Asda Group

I've been working at ASDA's store in Radcliffe since October 2007. ASDA really tends to big itself up as great employer so I thought I'd write a review on working there and you can make your own minds up.

A Brief History
Asda was the brain child or butchers and dairy farmers from Yorkshire wh's dream was to create a place for one stop shopping. The planning and initial stores began in the 1920's but it wasn't until 1949 that Associated Dairies was born. By 1970 Asda had 70 stores all over the North of England but wanted to head South. By 1981 they had expanded with 8 stores opened in the Southern regions and Wales. In 1989 ASDA joined forces with designer George Davis and the George clothing brand was established. 1981 was also the year ASDA purchased 60 stores previously owned by Gateway. In 1992 ADSA changed it's mission statement and way of working, from now on all staff would be reffered to as 'colleagues'. In 1999 ASDA planned to merge with the Kingfisher group, days before the deal was due to be appoved by ASDA shareholders, and American company, Wal-Mart ame in with an offer of £6.7 billion and the shareholders just couldn't refuse, ASDA Wal-Mart was born and became the world's biggest retailer. June 2001 and ASDA added Jewellery to it's merchandise. In June 2002 ADSA was named the best company to work for and by September they also began a local sourcing programme in stores so more produce in the stores would made or produced by local farmers or companies. In 2003 ASDA opened it's first George shop in Leeds.In 2006 ASDA began selling Wedding dresses at £60, was named retailer of the year for the 9th year running and the George brand branched out into homeware, this was also the year ADSA announced it's target to send zero watse to landfill by 2010 (personally i think they're dreaming but I will come back to this).
In 2007 ASDA introduces challenge 25 on age restricted products (this had previously been challenge 21, I will come back to this later too).

Application
Application forms can be picked up from the Customer Service desk inany ASDA store, at the moment though with all the redunancies they are like gold dust and are gone pretty much the same day they come in.
Most of the application form is pretty much standard, personal info, previous employment, health issues, disabilty and health problems. But on the application form your also asked to state which department you wish to work on and there is also a timetable type square box where your asked to fill in what days and times you are available to work.
There is also a muliple choice type of questionaire on the fom (e.g would you rather a: work alone or b: work as a member of a team). It's all pretty standard stuff. I was told afterwards that actually all they look at is the hours you can work and if that fits in with where or when they need staff.
You then hand the form back it at the customer service desk and wait.
After this you will recieve either a phone callasking you to come in for an interview, a letter saying that they have nothing for you but they will keep your application on file for 6 months or a thanks but no thanks letter.

Interview
There are interview stages at ASDA. Stage 1 is a group interview where your invited along with as much as 12 other applicants and obsevered by as many as 4 other members of staff and management.. Here your asked to do seemingly silly things. On my group interview we had to interview the person sitting next to us, find out as much as could about them then introduce them to the rest of the group. Your all split into groups and asked to do something like make a uniform out of bin liners, build a house of cards or make a structure from spaghetti. It all seems quite pointless but it's to show how well you interact and work as a team player.Your then all asked to go home and told they will let you know whether you have got through to the next stage within 48 hours. If you get the second interview you have got the job. The second interview just introduces you to one of the department managers and you are given your hours but you cant' start until you have had an induction and training.

Induction
Induction is quite boring, it's usually about 4 hours over 2 days or evenings. Your asked to introduce yourselves, say what department your working on, then it's mainly listening. Your given all bunff on Health And Safety, Dress Codes, Legislation, ASDA history, sign your contract and watch vidoes about how happy the ASDA colleagues and customers are. Here you will also get your ASDA Smartcard, the smartcard gets you in and out of the building, enable you to clock in out for shifts and you can top it up with money so you can purchase drinks and food from the staff restaurant and vending machines. Good thing is you get paid for the induction.

Training
Training is usually only over a couple of hours which you get be paid for but times and how you are trained depends on what staff are available to do it. A manager won't do it, it's not their bag.

Contract & Pay
New colleagues automatically go on a 12 week temporary contract, so long as you behave it will become permenant. New colleague ar also employed at a lower rate of pay than eveyone else for a period of 26 weeks, after that everyone (except management) earns the same.
A notice period of one week is required if you wish to leave. Sickness is unpaid until after you have been employed for 52 weeks.
Pay is £6.12 an hour normal time and £8.16 night rate (that is between 10pm and 6am).
Colleagues are paid every 4 weeks on a Friday.
You can't take holidays in the first 12 weeks after this full time colleagues are entitled to 4 weeks per year, this is pro-rata for part time staff.

Departments
Departments vary from store to store but this is a general list of where staff work.
Checkouts
Kiosk/Lottery
Cafe
Customer Service Desk
Music & Video
George
Home And Lesiure
Produce
Porters
Provisions
Bakery
Grocery
Health And Beauty
Bought In Bread And Cakes
warehouse
Staff Restaurant
Pharmacy
Photo Shop

Benefits
Well the best benefit has to be the discount card. All staff who compete 12 weeks services and get a permenant contarct get one and it entitles you 10% off your shopping (some items like fags and petrol aren't included). There is also a benefits book issued to staff every April with money off offers and discounts from other companires, it includes stuff like airport parkig, theme parks and hotels so they both come in handy. If you score 100% on the mystery shopper you get a staff scratchcard and an invite to the celebration lunch. The company also puts on double discount days for staff and these usually take place near christmas. ASDA also operates a store bonus programme, the amount of the bonus depends on the stores regional performance and is shared between all store staff with more than 1 year's service.

Challenge 25
Challenge 25 is a scheme which ASDA has piloted to stop underage people buying age restricted items such as Alcohol, cigarettes, cutlery, solvents, etc. There have been very mixed reactions to this, a lot of people can't understand why they are being asked for I.D for cigarettes when they obviously look older than 16, other people think it's a great move to stop underage drinkers and anti-social behavior. Despite many posters and stickers in store customers still don't the Challenge 25 scheme. Basically we can still sell alcohol to people over 18 and cigs and lottery to people over 16 but if they don't look 25 they will be asked for I.D.

Stepping Stones
ASDA like to train it's own managers rather than employ them and operates a management training scheme called Stepping Stones. If a colleague wishes to train for a management position they can put their name forward to the People Manager. It takes 6 months to train with a examination at the end of it. During the six months training the appplicant remains on the same pay as the shop colleagues but they don't where a uniform and asked to carry out managerial duties such as rotas, returns to work, etc. The training takes place mainly in store but occasionally the applicants are asked to attend other stores as well. Since I started in October 2007 I've known a few colleagues go on to Stepping Stones, mostly they remian the same people but occasionally they begin acting a lot less approachable and really quite bossy. One colleague I know doing the Stepping Stones now has turned from a pretty nice woman into a complete bitch, it's like a little power has gone to her head.

Uniform
Store/Checkouts:
Black Jacket/Gillet with green edging and ASDA logo
Green Shrit says ASDA in black
Black trousers or skirt
Black shoes
Counters and Bakery:
White hat with green band
White Apron
White tunic
Black Trousers
Black shoes

My Experience
I actually come from a background working within the administration of Further Education. I gave up working in F.E in Febuary 2006 in order to care for my two young children and then had another child.
By haflway through 2007 I was bored out of my head, although mykids are a blessing I was missing adult company, all my friends worked during the day and to be honest me partner (now ex) was a miserable git when he got in from work. I decided I needed at least some part time work to make me feel a bit more human and decided to apply for ASDA. Thing about ASDA in my town is that it's the centre of the town for people here, there is nothing else to do in the town so people end up going to ASDA just for something to do, I was always in there with the kids so I thought I might as well be arning there rather than spending.I also thought that I would be able to work my hours out so that I could work evening and weekends when the kids' dad was home therefore eliminating the need for childcare.
I applied and a few days later got a call asking me to attend the group interview. Like i said it was all quite silly stuff, interviewing eachother, buliding a house of cards and we were also given a tour of the store.That afternoon i got a phone call asking me to return the next day for the second interview. I had originally applied for either George or Checkouts but found out i was being placed on checkouts, I wa given my hours and asked to return for an induction.
The induction was quite boring, but the good thing was it gave me a chance to get to know some of the people I would be working with and also gave us all a chance to get to know a couple of the managers.
The training was quite simple and carried out by an experienced member of staff, it was really friendly and low key, she took us to and empty checkout and let us have a go at puting small shops through on training mode.the second session was a bit different, the store got quite busy while we were there and she ended up having to open our tills up throwing us in the deep end, to be honest I do find this the best way to learn though.
For about a month I was soley on checkout then I was asked if I'd do some training on the Customer Service Desk, just to help them through the busy christams period, after this I trained on kiosk,started running, lottery and selfscan. Now I'm hardly ever on a checkout mainly because other people point blank refuse to be trained on the selfscan or desk as this is where the staff get the most grief off customers. By training though I've pretty much made my job more secure as I'm needed to cover breaks and holidays more than a checkout colleague who hasn't trained up on other service areas.
The good things about working at ASDA is the other colleagues, even if we're having a particulally stressful day we can normally find something to laugh at or smile about. when I split up with my partner they were great about my childcare issues and gave me a change of contract when I was struggling with child care. There is often overtime going and to be honest I've not noticed the credit crunch at work, customers still seem to be spending as mch as they ever did and people are always going to need food. The 10% discount is also a great help in my household.
The bad thing is although I loved my job at first but after 18 months it can get a little boring doing the same thing everyday. My store has also just introduced 6 more self scan machines which customers just can't seem to use and end up shouting at me. There also seems to be too many cheifs and not enough Indians, there are a lot of managers to cover the shifts on the various departments but there often seems to be a general lack of communication between them. I scored 100% on the mystery shopper 3 months in a row, I was invited to one celebration lunch, which I couldn't attend, and never got my scratchcard. Payroll are also rubbush if you find any desrcepencies on your wage slip it can take at least a month before it gets sorted.
As for ADSA's green issues yes they have reduced the packaging on most ASDA brands and reduced the amount of plastic bags they use by 50% but they refuse to stop using them altogether because according to them the customer must be given the choice, problem is here people will never remember to bring their reusable bags while they are still being given the choice. ASDA does recycle it's cardboard but then they waste paper with all the nonsence printed on the till receipt. So as for ASDA and it's plans for reducing landfill I can't see this happening anytime soon.

Overall
ASDA isn't a bad place to work, they can be quite flexible when you have childcare issues but they will moan about it. There is opportuinity to progress but only for 2 or 3 peple every 6 months. I can't see myself staying there mainly because of the boredom factor but it served it's purpose for me, having a job gave me some confidence back, I've made new friends and got to earn some money while still being the main carer for my kids. I would highly recommend working for ASDA especially for those who are in the same boat as I was.