Retail is a business that never stands still. But no other retailer is as restless as Asda in looking for ways to do things better. There are always new projects on the go to improve our processes, which in turn calls for constant communication with the stores and depots to ensure change happens smoothly and successfully. The role of the Retail Operations team is primarily about improvement, change and communication.
Process Improvement
The Process Improvement team is essential to everything we want to achieve as a business. Responsible for developing and implementing major change and strategic programmes throughout Asda, this team continually looks at process, replenishment, store warehouses, systems and the home shopping process to find brilliant ways to make them even better.
In addition, the team works collaboratively with the Trading, Supply and Distribution teams to simplify and improve some incredibly complex business problems. This can see the team collaborating with Walmart US and Canada to see how they've solved problems and develop current and future global process systems together.
And it works! A great example of this is the improvement in stock availability that was recognised by 'The Grocer 33 Award for Availability' that Asda won in 2008 and 2010.
Communication & Engagement Colleague
As a worldwide family the communications we send to our colleagues across stores, distribution centres and home offices is vital to the smooth running of our business. The Operational Communication team delivers essential information on a daily basis through our intranet so that store and depot colleagues are up to speed and on top of their game. They also send out the detailed briefs that enable large and exciting projects to go ahead successfully in store.
Our Events & Engagement team organises big events for our store managers, showcasing our plans for the year ahead and at key points in the trading calendar. We publish a quarterly magazine for colleagues, we have our own internal TV news station, and we run a colleague-focused website called the Green Room where everyone can post their stories, pictures, news and blogs. All of these ways of communicating help us to engage our colleagues and enable them to find out about the great things that are going on around Asda.
Operations
Our Operations team act as 'retail consultants', supporting all the teams within Home Office to land key initiatives and projects within the stores. They are also responsible for the day-to-day smooth running of the categories they represent.
A key part of working in this team is about understanding the complexities, but sharing the right information with our stores in the right way. This means keeping it simple and effective, which is a massive challenge when you have so much information to deal with. By working together with all the different teams at Asda, you'll be able to make the right decisions that ensure we are lowering costs for our customers every day.