ASDA shielded 15,500 employees & hired 23,000 temps in 4 weeks

In the next in our series of Covid-19 interviews with Senior HR Leaders, our Founder & Managing Director, Peter Banks, talks directly to Hayley Tatum, Chief People Officer, ASDA Stores Ltd.  The supermarket’s roots can be traced back to the 1920s and Asda as a brand was born in 1965, and was the first UK discounter who offered their customers the very best value which has continued to be their driving force to this day. They have built their business upon listening to their diverse range of customers and offering what they need.

Hayley shares how Asda has had to manage the organisation through the high peak in trade, whilst keeping their colleagues safe. They took the decision not to furlough anyone and to shield 15,500 of their key workers – those who were more vulnerable or who had vulnerable dependents – and hired 23,000 temps in just 4 weeks to ensure they were fully resourced to be able to cope – all recruited remotely.

Peter Banks, Founder & Managing Director of theHRDIRECTOR commented: “Hayley shares how she is exhausted but quite rightly proud of what they have achieved, as HR has been right in the centre of all decisions taken by the business,  during this is very human crisis. What is clear is that ASDA can see the changes taking place post covid-19, with customers behaving in very different ways, which is impacting on their operating model. The jobs of their employees are still secure, but different roles are expected, so re-skilling is required which is a real shift mentally for their colleagues and this takes real change management.”

Watch the next in the series now as we look to uncover a rich source of ideas, insight, strategies and new working practices to guide us through this. Just what have we learnt from this global pandemic and where is the opportunity to return to ‘the new better’?

To watch the full interview click here:

Watch our previous Covid-19 video interviews in this series on our HRDTV You Tube channel, click here.