Following
a successful Christmas trial of a ‘seasonal squad’, Asda is on the lookout for
a further 8,000 ‘permanent’ temps.
The
supermarket giant is launching a nationwide campaign aimed at people such as
teachers, students and the over-50s who often want work during the
‘off-season’.
Asda’s
seasonal squad pilot sought a solution to the perennial problem of staffing
peaks and troughs and a way to cut the £2.6m annual training and recruitment
costs for temporary staff. The seasonal squad contracts allows the staff to
work an annual, rather than weekly number of hours.
Asda
already has around 1,500 people in its seasonal squad.
“It
struck us that we were finding great people, employing them as temps, training
them and then waving them goodbye – over and over again.” said Philip Horn,
Asda’s head of resourcing. That was out of character for a business where one
of the primary aims is to recruit, retain and nurture new retail talent.”
