When it comes to career growth, there's no substitute for having the right team lead by your side. Aaron Hagen has experienced this firsthand working alongside his Team Lead Jhomar Sultan who has been helping him to grow professionally. How do they work together to ensure a purposeful career path for Aaron?
Aaron & Jhomar having their bi-weekly 1-to-1-meeting.
Aaron Hagen joined Fiksuruoka–Foodello as a Merchandiser in January 2022. “I was working in the e-commerce field which helped me to grasp some essentials needed in my job right now”, he says.
As we had just opened our newest market in the Netherlands in 2021, Aaron’s e-commerce skills and understanding of the local market were in high demand. When he was recruited, we haven’t even launched our new brand name “Foodello”, so Aaron hadn’t heard about us before.
“Choosing to join Fiksuruoka–Foodello over other job offers was an easy decision for me because it offered a chance to start with a clean slate and pursue my ambitions.” – Aaron
“I was intrigued by the growth opportunities in a scaling and growing company, and our mission to fight against food waste. Choosing to join Fiksuruoka–Foodello over other job offers was an easy decision for me because it offered a chance to start with a clean slate and pursue my ambitions”, Aaron looks back.
We opened our market in the Netherlands in 2021, so our business and team were starting to grow heavily. One of the very important roles to make our business work is the work of a Merchandiser.
“I am responsible for creating the products and data for the goods in our e-commerce store to help customers to decide what to order”, Aaron explains.
Consider this example. Picture a typical grocery store with various sections for different items. You decide to purchase a can of soda and go to the beverages section. There, you find shelves displaying a variety of brands. You take a moment to decide which one to pick. To make your choice, you examine the bottle's appearance, the soda flavor, and maybe even check the sugar content.
Now, imagine the same supermarket as an online store, and you have Fiksuruoka–Foodello's e-commerce platform. In this scenario, Aaron, as a Merchandiser, is responsible for arranging the products, selecting the images, and crafting the descriptions for every product.
“When our Procurement Specialists purchase goods, my job is to create that product and its data for the online store. I search for the ingredients, nutrients, and overall description of the product and create that product to the correct category in the online store”, Aaron sums.
“Everything Aaron creates in the backend data is displayed directly to our customers in the online store. He is making the customer journey better” – Jhomar
Merchandiser's role is significant and demands a lot of responsibility. "Everything Aaron creates in the backend data is displayed directly to our customers in the online store. He is making the customer journey better”, Jhomar Sultan, Procurement Team Lead adds.
What kind of plans and wishes does Aaron have for his career development, and what kind of role does Jhomar play in it?
As a Team Lead, Jhomar sees two ways how to approach career development.
"First, I try to map out an area of growth for Aaron and then discuss it with him to see if it is something he is interested in”, Jhomar explains and continues: “Or then Aaron brings out things he would like to learn more about.”
They then proceed to discuss the potential learning objective and whether there are any current barriers preventing Aaron from making progress. Like every team at Fiksuruoka–Foodello, Aaron and Jhomar use different tools to map out Aaron’s career growth possibilities.
The main tool for growth and development is Personal Growth conversations that they have bi-monthly. It is a discussion that covers employee well-being, OKRs and goals, career growth wishes and needs for support. It is also a great recurring feedback channel between the team lead and the team.
In addition, they have one-to-one conversations bi-weekly. “These are more about operational work, where Aaron can highlight what he is working on at the moment and what he needs in order to succeed”, Jhomar says. He thinks that these conversations have brought him the most insights into what Aaron wants to achieve next.
“As a fast-growing company, we have so many opportunities for career development. Without the help of Jhomar, I feel like I could get lost easily with endless opportunities.” – Aaron
“As a fast-growing company, we have so many opportunities for career development. Without the help of Jhomar, I feel like I could get lost easily with endless opportunities. He gives me ideas and helps me to figure out what is the right direction to go”, Aaron says.
Jhomar says that he focuses on providing guidance and assistance to his team without giving them direct answers because he believes that everyone is an expert in their own work. "My main goal is to inspire my team members to think of different growth possibilities for them”, Jhomar says.
"My main goal is to inspire my team members to think of different growth possibilities for them." – Jhomar
Discussions of career growth don’t need to be limited to only these formal conversations. By fostering an open conversation culture through informal talks and socializing, Jhomar has learned a lot more about his team members.
"I want to be approachable to my whole team, no matter the time or place ”, Jhomar says. “Every morning we have open-hearted conversations with our whole team. It creates the feeling of caring and nurturing culture together”, Aaron adds.
For the past 1,5 years, Aaron's role as a Merchandiser has been very operational.
“When I started, I was the main Merchandiser which meant that I was heavily focused on importing new products to the store. Now we have another Merchandiser in the team and we have developed more structured ways of working”, Aaron explains. Jhomar agrees and adds: "It's clear that Aaron has the potential to take on more complex tasks and responsibilities."
This has led to Aaron being ready to take his skills from purely operational to developmental. To achieve this, Aaron and Jhomar have been planning how to make the most out of Aaron’s existing skills.
Next, Aaron has two goals: 1) to improve his efficiency with Photoshop, which is a crucial skill for his job, and 2) to enhance the value of his merchandising tasks.
“I would like to enhance my critical and analytical thinking skills in order to gain deeper insights into our products and understand customer behavior better. Although taking courses would be an option, currently I have been listening to eCommerce podcasts while working and during our learning hour”, Aaron thinks.
To sum it up, Aaron and Jhomar believe that there is no end to learning in this fast-growing and changing environment where they are fighting against food waste. 💚