A ‘people’ business, through and through

Describing people as your 'most valuable asset' has become something of a corporate cliché. The first thing anyone discovers when they join Asda - in fact even before they start - is that it's not a cliché to us. People mean everything. Because if we take care of our colleagues, they'll look after our customers. That's why we're not called the Human Resources department. We're known as the People Team that takes care of HR issues.

It's our job to help everyone do their job as well as possible and get the most from their Asda experience. This ranges from recruiting the right colleagues with the right attitude, to providing top quality training tools and keeping everyone informed and engaged through excellent communication.

There are five teams who work closely together to make all this happen

Asda House People Team

This team manages, develops, implements and communicates HR policy and strategy purely for the 3,000 colleagues at Home Office. We work closely with all the business areas in day to day HR issues, helping to launch new initiatives, embed new ways of working and recruit new talent. We drive colleague development, support the appraisal process and manage major projects like the recent relocation of three departments to the new Mint Building in Leeds.

Colleague Relations & Engagement

We're big believers in the value of good communication to keep colleagues engaged, informed and inspired. That's where this team plays a vital role for all areas of the business - in our stores, our depots and Home Office. We make sure all our 'people policies' not only comply with the law but also that they make sense to everyone. We'll explain the reasons behind new initiatives and help managers to manage change. We analyse the feedback from the "Your Voice" engagement survey to see how we can improve the colleague experience and refine our training & development. We also ensure that our colleagues know how much we appreciate the work they do and feel thanked for a job well done, through our recognition schemes, 'Bright Ideas' suggestion scheme and exciting recognition events. In short, we play a huge part in protecting and promoting the unique culture we have here at Asda.

Reward

Asda is a rewarding place to work in so many ways, but we wouldn't pretend that pay and benefits aren't a big part of that. Of course they are, and the Reward Team makes sure our strategies and policies relating to pay and benefits make us a retail employer of choice. When you've as many as 200,000 colleagues, from hourly-paid store colleagues to business leaders in the Boardroom, from permanent and part-time people to seasonal helpers and agency contractors, it becomes a very challenging responsibility. Besides the pay packet we look after the annual sharesave scheme and bonus awards, all the while keeping an eye on our competitors through industry-wide rewards benchmarking.

Resourcing

We employ nearly 200,000 colleagues all told. Across the whole business in 2011 we had over 1 million applications for masses of different jobs.

We need to get the right people into those jobs so we can continue to deliver great service to our customers. And if our Managers don't get good people into their teams, they can't deliver either. And then other huge projects come along too, like the acquisition of Netto and the conversion of their stores into small Asda supermarkets. That's even more people, good people, to find to run the stores successfully. Resourcing at Asda is a monumental challenge and we respond to it in award-winning style, from the quality of our website and the use of social media in our recruitment campaigns and to the way we look after candidates all the way through the application process. We use sophisticated psychometric techniques to ensure we hire people with the 'Asda attitude', which in turn reduces the costs associated with staff turnover. In many ways the Resourcing Team are guardians of the Asda culture, ensuring we have a workforce that's diverse, engaged and focused.

Learning & Development

A key to the sustained success of any business, especially one as large, dynamic and fast-moving as Asda, is the continual grooming of tomorrow's leaders. At Asda, we're steered by a special style of leadership calling for a special brand of talent. The Leadership Development team at Asda House is a centre of expertise in talent identification and technical and behavioural training to put the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time.

We design and develop a whole range of programmes for different audiences, including Graduates, high-potential colleagues and Director development. We run the Leadership Academy, design the appraisal process and manage the development of some 50 Graduates recruited by Asda per year. Recently we launched a new Leadership Framework, the model for leaders who can engage, enthuse and energise others to do great things.

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Describing people as your 'most valuable asset' has become something of a corporate cliché. The first thing anyone discovers when they join Asda - in fact even before they start - is that it's not a cliché to us. People mean everything. Because if we take care of our colleagues, they'll look after our customers. That's why we're not called the Human Resources department. We're known as the People Team that takes care of HR issues.

It's our job to help everyone do their job as well as possible and get the most from their Asda experience. This ranges from recruiting the right colleagues with the right attitude, to providing top quality training tools and keeping everyone informed and engaged through excellent communication.

There are five teams who work closely together to make all this happen

Asda House People Team

This team manages, develops, implements and communicates HR policy and strategy purely for the 3,000 colleagues at Home Office. We work closely with all the business areas in day to day HR issues, helping to launch new initiatives, embed new ways of working and recruit new talent. We drive colleague development, support the appraisal process and manage major projects like the recent relocation of three departments to the new Mint Building in Leeds.

Colleague Relations & Engagement

We're big believers in the value of good communication to keep colleagues engaged, informed and inspired. That's where this team plays a vital role for all areas of the business - in our stores, our depots and Home Office. We make sure all our 'people policies' not only comply with the law but also that they make sense to everyone. We'll explain the reasons behind new initiatives and help managers to manage change. We analyse the feedback from the "Your Voice" engagement survey to see how we can improve the colleague experience and refine our training & development. We also ensure that our colleagues know how much we appreciate the work they do and feel thanked for a job well done, through our recognition schemes, 'Bright Ideas' suggestion scheme and exciting recognition events. In short, we play a huge part in protecting and promoting the unique culture we have here at Asda.

Reward

Asda is a rewarding place to work in so many ways, but we wouldn't pretend that pay and benefits aren't a big part of that. Of course they are, and the Reward Team makes sure our strategies and policies relating to pay and benefits make us a retail employer of choice. When you've as many as 200,000 colleagues, from hourly-paid store colleagues to business leaders in the Boardroom, from permanent and part-time people to seasonal helpers and agency contractors, it becomes a very challenging responsibility. Besides the pay packet we look after the annual sharesave scheme and bonus awards, all the while keeping an eye on our competitors through industry-wide rewards benchmarking.

Resourcing

We employ nearly 200,000 colleagues all told. Across the whole business in 2011 we had over 1 million applications for masses of different jobs.

We need to get the right people into those jobs so we can continue to deliver great service to our customers. And if our Managers don't get good people into their teams, they can't deliver either. And then other huge projects come along too, like the acquisition of Netto and the conversion of their stores into small Asda supermarkets. That's even more people, good people, to find to run the stores successfully. Resourcing at Asda is a monumental challenge and we respond to it in award-winning style, from the quality of our website and the use of social media in our recruitment campaigns and to the way we look after candidates all the way through the application process. We use sophisticated psychometric techniques to ensure we hire people with the 'Asda attitude', which in turn reduces the costs associated with staff turnover. In many ways the Resourcing Team are guardians of the Asda culture, ensuring we have a workforce that's diverse, engaged and focused.

Learning & Development

A key to the sustained success of any business, especially one as large, dynamic and fast-moving as Asda, is the continual grooming of tomorrow's leaders. At Asda, we're steered by a special style of leadership calling for a special brand of talent. The Leadership Development team at Asda House is a centre of expertise in talent identification and technical and behavioural training to put the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time.

We design and develop a whole range of programmes for different audiences, including Graduates, high-potential colleagues and Director development. We run the Leadership Academy, design the appraisal process and manage the development of some 50 Graduates recruited by Asda per year. Recently we launched a new Leadership Framework, the model for leaders who can engage, enthuse and energise others to do great things.