Tesco and Sainsbury’s are set to scrap thousands of management jobs after both retailers announced plans to shake up their operations.
Tesco said it was cutting 1,700 management shop floor management jobs, with the roles of ‘people manager’ and ‘compliance manager’ being removed from large stores and fulfilment centres.
The role of ‘customer experience manager’, present in 226 stores, will also be removed, giving line managers more direct accountability for customer service, Tesco announced.
At Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, the BBC reported plans to scrap certain management posts.
The supermarket did not confirm the number of employees that would be affected by shake up but said it was 'in the thousands'.
Sainsbury's wants to cut costs and simplify the business to save £500m over the next three years, according to the BBC.
Tesco insisted its laid off staff would be supported to “find alternative roles within the business wherever possible”.
The retailer also has plans to create 900 new jobs as ‘people partners’, ‘learning partners’ and ‘colleague relations partners’ to work across multiple sites in distribution, stores and fulfilment.
A new ‘colleague administration’ role will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfilment centre.
Tesco’s chief executive Matt Davies said: “We recognise these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future.
“We hope to retain as many colleagues as possible in the new roles we have created and in the vacancies we currently have available.”
