Garry Connell

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Garry Connell

CEO

March 2025 marks a significant milestone for Garry being 30 years since he founded Trak Recruiting, now part of the TSHR Group, where he serves as CEO. It also marks 40 years since he first entered the recruitment industry. Across four decades, Garry has partnered with hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of candidates, helping both sides achieve meaningful, long-term placements at leadership level. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director with MTC Recruitment, a not-for-profit supporting Sydney’s youth, Indigenous communities, and long-term unemployed through education and employment pathways.

Based in Sydney’s CBD, TSHR comprises Trak Recruiting, Trak Executive Search, and Trak HR Consulting. The group supports retail, fashion, franchise, FMCG, digital, and consumer organisations with end-to-end recruitment solutions and strategic HR capability. This includes talent acquisition, onboarding, retention, workforce development, organisational design, and executive coaching across the full employee lifecycle.

While Garry’s primary focus is C-suite and executive search, sourcing with the leaders of some of Australia’s major retailers, he also oversees the TSHR recruitment team which cover all head office and multi-site operational roles including digital, Ecomm, marketing, design, merchandise, and finance.

Dedicated to global retail, Garry has taken part in numerous Westfield Retail Study Tours across London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other international hubs. These experiences, combined with his unmatched knowledge of the Australian retail landscape and a network of more than 16,000 LinkedIn connections, give him unparalleled insight and reach when conducting executive searches or advising senior leaders.

Garry is an active member of the Australian Retail Association and chairs the Australian Retail Leaders Group, hosting quarterly forums in Sydney and Melbourne attended by senior retail executives and C-level decision-makers.

Recent Projects Include:

CEO – ASX listed hard goods retailer – $1m+
CEO – ASX listed ladies fashion chain – $1m+
CEO – Private Equity–owned consumer goods – $800k
General Manager – Fashion chain, 250 stores – $600k
CEO – QSR, 300 stores – $500k
CFO – ASX listed, 300 stores – $400k
CMO – 300 specialty stores/wholesale – $350k
ANZ Retail Director – International market leader, retail services – $400k
CFO – International fashion wholesale/retailer – $380k
Head of Product – Fashion, 150+ stores – $320k
Global Sourcing Manager – Asia-based, fashion & apparel – $300k
HR Director – Global role, luxury goods – $300k
Retail Property Manager – 400 stores – $300k
Global Head of Manufacturing, Sourcing & Supply Chain – $300k

Articles by Garry Connell

How your people can add to the bottom line with one easy step

All of today’s great business leaders talk about the importance of attracting the best people, motivating them to ensure you get the most out of them and finally making sure they stick around.Many of you have read The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. The book describes One Minute Goals as, “where both the employee as well as the employer knows what is expected from the beginning of a task. Writing is important so that you can periodically view your performance against your target and check your progress. Thus, one minute goals help you to perform better and produce efficient results”A Job Description (JD) is very much like a One Minute Goal – it should be in writing, it should be agreed between the employer and employee and it should clearly explain what the employee is expected to do to perform their job well. Without it, employees can become unsure as to what are priorities, how will their performance be measured and therefore how they can tell if their boss is actually happy with them. It would be like asking a builder to construct a house for you but not giving him a plan of what you expect or what it should look like – which of cause would be ludicrous.Amazingly, about half of the clients who list a search with us have Job Descriptions that are years out of date, no longer relevant, do not clarify what should be achieved and how it will be measured, or worse still have no JD at all. This is usually because they don’t understand how to use a JD correctly and see it as a document that gathers dusk, and not surprisingly staff turnover is usually high and performance and productivity usually low. The purpose of a well written JD should assist in the entire employment life cycle in terms of recruitment advertising, agreeing the skills required, performance management, succession planning or termination.At the selection stage the JD is used to decide on questions during the interview process and importantly be a tool for candidates to assess if it’s a role that they can do and in fact want to do. Just yesterday I spoke with a CEO who had just completed a series of interviews for a role that involved 22 people from the hiring company (including flying overseas for a panel interview). After hearing they were “still trying to agree on exactly what they were looking for” he wisely withdrew from the process. A JD can also help the onboarding process with specific mention of 30, 60 and 90 days goals. But most importantly the JD is what performance is measured against. If the JD includes expectations of employees with specific measureable objectives and targets there are no surprises or emotion when the performance management discussion takes place. All parties know what the score should be and all are able to easily see what it is and then talk about why it is different. From this training and development needs may be identified for those that are struggling and/or recognition and rewards (bonus or commission) for those that are doing well.It may sound obvious and basic, but the 3 major things that we hear that make people disillusioned about their job which can lead to looking for a change are:Not knowing what they are meant to be doingHaving the goal posts continuously changingReceiving little or no feedback on how they are going.All it takes to solve these problems is a good relevant JD. JDs should be updated yearly to take into account changes to the business needs.TSHR - Trak HR Consulting is able to assist with developing or updating Job Descriptions. For more information please contact:Garry Connell on 0409 590 996 or garryc@tshr.com.auBelinda McPhee on 0417 239 458 or belindam@tshr.com.au

Celebrating 2 significant milestones

As we move closer to Christmas it’s with much pleasure that I share that it’s 23 years since I opened the doors of Trak Recruiting and 33 years since I first joined the recruitment industry. It was way back in 1985 when Bob Hawke was PM, Paul Hogan was Australian of the Year and the largest corporate deal Australia had seen also took place – the $1.07 billion merger of retail giants Coles and Myer. It was also the year I filled my first role in the retail sector with a 25 year old Brett Blundy who owned a handful of Bras n Things stores. Brett was also one of my first clients a decade later in 1995 when I started my own business. Fast forward and we’ve completed executive appointments with other Brett Blundy companies. I share this as I believe it’s indicative of the many long term relationships and friendships I have been privileged to make along the way, as well as so many careers I have seen blossom. Looking back on the 33 years, it’s also interesting to reflect on how the recruitment sector has changed. Saturday papers were filled with big expensive positions vacant advertisements with politically incorrect headings such as this one, I read in 1992:‘Outgoing Young Retail Area Manager, must be 23 – 27 non-smoker, male preferred!’It was then an early start on Mondays as the phones buzzed and we jotted down the details of promising candidates. The postman carried a sack bigger than Santa’s filled with 10 page typed resumes. Today sending a hard copy CV through Australia Post would be like living life without a smartphone. Instead the push of a button is all that’s needed resulting in 24/7 arrivals however, while quantity is up, quality is definitely down. Less than 5% of candidates will ring about an ad, and very few bother with a cover letter. While we relied 100% on what was in the CV to “picture” the candidate now a quick Google search may lead you to LinkedIn and Facebook posts which tell a very different story. For many recruiters the art of interviewing no longer exists and the proliferation of recruitment companies – including those that operate from their garage – has in my opinion damaged our industry. Fees vary widely, but so too does the level of expertise, professionalism, commitment and trust – qualities often hard to see until after you’ve been burnt. On the plus side, many of our clients now recognised the importance of culture, retention and engaged employees and can see significantly their impact on the bottom line. With most companies able to source similar product at similar price and set up stores in all the same malls it seems that the successful retailers realise their real point of difference is the quality of their people. 23 years has also seen change within the Trak business. It’s no longer just me, but a team of 25 spread across 3 business units forming TSHR – Trak Recruiting, Scarlett Recruitment and Trak HR Consulting. From our Sydney and Melbourne offices we’ve placed people in all types of management and head office roles – sourcing, design, production, sales, buying, planning, marketing, digital, accounting, property, loss prevention, and of course HR. From entry level to “C” suite executives, while geographically we’ve ran assignments in the UK, the Middle East, Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, New Zealand and of course right across Australia. But, our mantra remains the same – to ensure that our retail and fashion clients have access to the best people in the market and through the combination of better HR practices and efficiencies maximise the productivity and effectiveness of their teams. To do this we recognise that we need to be niche – to understand the rapid changes taking place in the retail and fashion sector globally and through our research and technology we need to be totally connected with those executives within it. The fact that I’ve survived 33 years and TSHR celebrates 23 years gives me confidence that we must be doing something right and on “Trak” for a bright future. Many thanks to the continued, support, encouragement and friendships I have made along the way – it truly is the people I have met that energises me as I start the next decade. Thank you,Garry Connell, CEO, TSHR

The secret diary of the Westfield study tour – Stockholm

I’m now back on Aussie soil, I want to continue sharing my memories and learning’s of the last 3 cities – Stockholm, London and Barcelona as each of them houses some retail gems. Incidentally, while I was away my team signed me up for the Vinnies CEO Sleepout which means I’ll be roughing it out on a sheet of cardboard next Thursday raising money for the homeless. To find out more or to donate click here. Sweden may only have a population of 9 million but with H&M and IKEA based there in terms of retail they do it well. In 1901 Josef Sachs founded Swedish department store NK – stating his ambition was to not only bring together the finest products in the world under one roof but to also create a “a cultural and commercial theatre” for his clientèle. How ironic is it that the cry of today’s retailers to compete with online sales is to “create more theatre within the store”? H&M certainly needed no introduction, but it was interesting to hear that they own no factories themselves but source product from 750 different suppliers. They employ 150 designers, now sell into 54 markets, have 3300 stores, 116,000 staff, but are planning to open another 375 stores over the next 12 months – mainly in China and USA. Finally their commitment to CSR has made them one of the biggest users of sustainable cotton on the planet. Speaking of big numbers IKEA is of course the other global Swedish retailer. With 350 stores in 43 countries SKU’s are about 12,000, however 25% of these change each year to ensure there is always something new to attract you to “explore” the store. Another mind-blowing statistic is that IKEA uses 1% of the worlds timber supply each year – so again CSR is a priority. With 140,000 employees it was refreshing to find that they are ranked among the best 50 companies to work or. They see their future growth in China and Russia – in fact their top 2 stores are in Russia.