Supermarket
chain Tesco is asking its
own checkout employees to help with the recruitment of 12,000 temporary
Christmas staff.
In
the first recruitment trial of its kind, hundreds of Tesco checkout staff will use their years of
experience dealing with people to identify potential new recruits.
Staff
will be encouraging shoppers who show classic retail skills, such as
friendliness and helpfulness, to apply for a job. New positions will be
available in 780 stores across the UK.
David
Potts, retail director at Tesco,
said: "Christmas is our busiest time of year. We are always looking for
extra staff to make festive shopping easier for our customers.
"With
12,000 roles to fill this year, this is going to be quite a challenge – so
we’re enlisting our existing staff to help us."
Vera
Howland, a checkout operator at Tesco’s
Ashford Crooksfoot store in
Kent,
said: "We’re probably in the best
position to check out our customers as so many pass through each day. You can
get a good idea of whether they’d enjoy working in our stores by how friendly
and chatty they are."
