Liam Maher

6.45 AM

My imitation sunrise lamp means I don’t get scared awake by the blast of an alarm. There is truly no better way to start the day. I love a slower morning, so I’m able to get out of the house by 7.30am and arrive at the Store Support Centre just before 8am. Coles has its own multi-level style carpark, so there’s always a spot!

8.00 AM

My current graduate rotation is in the Capability team (Learning and Development), where I work across the different teams to design and deliver various learning experiences for teams across the entire Group!

I start by setting myself up for my day - finding the best hotdesk spot and opening my emails and Teams messages. I use Microsoft Planner to manage my tasks, and this gives me a chance to flag what is top of my to-do list and update anything that has come through with any urgency.

8.45 AM

Time for my first meeting with a project team I’m in – it’s a cross-functional team (meaning we come from all different parts of Coles, mostly outside of People and Culture), so we use this time to share what’s happened in each of the spaces we’re responsible for and address any blockers we’re facing.

9.30 AM

Teatime! I’ve usually got time mid-morning to sit down and action some of the work I’ve got to complete today, and making a cup of tea is key to productivity. Part of the fun is getting a few other team members in the Support Centre together for teatime in the kitchen.

11.00 AM

Often, we have different activations in ‘The Hub’ which is a central atrium of the Melbourne Store Support Centre – today, Curtis Stone is cooking up a feast for us to try to celebrate his new Coles BBQ range campaign! I met a few other team members and went and grabbed a photo!

12.00 PM

Lunchtime! I wouldn’t call myself a Masterchef, but I do try and bring lunch from home most days and today I’ve brought a pesto sandwich which I will toast in the kitchen, for the rest of lunch the sun is shining so I’m off to sit outside and soak in the sun.

1.00 PM

Settling back in my team have an external stakeholder meeting with a design agency, I often find this a great chance to be bounce ideas around with my team on what’s possible and what we’re wanting to deliver. We go through what’s happening in the industry and where we can lean on current initiatives already at place in Coles.

Afterwards it’s back into focus time! I often block out time in my calendar to let my team know what I’m working on and make sure I am setting aside the right amount of time to deliver what I need by the days end. Most of this time includes writing up communications that are sent out to our Store/Site networks or working on updating content to place in our Learning Management Platform.

3.00 PM

I’m now jumping into an Allies meeting with the Indigenous Affairs team – this gives me a chance to hear from the team on what is happening around Coles, what the working groups are delivering and how else we can get involved as Allies. Ally networks across Coles are great ways to get involved with people you may not work with on a day-to-day basis and work on important campaigns for our 130,000 team members!

3.30 PM

Another project meeting! This meeting is externally facilitated with a cross-functional team across Coles as we’re working on improving team member digital experiences when accessing knowledge and information on our internal sites. This is an exciting project as we’re dealing with such a large platform (over 40,000 logins every-day!) and tonnes of knowledge to share – brainstorming the ways we can improve this experience and leave a lasting impact is thrilling!

4.30 PM

Meetings are done – so I’m back at my desk and reviewing my planner to review where everything is sitting and what is left to close out before I head home. I use this time to make sure I’m across what’s come in throughout the day and update bits and pieces still ‘in-flight’ with new details/information.

5.00 PM

It’s time to head home! I pack everything up and say goodbye to the team – the drive home usually consists of blasting some of my favourite tunes and hosting a personal concert in the car.

6.30 PM

I’m off cooking duties tonight, some of the other graduates are getting together for trivia night! I moved from Sydney to Melbourne to join the Graduate Program and hanging out with other graduates after-work at different social events means I’ve made a tonne of new friends in the process.

(We’re keen, and therefore, early.)

10.30 PM

We didn’t win trivia (we never do, we’re constantly in 3rd place every week) but I’m off to bed. I’m a bookworm, so I’m always reading before bed, but it never takes long before I’m snoozing off. Another day done!

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