An Approach to Diversity and Inclusion

Nadine Gieseler, Head of HR, Mr Price Home, Mr Price Group

Nadine Giesesler, a skilled HR specialist with industry experience, contributes to Miladys’ HR infrastructure by participating in strategic operations and decision-making across all functions. She demonstrates expertise in coordinating HR initiatives with company goals, ensuring a strong HR infrastructure.

1. Can you tell us about your background and how you became Head of HR at Mr Price Home?

My career in HR began when I worked at Massdiscounters(Game & Dion stores, now known as Massmart), where I learnt all the fundamentals of HR. Being a large corporate, Massdiscounters offered a very structured and formal training ground, allowing me to get involved and manage all aspects of the HR function. After 11 years, I left Massdiscounters to work from home as a recruitment consultant in 2007. I then joined Stefanutti Stocks in 2008, where I was given the opportunity to develop the HR function within the business, which had very little HR structure at the time. After four and half years, I was approached by the Mr Price Group for a Head of HR role at Miladys. Here, I was fortunate enough to operate at an even more strategic level and was exposed to more group strategy and collaboration. After seven years in the Miladys division, I moved to the Mr Price Home division and have been here for almost three years.

2. Mr Price Group is a large organization with several subsidiaries. How does the HR strategy at Mr Price Home differ from its subsidiaries?

Each trading division follows the same strategic framework, and many key strategic group imperatives are required to be executed at the divisional level. However, each division will have different product-specific imperatives for business growth. The same applies to the People Strategy. While some group imperatives are relevant to every division and will be executed at the divisional level, each division will have different people-related issues that need strategic focus. Every division experiences nuances in culture, level of business maturity, and strategic focus areas.

3. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted HR operationsat Mr Price Home, and how have you adapted to the changing landscape?

On the one hand, COVID-19 taught us that anything is possible and we can do more than we expected from our laptops in our own homes. This has allowed some roles to remain more flexible than others which suits many employees and improves our employer value proposition.

On the other hand, COVID-19 had a negative impact on our culture and engagement levels, as our teams only had contact with each other and our suppliers through Microsoft Teams. This affected the strength and speed of business decisions. For example, before COVID, we could get up from our desks and have face-to-face discussions with our colleagues, which helped agility and quicker problem-solving. While this is possible via MS Teams, it is more difficult as people are in virtual meetings and not readily available to engage and collaborate before making a business decision. After returning to work, it has been so beneficial to pull teams together and have human engagement again, increasing happiness in general.

"The “grit” is essential for your success in HR and needs to be partnered with good business acumen" 

Another adverse impact of COVID-19 is that people often don’t know when to switch off. It’s too easy to take work home or continue to work if you are working from home. However, your work-life balance and employee wellness have become more of a challenge.

4. What are some of the challenges you face in your role,and how do you address them?

One of our biggest challenges is retaining critical retail skills. Many of our employees are considering emigrating or moving to other cities in South Africa where more retail employers are based and more opportunities are available. Fortunately, we have a well-structured graduate recruitment and trainee program, and we’ve seen its success through pipeline promotions.

As a larger HR community, my colleagues and I are working on various strategies to attract, develop and retain our employees, which we believe will address this and other people’s challenges.

5. Can you share any recent HR initiatives or programs at Mr Price Home that you are particularly proud of?

When joining the Mr Price Home team, we did not have junior merchant roles. This meant that a trainee would be promoted into a fully-fledged retail buyer or retail planner role, creating a large pool of these merchants with varying experience levels and a broad salary band, making it difficult to benchmark within our group or in the market. Since introducing the junior role, our merchant pipeline is now established, and the movement through this pipeline has been enabled, ensuring more skilled and developed merchants are placed at the right levels and are correctly benchmarked.

6. What is Mr Price Home’s approach to diversity and inclusion, and how do you ensure that the company culture is inclusive and welcoming for all employees?

Mr Price Group has established values and well-defined DNA, which drives behaviours throughout the business. We believe that all employees experience these behaviours as embracing diversity and inclusion. These values and DNA are instilled throughout the full employee lifecycle. We maintain this culture through various communication platforms where our employees are informed and feel heard. We also see diversity and inclusion as a journey, so we continually review our policies and practices, ensuring they align with our ever-changing environment and workforce.

7. What advice would you give someone starting in an HR role, and what skills are essential for success in this field?

Working in HR is fulfilling as you observe the impact of your workplace strategies, decisions, and initiatives. You also get to see people grow within the organisation, and while these may be their success stories, most of the time, you’ve played a role in guiding, coaching, and supporting that growth. Creating a healthy working environment where employees are engaged and productive is rewarding. But it isn’t all rainbows and unicorns; there are times when tough decisions need to be made, and you must ensure that you can be resilient and influential with the organisation’s leadership. This “grit” is essential for your success in HR and needs to be partnered with good business acumen. In order to build credibility and have a seat at the table, you need to know enough about the business and the employees to give the leadership team trust that your guidance and decisions will have the right impact and align with the successful execution of the business strategy.

Retail

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Employee Wellness

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