifts, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me for any of your requirements across logistics, warehousing, transport, admin, finance or anything else you may need.
