Tesco puts 1,700 jobs at risk in operational shake-up

Tesco has announced plans that could involve laying off up to 1,700 workers as part of a structural shake-up.

The supermarket giant has said the plans will “improve efficiency and give line managers clearer accountability for colleague and customer experience”.

As part of these changes, the role of people manager and compliance manager will be removed from large stores and fulfilment centres in the UK. The role of customer experience manager, present in 226 stores, will also be removed, giving line managers more direct accountability for customer service, in line with all other Tesco stores.

As a result of these changes, 900 new roles with broader remits will be created as people partners, learning partners and colleague relations partners working across multiple sites throughout distribution, stores and fulfilment. As part of this a new colleague administration role will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfilment centre.

Matt Davies, Tesco UK and ROI CEO, said: “These changes remove complexity and will deliver a simpler, more helpful experience for colleagues and customers. We recognise these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future.

“Our priority now is to support affected colleagues through these changes in any way we can. We hope to retain as many colleagues as possible in the new roles we have created and in the vacancies we currently have available.”