Client overview
Life Pharmacy Group (LPG) is an award-winning group of pharmacies located across central western NSW and the ACT. With a strong focus on professional services and community engagement, LPG incorporates 10 stores and around 400 team members across these regions.
The challenges
With a growing team and recognition of the importance of team engagement, retention and Leadership development in the retail and pharmacy space, particularly in rural areas, the LPG Board and leadership team wanted to shift their focus from ‘reactive’ and operational HR to a more strategic future-focused approach.
The solution
LPG was seeking a knowledgeable HR support partner that could flex and adapt to changing circumstances and provide advice and information on all aspects of HR. LPG had a number of operational and strategic initiatives they wanted to introduce and were keen to engage consultants to assist to roll these out. They were looking for a retainer set-up to enable predicable costs and reliable access, where work was done by the right people for the right cost.
“I was introduced to the Seed team several years ago when they provided ad hoc HR support/advice during some restructuring activities. As of Jan 2019, we have now outsourced all our HR/IR requirements to them. Seed supports us across the complete employee life cycle, from recruitment and onboarding to capability development, performance management and separation. With around 400 employees, they’ve helped us streamline and standardise our processes and are a frequent source of invaluable HR advice. More recently, they’ve run leadership development workshops, spoken at our group conferences, conducted one-on-one management coaching and also advisory/workshop sessions around building our organisation and sustainable employee focussed culture.”
Warwick Marx, Chief Operating Officer
Life Pharmacy Group
We’ve now been partnering with LPG for over four years, providing ongoing advice and support on a retainer basis. Initially focussing on operational-based support and streamlining of processes and procedures, we’ve now worked closely with the managers across the organisation to build capability and confidence in these matters. This has meant we are now able to focus more on strategic, value-add initiatives to really benefit an organisation of this size.
We’re currently working on several initiatives across our three core specialties, including:
- Design and facilitation of a three-tier leadership development program
- Change management and implementation of an extension of LPG’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS)
- Design and facilitation of a company-wide talent and succession methodology
- Facilitation of an ongoing Culture & Inclusion Working Group and associated actions
- Redesign of recruitment and selection resources and tools in recognition of the regional talent shortages
- Proactive quarterly coaching conversations with leaders across the group to increase their leadership capabilities and share knowledge
The results
Significant increase in leadership development, resulting in internal promotions and increased depth of leadership capability across the organisation.
Decrease in operational and reactive ‘people issues’ due to increased confidence and capability of leaders.
Clarity of performance and behavioural expectations across the stores to enable effective performance management and desired outcomes.
