Store Manager Review

My role involves the day to day running of food store that has an annual turnover of £2.4million. I manage a team of staff that includes team managers, team leaders and customer team members. I am responsible for all KPI’s such as sales, waste, membership and community engagement.

I have learnt a vast wealth of skills. Mainly: Management, how to lead a team. Not just the how but a lot of theory behind it. Different peoples learning styles for example and how to get the most from them. Project management, stakeholder management and engagement, networking. Time management and influencing.

I really enjoy the programme overall and believe it adds real tangible benefits to my role and career. I believer that Anglia Ruskin are a great learning provider and have really sussed out what works and what doesn’t. Very little seems too much trouble for them. A great programme on the whole.

The programme is structured well from an Anglia Ruskin point of view. The only failure or negative I could state is that the link between learning provider and line manager is broken. More needs to be done to build line manager and field support. Often the day job takes over and you do feel a little on your own with the workload or the coop expects Anglia to manage this and in effect only the coop apprenticeship team can. I rarely get to take my entitled apprentice hours.

When my time is scheduled and I am away on residential I do get a lot of support, but when back in the business doing my day job the support is non existent other than a query on how I’m progressing. The rest is left to me in the hope I will succeed.

The training provider is fantastic and nothing is too much trouble. If anything they are guilty of doing too much if that’s possible. The facilities and learning is excellent. Sometimes I fee then reaidential part of the course is too long and could easily be reduced to allow for more self study time.

It’s an essential development programme that has equipped me with various transferable skills such as marketing, finance, career development, HR and more. These skills will inevitably set me up for life and really propel my career in a new and exciting direction that I may otherwise not have been able to achieve

There are none that I get involved with other that a community aspect of the job. We do a lot of fund raising for various charities and this is a really essential part of the role and something I’m keen to develop further over the next coming months and years

Yes

It’s a great company to work for and there is ample opportunity to progress into various functions and departments such as finance, hr, marketing, management, funeral, insurance and community. The company is vast in size and the opportunities really are endless and you have a chance to shape your local community through some of the great work the coop does

Research the values of the coop and what t stands for. This is really not your typical for profit corporation. These values are alive within the organisation and you are expected to love and breath these. Understand it’s unique history and how you can help shape and impact this.