Tesco to recruit in deprived areas
People
Management Magazine
Supermarket
targets long-term unemployed people in a bid to recruit staff from a wider
labour pool
Katie Hope
Tesco is targeting long-term unemployed people in deprived areas
in a bid to recruit staff from a wider labour pool and create new markets for
its business.
Andrew Smith, regeneration manager at Tesco, said the company
planned to open another two to three stores in early 2005 that would employ
large numbers of long-term unemployed people.
Through its regeneration partnership programme, the company has
already opened 10 new stores, with 2,000 of the 3,000 new jobs created going to
long-term unemployed people. Tesco guarantees them a job providing they
complete a training course lasting eight to 10 weeks.
"This is a new approach to training and work that recognises
aptitude, not qualifications. We need to create new markets and support our
communities so they will support us. It is increasingly difficult to recruit and
retain staff in today’s labour market," Smith said at a Daycare Trust
conference for employers this month.
The company has found its policy has improved retention, with 55
per cent of staff taken on through the scheme staying for at least six months.
Smith said that a fifth of the new recruits had been promoted and were being
trained for specialist roles.
But a job guarantee alone was not enough to encourage people to
leave benefits behind, he warned.
"We target returning mothers and people over 50, but we also
offer family-friendly policies, with flexible shift patterns and career break
schemes," added Smith.
Across the company, 29 per cent of staff work under 16 hours per week, 36 per cent work 16 to 35 hours a week, and 34 per cent work over 36 hours.