Duty Manager Review
at Iceland Frozen Foods
Level 3 Apprenticeship
Customer Service
Great Yarmouth
Review Submitted: March 2023
Overall Rating
3.8 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
3/5
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Overview of Role
4/5
-
Skills Development
3.4/5
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Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
3/5
Filling stock, general running of the store - slip and trip, daily checks, stopping theft etc and dealing with any problems that arise with home deliveries, product recalls etc.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
3/5
It's good learning about the tools available and a lot of the content gets you to look at how you do things day to day where before you wouldn't think too much about it. For example the 7 P's of marketing and product life cycles.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
4/5
When I started I was no where near as confident as I am now and have massively improved my general ability to interact with people. Also learned loads about day to day running of the shop and trained on doing cash up, safe and legal etc for becoming Duty Manager.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
4/5
All the modules are set out very well and you have a mentor to help if you dont understand what is expected of you. The only thing so far structurally that could be made better is the workload over christmas as the course still expects you to be doing the same amount of modules when your hours are routinely going to 40-45 / week and the work is more draining / demanding.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
2/5
They don't factor in hours for off the job training - If I want to go over something with my boss as actual off the job training then I either have to use valuable shop hours which could be used for making the shop better or do it unpaid and in your own time. If they wanted to support us on the program properly then putting aside hours for training which are seperate to those used for day to day running of the shop would be the way to do it. Not a problem with the people - they are great at giving help, its a head office thing.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
4/5
They're very good - As mentioned previously you have a personal mentor who can help if you get stuck, all the modules are laid out in a nice planned way and you have practice tests before you have the real test at the end of the course.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
4/5
A lot of what we learn can be applied directly to work and also the mentality shift of working towards it makes you think about how you do things in store which is good. Some of the content though is not very applicable to the role we are currently working towards as its more just background information / stuff that you would use as a manager rather than supervisor (its still good to know in general but not currently). The biggest thing that helps though is the off the job hours which if they were supported properly with hours by head office let you perform tasks outside your current role.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
3/5
We do have a social fund that gets added to through incentives - selling the most of a certain item over a certain period. There arent any consistant events though.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Iceland Frozen Foods to a friend?
Yes
Why?
Highly dependant on the role and the store - my store has great people and an atmosphere that make the work fun most of the time. HD drivers on the other hand have a far more stressful role and getting hours in general can be hard due to companies being crunched for money at the moment from inflation/fuel/rent etc. But in general yeah its good.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Iceland Frozen Foods?
Look up the standard interview questions - counts for any company but ours were very rigid when I joined so if you just learn responses you wont go far wrong. If you are looking for an easy job sitting on tills you wont get many hours, if you look to improve what you can do in store and are enthusiastic about learning different roles then you will get far more hours.
