Thought Leaders

At Bunnings, we’re focused on building an engaged and productive team that delivers great outcomes for our customers.

We’re fortunate to have a strong reputation as a desirable place to work – every year, we receive more than 100,000 job applications. However, we don’t take anything for granted. We work hard to maintain a compelling team member value proposition, and to make Bunnings a great place to work. We currently employ over 55,000 team members across Australia and New Zealand. Eighty percent of our team are permanent, which is 

uncommon in the retail sector

We always encourage our people to put down roots and grow with us. Our retention rates are among the highest in the retail sector – and that for me is the key indicator of a positive culture. We have over 2,800 team members who’ve been with us for more than 20 years. I can give you all the buzzwords in the world, but the reality is, if our team members stay with us for long periods of time, it demonstrates the positive working environment we have created. 

We believe that listening and responding to team feedback is an important contributor to our high retention rates. Our leadership team is also made up of incredibly passionate people who love everything about Bunnings, and that passion really filters throughout the broader business.

A genuinely diverse workforce

Our workforce is also very diverse, which is another reason why it’s a great place to work. Fifty percent of our workforce is female, and 30 percent are aged over 50. We have a lot of former teachers, nurses, first aid responders. Our team ranges in age from 15 to those in their nineties. It’s truly a multi-generational workforce and that is something we take a lot of pride in.

We’ve known for a long time that our older team members play an important part in creating a great place to work. Part of that is embracing the wisdom they bring. Older people offer so much life experience, industry knowledge and trade experience. We know our customers love it. It’s also terrific for our organisational culture when our older team members become great mentors for a lot of our younger ones.

What we’ve found is that a lot of people don’t necessarily want to retire. They want to maintain connections with their community and work in a team environment. We have over 350 sites across Australia and New Zealand, and so many of our team members work in their local communities. This is often a real source of pride, and I think it resonates well with the public too.

This year actually marks the 30th anniversary of our very first warehouse in Sunshine, Victoria. When the warehouse went up, it was all geared towards creating a great home improvement offer. That focus has evolved over time and today we’re committed to offering customers the widest range, lowest prices and best experience – and that drives everything we do. Bunnings has become a bit of an Aussie cultural institution. I think this has happened quite naturally over 30 years of putting customers and community first.

The concept of supporting community through the sausage sizzle has long been an important part of the business. We don’t use tricky marketing ploys or anything like that. It has just come from natural interest in the community. So many of us have belonged to a school or club or kindergarten who has put on a sausage sizzle – including me.  I’ve had a go working in the sausage sizzle tent.

A long-term partnership with Quinn Allan

My relationship with Quinn Allan actually predates my time at Bunnings – where I began working five years ago.  It goes back 15 years, from when I was part of the professional services sector. Quinn Allan founder and managing partner James Hyndman has helped me with a number of talent searches over the years.



James has his finger on the pulse and really makes an effort to understand our business and emerging themes in the sector. Candidates are well briefed, and we are always impressed with the level of candidate care. Quinn Allan are highly reputable, reliable and customer-focused, which has made working with them really productive.