Wickes To Reward Staff With Extra Time Off During Festive Season

This week home improvement retailer Wickes announced that as a ‘Thank You’ to its colleagues and to support their wellbeing at the end of an extraordinary year, it will proactively shut the doors of its 235 stores for three days over the holiday period; providing employees with well-earned rest and relaxation. 

The holiday closure, which begins as shops lock their doors on the 23rd December, is the first in the business’ 48 year history and will give over 8,000 colleagues additional leave, on top of their regular allocation in order to spend time with loved ones. 

As an essential retailer Wickes colleagues have been working in-stores helping customers and local tradespeople, keep homes dry, warm and safe during the pandemic. With Covid-19 shining a brighter light on wellbeing, the retailer's colleague-led ‘Wellbeing’ group has been at the forefront of people engagement, supporting co-workers with regular tools and access to resources. Further to the stores closing to enable time off, each employee will receive gift cards and rewards such as discounts as a gesture of appreciation. 

David Wood, Chief Executive Officer, at Wickes commented: “The decision to  close our stores and give our colleagues some meaningful time off was an easy one. It’s been an unprecedented year and we wanted to take a moment to recognise the tremendous effort our team has gone to, in swiftly adapting to such unusual circumstances with an incredible can do attitude.  

At a time when we usually connect with others, we felt it was right to support our colleagues with more time with friends and loved ones; we’re sure our customers will understand why we feel this is important.”

Wickes store opening hours for the rest of the year remain 7am - 6pm Monday to Saturday and 10am - 4.00pm on Sundays. Stores will be shut on 24th, 25th and 26th December 2020. During the holiday period wickes.co.uk remains open for home delivery bookings, together with Customer services. Customers looking to organise a Design Consultant appointment for a new Kitchen or Bathroom can be booked online.

Source : Wickes

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