'We're family-based businesses; family ownership runs really deep for us,' CPO says
In February this year, Mitre 10 New Zealand released its first ever employer brand.
“It’s the first time we've gone out publicly and described what it's like to work at Mitre 10,” chief people officer Celena Harry told HRD New Zealand. “That's because we're made up of individual businesses that are locally owned.”
Harry explained that Mitre 10 is a cooperative, with all the employing relationships being held locally.
“Each business owner, employees, their team, creates a unique culture in the store, creates policies and benefits and remuneration that suits the local team,” she explained. “But we have overarching values and a mission for the business.”
‘Secret sauce’ of employer brand
In a year-long process, the company researched the “secret sauce” that connected all 65 of its different businesses and what they have in common.
“That took quite a bit of work,” Harry said. “Lots of research, lots of interviewing, good conversation and testing out what are the themes.”
And what the company settled on starts with a te reo Māori theme, He Whānau Kotahi Tātou.
“The English translation is ‘We are family’,” Harry said. “We're family-based businesses, family ownership runs really deep for us; lots of intergenerational ownership models and stores that have been in families for more than 100 years.
“And we are a family of families. A cooperative is a group of like-minded businesspeople coming together and forming a family to work together cooperatively. So it really resonated.”
Engagement survey for employer brand
When Mitre 10 put its theme idea to the test in an engagement survey, it garnered a positive response.
“[We] asked all 8000 team members who work across Mitre 10 businesses: ‘Does it feel like a family? Do your colleagues treat you as if you’re family? What does it feel like?’ And it was huge,” Harry said. “There was a very, very positive indication that we were not only on the right track, but actually this really resonated for people.
“And one of our values, one of the ways that we work, is about being really humble. And what our customers see is the truth, what we're like on the inside. And so the fact that we feel like that on the inside means that we're ready to go out to the market and say, ‘Hey, come and work for us. We are family owned; we are a business that feels like family to work in’.”
As part of the employer brand, the company also got a new website, new video content and new branding, Harry added.
Working in HR as ‘connector’
Harry was named as one of the Best HR Executives in New Zealand in HRD New Zealand’s 2024 Hot List.
She said that one of the things she enjoys the most about working in HR is being a “connector” of things.
“I find in an HR role, you tend to be a connector,” she said. “When I say connector, a connector of people, a connector of ideas, you tend to hear things that might be happening around the business and you can help bring things together that may not have been connected in the past to get a better outcome.
“I think that's quite unique in our profession, that you tend to get quite a broad business focus of understanding the progress that's underway or the pain points or even great talent that you didn't know existed…and just connecting the dots. Sometimes I find that fascinating. And I love that about my job.”
Focus on leadership at Mitre 10
One area that Mitre 10 focuses on is great leadership, Harry said.
“I have a very strong belief that people come to work to do a great job and their success or otherwise is largely down to the quality and confidence of the leader, who has the biggest day to day impact on them as someone coming to work,” she said.
“And so equipping good leaders with good tools, good understanding of what good looks like, how they can do the job effectively is really the bread and butter for good HR practice. So that you're working through creating an environment where people get the support they need and the rules of engagement and the expectations of performance proactively rather than waiting for something to go wrong.”
Harry added that if you have great frontline leaders and team leaders, and set them up for success, it can create a positive experience if you’re an HR executive who works in retail. She explained that Mitre 10 codesigns leadership programs that are very practical to ensure team members understand what the standard of leadership is.
“We've had leaders from over 40 stores attend in under six months so there's been a huge uptake,” she said. “That's fantastic to see people come out the other side of it and they are just confident and know what they're doing.”
For up-and-coming individuals hoping to find success in HR, Harry suggested they build great networks and align themselves with businesses that match their beliefs about the type of experience people should have at work.
“Picking an industry that you have a real affiliation for and a love for and aligning with leaders that have that kind of belief in what good people experience looks like so that you're learning from someone who you admire,” she said. “That's been a big lesson for me is go to we're great HR leaders are.”
