DIY retailer Homebase has begun recruiting for hundreds of positions including HR roles, following a head office relocation from Wallington, Surrey, to Milton Keynes.
Homebase parent company Argos Retail Group (ARG) is looking for 500 staff to work in its new “retail centre of excellence”.
More than 150 existing staff have already shown an interest in the move, leaving about 350 jobs available across a wide range of functions, including finance, HR, marketing, property, retail operations, supply chain and trading.
“The vacancies that will arise as a result of this relocation are going to offer potential candidates some amazing opportunities to join ARG and develop their careers with one of the UK’s most progressive retail organisations,” said Jane Watkinson, head of HR for the group.
“In an ideal world, we would have liked every one of our affected employees to join us in this move.
“However, it is inevitable that some employees will not be able to make the move due to their individual and family commitments and so we’ve had to take on this major recruitment challenge,” she added.
To help facilitate this process, ARG has set up a special recruitment centre based in part of the new building.
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The recruitment centre is equipped to carry out in excess of 50 interviews a day and is expecting to receive thousands of applications for jobs at Homebase, as well as at Argos.
About 260 Homebase employees in functions such as IT and administration will remain in Wallington. The period of consultation for all other Homebase employees concludes at the end of July.
