The application form for Sainsbury’s is similar to an application form for any other company. It is structured in a simple and straightforward way. Therefore it is easy for the applicant to complete. Sainsbury’s have designed their application form so that it is user friendly to both the applicant and Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s form has sufficient space provided for the relevant information that is required. The form follows the Equal Opportunities legislation. Their form is not written in a very small font, therefore it is easy to read. They have also used simple language that can easily be understood by the applicants.
A suitable CV for Sainsbury’s should be presented well. It should be written in the applicant’s own style of writing. It should be carefully checked for mistakes before it is submitted to Sainsbury’s. When writing sentences, they should be kept short. Sainsbury’s require their CV’s to be word processed, as this is a much more neat and presentable method of presenting the CV to Sainsbury’s. It must be produced on an A4 paper, of a white or close to white colour. The CV should be spaced out, so it looks neat and can clearly be read. To impress Sainsbury’s applicants have to try and make their CV at least a bit interesting, as this will give Sainsbury’s a reason as to why they should be considered for an employee. Sainsbury’s usually prefer that a letter of application be produced together with the CV and given to them. As this gives Sainsbury’s an idea of the type of job the applicant is applying for and hoping to get.
QUALITY OF INFORMATION
The quality of the information that is provided on the application forms and the CVs is of great importance to Sainsbury’s. Therefore when completing application forms for Sainsbury’s, the applicants should photocopy the application form, and fill out the photocopy form as a first draft. They can then look over this several times to see for corrections. Also the applicants should make sure that they read the instructions for filling out the form, as a certain coloured pen might be required.
Sainsbury’s use this as a test to see if instructions can be read properly and followed, also so that Sainsbury’s can clearly understand the information. The quality of the information should be very good, as this gives Sainsbury’s an idea of why the applicants want to apply for the job. The forms ask questions that are relevant to Sainsbury’s in collecting the required information, therefore the quality of the answers should be good as well. This shows an understanding and commitment to the application, and also that an effort has been made to provide such answers.
The quality of the information provided in the CV should be twice as good as the quality of information provided on the form. This is because the applicant has prepared their CV alone without any questions asked for them to provide answers to. But this should be better in quality because through a CV an applicant is trying to sell themselves to Sainsbury’s.
INTERNAL LABOUR MARKET AT SAINSBURY’S
Sainsbury is located in West London, inevitably therefore it will have to compete for recruits in an area of high employment. The boroughs in West London e.g. Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing, have extremely high employment above the national average. The Sainsbury’s branch used in this report is in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
In the United Kingdom there is a North/South divide. A big difference can be seen in the economy in the North of the UK and the economy in the South of the UK. This is mostly due to the fact that the South is densely populated, whereas the North is less populated. But there are other factors to why the economies in the two parts of the UK are different. The North has a less tertiary industry than the South, there appears to be more primary and secondary industry in the North. But now people are becoming highly skilled and educated and look for jobs in the tertiary industry e.g. teaching, nursing etc.
So because there is more tertiary industry in the South, the South has high employment rates. People living in the North who look for jobs in the tertiary industry often decide to move to the South as they will easily be able to find a job in that industry there. The South would also offer better wages. The largest airport in the world, Heathrow Airport, is also based in the South of the UK, London to be precise. Many people are employed at the airport. Also near the airport there is the biggest service area in Europe called Stockley Park. Many organisations base here due to the excellent transport communications available e.g. Heathrow Airport, rail services, M4 corridor and the M25 leading to other motorways. Therefore the Southern economy is well ahead of the Northern economy in the UK.
West London is in the south-east of the UK, meaning it is in the South divide. Here tertiary employment is available in the service industry. Sainsbury’s being one of the many that offers tertiary employment. Sainsbury’s in the Borough of Hillingdon has approximately 450 people employed, whereas a Sainsbury’s store in the North has about 50-100 employees. This could be because the Borough of Hillingdon and the surrounding Boroughs are highly populated, therefore the Sainsbury’s branch in this Borough is large enough to offer many jobs and provide a service to everyone that lives in the Borough. When deciding on building new stores the size needs to be considered, Sainsbury’s use the number of people in the surrounding areas of where the new store has to be built as a factor in deciding the size of a store.
INTERNAL STAFFING INFORMATION (Continued) Many of the staff at Sainsbury’s have been working there for many years, approximately 65% of the full-time employees at Sainsbury’s have been working with Sainsbury’s for 3 years or more. This is known as the retention of staff. A large of the rest of the staff at Sainsbury’s, meaning the part-time staff are mostly students who are studying at college or university. Therefore they cannot work full time due to their studies. Students working with Sainsbury’s work mostly as general assistants, meaning they either work in the aisles, or behind the checkouts. Although some do work in the restaurants and bakeries, butchers and the fishmongers.
