Operations Graduate at Coles
With a bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, I was drawn to the opportunity to experience and understand the detailed aspects of such an intricate operation and also make an impact by delivering on real projects. I joined the program seeking frontline exposure to the end-to-end process across a variety of departments that bring together such a vast warehousing operation.
During my Team Manager role I developed a rapport with my team, understanding their goals and motivators in order to encourage them. One of my Team Members was recently successful in their application for a Team Manager role! Having the opportunity to mentor and support them in this stage of their career development has been very rewarding.
In the rotational Graduate program this changes on a monthly basis. I am currently a Shift Manager, which means I’m responsible for ensuring we deliver commercial results through managing key performance indicators, monitoring our progress, and reporting our performance up stream. I lead and support the Team Managers, while ensuring adherence to policy and procedure, maintaining safety standards and seeking opportunities for improvement.
Graduates in the Distribution Centre hit the ground running and are responsible and accountable from day one. Gaining experience in every facet of the warehousing operation, we make our way through all areas and meet some amazingly dedicated people who strive for excellence.
The rotational nature of the role is a challenge, as it tests my ability to refocus on a new role every few weeks. This is a development opportunity that enabled me to improve my resilience and acceptance of change, and also adjust my communication style in order to interact effectively with a variety of people.
The Coles network boasts a wealth of highly skilled professionals across a range of roles to deliver outstanding results in the complex and dynamic Retail industry. This enables Graduates to broaden our horizons and discover a spectrum of roles that we are encouraged to take an interest in and get involved with.
Graduates should enter the role with clear desired outcomes for each rotation and the overall program. Each department has unique challenges but they all require the ability to quickly adapt to different roles, communication styles and new systems and understand how everything works together.
Agile, attentive, accountable.