As Lidl orders staff back to the office, which supermarkets offer hybrid working for head office staff?
Lidl has tightened its hybrid home-working policy for head office staff, now requiring its head office employees to attend the office at least three days a week, up from the previous two-day minimum introduced during the Covid pandemic.
The shift, says a Lidl spokesperson, followed a staff consultation process and was intended to provide “consistency” and “clarity” for colleagues, while “aligning [Lidl] with the majority of the sector”.
The move also comes a mere week after Morrisons ended its own 4.5 day working week policy for head office staff, ordering a return to five-day office working patterns as it ramps up efforts to turn around its business.
Describing the decision as “difficult” a Morrisons spokesperson said the move was necessary, adding: “In the context of a relentlessly competitive UK grocery market and widespread increased cost pressures, we have taken the difficult decision to ask our head office colleagues to move their working pattern from 4.5 days to a full five day week.”
The added: “They added that the new policy would improve customer service and ensure shelves are better stocked.”
Similar decisions by supermarkets
Lidl and Morrisons are not the only supermarkets to have called its staff back into to offices. In November, Asda ordered its more than 5,000 head office staff back to the office for a minimum of three days per week.
The grocery retailer enforced a new three-day a week office rule for its more than 5,000 head office staff members through an internal email across its three offices in Leeds and Leicester.
Asda chairman and interim chief executive Lord Rose has said that three-day office attendance will be compulsory from January 2025.
Just two months prior to this, Tesco also upped its in-office days for corporate staff from two to three per week in an aim to build “high-performing teams with a collaborative culture”.
The supermarket‘s part-time workers will also be expected to work from the office for an equivalent number of days.
As an Asda spokesperson said its updated approach brings it “in line with our competitors and the wider market”, we take a look into which UK supermarkets offer hybrid working for head office staff.
As Lidl updates it’s in-office working policy, we take a look into which UK supermarkets offer flexible working to head office staff.
6 Comments. Leave new
Well until the covid nonsense people were 5 days a week in the office. Perhaps the poor morale is down to leadership not working arrangements.
When walmart had the business they were required to be in the office from sun up to sun down to answer an questions and fix any problems , how can they do this if they are no longer in the office and working from “home” . No wonder the company is in the toilet
They can use technology such as Teams or chat tools to answer questions. The idea you need to be face to face to answer a question is absurd. Asda is failing because it’s loaded with expensive debt.
Yup
Came here to say this, the issues ASDA have has nothing to do with their flexible working policies. In a time where supermarkets are struggling and retail in general with stores closing across the country, tightening wfh and flexible working policies will only make everyone’s lives more difficult. Childcare is at an all time high, summer holidays are looming and parents struggle as is and this will only make things harder for a sector that also doesn’t pay very well in comparison.
Asda is incorrect, it is not 3 days a week in the office. They have lied thoroughly throughout to make themselves look better.
It’s 4 days a week. The correct ruling is a minimum of 3 days a week in the office but only 1 day WFH l. You have to either be in the office or in a store for the 4th day.
Mondays are a mandatory office day and soon Fridays are also going to be Mandatory. It’s ruined morale and a lot of people are leaving