A day in the life: Lyn McKenzie, Finance Operations Manager of David Jones

Posted November 8, 2020

Working long-term in any one industry affords an expertise as you’ve seen trends come and go as well as long term evolutions and disruptions. Lyn McKenzie, the Finance Operations Manager for David Jones is certainly an expert in the retail industry after working her way up from Part-Time Reconciler to Accounts Payable Manager overseeing 30 staff at The Good Guys before moving to David Jones in April 2019 where she soon became the go-to guy for a new RMS system implementation that she had already mastered.

Her 20+ years of experience in growing retail organisations push her beyond having seen and experienced the changes and challenges – now she can predict them as she does later in this article when discussing ways of working and systems entering and dominating the market.

First things first, how do you start your working day?

‘I found it really important to keep my routine, even since working from home. It really enables me to keep those boundaries up between my work and home life when they are more blurred than ever. So I still get up at around 7:30am and have breakfast and a shower before starting work – I’d go nuts if I sat around in my PJs all day!

At the start of lockdown, myself and my daughter started working from opposite ends of the dining table. We didn’t really set up anything too formal as we were with most people in thinking that this setup wouldn’t last long at all. However, when the second lockdown was imposed I went out and purchased us two desks and set them up in the second lounge room – I feel very lucky to have enough space in my home to create this clear distinction. We’ve also setup a clear rule that we’re the only people allowed in the rule to minimise distraction. Although we do often get interruptions by our dogs which can be very welcome.

I do have a second monitor however it’s an old TV we had lying around – I’ve set it up on two of my husband’s cricket books in order to get the right height. I am still using a kitchen chair rather than a desk chair which I actually haven’t had any problems with.’

Managing remotely

‘When I moved over to my role at David Jones’ I acquired and built a team of around 15; including 3 Team Leaders who are her direct reports – however, I’m very hands on with the whole team. This means we have a weekly catch up with everyone in the business with a strict video on policy to make sure everyone is equally engaged and contributing. At the start of this process I found that when people had their camera off they were less likely to get involved in the conversation.

People do ring me frequently too and I make it clear that my ears are always open. I’ve also encouraged people to reach out to each other, especially during a time of high stress as we’ve experienced in 2020. If people are struggling, they may not want to confide that in a manager or someone they perceive as more senior to themselves so I do try to foster open communication at all levels and really make the team interconnected in that way.

When starting my role at David Jones, having these Team Leaders was a completely new experience for me as this wasn’t how the team was structured at The Good Guys so I did take a little bit of time to step back and really let them do the leadership so that I could focus on my own work. I think it’s a struggle many people have to find a balance with when they take that step up.

A big part of my job, as briefly touched upon, is creating and maintaining a really solid team. This was important in office and even more so now. Initially I did find it difficult to create shared experiences that everyone would love as we have a lot of different cultures within our team but initiatives which seemed to be popular were simpler things such as birthday morning teas or team lunches – time to just forget about work and spend time together as friends.

We’ve introduced a weekly watercooler chat over Zoom where this rule to not talk about work is also in place. Each Wednesday at 9am we get everyone together just to chat about what we’ve been doing and recreate those connections you’d get in the office with minimal effort. Really it’s to make sure that people are still connecting with those outside of their immediate team.’

What’s Next?

‘I think because of our team’s responsibilities, returning to the office is necessary 2-3 days a week depending on individual duties and responsibilities. The team has definitely proved their ability to work independently and have kicked out the old-school view I had of working five days in the office. It has been harder to form those connections with each other sometimes but we’ve already learned a lot and adapted how we work hugely over the year. On our return to the office, I am going to be much more hardline about coming in even with a tiny sniffle. Protecting the wider staff is going to be a huge priority across the business.

We have been very fortunate that we’ve been able to onboard a few permanent staff from home during COVID and although that has presented its own issues, we’ve found some fantastic additions to our team in a market full of very talented people.

In terms of the retail industry, the biggest change I’ve seen is EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) – we’re still working on it now. When it was initially introduced there was a huge fear that it would cut the need for human staff but we’ve actually had to grow the team. We still get a lot of our invoices online and outside of the system which need to be reconciled. There’s always need for human contact – especially in a role which is by its nature often investigative and focused on problem solving. The human eye can examine other human behaviour in a far more effective way.

That’s exactly what I love about the job. I tried working in a non-trade Accounts Payable role but hated how monotonous it was. I love getting into the crux of a problem and working out how to fix it. That’s what I’ve loved about my career so far, at The Good Guys the growth was so rapid that we were always busy. In my time we went from 12 stores to 120+ so there was a lot of change and learning.

The change to David Jones’ gave me a real spring in my step and a fresh set of challenges to take on. This included a more junior team who needed my coaching and assistance in a very different way – I really enjoy what I can put into their development and their overall careers.’

Finishing up

‘By 6pm I’m usually exhausted and this is where I’ll draw a line – it’s not worth continuing to work after you’re tired as it’s just not productive or quality work. I’ve made sure to encourage my team to do this too – when I’ve seen emails come in later in the day I’ve sent a quick note encouraging people to enjoy their own time.

That said, this time has taught us that people work in different ways and whilst I’ve worked best when sticking to a formal working day as I would in the office, some people in my team do start later and work their hours on a slightly different schedule. We have international vendors so this suits some people’s workload as well. I trust my team implicitly and this would only become an issue if their work wasn’t delivered as expected.

In terms of how I’ve kept busy this year? Well, I’m sick of cooking. Deliveries from restaurants just don’t deliver the same experience so their reopen was a big moment for me. I’ve also taken the time to go back and watch a lot of classic series that I missed the first time around – I might be the last to the party but I’ve really loved The West Wing!

It was fantastic to speak to Lyn about how she’s been working with her team and share ideas and suggestions. We’ll be chatting to more Credit, AP and Shared Service Managers about their days and what they’ve learned from lockdown over the coming weeks so if you’d like to get involved please reach out to us.