THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS

It’s that time of the week again when The Hub Retail Recruitment brings you its top stories of the last 7 days. There’s some corkers again this week, but our top ones for this week are: Primark sales worst for 12 years; women change their names so they can get a job; BP CEO gets a 20% pay rise despite poor performance. 

Primark sales worst for 12 years: Whilst Primark has reported its underlying sales are up by 4%, it’s the lowest rise for 12 years. Primark cites a tough UK market together with the opening of stores in Germany and the Netherlands. It comments that it is unclear whether the slowdown in the UK retail market is deeper than a blip caused by warm weather on the run up to Christmas and an early Easter which has bought a chilly Spring. We’ll keep a watch on other retailers to see whether an emerging trend – which we reported last month – of consumers spending their money on other things such as travel and leisure is a growing one. Have a read of the Primark situation in this article.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/19/primark-first-fall-half-year-sales-12-years

Women change their names so they can get a job: 1 in 5 British women with ‘foreign sounding’ names have changed those names when applying for jobs, according to a report. And of these women, most found they received a higher response rate from employers. With the Office for National Statistics data reporting  that unemployment was at 14% for BAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) workers with A-levels or equivalent compared to 4.5 per cent for white people with the same qualifications, it makes for uneasy reading. We very much hope that employers will look more closely at the unconscious bias that might have crept into their recruitment processes and ensure their practices embrace diversity.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2016/04/15/women-change-foreign-sounding-names-to-get-hired.aspx

BP CEO to get a 20% rise despite poor performance: This article comments on the backlash from BP’s shareholders when the company proposed a 20% pay rise for its CEO Bob Dudley, taking his package up to £13m. The shareholders are outraged that Mr Dudley should be getting a significant pay rise when the company has suffered huge losses and shed thousands of jobs. Clearly this performance was not something to be rewarded and though not legally able to stop the increase, the shareholders have very publicly made their disapproval known. It will be interesting to see whether this has any effect on the BP board’s decision – either now or in the future.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/18/bp-bob-dudley-pay-package-shareholder

So three news stories to whet your appetite – there are of course many others, and The Hub Retail Recruitment will be reporting on some of these next week so do look out for our Weekly News Snippets next Wednesday, 27th April.