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Career path:
July 2010 to Present
Iceland - Store Manager - Hamilton
March 2009 to July 2010
Iceland - Store Manager - Coulby Newham
June 2008 to March 2009
Iceland - Store Manager - Redcar (entry level store)
Sept 2007
Joined Iceland's Five Year Graduate Trainee Programme - positions held as part of the programme include;
March 2003 to Sept 2007
Iceland - Part Time Sales Assistant whilst studying
- Name:
- Ian Trotter
- Employer:
- Iceland
- Position:
- Store Manager
Q: What made you choose to join Iceland?
I started my employment with Iceland as a part-time retail assistant while at college and continued working for the company in a number of different stores during my three years at university. By the time I left university I was certain my future lay in retail and I had a number of job offers, one of which was with another food retailer on their graduate programme.
There were a number of influencing factors when choosing to stay with Iceland and join the graduate programme: firstly, having spent over four years with the company I naturally felt a sense of loyalty; secondly, I felt fully in tune with the culture of the company, one of speed and simplicity and, thirdly, the Iceland graduate programme had just launched the very year I graduated and I was sure that there would be a real focus on supporting me to achieve through the programme.
Q: What is the basic function/purpose of your current role?
As a store manager the purpose of my role is the leadership, management, motivation, training and development of my team to deliver our key performance indicators or targets.
Q: Describe some of the key tasks involved in performing your current role and the frequency with which you have to perform them.
The key tasks in my role can be split as either processes or people-focused tasks. As a manager I am responsible for the level of service we provide to our customers and the standards we present to them. The people-focused tasks are centred on communication, leadership and management. For example, at least once daily I will brief my management team (consisting of my senior supervisors and supervisors) about the day's targets and any issues that they need to be aware of. Through the course of any one day I make sure that I 'check-in' with every member of staff - this can be anything from a chat about their weekend to a lengthy discussion about the training and development or their performance.
All processes at store level are the responsibility of the manager and it is my responsibility to monitor how compliant we are with these processes. They consist of health and safety checks, security checks, inventory control, operational compliance checks and budgetary management; all of which are completed daily.
The most important part of the job is the ability to react - no two days are the same and it is vital as a store manger that you are able to adapt to any given situation to ensure you lead your team through it.
Q: What’s the first thing you do when you arrive at work each day?
Greet every single member of the team, from cashiers to drivers, cleaners to supervisors - it's crucial the team view you as a person first and a manager second. Following this I will review the previous day's performance and check the stores performance in the current week to date. It took quite some time for this to become my daily routine, when I first started the role these actions would be the other way around - it took time to recognise that the previous day's performance couldn't have been achieved without the people who were around me in the morning.
Q: How big is the team in which you work?
My current team has 35 members.
Q: Describe how your job interacts with the rest of your team.
A huge part of my job is to communicate targets to the team but something I learned very early into my career is that simply telling people what to do will never yield great results - you need to engage people. This is where my job interacts with the rest of the team - every day is an opportunity to increase a team member's appreciation of how their role impacts on the stores target and therefore the team's result.
The reality of retail, particularly food retail is that it is an incredibly competitive market and maintaining performance will see you fall behind your competitors. For this reason we have to constantly improve and this is another way in which my role interacts with the team - there is nothing more rewarding than training and developing people to improve themselves and the responsibility for this rests almost solely at the manager's feet.
Q: How would you describe the working culture of your current employer?
Retail is a fast moving industry and our store teams reflect this, everything is done with speed, energy and enthusiasm. As I mentioned previously, our culture is one of speed and simplicity. We keep our day-to-day tasks simple so our focus is where it needs to be - on our customers. Our vision is to be the number one frozen food retailer on the high street and we look to achieve this through putting our customers at the forefront of everything we do. Over the last five years there has been more and more focus on reward and recognition and this has helped create a culture where people always want to achieve and want to improve; this has and will continue to keep us ahead of our direct competitors.
Q: What career avenues do you hope to be able to pursue in the next: two years, five years & ten years?
Interestingly, we recently had our store managers conference where it was highlighted that although we have a clear company vision, we are versatile in our approach and able to quickly adapt to changes and demands in the marketplace. The Iceland graduate programme is a five-year programme that I am three years into. At the end of the programme the aim is to be ready to make the step up from store manager to area manager and this remains my aim.
I honestly believe if you focus too much on the future you miss the development opportunities you need to seize to achieve your end goal. I take my career six months at a time and my present focus is on becoming an exceptional store manager. My career ambitions longer term are to simply climb the ladder as high as it will take me. In my interview for this job my stores director asked me where I wanted to end up, I told him I'll one day have his job. But the ladder is best climbed six months at a time.
Q: What do you like most about your current role and why?
As an individual I am extremely competitive, driven and determined. My current role not only requires these traits but allows me to instil them in a group of people and 'win' together as a team. As I have mentioned, every day is different and I love the need for adaptability and reaction. In terms of what I most enjoy about my role, it is facilitating peoples' development through training and coaching. In my relatively short career as a store manager I have supported nine colleagues to make the step up to duty manager and two colleagues up to supervisor and I have been proud of each one - it is without doubt the best part of the job.
Q: What did you/do you find hardest about your current role?
I have recently relocated to the Hamilton store from my home in South Shields leaving behind my girlfriend, family and friends and this has been difficult. When I started on the programme I stressed my mobility and willingness to relocate and even though it isn't proving to be easy in reality, I have total trust in my regional manager that it is the right move to support my development.
Q: How close do you think that the general public’s view of your employer to the reality?
I'd like to think they're very similar. I'm certain customers now see Iceland as synonymous with excellent customer service (our mystery shop results certainly reflect this), our frozen brand is associated with a level of quality and value that are without equal and in terms of us as an employer, we were voted thirteenth in the Times best companies to work for, reflecting the focus on a family environment where achievements don't go unnoticed but are recognised and rewarded.
Q: Would you recommend your employer to a friend and if so, why?
Would you recommend your employer to a friend and if so, why?When you leave university, finding a job is becoming increasingly difficult. I had the luxury of being able to choose one of a handful of offers and there hasn't been one day where I've even considered I might have made a mistake. I have some friends who work for other food retailers and they can't believe some of the things I tell them about Iceland as an employer. I don't believe there is another retailer who puts so much focus on the strength of its managers.
Over the last two years we have been offered countless different opportunities to develop on a behavioural level through Manager Development Programmes (MDPs), a newly launched manager development folder, online materials ranging from top tip workbooks (bite size training materials) to OnTheJob workbooks (detailed behavioural training incorporating management theory relative to our roles). I have been with Iceland nearly eight years and through the last three of these I have rapidly developed into a strong store manger, I have had some fantastic trainers and a network of people constantly offering support as well as stakeholders who I truly believe are focused on both my development and progression. There can't be many retailers where this is the case.
If there's an employee you think epitomises your company ethos or you'd like to draw attention to a particular role, why not get in touch with our team right now? Just email: advertising@theappointment.co.uk.
