Pets at Home has entered consultation with thousands of its employees as the business looks to streamline its in-store management and pay structure, Retail Week can reveal. 

Pets at Home

Source: Pets at Home

Pets at Home alerted staff of changes to its store management structure

The petcare specialist alerted staff today (March 12) of changes to its store management structure, leading to a consultation with 2,500 of its staff. 

In a bid to streamline operations, Pets at Home will move its three-tier management structure, which currently includes store, deputy and assistant managers, to two, dropping the assistant store manager role. 

Its colleague structure on the shop floor will also be simplified. The current three tiers of pet care expert, pet care adviser and store assistant model will move to two new roles – pet colleague and pet customer expert.

Retail Week understands that most of the current assistant store managers are expected to move to the pet customer expert role, while most store assistants will move into the pet colleague role.

Pets at Home said the restructure was not about removing headcount, knowledge, or experience, but instead simplifying a six-layer colleague model that was “no longer fit for purpose”.

In a note shared with colleagues seen by Retail Week, Pets at Home chief operating officer Anja Madsen said: “Our goal is to create a simpler, fairer, and more efficient retail business. We want to reshape the way we operate whilst staying true to our purpose, keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do and remaining a pet and colleague-first business. We want to remove complexity and outdated legacy ways of working and introduce a more transparent structure. 

“To achieve that, from today we will be consulting on a range of changes with our retail colleagues. This consultation is about ensuring colleagues have more clearly defined roles and responsibilities; they have access to the best training and tools they need to set them up for success; and that pay levels are fair and consistent across roles in store.” 

Along with the model change, Pets announced a £7m investment in shopfloor pay, with the new roles of pet colleague and pet customer expert receiving an hourly rate of £12.21 nationally (£13.46 premium) and £12.60 nationally (£13.85 premium) respectively from April. Store and deputy store managers will receive a 2% pay increase. The retailer also announced a £2m investment into new and bespoke training, which it said was reflective of its “commitment to upskilling and progression”.