Dan Murphy’s and BWS undergo huge employment drive

Alcohol retailers BWS and Dan Murphy’s are looking to hire over 1,600 new casual staff members in the lead up to summer 2020.

This is welcomed news by many in the hospitality industry following months of lockdowns, hospitality venue closures and job losses due to the current pandemic.

A portion of the 1,600 newly available roles, 1,000 at Dan Murphy’s and 600 at BWS, are for immediate starts, with the rest being advertised to commence within “weeks and months”.

Dan Murphy’s head of culture and people Siobhan Pelc said the newly available casual roles are located at every Dan’s outlet in the country – some 242 stores.

“If there is a Dan Murphy’s near you, then that store is looking for customer assistants who can start as soon as possible or in the coming weeks and months,” Pelc said.

The reason Dan Murphy’s is increasing its casual work force this summer is because COVID-19 has changed the way consumers shop.

“More customers than ever are opting to use contactless delivery or our popular direct-to-boot pick up, which we have rolled out to almost 170 stores,” she said.

“These great additional customer service functionalities require additional team members, especially during our busiest trading period.”

Dan Murphy’s rolled out contactless direct to boot as a response to COVID-19 in April, and last week, the retailer hit a milestone of 100,000 direct-to-boot pickups serviced. Insights show that more than 50 percent of customers that try direct-to-boot become repeat customers of the service.

BWS is looking for over 600 liquor team members across metro and regional Australia for its busy summer trading season.

“We have over 1,350 stores across Australia, which means we have roles for people who are passionate about drinks and great customer service in many of our local communities,” said BWS head of culture and people Bryony Tainton.

“We are looking for motivated, customer-focussed candidates with excellent communications skills and with a positive attitude. Traditionally, many successful applicants include university students who are on a summer break as well as people with a background in the hospitality industry,” Pelc said.

“This is a great opportunity to get your foot in the door to Endeavour Group. In fact, our Managing Director Steve Donohue started his career in a Dan Murphy’s store as a store manager when he was just 19 years old.”

Pelc added that although some applicants may feel nervous about the prospect of working in a customer facing role, the safety and wellbeing of team members and customers is a priority for both BWS and Dan Murphy’s.

“As drinks retailers, we already have high standards of cleaning and hygiene in place. But since March, we’ve implemented additional safety measures for our stores including protective plexiglass screens at checkouts, signage to help customers socially distance, strict limits on the number of customers in stores, sanitisation stations, as well as additional cleaning and security guards,” she said.

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