Cheryl thought she would stay for two weeks, Sarah planned to give it three or four months, and Samantha expected to leave after six months to go to university.
Each joined Ocado Logistics in an operational role, never expecting it to become a long-term career. But what started as a temporary move became the beginning of something much bigger, opening the door to new roles, new opportunities and different parts of the business.
Here are their stories.
Cheryl: When two weeks became ten years
“I came into the business expecting to be here for two weeks, and I kind of fell in love.”
Cheryl joined Ocado Logistics expecting to stay for just two weeks. Ten years later, she’s still here.
She spent around five years working as a Customer Delivery before moving into management. Having experienced life on the road herself, Cheryl had a first-hand understanding of the role and the challenges people in Customer Delivery faced, which helped shape the way she supported her team.
A few years later, an opportunity came up in the Training Excellence team. It was a chance to bring together everything she had learned as both a Customer Delivery and a manager and use that experience to help prepare new colleagues across the UK.
Today, Cheryl works as a Training Coordinator, helping to plan training and driving assessments for new starters. She works closely with planners, recruitment teams, trainers and driving instructors to make sure sites have the support they need to welcome and prepare new colleagues.
What started as a two-week opportunity has taken Cheryl through several different roles and into a career she never expected.
Sarah: From 28 years in education to a career in logistics
Logistics had never been part of Sarah’s long-term plan.
After 28 years working in early years education, she joined Ocado Logistics as a Customer Delivery, looking for a short-term change while she decided what she wanted to do next.
It didn’t take long for her to start wondering what a longer-term career at Ocado Logistics could look like.
During her 12-week review, Sarah spoke to her manager about development opportunities and was encouraged to take on a step-up marshal role. This allowed her to help prepare vans and make sure everything was ready before drivers began their routes.
The role gave Sarah a better understanding of how the site operated, while also allowing her to take on more responsibility. So, when a management opportunity became available, she decided to go for it.
Less than a year after joining Ocado Logistics, Sarah became a Regional Development Team Manager. Today, she supports Customer Delivery colleagues throughout their shifts, helping them leave the site on time and responding when issues arise on the road.
“I believe in starting from the bottom up when you’re going into a new area of work.”
Her experience as a Customer Delivery and marshal now shapes how she supports her colleagues as a manager, giving her a practical understanding of the roles and people she works with every day.
Samantha: When six months became thirteen years
Samantha joined Ocado Logistics as a Personal Shopper on the night shift, expecting to stay for six months before going to university.
At first, it was the people who made her reconsider her plans. Her team felt like a small family, and that sense of community gave her a reason to stay. As she discovered more about the opportunities available across the business, she also began to think differently about what her future could look like.
“I just realised the progression - what I could do and where I could go.”
Samantha started by leading site tours for candidates, giving prospective colleagues an insight into what it was really like to work at Ocado Logistics. From there, she moved into HR administration, before spending two years as an Area Coordinator and later becoming a Council Coordinator.
Nearly five years into her current journey, Samantha now supports around 100 Council Reps across Ocado Logistics, representing colleagues across a wide range of roles, from Personal Shoppers and Customer Delivery to LGV Drivers and Operations Managers.
This allows Samantha to continue doing what she has valued throughout her career: working with people, helping others and making sure colleagues have a voice.
As her life has changed, the flexibility of her role has also helped her balance her career with family life.
More than one way forward
None of these careers were mapped out from day one.
Cheryl, Sarah and Samantha each found their next step by building on what they had already learned, taking opportunities when they came along and being open to trying something different.
At Ocado Logistics, there isn’t one single route forward. For Cheryl, it meant taking her experience from the road into training. For Sarah, it meant building on her operational experience to move into management. For Samantha, it meant finding a people-focused career that could continue to evolve alongside her life.
Sometimes, a short-term move is only the beginning!
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