Opportunity Knocks

Why You Should Consider a Career in the Grocery Industry Today
By Patricia Parulekar, Executive Director

At this time in our economic and demographic history, Canadians with a wide range of disabilities can find opportunities where there were almost none before. For those who want to be groundbreakers, there are real possibilities. It’s a perfect storm of crisis and opportunity that I hope people take advantage of in a positive way.

My goal with this article is to inform jobseekers of the significant career potential in the grocery industry. There’s plenty of opportunity right now because:

•  The grocery sector is more stable than most. People have to eat.

• While, education and training count, it’s your desire to learn and your ability to get along with others that matter most...because the grocery industry is about people.

• The potential to turn a “job” into a “career” is great. You might start at the bottom, but executives in the industry prefer to promote from within...and they need everyone.
  

What are the other factors of this perfect storm of opportunities?

The economics and demographics of Canada create an environment of significant potential for a career in this industry. In 2009, the grocery industry represented approximately 20 percent of total retail sales in Canada, generating some $81.5 billion in sales (up from $68.3 billion in 2004). Given that its main product is food, the sector is considered “recession proof.” In fact, between August 2009 and August 2010, sales for supermarket and grocery stores rose 4.7 percent and specialty stores did even better at 7.9 percent.

The industry employs hundreds of thousands of people but needs more. Broader demographic factors increasingly favour jobseekers. Canada’s population is aging. What this means for employers is that they must work harder to recruit. When you couple this with for example, Western Canada’s oil patch and the high-tech sector, other types of employers— including grocers—are scrambling to hire.

Good marketing—which is important in the grocery industry—also affects employment. Good retail marketing, for example, means that your employees must reflect the diversity of consumers because great companies learn about markets from their employees as much as they do from expensive market research firms. Employees that represent your markets help you learn about what will and won’t sell.

Many large companies that have human resource diversity targets to meet have discovered that making everyone welcome actually has benefits for...well... everyone. Accommodating young mothers and other family caregivers takes the same managerial mindset as accommodating people with disabilities. The result is a welcoming workplace that motivates and promotes loyalty in its workforce.

The benefits of diversity are not always immediately apparent, but companies are rapidly discovering them. I remember an HR executive confessing that their store design improvement originated with the intent to just improve the store’s look and feel, but discovered, as they began testing and researching, that good design is also accessible design. Imagine! A good-looking store is also a good store, welcoming to all.

Another factor is driven by legislation. The execution of Ontario’s Accessibility Act is being watched carefully by all of the other provinces in the hope that they can learn how to implement accessibility requirements with fewer hiccups. This “lead province model” practice is increasingly undertaken by provinces to lever each other’s efforts. Some form of accessibility legislation will take place throughout the country over the next decade.

In my role as Executive Director of the Canadian Grocery HR Council, I recently completed a cross-country tour where I visited stores, talked to leadership, managers and front-line employees in independents and large chains. What I learned is important for people who enter the job market with great hopes and ambition, but not necessarily through traditional channels (university) nor with traditional demographic characteristics.

I learned about the extent to which the industry likes to promote from within. The best expression of this comes directly from grocery leaders. In a discussion about career paths, Steve van deer Leest, President of Overwaitea Food Group, said, “A lot of people don’t realize that they can start at the bottom with a simple job at a grocery store...and it blossoms into an amazing career. We have people throughout our company—whether it be in store design, IT or marketing—that have all learned along the way. And they’re great at their jobs. They’ve taken some professional development as they went, but most people have learned on the job, and those people are the best executives we have.”

The Canadian Grocery HR Council (CGHRC) is funded by the government of Canada’s Sector Council program to serve the human resource needs of the grocery retail/ wholesale sector. We serve some 95 percent of the industry, from coast to coast, from the largest to the smallest companies.