Grocery stores plan to go on hiring spree
Canadian grocers are hiring new staff in an effort to reduce pressure on their workforce and make sure they can still keep up with demand if their current employees have to miss work due to the novel coronavirus.
For example, Walmart Canada last week said it is planning to hire 10,000 people, looking to lighten the current load on staff who have been contending with intensified cleaning regimes and a surge in panic buying during the pandemic.
The spike in hiring will increase the discount chain’s workforce of roughly 90,000 by more than 10 per cent, allowing the retailer to keep stores open “should we see a dramatic spike in absenteeism,” said Michael Watson, vice-president of people, field operations.
“We want to make sure we’re prepared for any situation.”
Walmart this week will launch a new hiring process, called Rapid Hire, to handle the gargantuan task of interviewing thousands of candidates at a time when no one is supposed to have close personal contact. The new system will let managers meet candidates in video calls and provide job offers within four hours.
The company has seen an onslaught of applications since announcing its hiring plans.
“We want to make sure that we have enough associates available to help make sure that we’re keeping up with demand,” Watson said.
Walmart has had some staff absences so far, he said, but “nothing that’s drawing a concern right now.”
Empire Co. Ltd., the second-largest Canadian grocery chain with banners such as Sobeys and Safeway, hasn’t had issues with staff absences either.
Chief executive Michael Medline said the company’s problem is that it needs every single employee working as many hours as possible to keep up with demand.
“We want to bring on as many people as we can so we can keep working,” he said on Sunday.
“And, honestly, our people get tired, too. They can’t work around the clock all the time without a break. That’s why we’ve got to augment our troops.”
Medline said he has received “all sorts of offers” from shuttered retailers looking to find temporary jobs for their employees.
The first offer came from Matthew Corrin, founder of the Freshii chain of salad bars. The company has been downsizing operations, with some franchisees offering just takeout or delivery, and others shuttering entirely.
That left a pool of hundreds of out-of-work Freshii employees.
“To the leaders of Grocery Chains,” Corrin tweeted last week. “Please lean on our incredible Freshii hourly team members ... since we know produce!”
Medline took him up on the offer. Freshii employees can now apply for temporary positions at Sobeys through an online system specifically set up for the salad chain, Freshii confirmed on Monday.
“That sort of unbelievable camaraderie across the country is happening all the time,” Medline said.
He noted that grocery stores are still open even in the hardest-hit places around the globe, including Italy and China.
The Retail Council of Canada on Monday said it doesn’t have any concerns about grocery stores struggling because of a lack of staff.
Karl Littler, the council’s senior vice-president of public affairs, dismissed it as “a scenario which is so remote from our current circumstance.”
He said the industry is making major changes to protect retail employees, with heightened hygiene and physical distancing protocols, Plexiglas shields for cashiers, and limits on the number of customers allowed in stores.
A significant number of the 2.1 million employees in the broader Canadian retail sector have been laid off, he said, likely boosting the labour pool for available jobs.
“There’s no question that grocers are spending time thinking about making sure that there is a sufficient availability of staff,” Littler said. “But that has not created significant challenges to this point.”
Longo’s, a chain of Ontario supermarkets, is making contingency plans. It has asked staff in less busy stores to shift to busier locations.
Longo’s has also leaned on staffing agencies for back-up in its strained distribution centres.
Liz Volk, Longo’s chief human resources officer, said worst case, the chain would “consolidate” locations.
But that’s a very distant possibility, she said. Instead, the plan is to manage demand by moving staff around the network and recruiting new employees, both through normal channels and from closed retailers.
The current level of staff absenteeism is manageable, Volk said, at around three per cent.
Financial Post