Four-day weeks to family leave, which supermarkets offer flexible working?

From four-day weeks and compressed hours to family leave policies, flexible working has been trialled and rolled out across many of the UK’s leading supermarkets in recent months.

As Asda and Morrisons become the latest retailers to update their policies and provide staff with a wider range of flexible working hours over the past week, we round up what is currently being offered to store, distribution centre and head office staff across UK grocers.

Asda’s four-day week

Asda has been trialling a variety of flexible working patterns for managers in 20 stores since September 2023, including a four-day working week for the same pay and benefits.

An Asda spokesperson said: “More flexible working patterns have become commonplace in retail leadership in recent years, and we are keen to test and learn different ways of working that benefit our colleagues and business.

“While we are still evaluating the results of this trial, the feedback from participating colleagues has been very positive.”

Morrisons’ four-and-a-half-day week

Earlier this month, Morrisons introduced new flexible working hours at its Bradford head office, moving to a four-and-a-half-day week.

Under the new proposals, staff will continue to work 37.5 hours, however this will be across a four-and-a-half-day week, with Saturday working no longer required.

These changes are set to come into play in February, with around 2,000 staff to be affected.

In 2020, Morrisons introduced four-day working weeks, which required staff to work 13 Saturdays across the year, however it is understood that this had not been favoured among head office workers.

M&S’ compressed week

In November 2022, M&S launched a new flexible working scheme to offer its retail employees and store managers a better work/life balance.

The Worklife scheme, which officially began in January 2023, offers over 3,000 retail managers additional days and hours to their shifts.

Store managers can choose whether to spend their hours over five days or work a four-day ‘compressed’ week.

It came following a successful trial across 100 M&S stores, with 75% of the retail managers who took part saying that the compressed hours had a positive impact on their family life, and 73% said it had a positive effect on time for themselves.

M&S group HR director Sarah Findlater said: “Retail is a fast-paced industry but that shouldn’t mean missing out on the moments that matter. Whether caring commitments, the chance to get involved in your local community or to prioritise your own mental and physical wellbeing.

“We’ve listened to colleagues and are determined to create a cultural shift to flexible working across our stores. Those retail managers taking part in our compressed hours trial agree it’s been a gamechanger by giving them more choice and autonomy.”

M&S also launched Job Share Finder – an approach to making flexible working easier for job-sharing employees across stores and support centres.

Findlater added: “We’re also always keen to put colleague ideas into action like our new Job Share Finder and are determined to keep exploring ideas that transform the way we work at M&S.”

Tesco’s early flexible working patterns

In August, Tesco became the first major UK supermarket to offer staff new flexible working rights, with more than 300,000 workers able to request flexible working patterns from their first day in the job, rather than having to wait six months under current legal stipulation.

Tesco said this move gives staff “greater choice and flexibility in their working patterns and help to attract and retain talent”.

Tesco UK people director James Goodman said: “We think giving people the right to start a conversation about flexible working from their first day, or even before they start work for Tesco, is the right thing to do to give colleagues the opportunity for a healthy work-life balance.

“We aim to create a positive culture at Tesco where managers will do as much as they can to facilitate these requests for flexibility.”

Waitrose equalised paid leave for all parents

Upmarket retailer Waitrose offers a range of flexible working arrangements including part-time, job share, reduced hours, compressed hours, term-time hours, seasonal working, flexible retirement, home working and hybrid working.

It was also the first retailer to have equalised paid leave for all parents. All employees that have worked with the supermarket for a year are offered 26 weeks paid leave, regardless of whether they are an adoptive, biological or intended parent or co-parent.

A Waitrose spokesperson said: “We know that flexible working has become a priority for many, and looks different according to individual needs.

“That’s why we offer a broad range of flexible working options, which include hybrid working and compressed hours, as well as our unique and industry-leading equal parental leave benefits.”

Sainsbury’s family leave policy

Sainsbury’s offers an inclusive and competitive family leave policy, enabling staff to prepare, attend and recover from fertility appointments.

Last February, the supermarket giant said it was “always looking to evolve our ways of working to ensure we can do the best possible job for customers while continuing to be a brilliant place to work for our colleagues.

“We are currently testing new ways to be more efficient and offer improved flexibility.”

According to The Times, the grocer started offering its staff the option of working a four-day week.

Workers based at its head offices in Holborn, Coventry and Milton Keynes as well as its warehouses, and store managers in its 1,400 UK stores were given the option to work their 37.5-hour contracts in a seven-day week, which means some head-office workers could work on a Saturday and take a day off in the week, or could work longer weekday hours. However, they would not be permitted to take consecutive Fridays off from work.

Co-op fertility and compassionate leave policies

In 2022, the Co-op rolled out a policy giving all staff the opportunity to take paid time off for fertility treatments.

It came as chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq revealed that she had gone through the process of fertility treatment and wanted to create a supportive environment for employees.

The policy provides paid leave for staff to attend medical appointments while undergoing fertility treatment, including people using a surrogate.

Khoury-Haq said: “It is incredibly difficult to navigate through fertility treatment while balancing work and the wider impact it has on your life.

“Having gone through all of this myself, I felt very lucky to be in a supportive professional environment; however, this isn’t always the case for so many people. I feel very proud that the Co-op is leading the way on launching a fertility policy and supporting our colleagues at a time when they need it most.”

Last May, Co-op also launched a new flexible copassionate leave policy to better support its 57,000 colleagues when dealing with bereavement.

Rolling out from ‘day one’ of employment, the convenience retailer’s updated policy sees colleagues provided with double the number of days paid leave, increasing from five to 10.

The flexible approach also gives managers the discretion to allow for further paid days leave to be taken based on individual circumstances.

Co-op chief people and inclusion officer Claire Costello said: “Here at Co-op, we want to support our colleagues when someone close to them dies or is seriously ill. We want everyone to ask for the support they need and will always handle things as sensitively as possible.”

Lidl

In July 2022, Lidl gave office staff the option to work from home permanently through a flexible working model.

Where appropriate, head office and regional staff can choose to work remotely as often as they like, except when specific circumstances require them to attend an office.

At the time of the announcement, Lidl GB posted to LinkedIn: “We have moved to a fully flexible model of mobile working for appropriate head office and regional roles, empowering our teams to choose how and where they work best.

“We feel it is important that, where possible, we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible and trust our teams to determine the right environments that work most effectively for them.”