Personnel

Toys"R"Us says it won't hire as many holiday season employees as it did last year, but the toy and baby products retailer says it will give current employees and seasonal workers a chance to work more hours. The company said it plans to hire 40,000 people to work at its stores and distribution centers around the…

After falling short of expectations last year, a widely watched holiday forecast predicts that retail hiring will remain flat during the final three months of the year. Despite a strengthening U.S. economy, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Tuesday said that it expects retailers to once again add roughly 755,000 seasonal hires to their payrolls.

Wal-Mart, in the midst of spending $1 billion to raise employees’ wages and give them extra training, has been cutting the number of hours some of them work in a bid to keep costs in check. Regional executives told store managers at the retailer’s annual holiday planning meeting last month to rein in expenses by cutting…

Facing increasing pressure to curb erratic scheduling practices, Gap announced that it would stop requiring employees to make themselves available for last-minute shifts. The move makes Gap the latest retailer to move away from “on-call scheduling,” which regulators, workers’ rights groups and some academics say is detrimental to employees and their families.  

Amazon.com has laid off "dozens" of engineers who worked on its failed Fire phone as part of a broader curtailment of its hardware development center, Lab126, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The company is also said to be stopping or slowing projects, including a 14-inch tablet codenamed Project Cairo, a projector…

Amazon.com doesn't offer its employees a terribly good 401(k) retirement savings plan, according to an analysis of the plan by Bloomberg. Bloomberg even calls the plan "pretty brutal." That's a reference to a recent report in The New York Times that blasted Amazon's work environment, calling it "bruising." (Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has refuted that story,…

Walgreens Boots Alliance confirmed Monday that it will lay off 270 Chicago employees in corporate support as it continues to shed jobs and consolidate functions following its merger. The retail drug chain said the Chicago layoffs are part of 370 corporate jobs being cut companywide. No store workers will be affected. Employees are being offered…

Kohl's Corp. lost a fight with a key technology executive Monday as a judge refused to stop her from taking a higher-paying job with an upscale retailer. Reserve Judge Robert G. Mawdsley said Kohl's hadn't shown that a noncompete contract covering former chief information officer Janet Schalk was likely to stand up under Wisconsin law.…

Crate and Barrel has named Doug Diemoz as its new CEO, the Northbrook, Ill.-based home furnishings retailer announced Thursday. Diemoz is currently chief development officer for California-based Restoration Hardware. Diemoz will start his new role with Crate and Barrel on Aug. 1. A 20-year retail veteran, Diemoz joined Restoration Hardware in March 2014. He was…

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest retail bookseller, today announced that Ronald D. Boire has been named CEO of Barnes & Noble’s retail business, effective Sept. 8, 2015. Mr. Boire is currently president and chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors, Sears Canada.