Personnel

J.C. Penney laid off 300 of its 3,400 headquarters employees in Plano, Texas on Thursday. The 9 percent reduction is part of an ongoing effort to cut costs as Penney tries to become profitable again. CEO Marvin Ellison has been saying since he assumed the top job at Penney in August that he's reviewing the organization and…

At retail companies still using outdated scheduling processes, managers know the pain of perfecting employee schedules all too well. To devise an optimal workforce schedule, managers must accommodate shift preferences, employee availability and in-store demand. However, it’s near impossible to meet everyone’s needs and preferences when using outdated, manual methods. Though traditional scheduling practices (i.e.,…

GameStop has announced its brick-and-mortar locations will remain closed on Thanksgiving, the latest in a new trend this holiday that sees some retailers opting not to compete as aggressively for sales that day. Over the past several years, retailers have increasingly pushed back store opening times to kick off the holiday season. First they inched earlier and…

Luxury emporium Neiman Marcus became the latest retailer to cut jobs, laying off 500 corporate and support employees on Thursday. The cuts, first reported by The Dallas Morning News and confirmed by a Neiman spokeswoman, include 157 jobs in Dallas, the hometown of Neiman Marcus, which recently filed paperwork to once again be listed on the…

J.C. Penney on Friday said it's cut its $5 billion pension obligation by more than 25 percent completing a lump-sum offer to 12,000 retirees and buying annuities for 43,000 retirees. No changes were made to pension plan benefits to active employees. Penney closed the plan to new hires in 2007. Most large U.S. companies only offer…

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning to lay off hundreds of people at its headquarters in Arkansas as part of the retail giant's efforts to pare costs, people familiar with the matter said. Fewer than 500 employees are expected to lose their jobs and an announcement could be made as early as this Friday, according to one…

Starbucks has launched a loan program to help its U.K. staff put down a deposit on a rental property. Workers who have been at Starbucks for at least one year can apply for an interest-free loan equivalent to one month's wages to use as a deposit on a house, the coffee giant's U.K. branch announced on…

Groupon, once believed by many to be a catalyst for Chicago’s technology scene, evokes more concern than awe from some observers these days. It announced 1,100 layoffs Tuesday as it pulls back its global footprint. The flagging e-commerce company pioneered a daily-deals business in 2008, but is distancing itself from that model in favor of building…

Chicago employees of posh department store Barneys New York are seeking to unionize, with a chief concern being a company policy that requires sales associates to push the store credit card or face disciplinary action. About 70 percent of the company's 75 Chicago sales associates and shipping and distribution workers have signed cards indicating they wish…

Macy’s plans to hire slightly fewer temporary workers for the 2015 holiday season, news that comes a few weeks after the retailer lowered its full year sales forecast because of a poor start to the year. The department store chain said on Monday it would hire for about 85,000 positions at its namesake Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s…