12 minute read
Recruitment: Excel
BARRY WHELAN
managing director of Excel Recruitment
www.excelrecruitment.com
S i x t i p s t o m a x i m i s e y o u r w o r k f r o m h o m e l e a d e r s h i p s t r a t e g y
For many roles and companies, remote working is here to stay. Here, Excel Recruitment’s Barry Whelan outlines how to ensure your leadership style within a vitual setting can still motivate and drive the best performance from your team
Within the wider trade of retail, there are of course many people who cannot work from home. However, there is still a significant number, particularly in the brand and administration end of retail, who are working remotely and for whom this may remain a large part of their future work life. Over the last 24 months, companies have proven that productivity levels can be maintained and even improved with remote and agile working, so it is more important than ever for employers to take full control of the situation by adopting the correct leadership strategies.
1. Communicate
In any business, one of the most important aspects of working on-site is the opportunity to interact with and meet employees and colleagues. It is therefore vital to establish these moments even in a virtual setting. This can be done by creating ‘break out rooms’ after online meetings finish, where employees must stay on the call for an extra five to 10 minutes to discuss anything they like – it does not have to relate to work and should not feel structured or regulated. The idea is to get to know your colleagues, as better and more comfortable communication leads to higher standards of work and increased productivity. Senior members of staff should also involve themselves in this activity, as it bridges the gap between all levels of seniority.
2. Be clear and transparent
To build on the note of effective communication, it is so important to set in place clear and reasonable expectations you expect your employees to adhere to. Full and comprehensive communication guidelines should be circulated including the company’s expectations of their employees and how they can continue to embrace and strengthen the culture of the company. This gives both the employee and the employer something to reference if there is ever a need and ensures that each party understands their role.
3. Utilise technology
An employee’s work from home set up should not differ greatly from their office, in terms of their ability to perform the tasks assigned to them and they therefore need to be given the appropriate tools and training to enable this. Virtual meeting platforms and suitable forms of communication need to be set in place to ensure no employee feels vulnerable or unsure of where to turn when working from home. Processes need to be set in place from the start of remote working to ensure there is visibility among team members about the status of projects and tasks.
Creating ‘break out rooms’ after online meetings finish, where colleagues can have an unstructured chat for a few minutes, helps teams feel more connected, writes Barry Whelan 4. Be inclusive and reach out
It is easy to forget that whilst remote working may be the ideal situation for some, for others at times it can feel lonely and isolating. That is why it is so important to instill an ethos of open and genuine communication. CC colleagues on emails, video call or message them to check in on their day and invite them on your relevant calls with team members. For a business to work as a synergy, the members involved must both act and feel like a team and not only work together but thrive together.
5. Show your appreciation and reward achievement
Employees are only human and sometimes employers need to be reminded of this. By regularly showing gratitude and recognition for well performed tasks, employees feel appreciated and encouraged to maintain their high standard of work. Successes and achievements within the company represent both the employee and the business and should be measured and rewarded with specific methods in place to ensure fair and equal distribution of recognition.
6. Have confidence in your employees
Once given the appropriate tools to succeed, most strong employees will do just that, and it is important to give them the space to do so. While it is necessary to make your employees feel valued and supported, you must ensure that you do not end up micromanaging their work. A balance between the two must be established to ultimately create the best outcome. ■
Convenience to the fore
The Irish government’s aim is that by 2030, 100% of new cars and vans will be electrical vehicles, that is either a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). You would imagine that this will surely have a devastating effect on the forecourt industry with its main commodity fuel being phased out, much like in the tobacco industry where its focus has shifted to vaping in order to future-proof itself. Surely if people can power their vehicles at home before a journey, one might think, they can almost avoid using forecourts at all if they wish.
However, according to Circle K’s research, forecourts will continue to play a significant role in powering Ireland’s vehicles in the future, with over two fifths of motorists saying they will rely on forecourts for access to electric vehicle charging facilities. That is all well and good but how do forecourt operators ensure that consumers will still want to visit forecourts in the future despite the option of charging cars at home?
Facilities in many Irish motorway service stations are world-class and the food options are vast, from resident outlets like McDonald’s, Burger King and Supermacs to extensive hot food offerings, branded coffee and ice-cream concessions and comfortable and extensive dining spaces. Circle K says it has invested more than €150 million in the Irish market since it took over the network from Denis O’Brien’s Topaz in 2016. With this in mind, forecourt operators simply cannot afford investment of this scale to become unviable.
Food glorious food
As we’ve established, if people are increasingly driving electric vehicles, they won’t have the same reliance on forecourts. For example if you are driving from Cork to Galway, you will surely charge your car the night before and not have to rely on stopping at a forecourt for anything from 20 minutes to an hour to charge up. They will still however want to stop for food and need to use toilet facilities and you would imagine that this is where the focus must be for the forecourt operators of the future. Charging stations and car wash facilities will be important but the money will be made from the food.
Could this be why Circle K decided to buy the Griffin Group stores? This is Circle K’s first move onto the high street in Ireland and its first multi-site acquisition of standalone stores in Europe. The locations of these Griffin Group stores are Upper O’Connell Street, Lower O’Connell Street, Westmoreland Street, College Green, Nassau Street, Grafton Street, Fonthill, Parkwest and Sandyford. You can’t get more high profile than this.
The Griffin Group headed up by Seamus Griffin and operating under the Londis banner with BWG has a very successful food-to go business and Circle K will be using these stores to gain learnings from Irish consumers’ behaviours and maybe trial some new concepts. The Griffin Group has partnerships with brands like Chopped
L a s t m o n t h C i r c l e K a n n o u n c e d t h a t i t h a d b o u g h t t e n h i g h p r o f i l e L o n d i s s t o r e s i n D u b l i n c i t y c e n t r e , i t s f i r s t m o v e a w a y f r o m f o r e c o u r t s i n I r e l a n d . F i o n n u a l a C a r o l a n l o o k s a t w h y t h e c o m p a n y w o u l d m a k e s u c h a m o v e i n a n a l r e a d y c r o w d e d c o n v e n i e n c e m a r k e t
and Subway so this would have been very attractive to Circle K.
Acquisition time
Gordon Lawlor, managing director, Circle K Ireland told ShelfLife that they first started thinking about opening standalone outlets in Ireland three years ago but decided that it was best to wait for an acquisition opportunity rather than opening stores one by one. “When we were approached by the Griffin Group late last year, we felt it was a great opportunity to acquire 10 very high-profile locations with established expertise in food, and excellent partner brands which greatly complements our network of forecourt locations,” he explains.
Lawlor goes on to say: “We are particularly excited at the opportunities this presents for our food business across our network in terms of innovation, shared learnings and new offerings for our customers, and are looking forward to collaborating with our new colleagues and partners.”
Circle K is owned and operated by the Canadian company Alimentation CoucheTard and it has more than 14,000 stores in 26 countries worldwide. The company already has 420 forecourts in Ireland, including deals with independent forecourt owners and an extensive network operated by the company itself.
The Griffin Group acquisition is still subject to approval from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission but if it gets clearance, Lawlor says it will replace the brand over the door with its Circle K logo “within weeks”. A total of 200 Griffin Group staff are currently employed at the locations, all of whom will be kept on by Circle K bringing the company’s total number of employees in Ireland to just under 2,400.
Griffin Group background
The Griffin Group has been operating in Ireland for over 30 years with 15 stores around Dublin. Griffin Central was founded in 1951 by Seamus Griffin Snr, whose Blackrock store was the first self-service supermarket on Dublin’s south side. It was subsequently taken over by his sons and eventually headed up by Seamus Griffin Jnr. The group joined Musgrave in 1997 and operated six Centra stores in Dublin.
In 2005, the group’s then nine stores rebranded to Londis and a successful relationship with BWG ensued.
So it is fair to ask, why was the Griffin Group looking for a buyer? It is no secret that city centre shops were hit badly during Covid and Griffin’s concentration of stores in the most deserted part of the city during the pandemic surely suffered more than most. Calls to Griffin for comment by ShelfLife were unanswered but he is an entrepreneur, and we can only guess that maybe a new venture was what he needed after 18 months of managing business in a significantly quieter-than-normal Dublin city centre. News of Griffin’s new venture Bueno, an ice-cream brand with locations around the country including Tullamore, Castleknock and Rathcoole may have something to do with it. On announcement of the news that he was selling the ten shops, Griffin wished his departing colleagues well and thanked them for their commitment to the Griffin Group over the past three decades.
We asked Lawlor whether there was any worry that the city centre might never recover the same footfall it had pre-Covid and with this is mind, was it a high risk investment? He admits that Covid has undoubtedly impacted the high street but as society reopens, they are seeing signs of recovery already. “With more and more people returning to the city centre, offices reopening, universities and colleges returning, and tourists starting to visit Dublin, the recovery will continue,” he says. “We look at investment in the long-term and we see great potential for our offering in these locations.”
Circle K has 420 forecourts in Ireland, including deals with independent forecourt owners and an extensive network operated by the company itself
What Circle K can deliver
While the convenience market is attractive to Circle K, what can Circle K offer the high street convenience market in Ireland to make the brand stand out from the myriad of brands already occupying this space?
Lawlor says there are a few things
Circle K has 420 forecourts in Ireland, including deals with independent forecourt owners and an extensive network operated by the company itself
that really stand out for him including being an international player, having a very experienced team in Ireland and the investment in its convenience offering which includes Circle K’s own fresh food ranges. “We have constantly innovated in recent years through the development of our food ranges, specialty coffee, next generation fuel, EV charging facilities and wider convenience offering all for the benefit of our customers,” he explains. “As a business, we always look at how we can do things better and the addition of these locations will certainly support this.
Overall footprint
There is definitely more than a whiff of confidence from Circle K about its future in Ireland’s convenience market and Lawlor admits to ShelfLife that they are keen to grow the overall footprint of the business in Ireland, forecourt and high street, which was a key part of the rationale behind the Griffin Group acquisition.
“In terms of Ireland, we are keen to continue growing our overall footprint enabling us to deliver our product and service offering to even more customers,” he says. “This applies to other potential opportunities with standalone stores in high footfall areas or on the high street, but equally in our traditional forecourt channels – company owned and operated stores, franchise opportunities and dealer operated service stations. We are really keen to explore opportunities in other cities as well, such as Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.”
Circle K is certainly on the march and so let the battle on the high street and the forecourts across the country commence! Competition can only be a good thing for the market and we will watch with interest as it unfolds as the country comes alive again post-Covid. n
