THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 9 August 2017
- Posted By: admin
Is it really August? The days are drawing in fast, it’s wet, it’s windy, and it’s chilly! Come back summer. We have a range of interesting stories we’ve picked out for you: Jobs to be axed at Sainbury’s; New Look profits plummet; Tesco’s 5p bags to go; Landmark ruling on pension rights; and 1:5 leave a new job
Jobs to be axed at Sainsbury’s: Although not formally announced, there is speculation in the press this past week that Sainsbury’s has engaged McKinsey consultancy to draw up a plan by next month on how to remove a 1000 non-store jobs. So these will be targeted at head office jobs – buying, merchandising, HR, IT for example – in London, Manchester, Coventry, and Edinburgh. Sainsbury’s is remaining tight lipped – it says that if there are to be any job cuts it will be the staff that hear about it first, not the media. So let’s see what next month brings.
New Look profits plummet: New Look has said it’s quarter 1 figures are ‘disappointing’. That’s quite an understatement given that it’s just reported its underlying operating profits have dropped by 60.3%. It’s also gone from a £5.8 million profit in 2015-16, to a £15.2m bottom line loss in 2016-17. It’s to be hoped that the new Chief Creative Officer, Paula Dumont Lopez, who starts next month, will be able to do something about the range to get buyers back through its doors. And on that, apparently New Look wants to reduce its reliance on the High Street and get its online sales working better.
Tesco’s 5p bags to go: This could be quite a shrewd move on Tesco’s part. All those flimsy bags still being sold for 5p, it has to be more eco friendly to pay 10p for a bag for life, so when they wear out you get another one. Since free bags were banned back in 2015, Tesco has sold 1.5 billion fewer bags. That’s quite a number. The trick of course is to remember to take your bags with you – especially if you’re shopping at Tesco from 29 August, or you’ll be paying twice as much for your bags!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/07/tesco-to-end-sales-of-5p-carrier-bags
Landmark ruling on pension rights: The Supreme Court has just made a very sensible judgement on the rights of same sex spouses. The case was bought by Mr Walker on the grounds of sexual orientation discrimination. Basically, a heterosexual couple whose pension scheme gives rights should the other die, will get those benefits based on all the service of the deceased. For a same sex couple there are pension schemes that only recognise the service of the deceased from 2005 due to an exemption in the Equality Act 2010. So in the example of Mr Walker’s case, if he was married to a woman, she would receive £45,000 per annum, but his husband would only receive £1000. Some schemes had already put this right – those that haven’t will now be forced to do so by law. Quite right too.
1:5 leave a new job: It has long been known that the first 12 weeks of a new job can be the most difficult for a new person and the period when they’re most likely to leave. There’s lots of information for employers on how to minimise the risk of losing someone in this induction period. The latest research serves to remind us that, with full employment at its best for decades, and it becoming increasingly difficult to recruit people, its really important that the selection process, and then the on-boarding, really work well. Especially when most of the 22% who have left during or at the end of their probation cite the job ‘not being as expected’ the reason for leaving. This article will give you more stats on why people have left – interesting reading indeed.
We hope you’ve found something of interest this week. We’ll be bringing you more next week, so make sure you visit us again next Wednesday, 16th August. Let’s hope by then we can put the umbrellas away!