H&M’s personnel policy has made big headlines recently. At the beginning of February, the Swedish fashion company decided to “plan” over a thousand store employees’ contracts – they reduced the hours in the contract.
– Many find it difficult to live on their salary. This is largely due to the widespread part-time problem in the industry. 7 out of 10 work part-time, said Handel’s confederation chairman Linda Palmetzofer in connection with the planing.
Intelligence and personality tests on IT employees
Now the company has to cut down on staff again. This time in the Business Tech IT department. 1,500 employees are to be laid off, roughly half of the workforce. The employees have had to complete competency tests which, according to the union, should form the basis of who is allowed to leave.
– Many feel stress, worry and a great deal of uncertainty. The tests have been completed, but the announcement will not come until mid-March or April, says Unionen’s club president at H&M’s IT department, Robin Olofsson.
The tests were carried out in December. According to Olofsson, some had to do up to 40 tests over two weeks. Some checked competence in various IT programs, but others were described as pure intelligence and personality tests.
Analyst: The employees are no longer needed
At the same time, H&M’s share price has fallen in recent years. The corona pandemic and the fact that it has a large part of its production in Asia is highlighted as a reason why the company backed down on the stock market.
– China is a very large purchasing country for H&M, and it has been closed there. In addition, ports have been closed due to restrictions. This has made it expensive to transport products, which is an important part of H&M’s shrinking profit margin, says equity analyst Stefan Olsson at the Bank of Åland.
He is not surprised that H&M is getting rid of staff and highlights that the company has invested heavily in digitization in recent years. Now that work is starting to be completed, and then the employees are no longer needed.
– When you are now in a mature phase of development, you discover that you have a little too many people on the IT side, says Olsson.