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The company I worked for during work experience was: Waitrose ltd. Branch 214 33, Bell Street Henley-On-Thames Oxfordshire RG9 2BA Tel: 01491 410440 In this assignment, I am going to describe different types of information used in Waitrose and identify its possible sources. 1) The name of the company I have worked for is Waitrose Ltd. At Waitrose, they combine the convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop.
Above all they take pride in the freshness and quality of their food and products. As you know, Waitrose is partnership with John Lewis which has been ranked first in the “Sunday times” the UK’s largest unquoted company by sales. The purpose of this partnership is to recruit and retain loyal customer and maintain their reputation for outstanding and value, choice, service and honesty. Partners should gain personal satisfaction by being members of a co-owned enterprise in which they have worthwhile and fulfilling employment.
The Partnership’s ultimate purpose is the happiness of its members, through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business. The Partnership is owned in trust for its members so they all share the responsibilities of ownership as well as its rewards – profit, knowledge and power. The Partnership should make sufficient profit to sustain our commercial vitality, to allow continued development and to distribute a share of profits each year consistent with partners’ reasonable expectations over time.
The business’s plan is based by their Principles. These principles form part of their contribution, which sets out how they seek to operate as a business. 2) Mission Statement- “The Partnership aims to deal honestly with its customers and secure their loyalty and trust by providing outstanding choice, value and service”. Sourcing- Progress and achievements Voted ‘Compassionate Supermarket of the Year’ by the Compassion in World Farming Trust (CIWF) • Leckford Estate, Waitrose’s 4,000 acre farm, was awarded the LEAF Marque, demonstrating the estate’s sound farming and environmental credentials, one of only 50 UK farms to be certified • Founding member and supporter of SEDEX, a multiple retailer project to harmonise ethical trade reporting and to reduce the burden and costs to suppliers providing information on ethical practices • Every first-tier own label supplier is risk assessed against the Waitrose Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice • Launch of online database to capture and risk assess supplier performance against Waitrose’s Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice • Locally Produced initiative was awarded a ‘big tick’ as an Example of Excellence in the Rural Action category of Business in the Community’s Awards for Excellence • More than 160 suppliers are now engaged in the Locally Produced initiative • Founder member and supporter of the BRC Code of Practice on Food Standards • Implemented online supplier responsible sourcing non-conformity correction and compliance procedure • Completed gap analysis of Waitrose’s Responsible Sourcing Code and SEDEX ethical trading code Key priorities for next year- Sourcing • Develop buyer training programme for Responsible Sourcing • Risk assess Waitrose’s own operations against its Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice • Work with ETI to develop registration and audit procedures for gangmasters Customers and community-Progress and achievements • Joined Business in the Community (BITC)* • Participated in BITC’s Percent Standard for the first time in 2003, with local community contribution estimated at 2. 28% of pre tax profits, equivalent to ? 3. 3 million*. In 2004 contribution rose to 2. 41% or ? 4. million* • The Partnership was one of only 139 UK companies to participate in BITC’s Corporate Responsibility Index, and was ranked 45th in the Top 100 Companies that Count* • Joined London Benchmarking Group and completed first return which shows in kind contribution by Partners is four times that given in cash* • Developed and piloted the Community Needs Assessment framework for local community giving • Employee secondment programme, the Golden Jubilee Trust, reached its fourth year, having supported 139 Partners who have given more than 52,000 man hours to local community projects since the programme started* • Waitrose’s website was awarded the ‘See it Right’ logo by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, commending the site’s accessibility • Worked with regional food groups to establish the ‘Taste of’ concept • Piloted new community stakeholder engagement programme in Cornwall known as the Intelligent Development Appraisal (IDA) • Sponsorship of the Civic Trust Centre Vision programme Key priorities for next year- customers and community • Roll out Community Needs Assessment Toolkit to 10% of branches • Extend London Benchmarking Group community capture programme to all Waitrose branches • Complete Disability Discrimination Act audit and compliance programme Environment-Progress and achievements • Founding member and supporter of the British Retail Consortium project to review and identify chemicals of concern • Founder member of Retail Energy & Environment Club • Launched energy awareness campaign and ? 30 million refrigeration replacement programme • Launched online CSR management system* The Partnership was awarded the Transport Action GreenFleet Award for its commitment to improve the environmental impact of its transport fleet* • Founder member and supporter of RSA’s ‘Towards Zero Waste’ campaign • Supporter of the Bin to Win campaign to promote recycling education in schools Key priorities for next year- Environment • Evaluate environmental performance of newly acquired Safeway stores • Commence short rotation coppice planting programme at Leckford Estate to provide woodfuel • Support Bracknell Forest Council project to develop 100% renewable energy town centre • Implement new integrated waste management programme Launch new Partnership website with comprehensive CSR performance information • Roll out food donation programme Partners-Progress and achievements • First Partner survey launched in 92 Waitrose shops • Launch of Diversity Working Group, and agreement of three priority areas* • Partner Handbook published, providing clear and relevant statement of the Partnership’s responsibilities to its Partners and vice versa* • Internal audit completes first risk review of CSR management programmes* • Review of CSR performance distributed to 33,000 Partners through the weekly newsletter, the Gazette Key priorities for next year- Partners • Extend Partner survey to all branches and increase average response rate • Review dignity at work policies* Develop framework to prevent and reduce work-related stress* • Implement online accident and reporting management system * Partnership-wide initiatives Source-I got all this information from the branch office I worked in and from the Waitrose website- http://www. waitrose. com. “Powered by our principles”: • Be Honest • Give respect • Recognise others • Show enterprise • Work together • Achieve more “Powered by our Principles” is about ‘the way we behave’. It underlines their expectations of all partners in their business and embeds this behaviour in their system for appraisal, recognition and training. That doesn’t mean just showing good manners and being nice to each other.
Alongside honesty, respect and recognition they emphasise enterprise, working together and achievement. This is an approach to business relationships targeting lasting commercial success as well as uniquely satisfying work environment. (Source- taken from booklet given at work experience by the audit manager. ) 3) The main functional areas of Waitrose are: • Customer Service • Audit (office, marketing and finance and Personnel) • Merchandise • Supply chain management A key area that benefits approach and expertise is that of supply chain management, where there needs to be a dual focus: • Supply chain transactions – traditional operational considerations, such as maintaining supplier directories and ratings, resources and availability. Information about the supply chain, such as ethical sourcing and trading, standards compliance, ongoing auditing and supplier relationship development. These two “strands” of supply chain management require both formal processes and checks, and more dynamic interaction and communication. In many cases, this also needs to be underpinned by full supply chain traceability and accountability. The ninety questions covered areas such as working conditions, health & safety, wages, hours, facilities, environment, animal welfare, legislative compliance and child labour. Non-compliances were automatically flagged-up and documented, and targets set and agreed for compliance, all within the system.
Waitrose benefits from aggregate reporting on all of the modules they use, enabling them and – where appropriate – third parties (such as Bureau Veritas) to analyse data, develop strategy and pinpoint areas of concern that can be instantly communicated to suppliers. Joley, Head of Fruit and Vegetable Buying within Waitrose, says: “Site Profile demonstrates the scope and potential of online supply chain management. It has enabled Waitrose to more effectively communicate standards to its suppliers and more accurately identify and address areas of concern. ” Customer service- it’s a very important function as there is one department manager just concentrating in making its customers happy.
Waitrose has set up a series of local customer panels to get a representative view of significant issues in the eyes of their customers. These panels are made up of their account card holders, invited customers, the branch manager and a senior manager or director. Opinions and concerns are relayed via the Customer Service team at Head Office to managers within the business, to create improvements in environmental practices, service, communication and to tackle any other issues. Environment queries were responsible for 0. 1 per cent of the total received by Customer Service. Audit- The audit staffs are responsible for many functions at Waitrose. The audit or personnel section managers are usually responsible with the finance.
The section managers usually work out the staff’s monthly payments and hours which can be very significant in the company. However, it’s not only wages but also pay rises, company’s profit and everything else to do with finance in the company. Audit’s assistant section managers usually just function with the general office which is paper work and the cash office. The cash office is where all the cash from the checkout come in and out so the assistant section managers of audit are responsible to keep the little office tidy and organised. Along with all this, the assistant section manager is also responsible for all staffs training and make sure its all up to date.
This is where most of the company’s money and profit come in. The audit managers are also responsible to advertise posters and news into newspapers which shows the part of marketing. Merchandise- Similar to customer service, there is a department manager trained and specialised just for merchandise products. The Merchandise manager is responsible for fresh fruit and vegetables, dry goods such as toiletries, tea and coffee etc. This is a very big function in all Waitrose’s branches which is why it is needed at least one manager just concentrating on the function and its sections. Henley-On-Thames Branch’s Functional Areas: As you can see, each section is responsible for different types of functions.
If you look at the functions of the branch office, you see that it is responsible for all the business functions such as personnel, finance, admin and audit. Audit is basically testing the products that the branch sells. The audit staffs have to ensure that all the products in the branch match up with the same line number, same description and same price with the system. If a product contains different or wrong information, then the branch is able to be fined of ? 1000 because of delivering wrong type of information. If you look at checkout’s section, they are only responsible in looking out and resolving any queries that are asked by the customers at the support desk. 4) All these different sections of the branch contain different types of information.
All the information carried by each section is all sorted and organised in the general office. For example, the section of “fresh foods” managed by ‘Phil Brown’ is very important as they have to watch out the dates and the rotation of each fresh product. A lot of information such as its staff hours, absences and the delivery of the section are all very important to the business. If the business didn’t carry out these types of information, the whole business would be unorganised and very confusing. This is why each department contains a department manager so that they make sure that their part of the section contains all the information the business requires and that is kept organised.
However if a section manager or a department manager is missing then an available section manager then can manage the department so the sections keep organised. This is why all the information is needed within the business so every one is aware of any circumstances. 5) The sources: All the information is generated from: • Support Desk- queries and tasks from the customers that are dealt at customer service. All the information happened on the day is all then transferred into the branch office to show the basis of the support desk. • BOP (Branch operating procedures)- An audit manager has to check the BOP web page from the John Lewis intranet database to check the daily procedures for a particular branch.
The BOP procedures also helps the section managers to check what they have to do a particular day in the branch such as repairs etc. • John Lewis Partnership- the John Lewis Partnership is one of the UK’s top ten retail businesses with 27 John Lewis department stores and 174 Waitrose supermarkets. It is also the country’s largest example of worker co-ownership. All 63,000 permanent staffs are Partners in the business. We believe that the commitment of Partners to the business is a unique source of competitive advantage which has fuelled 75 years of profitable growth and a reputation amongst customers and suppliers unparalleled in the UK retail industry. Selling Applications- this is where an audit manager looks at the data base intranet and looks at a particular’s branch order stock, sales figures, wastage figures, seasonal demands and the percentage. • Communications Board- This is a very helpful source to the branch as they can contact other Waitrose branches or John Lewis branches to find out a particular piece of information. Every branch has a communications board so they look at telephone numbers or emails to contact a particular place the branch wishes to communicate. 6) All the information that the branch has, they word process it into and stick all the information at notice boards. The information is then kept in separate folders so it is organised and kept safe so an amount of time until the notices will not be useful anymore.
This particular branch does not use any advanced software or hardware in their system. Their computers contain windows 2000 and windows XP. All the office uses is Microsoft office and the intranet which is the john Lewis database. This is all the basic information I tried to gather from the work experience. I quite enjoyed it as I learned new stuff and learned how important some of their office work is. All the information I gathered was from Audit’s assistant section Manager rob Skilleter who provided me with all useful data for me to use for this assignment. Some of the information, he said I could gather from their website which I have sourced it. ———————- Waitrose- Henley on Thames, Branch 214 Branch Manager Alistair Smith Department Manager Peter Romero Customer Service David Gibson Section Manager Meat and fish Sam Beasley Assistant Section Manager Meat and fish Julliette Richardson Section Manager Deli/Patisserie Ellaine Campbell Section Manager Personnel Rob Skilleter Assistant Section Manager Personnel Marleine Guess Section Manager Checkouts Katrina Rogan Assistant Section Manager Checkouts Department Manager Bruce Windass Merchandise Phillip Brown Section Manager Fresh foods Matt Peates Assistant Section Manager Fresh Foods James Rhodes Section Manager Fruit/Veg Bernadette Kiss
Assistant Section Manager Fruit/Veg Russell martin Section Manager Dry Goods 2 Mike Evans Assistant Section Manager Dry Goods 2 Carl Tushingham Section Manager Dry Goods 1 Neil Smith Assistant Section Manager Dry Goods 1 (Evening Shift) Graham Buckgland Assistant Section Manager Dry Goods 1 Branch office Service Counters Customer Service Checkouts Dry Goods 1, 2 Provisions Fruit and Veg Merchandise Branch office Admin Personnel (Human resources) Audit Cash Office (Finance) Checkouts Customer Service Desk and Help Service Counters Deli Patisserie Meat/ Fish Pre- pack Stock Service cooked meat Olive Salad Service Cheese Bread & cakes Chilled Goods Ambient Goods