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We sat down with Angela McKenrick, Contracts Manager at Waverley Market, to talk about what TUPE has really meant on the ground. Not just a legal process, but a shift in mindset, structure, and standards.
Angela joined Waverley Market on the day the new contract went live.
“The 1st of October was my first official day and the day the contract actually went live,” Angela explains. “The team and the machinery TUPE’d over from a large rival FM company, so for me to start the exact same day was actually a good thing, It meant we could start afresh together.”
Rather than imposing a new way of working overnight, Angela focused on understanding what the team had been through and what the client genuinely needed.
“I sat down and asked, if I am to manage security and cleaning, what’s actually going to help the team? That is something the client and team clearly needed, the few processes in place were just not working”
From day one, Angela’s emphasis was on collaboration. Collaboration with the client (centre management), with the Anchor head office teams, and crucially with the TUPE’d colleagues who know the site better than anyone.
Angela comes from a sales and account management background, where resilience, relationships and commercial awareness are everything. But what really pulls her into operations is people.
“For me, operations is all about collaboration, with colleagues and with the client. I’m on site with my team, I’ve got my client here as well. I can hear their feedback directly, it’s a very open and transparent environment.”
That openness has shaped how Angela approached the TUPE transition. Before talking rotas and checklists, she looked at the mindset of the team.
“If you don’t have the right people with the right vision, it doesn’t work. We’re all one team, but the mindset has to align. Mindset is everything.”
Under the previous contractor, Angela saw a lot of learned behaviour: good people left to “just get on with it” with little structure, inconsistent standards and no real boundaries.
“They had effectively been left on their own. That might be okay for some, but it’s not right for everybody. It shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all.”
One of the immediate changes post-TUPE was clarifying roles and responsibilities.
“At the start, security were doing elements of cleaning,” Angela says. “You wouldn’t expect your cleaners to do security, so why were guards doing cleaning? It just didn’t work.”
The first phase of the culture shift was simple but powerful:
There are a number of long standing employees, Thomas, who has been at Waverley for eight years, is stepping into a formal leadership role on the security side, while Tracey, with 23 years at the centre, leads the cleaning team.
What they didn’t always have before was the structure, support and recognition.
Angela’s next step is to create a pipeline of future leaders within both teams.
“Ideally, I’d like to create team leaders, people who can step up when other team members are on holiday or on leave. That’s how you protect standards and people.”
TUPE can be unsettling. Many colleagues have seen contractors change before and fear the worst, job losses, tighter rotas, more pressure.
Angela tackled that directly in the recruitment and onboarding process for both TUPE’d staff and new joiners.
“I’m very open. Life can be hard, I don’t expect anyone to be a robot. But when you’re here, I expect you to do your job really well and enjoy being part of the team.”
Angela is clear that work shouldn’t add to the chaos of life; it should be one of the places people feel they can actually make a difference.
“There are things in life you can’t control. Here, there’s a lot you can control. Work should be the thing you can mould, not the thing that drains you.”
That approach has resonated with the TUPE’d team from the very beginning with one team member emailing.
“I just want to say a huge thank you for the two amazing days and everything you put into Waverley Market for the team. Your energy, dedication and support truly mean the world to us. We couldn’t have done it without you. Best team ever.”*
For someone who’d been “left in limbo for eight years”, as Angela puts it, the difference in energy was immediate.
Waverley Market is in a prime location, directly linked to Edinburgh Waverley Station and Princes Street. For Angela, that makes standards non-negotiable.
“This isn’t just any centre. First impressions matter. The stairs, the entrance, the bannisters – that’s what people see first. It has to be right.”
Coming from a self-confessed “high standards” background, she zeroed in on the small things that make a big difference:
It’s not about perfectionism for its own sake; it’s about respect, for the space, for the client and for each other.
“These small things make a huge difference. When the public see effort, they give effort back. And when the team see me notice the detail and explain why it matters, it helps. I don’t just say ‘do this’. I say, ‘here’s why this matters for the customer, for the centre, for you.’”
Ultimately, Angela wants both security officers and cleaners to feel like ambassadors for Waverley.
The early signs are promising. For visitors who knew Waverley Market in its previous guise, the difference is already tangible.
“People have said it feels lighter in here now,” Angela smiles. “That’s all I want, for it to feel better, cleaner, more welcoming and more human.”
For Waverley Market, TUPE hasn’t just been a contractual obligation. It’s been a catalyst.
A catalyst to reset culture and expectations
It’s also shown how Anchor’s support model translates from head office to site.
“Anchor are fair, personable, and they keep their word,” Angela says. “From HR to recruitment to my own line manager, I’ve never felt isolated.
I want to make Waverley Market as good as it can possibly be. But it’s also part of something much bigger. There’s real scope here for people to grow.”
TUPE, in this case, hasn’t just transferred people. It’s transferred potential.
