Sixteen thousand people. That’s enough to fill Hampshire Cricket’s Ageas Bowl, where England have been taking on Pakistan in a test match this week.
It’s also the number of people Tesco will take on permanently in the wake of the coronavirus crisis as it seeks to capitalise on the shift to online shopping.
That is a significant recruitment drive – and it isn’t alone in hunting for new staff. Tesco’s plans were revealed just days after online electricals retailer AO kicked off a search for 650 new employees to take roles across the business, from tech experts to gas engineers and even a TikTok specialist, as it targets ambitious growth.
Tesco, AO and the nature of the roles they are recruiting for offer timely proof that retail jobs aren’t dying; they are evolving
Brits had barely heard of TikTok three years ago. Now retailers want full-time employees to create content for their TikTok channels.
Tesco, AO and the nature of the roles they are recruiting for offer timely proof that retail jobs aren’t dying; they are evolving.
I don’t say that through rose-tinted spectacles. Retail is in the midst of the most challenging period in living memory and companies are having to cut their cloth accordingly as they adapt to a post-coronavirus world. As a result, the level of jobs being lost across the industry is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Boots, Dixons Carphone, Selfridges, Debenhams – the list of retailers cutting jobs this year already reads like a who’s who of the Great British high street.
And Retail Economics predicts that 300,000 retail roles will be lost over the next three to five years as the impacts of Covid, the accelerated digital shift and Brexit all take their toll on businesses.
Yet out of such adversity can come opportunity. It may not make for as sensational a tabloid headline, but plenty of jobs will be created against that backdrop, both now and in the future. Tesco and AO’s hiring sprees are testament to that, and they aren’t the only retailers on the lookout for new talent.
According to analysis from LinkedIn published last week, 10 major retailers including Asda, Morrisons, Co-op, Superdrug and Specsavers are advertising at present for more than 3,500 roles between them on their UK websites.
And that didn’t account for others such as Aldi and Lidl, both of whom have launched big recruitment drives as part of their bullish store expansion plans.
Many retailers might be battening down the hatches right now, but others will see similar opportunities for growth in the future.
The highly anticipated partnership between Ocado and M&S to take the high street stalwart’s food proposition online for the first time kicks off next week. If that attracts new customers in the manner that both parties hope, expansion and further jobs – with the training to help people learn new tech-based skills – are likely to result.
Debenhams might be axing 2,500 roles, but Next has already agreed to take space in six of its former department store locations to launch its new beauty hall concept, which will require shopfloor expertise in cosmetics.
Online recipe-box providers, such as HelloFresh and Gousto, have seen sales soar during lockdown and will require additional staff to service their growing top lines – the latter has already said it will need 1,000 new workers.
The best retailers are already adapting and creating jobs, which will plug some of the gaps being left by rivals that were slower to enact digital change
And as businesses such as John Lewis take baby steps into rental, recycling and similar ventures, more meaningful strides in the years to come could create further employment.
It is all too easy, then, to be apocalyptic. Retail is being hit hard and jobs are being lost in their thousands. But as Tesco and AO have proven this week, the best retailers are already adapting and creating jobs, which will plug some of the gaps being left by rivals that were slower to enact digital change.
As AO’s founder and boss John Roberts put it to me this week, coronavirus has served “as a wake-up call for high street retailers to think about where and how the customer really wants to shop” and to structure their businesses to suit.
As others wake up to the new demands being imposed upon them by their customers, and open their eyes to new avenues of growth, employment will follow.
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