Retail giant, Dixons Carphone, which owns Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse, has today announced that staff will soon have their pay boosted by 9% as part of a group-wide investment in colleague reward, wellbeing and training.
The investment is Dixons Carphone’s response to a need to retain and upskill its employee base as it seeks to adapt to changing customer requirements in a post Covid-19 (Coronavirus) world. It is thought the investment will cost the employer a total £25 million over the next two years.
The pay rises for all 12,000 customer-facing staff were confirmed today, and will start in October. The increases will give colleagues an average hourly wage of £9.50 per hour; up from from an average of £8.88 per hour. It will mean the salaries staff receive will now align to those set by the Real Living Wage Foundation.
The salary rises will boost the weekly pay of the typical employee by around £22, from £310.80 to £332.50.
It was also confirmed that Dixons Carphone would also pay a London weighting, taking London-based colleagues’ minimum hourly pay to £10.85 per hour.
As well as the pay rises, the investment in staff will also see the retailer boost its employee wellbeing support plans. It has pledged offering staff nearly half a million hours of training and creating 1,000 mental health first aiders.
Paula Coughlan, chief people officer at Dixons Carphone, said: “The pandemic has prompted a fundamental shift in how customers are choosing to shop, towards a blended model of stores and online.
“We are building employees' skills, not only for their careers, but for life, and ensuring they’re rewarded fairly for their hard work, skill, adaptability, resilience and dedication.In doing so, we are creating more rewarding work for our colleagues and, as our colleagues are also shareholders, they are truly invested in our future success.”
She added: “With our stores up and down the nation re-opening and the potential to bring the best of online and stores together begins to be realised, now is our colleagues’ moment. We want to unleash their full potential to empower them to deliver on our vision of helping everyone enjoy amazing technology.”
