Asda, M&S and Boots target tens of thousands of workers amidst UK labour crisis

In announcements this week, Asda has said it is has begun a recruitment drive for 15,000 temporary workers over the festive period, while M&S is looking for 12,000 and Boots has said it’s on the hunt for 5,500 staff. 

In a bid to lure what is a limited labour pool to work in retail, M&S are offering all temporary workers a 20% discount both in-store and online. 

Giant Amazon has gone a step further, offering signing-up bonuses of up to £3,000 for new starters. 

Staff shortages which became notable in the spring in areas such as heavy goods drivers have now rippled out across almost all sectors in the UK. 

According to a recent report by BDO, businesses blame the pandemic and Brexit for the shortage of overseas workers, with 38% saying a lack of regional talent was hurting their ability to recruit much-needed staff.

With retailers needing to offer increased wages and other benefits to compete with one another in this depleted labour pool, experts have warned this will lead to a knock on effect in prices for customers.

Tens of thousands of temporary roles

Asda said it would be hiring 15,000 seasonal staff over the festive period for a “variety of different roles” including serving customers, replenishing shelves, picking, packing and delivering online orders.

Around 500 roles will be based in Asda depots, with another 1,500 staff being brought on as home-delivery drivers. Asda said the remaining workers will be brought in to work at its supermarkets over the period. 

M&S said the 12,000 new, temporary roles would span food, clothing and homewares, noting “every single store” in the UK had vacancies. The retailer said temporary staff would begin work in December, adding “there may be opportunities for permanent employment after Christmas too”.

The retailer has also today opened ecommerce delivery slots over Christmas for Delivery Pass customers. These will be opened up to wider customers on October 28.

Since March 2020, Asda has more than doubled its online home-delivery capacity, and said it would be able to offer more than 900,000 delivery and click-and-collect slots over the festive period. 

Asda chief people officer Hayley Tatum said: “We will do all we can to make sure customers have a fantastic Christmas and recruiting an extra 15,000 colleagues across our stores, depots and home delivery service will help us to provide them with great products and excellent service when they shop with us during the festive season.”