// The move allows head office and regional staff at the discount supermarket the option to work from home as often as they like
// “We feel it is important that, where possible, we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible” – Lidl GB
Lidl will be giving all its office staff the option to work from home permanently through a news flexible working model.
“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,” Lidl GB said on its LinkedIn profile.
“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.”
READ MORE:
- Lidl takes Tesco to court over claims it ripped off logo
- Lidl owner sees sales surge as it bolsters the UK discounter
- Currys closes HQ in favour of WeWork flexible office space
The move allows head office and regional staff at the discount supermarket the option to work from home as often as they like, unless there are specific circumstances that require them to go into the office.
Several other supermarkets have so-called ‘hybrid’ working policies, though the variation in the degree of flexibility differs.
Sainsbury’s has been allowing staff to split their time between home and the office since September, while Tesco moved to hybrid model where teams come together two days each week with the option of working remotely on other days.
Back in March, Currys announced it would be closing its west London head office after signing a deal with WeWork, allowing its 1,400 staff to work from 50 locations across the country.
The retailer said it took a consultative approach in designing this new policy, with an emphasis on what people want, and what their concerns are with returning to pre-pandemic working.
The deal is one of the first times that a major company has permanently closed its headquarters and switched entirely to a flexible office provider.
The American company WeWork leases large amounts of office space to some of the largest, financially-sound companies, including Facebook and Merck.
Currys group chief executive Alex Baldock said: “We are not just paying lip service to hybrid working as we come out of the pandemic. We have listened to our colleagues, who have been outstanding through Covid’s many challenges, and have implemented the changes they wanted to see.
“Our workspace of the future embraces what genuine hybrid working means, not just where you work, but how you work. We want to bring our people together again, but in a way that works for them. We are really excited to unlock the potential of truly hybrid working and believe that being innovative today will prepare us for how we adapt to new ways of working in the future.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
