RESEND: 63% of Warehouse permanent staff now on career wage   20 Mar 2015

Fiona Rotherham

 

RESEND: Warehouse says 63% of permanent staff now on 'career retailer wage'

(Fixes fourth paragraph to show Warehouse is biggest listed retailer)

March 20 (BusinessDesk) - Mark Powell, chief executive of retailer Warehouse Group, says he hopes to eventually see someone promoted to his role that started out in the Red Shirts in Schools programme as a 16 year old.

“There’s not many companies that can say that anymore, but it’s possible in our industry and in our business,” he said.

Powell’s comments came at the official opening today of Warehouse’s new purpose-built retail learning facility, the Sir Stephen Tindall Learning Centre in Auckland, where up to 250 people can be trained at one time.

The centre, along with the career retailer wage scheme the group introduced two years ago, are part of its push to make retail a more popular career choice for Kiwis and widen the talent pool for New Zealand's biggest listed retailer.

“We’re well aware of the common misconception that retail is poorly paid, boring and not really a career, but we are leading our industry to change this negative and inaccurate reputation,” Powell said.

Introducing the career retailer wage scheme was staggered over two years because of the $6 million annual hit to the group’s bottom line. Staff members who have completed the necessary training and 5,000 hours with the company can earn between $18 and $20 per hour.

Some 4,100 team members, or 63 percent of permanent staff, are now earning $18 an hour or above. Warehouse employs over 12,000 people nationwide and has an annual turnover of $2.6 billion.

Powell said staff retention had improved at the 'red' and 'blue' sheds and particularly at Noel Leeming which previously had significant staff churn. The general merchandise red sheds’ staff retention numbers have improved to 78.3 percent in 2014 from 76.8 per cent in 2012, and to 82.6 percent from 81.6 percent at the blue shed stationery outlets over the same period.

It is a long-term push, rather than a short-term fix, Powell said.

“We’ve lead the way for the industry but haven’t seen anyone follow us yet. We hope they will because this is a key issue for the industry,” he said.

He pointed to long-time staffer Richard Currie, who has just been appointed a regional manager for the red sheds in the South Island. The 34 year old started with the company as a part-time checkout operator 17 years ago while doing computing courses at university.

Currie said he found himself spending more time at the store than university and finally decided to make retail his career. After a few years on the shop floor he did a trainee management course and ended up managing his own store in Auckland. The latest role sees him in charge of a $175 million business in the South Island with 700 employees and nine stores.

The group’s career retail pathway starts with supporting secondary students, sponsorships for accredited qualifications like the new Massey University Bachelor of Retail and Business Management degree, store management development programmes, literacy programmes, NZQA national certificate in retail, and the career retailer wage.

Since 2009 5,323 secondary students have been through the Red Shirts in Schools programme where they spend time working in any of Warehouse’s 92 stores while still at school, with 76 percent successfully graduating.

Company founder Stephen Tindall said it was incredibly important to give youth a stepping stone into employment, and learning on the job was the easiest way to do that.

“Career advisers try to give kids high aspirations and think they’re doing them a disservice by introducing them to retail as a first job when in fact they can learn by studying and earn an income,” he said.

He said the group’s retail career pathway training was very different from when he started out in retail at his great-grandfather’s company George Courts and did a three-year polytech management diploma studying part-time at night which included only two small units on retail.

More recently there has been a big retailing shift online but Tindall said he thinks there will always be a place for bricks and mortar stores and he forecasts the group will end up with around one third of revenue from online and two-thirds still coming from bricks and mortar stores.

(BusinessDesk)

Add a comment

News

Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students

29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more

New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process

7 Mar 2020 News By Rt HON WINSTON PETERS
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more

Business

NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19

17 Mar 2020 Business News By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more

NZ Government announces aviation relief package

19 Mar 2020 Business News By Hon Phil Twyford
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more

Living

Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London

6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall. It was the first... more

Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate

12 Jan 2022 Arts By Charlotte Everett
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...  New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more

Property

Fairer rules for tenants and landlords

17 Nov 2019 Property By Minister Kris Faafoi
17 NOVEMBER 2019 The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more

New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax

17 Apr 2019 Property By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more

Migration

Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued

19 Nov 2019 Migration By Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
19 NOVEMBER 2019 We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more

Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location

18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018 HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more

Travel

Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled

19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more

New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas

19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas more

Sport

The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners

27 Oct 2019 Cricket By Charlotte Everett
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more

PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final

26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more

Columns

Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade

11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade First published on Werewolf The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more

Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome

10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell   Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more

Kiwi Success

Congratulations to Loder Cup winner

26 Sep 2018 People By Hon Eugenie Sage
25 SEPTEMBER 2018 The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more

Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO

16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO HON JENNY SALESA Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more

Recruitment

Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers

14 Aug 2018 Recruitment By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers RT HON JACINDA ARDERN HON CHRIS HIPKINS Prime Minister The... more

Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers

22 Aug 2018 Recruitment By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers RT HON JACINDA ARDERN HON CHRIS HIPKINS Prime Minister The... more