Sainsbury’s creates 12,000 seasonal jobs

Sainsbury’s has announced its created 12,000 seasonal roles and increased its digital offer to help cope with the peak Christmas season.

The supermarket also announced the increase in holiday rates pay to £9.30 per hour, the reportedly highest rate of pay of the major supermarkets. Colleagues working in Greater London will receive £9.55 per hour and those in Zones 1 and 2 of London will receive £9.90 per hour.

Sainsbury’s said it is also offering extra hours to existing colleagues who want extra work in the run up to Christmas.

The 12,000 jobs created will be in addition to the total of 75,000 people the grocer said it will hire by March 2021, including creating 6,000 permanent roles, the majority of which will support the rapid growth of Sainsbury’s Groceries Online.

To help customers shop safely in stores, Sainsbury’s has introduced SmartShop to over 1,100 stores. The grocer has also partnered with food deliveries service Chop Chop, Deliveroo and UberEats.

The supermarket said it has expanded its own Chop Chop service to 15 cities and boosted it further through third party tie-ups so it can serve more shoppers this way.

This year Sainsbury’s reported it has doubled its Groceries Online capacity with over 750,000 online grocery orders a week this December, either by delivering to customers’ doors or through Click & Collect.

Clo Moriarty, retail and digital director for Sainsbury’s, said: “This Christmas will be like no other and the way customers want to shop for their celebrations has changed completely. To help them find everything they need and shop how they want, we’re recruiting thousands more Christmas colleagues than in previous years.

“The roles will receive the highest rate of pay of the major supermarkets while supporting in our superstores and helping fulfil online grocery orders, where we’ve more than doubled capacity since March. For customers who want to get in and out of stores quickly, our SmartShop app is now in over 1,100 stores.”

She added: “We’re doing everything we can to make Christmas special for our customers and we’re asking them to play their part by shopping early and shopping alone, wherever possible. This will really help everyone spend less time queuing and more time celebrating.”