Workforce planning - high street retailers to share staff

An interesting example of co-ordination between two well-known retailers here which enables both to improve their effectiveness of their workforce planning…

Demand for many retailers is highly seasonal. For some like travel agents, the peak requirements for shop staff are in the New Year through to the end of the summer. For many others the run-up to Christmas is the critical sales period, Perhaps the best examples of this are the major grocery supermarkets - Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco for example recruit over 50,000 temporary employees for December each year.

So perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised if two retailers with contrasting seasonal requirements for labour can find a way to pool their supply? Here is an example of this happening.

500 employees from Tui UK - the travel firm - are to be given roles in Argos stores in the period up to Christmas. It is not clear whether Argos staff get the chance to reciprocate by working in a travel agency during the summer.

A good opportunity to get students to discuss and evaluate the benefits and problems for Argos / TUI of entering into this kind of arrangement.

A potential downside: you get staff handling your Argos order who aren’t really on top of the computer systems they need to master:...