HR is about the staff, first and foremost

Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on the human resources sector but there have been opportunities as well as challenges

Pictured in pre-Covid days at the official opening of the BWG Academy, a first-of-its-kind professional development academy with a dedicated training and education centre for retailers, Peter Donohoe is pictured with Sandra McCormack, Spar Merrion Row and Orla Jordan, head of food innovation, BWG Foods. Picture: Naoise Culhane

THE human resources sector has undergone seismic change in the past year. Unlike previous crises, which have been largely financial, the pandemic has been a people crisis.

Peter Donohoe, chief people officer with BWG Foods, says: “We in the HR world have been at the frontline of the operational response. Like every organisation, we have had to navigate many challenges to protect our workforce and customers, from a health-and-safety point of view, but also a welfare perspective.”

Given that Covid-19 was unprecedented, there was no playbook to manage the scale of response. “However, as with all challenges, there are also opportunities,” Mr Donohoe says. 

“We intend to take learnings from the new working practices and positive changes we introduced and incorporate them into our day-to-day.”

The company has been enhanced by the way it communicates and the platforms through which it engages staff.

“We very quickly expanded our reach across the organisation, using new and innovative technologies to great success, and this will continue to be a focus for us moving forward,” Mr Donohoe says.

He outlines the core tenet of HR: 

We are a business of relationships and people, so communication is key.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, much of Mr Donohoe’s working day is taken up with video calls — collaborating, co-ordinating, motivating, and planning. He says engaging with BWG staff and exploring new ways to support employee well-being is increasingly a key priority in his day-to-day activity.

As part of the company strategy going forward, BWG Foods is switching to cleaner energies and renewable solutions. The group has just installed almost 800 solar panels at its national distribution centre in Dublin.

The installation will have a generation capacity of 250KW, representing enough energy to power the equivalent of 50 homes for a year.

Working in partnership with its independent retailers, BWG is also installing solar-power units across a number of supermarket stores. 

To date, nearly €1m has been invested in solar installations by the group, with the average store installation costing approximately €60,000.

The three aspects to BWG Foods’ HR services include supply chain through its wholesale cash-and-carry and foodservice network, its national distribution centre, and HR supports and services to the network of independent retailers.

“A typical week also includes a focus on recruitment of new talent into our business and across our retail network,” Mr Donohoe says. “Our portfolio of retail brands — Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis, and XL — is extensive and our HR supports-and-services team is very attentive to, and supportive of, their needs.

"Professional development is a core focus of mine."

Self-development and support programmes

In 2019, the company launched the BWG Academy to provide self-development and support programmes for the group’s 23,000 retail employees. 

Covid-19 forced the company to pivot to an e-learning platform, which facilitates remote self-development programmes. Since March 2020, 1,300 BWG retailers and their staff have received industry-recognised qualifications from courses and workshops run by the academy.

Staff in the company’s supply-chain and logistics divisions faced a very different set of circumstances over the last year, compared to its office-based staff.

“Our strategy, before we entered national lockdown, was to instill confidence among our teams that we were providing the very best in workplace health-and-safety standards,” says Mr Donohoe.

“We were the early pioneers and champions of new cleaning regimes and in communicating the health-and-safety messages coming from the HSE and the Irish government to the public, via our vast retail network.”

Helping to feed the nation through its national distribution network required logistics and supply-chain staff to work in difficult circumstances, a situation helped by the launch of the BWG B-Well app last March.

“Platforms such as our B-Well app are instrumental in preventing mental-health or well-being issues from escalating,” Mr Donohoe says. 

It empowers employees to access supportive tools at a time of their own choosing, bespoke to their needs.

"The fact that it is also available to family members is a great additional support and benefit for employees.”

While technology can never replace personal interaction in the HR function — a crucial enabler of a more rounded service — the more immersive and intelligent technology becomes, the more positive the HR experience. 

The BWG B-Well platform provides two-way engagement in real-time and is regularly updated in response to changes in the environment, providing digital and onsite well-being services through one connected solution.

“That the service is also available to our employees’ families is also of great benefit, and having access to functions such as a confidential counselling service for people over this past year has, I am sure, been of great comfort to everyone,” Mr Donohoe says.

He joined BWG Foods in 2007, having previously worked for Glanbia Plc. He has a master’s in organisational behaviour from Trinity College Dublin. While major changes are inevitable in the general workplace over the next decade, the pandemic has fast-tracked many of the future-of-work trends.

“Organisations now need to be responsive to these changes to remain relevant,” Mr Donohoe says.

“A willingness to embrace technology should be supported with digital training programmes to build capability, and HR professionals are at the forefront of this innovation.”

Wellbeing 24/7

Additionally, well-being programmes that are accessible 24 hours a day will also be a critical success for HR departments in the future.

“There is a need for HR to gain an understanding of employee circumstances and expectations — best-in-class communication and engagement will be a crucial skill for the HR function going forward,” Mr Donohoe says.

“Despite the devastating effects upon society and business over the past year, its aftermath will result in a greater awareness and shared commitment between management and staff.

“I certainly believe that developing a deeper understanding of people, their development needs, ways of working, and their safety has become a greater priority.

“While the HR profession has always been people-centric, I believe the preconception that ‘HR is there to protect the company’ has been washed away. Employees now recognise the function is there to support them in the first instance."