Category: who we are

All about the St. Pierre’s Group!

Big Milestones today!

Hey everyone! Tonight, Tuesday 21 September, marks two big milestones in the fight against COVID-19.

NZ outside Auckland has been at Alert Level 2 for two weeks, meaning that customers can come into our shops and we can provide higher levels of service (while still maintaining social distancing).

We’d like to thank everyone at shops outside Auckland for their huge effort in adapting successfully to the rules, keeping everyone safe while still providing the sushi and Bento Bowl flavours our customers love!

Great work in Level 3 everyone!

And of course, at midnight tonight, Auckland moves from Alert Level 4 to 3. Level 3 is still a lockdown situation, so – among other restrictions – customers are not able to enter our shops, but we are now able to reopen our Auckland stores. 22 shops will be reopening tomorrow. If you work in Auckland, you’ll have heard from head office directly and from your manager about the reopening plan.

The first couple of days will be busy, as there will be lots of ingredients to prepare – and chances are, there will be lots of customers desperate for their St. Pierre’s fix! But our team outside Auckland has done a fantastic job with reopening, so now it’s our turn in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Customers will be keen for their favourite flavour!

We’d also like to thank you all for other efforts you’ve made recently! During the lockdown period, we launched three more online training courses, and you have all responded magnificently! 88.6% of all front-line staff have now finished the five training courses available to everyone – fantastic! (Another 2.3% have done all but the COVID Level 3 course.) The online training is designed to help you work more effectively and efficiently, so thank you everyone for engaging in it!

Just two of our course logos 🙂

If you’re still getting emails from me asking you to finish your training, then the system hasn’t registered that you’ve finished yet. Please log back into your TalentLMS account, and finish it off, to help your work moving forward go better 😊

We’re also working on more training courses, this time for people looking to become shift supervisors (3IC), assistant managers (2IC) and shop managers (1IC). If you’re in these positions or have asked to, look out for more training soon. And if you’re thinking of taking up the challenge of a manager role – talk to your store manager! They’d love to hear you’re keen, and so do we in head office!

In the mean time, thanks again everyone! Stay safe, and see you in store soon!

Training for Success!

This post is a little different! It’s not about one of our people – it’s about all of you!

You’ve probably heard about the online training programme we launched in June this year. This post is the first in a series talking about training, starting with why it’s important.

St. Pierre’s is growing fast. We now have nearly 70 locations, four departments (sushi, Bento Bowl, K10 and seafood) and around 800 staff. Apart from in 2020, we’ve opened at least five shops every years for a few years now. So how do we make sure that when a customer walks into a St. Pierre’s group shop – any department, anywhere in NZ – they get a high quality product and great service?

We often talk about how we put people first at St. Pierre’s. To put people first, we have to help you develop the skills you need to do the job well! That’s where training comes in. It’s not fair to expect you, our staff, to work things out yourself. To date, we’ve had shop managers do most training – but they are very busy people. That’s why we’ve developed an online training course to take the load off the managers and give everyone a high base level of knowledge.

Of course, the best way to learn something is hands-on – be it in the kitchen, rolling sushi, making bowls or customer service. But there’s so much to remember! Online training gives you a head start, by helping you understand – based on ideas such as the company history and aims – why we do what we do. Then, by showing you how our most experienced staff work, you can understand the best and most efficient way to do daily tasks.

In this way, we want to provide every staff member with a high base level of knowledge. Building on that, you can use your unique skills and creativity to deliver amazing products and service that the people in your community will love.

In the next article, we’ll look at what our training programme is, including the platform and content we’ve provided to date. There’s big news coming soon, so look out for it!