First Line Manager Review

I manage a team of 70+ colleagues on daily basis, 20 of them are my direct reports. My main area of responsibility is CPW Online Fulfilment, but I also look after CPW Rebalance (Re-distribution of stock), Third Party Insurance, CPW B2B and CPW Stock control (Inbound operation). I review performance, staffing levels, capability, budgeted spend and improving engagement.

I have definitely gained more confidence, I have completed my English and Math Level 2 (functional skills), Equality and Diversity course and many others. I found that I already do all of the things from my apprenticeship as I do a lot of stepping up into the role above, so it's been quite easy to get everything boxed off, but if I wasn't I would definitely find it very useful.

I've found it very useful and I am quite excited about the graduation and feeling like I have really accomplished something. My managers have shown tremendous support throughout my apprenticeship and as mentioned previously I have gained a lot of confidence whilst doing it. I would definitely recommend it to others

I think it could definitely be better, I feel like my assessor has got way too many people to be able to focus on everyone. My schedule is very busy and tends to change last minute, if I miss a meeting with my assessor I need to wait for another month and vice versa

As mentioned previously my manager has been great with supporting me and giving me an opportunity to do things off the job which a lot of other apprentices struggle with. I think there's is not enough involvement from the operational areas as our capabilities and budgets tend to be very tight at time so losing colleagues from the operation can have a significant impact on our customer promise.

My assessor has been great, the only issue that both of have are our schedules, we are both very busy and if one of us can't make it the next time I'll see them will be a month later. Other than that he's been very supportive and forthcoming.

As mentioned earlier, I do a lot of stepping up in my current role so I'm not learning as much as others probably, but it does help me to gain more confidence and get reassured that I'm doing the right thing. If I wasn't stepping up as much it would be very beneficial for me and would help me to do things I couldn't do before.

Yes, plenty. We have our engagement team who are working on activities like - Summer festival, Peak Party, lots of charity events, Pay Day raffle, we have our football team, 3 Peaks challenge team and many more. We also do things within our team, but it's mostly fundraisers. There's also a lot of training courses that are available to colleagues free of charge.

Yes

Dixon's Carphone is a huge company with many opportunities to grow and develop yourself. I started as an agency colleague and have now become a First Line Manager who's doing an apprenticeship. There's always an opportunity to do something different if you want to, drive trucks, repair phones, apprenticeships etc.

Know what you want to achieve and work hard. It is a warehouse at the end of the day so most of the jobs won't be that exciting but it's a good stepping stone if you want to further your career in retail. Use every opportunity you get, this company does offer a lot of them.