Community

Allison Chaney – IWD Spotlight

We invited some special guests for afternoon tea at the M&S Cafe at Glasgow Fort, to say thank you for their amazing hard work and dedication to their community, in honour of International Women’s Day 2019. Guests included Maureen Burke (Labour Councillor), Maureen Ferrie (Director of GESH charity), representatives from the Women’s Centre,  Karen Ciantar from Barnardos, Allison (Manager of M&) and Lorna (Manager of Boots). You can read more about Allison Chaney and her acheivements below…

What does your job involve?

My role varies day to day, from helping customers and ensuring our team delivers fantastic levels of customer service, to supporting development within our team and launching the latest collections. I enjoy interacting with people , driving sales and managing my store profitability and find this role very rewarding.

What motivates you? 

Supporting others on their personal development journey and seeing them grow and progress within the business.

How do you motivate others? 

I like to motivate others by providing support, recognising and rewarding hard work, and also challenging people to ensure they are performing at the best of their ability. I also think good communication is key in ensuring everyone is on the same page with clear focus.

Who are the inspirational women in your life? 

My 2 daughters, Victoria and Megan , are hugely inspiring. To see them grow and develop into strong independent young women, who appreciate the past but are very future focussed with keen senses of what is right, is very encouraging!

Tell us about your community involvement…

I am proud to have played a key role in seeing M&S support our local area as one of 10 community pilots across the country since 2017.  The pilot has seen the company tackle important issues nationally that impact our communities and customers, and we aim to leave a lasting legacy by focusing on three key areas – Social Well Being, Education and Employability.

As a store we always encourage local groups to utilise our café space as a meeting area and now have a number of groups meeting there regularly. We have now connected with more than 350 new mums to join our Tuesday morning social group via the Mush App, developing from a fortnightly to weekly group, to provide support for new mothers and their children. We have also raised £23k for Barnardos over the last two years and helped to transform their community rooms to provide safe areas for users.

We do a lot to help develop skills amongst young people in our community. We held an event with Year 4 pupils at Lochend Community High School to help them learn more about the world of work, and offered 10 young people work experience who were later all offered jobs at the store.  We have subsequently agreed to role out this skills development session to all Year 3 pupils in Lochend to support their learning and transition into employment. We also participated in the Fare Centre ‘Partner for Youth Event’ reaching 40 students in the Easterhouse area and have worked with Glasgow Kelvin College supporting hospitality engagement.

Last updated Friday 23 February, 2024