Asda to put slow staff on training courses as it battles crisis
The supermarket will look at data on how quickly staff can pick and pack orders for home delivery, as well as if they are putting the correct items in deliveries and making appropriate substitutions.
The lowest-performing staff in Asda's home shopping team will be given coaching to make them work more efficiently under the supermarket's plans. Training selection will also be based on other performance metrics Asda tracks.
It has suggested this could mean as many as one in five workers will be asked to participate in the training course at any given time. It has similar performance programmes already in place for its drivers.
A spokesman for Asda said: 'This proposal to introduce additional coaching to our home shopping colleagues will provide an opportunity for us to engage earlier with colleagues to understand any concerns that they may have or support that they require to help them excel in their roles and deliver outstanding service to our customers.
'This proposal would not introduce any additional targets for our colleagues and does not replace the performance improvement processes we already have in place.'
It comes amid a wider push at supermarkets to boost productivity. Last week it emerged that rival Morrisons was stopping shop floor staff from going into stockrooms to remove 'idle time' from the working day.
Tesco banned shop floor staff from wearing headphones at work last year under its uniform policy.
Bullying fears
However, Asda's plans threaten to spark a row with union bosses.
This week, the GMB voiced concerns to members over the proposals, saying the approach to coach workers due to their performance would have a 'dramatic impact on colleague wellbeing and workplace stress'.
It argued that plans to put as many as 20pc of staff on training programmes would be an 'unnecessary target that will lead to managers bullying colleagues and potentially discriminating against those least able to hit certain targets due to underlying medical or age-related factors'.
It has called for Asda to make 'a periodic, randomised selection' of workers to coach rather than doing it based off their individual performance. The GMB said the supermarket should also 'monitor demographics'. It has asked Asda to revise the proposals.
Asda executives have been racing to improve standards in stores as the supermarket battles to win back customers.
Allan Leighton, who took over as chairman in November, has been funnelling more investment into modernising stores. In May, he said the change in stores had been 'noticeable', with more products on shelves at times when customers were searching for them.
It follows years of decline at the supermarket, which has been struggling since its debt-fuelled takeover by private equity firm KKR and the Issa brothers.
The most recent figures from Kantar showed its market share slipped from 12.5pc to 11.9pc in the year to the middle of June. At the time of its takeover in 2021, its market share stood at 15pc.
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