It’s October, and that means the Golden Quarter has kicked off. With Christmas coming fast, Retail Week looks at how many temporary staff retailers are recruiting.

As the weather turns to autumn and the nights draw in, retailers are beginning to ramp up for the run-in to the crucial Christmas trading period.

While consumer confidence remains deflated ahead of the Autumn budget due at the end of the month, many retailers are still looking towards the coming festive period with something resembling hope.

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy recently said, “We’re gearing up for a good Christmas,” adding: “We really want people to enjoy Christmas. We want them to be able to celebrate with their friends and family very affordably. So, we’re buying up in terms of our volumes, we’re putting together a very strong trade plan and we’re very excited about Christmas. I think it’s going to be a good one”.

With Black Friday just weeks away and the festive season fast approaching, retailers are already beginning to ramp up their recruitment for all-important temporary staff to help them over the busiest period of the year.

Who has already begun hiring and how many temporary staff are they looking for?

Sainsbury’s

Grocery giant Sainsbury’s is most definitely in the market for new faces – 20,000 of them, to be precise.

The UK-wide roles will include 18,000 roles at Sainsbury’s and 2,000 at Argos, and will involve everything from working in-store, to warehouse workers and delivery drivers.

Staff will be employed on fixed-term contracts ranging from three weeks to three months.

Hourly pay for in-store and warehouse workers ranges from £12 an hour to £13.50, depending on the location and the role. Pay is between £13 and £14.65 for delivery drivers.

Successful candidates will receive free food during shifts and a 10% discount across Sainsbury’s and Argos stores, rising to 15% on Fridays and Saturdays.

John Lewis Partnership 

The John Lewis Partnership has announced intentions to hire 12,500 temporary staff, in what it’s called its “biggest-ever recruitment drive for the festive period”.

The retailer said it would be hiring staff across both its John Lewis department store arm and its Waitrose grocery business. 

The 12,500 figure will be 4,100 more temporary staff than it hired in the same period last year and will be spread out across its distribution network. 

Waitrose will take on 7,700 seasonal roles across more than 300 shops, while 2,000 roles will be offered at John Lewis’ 34 remaining stores. 

Marks & Spencer

M&S has also kicked off its Christmas recruitment drive, and is in the market for 11,000 new staff to see if through the festive period.

The roles will predominantly be as “customer assistants” – which M&S has described as “the face of the business” and “responsible for delivering a seamless shopping experience for customers”.

Seasonal staff will also “play an integral role in delivering M&S’ Christmas Food to Order service” which launched on September 24.

Recruitment opens on October 9 and new staff will join from mid-November.

Grocery giant Morrisons kicked off its Christmas recruitment drive yesterday. The Bradford-based supermarket is on the hunt for 3,000 new staff.

New staff will be employed across Morrison’s stores, food manufacturing sites and logistics operations across the UK.

The roles will include customer assistants, home delivery drivers and warehouse operatives and will be offered flexibly with full training and no prior experience required.

Successful candidates will also be given a 15% staff discount card and a 10% discount card for friends and family.

The Perfume Shop

The Perfume Shop will be hiring over 750 temporary roles from mid-September through to October as it launches its Christmas recruitment programme.

The Perfume Shop has launched its Christmas recruitment campaign across 196 stores in the UK in the lead-up to the festive season with over 750 temporary roles paid at the Real Living Wage along with other benefits.

In addition to the Real Living Wage pay rate, The Perfume Shop will also be paying commission to everyone that works in its stores over the Christmas period. On average, the retailer’s Christmas sales assistants earned over £150 in commission last year across October, November and December.

The Entertainer

Toy specialist The Entertainer is after 1,000 temporary roles for Christmas, its biggest-ever recruitment drive for the festive period.

The retailer is looking for roles across its 160-strong store estate in the UK, as well as temporary sales assistants for its 130 Tesco in-store concessions.

The Entertainer is offering seasonal contracts of between 8 and 20 hours a week, as well as night stock assistant that begin on 20-hour contracts increasing to 37.5 hour contracts a week in the run-up to Christmas.

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