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She implemented new policies and dealt with uniform issues, absences, and staff behaviour. She launched incentives for the 20-strong team, running an Employee of the Month scheme, hosting team nights out and introducing a new staff appraisal system.
She introduced regular one-to-one meetings with colleagues and launched a weekly newsletter to make staff aware of new products and procedures. To boost the store’s social media presence, she worked on a Facebook campaign to profile one staff member every week, which helped customers get to know members of the team.
Within the store, McAteer spends 80% of her time on the shop floor, supporting staff with replenishing stock, cleaning shelves, placing orders, assisting customers and working at the tills. She uses ordering analysis and daily floor walks to check stock on the shop floor and uses figures from the previous 13 weeks to re-order stock.
Using her training at Lidl, McAteer re-planogrammed the entire store, which helped increase sales from £28,000 to £42,000. She regularly uses management tools like gap counts to get product availability as close to 100% as possible. She also focuses on reducing wage costs while increasing productivity.
Judges were extremely impressed with how McAteer has used her experience to “deliver a great retail environment for the community”. One judge said: “Her range of retail skills is very impressive – from HR to ICT, from merchandising to customer relations. Add to this her ability and willingness to work in every department and you have a great example of ‘don’t do as I say, do as I do’. She clearly leads by example.”
