Asda is overhauling working patterns across its stores as it seeks to create a more flexible workforce and improve the consistency of its customer experience.

Under the changes, colleagues will increasingly work across different parts of stores instead of remaining within a single department. Staff will be deployed across four main areas: replenishment, store processes, customer service and online order picking.

It will also review rotas and working patterns to ensure staffing levels better reflect demand at different times of the day.

An Asda spokesperson said: “Shopping habits have changed, with demand peaking at different times across the store.”

The retailer said the model would allow it to position colleagues where they were most needed while creating greater consistency in the completion of key tasks across its estate.

Stores identified as having surplus staff will offer voluntary redundancy packages. However, the move is expected to affect less than one per cent of Asda’s approximately 90,000 store-based employees, with no compulsory redundancies planned as part of the changes, reports said.

The shake-up forms part of Asda’s wider turnaround strategy as the supermarket works to improve availability, service and in-store standards.

It follows the launch of its ‘Take a Fresh Look’ customer campaign and a programme of store and range improvements designed to rebuild shoppers’ perceptions of the business.