TALK to a John Lewis employee — sorry, partner — and you’d be forgiven for thinking that they work in a Utopian democracy where the happiness of the worker is second only to that of the customer.

Get past the buzzing enthusiasm and things look a little more ordinary, albeit still impressive. John Lewis partners (all permanent employees of the John Lewis Partnership are known as partners) enjoy some of the biggest perks in the retail sector, including a share of the annual profits (the company has no shareholders), cut-price concert tickets, access to holiday homes owned by the business and a final salary pension scheme. In March, once a proportion of the company’s profits had been set aside for reinvestment, all permanent employees received a bonus of 15 per cent of what they had earned the previous financial year.

“The fact that everyone shares in the ownership of John Lewis means we are a unique company,” says Michael Nathan, the manager for manpower planning. “We take on only 15 to 20 graduates, a small number compared with other retailers, but people know us as a graduate employer and 1,800 people come on to our application system. We’re flattered by the interest. But we also have a strong tradition of bringing people through the company. It’s very much about meeting the needs of the branches.”

Graduates who do get on to the programme are placed in one of the 26 stores, where they spend a month learning how the branch works before becoming a section manager in one of the departments. After six months or so they spend a few weeks at head office to understand how the whole business operates.

They are then sent back to a store to take on a larger section management role. “We want them to be able to manage a department of 20 to 30 people, with a budget of up to £4.5 million, within 12 to 18 months,” Nathan says.

Lucy Norman, a former graduate trainee, runs the menswear and sport department at the Cribbs Causeway store in Bristol and manages 48 people. She has been at the store for just over a year and has worked for John Lewis for three. “I’d had Saturday jobs in retail from the age of 16 and applied for a six-week summer placement at John Lewis straight from university,” she says. “I knew that John Lewis was a good place to work because my mum used to work for them. It has a classic and traditional structure. It’s nice to know your succession planning. There are incredible opportunities, but most of it is down to you. You develop as quickly as you want to.”

She sets great store by the organisation’s communication processes: “Rather than the managing director saying, ‘This is how it is’, here we need everyone’s input.” This is done through the business’s council structure. Each department has a representative on the branch council and each branch is represented on the John Lewis central council.

John Lewis’s retention rates are slightly better than the rest of the retail sector (58 per cent compared with 52 per cent), and Norman can’t see herself leaving: “For me, if you’re going to be in retail it’s the best company to work for, so it’d be strange to go elsewhere.”

DATA FILE

• The John Lewis Partnership comprises 26 John Lewis stores, 180 Waitrose supermarkets, three production units, a farm and an online and catalogue business. Between them they employ 64,000 permanent staff, all of whom are partners in and owners of the business.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The first John Lewis store opened on Oxford Street in London in 1864.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Partnership was formed in 1929 when John Spedan Lewis set up a trust that shared the profits among staff. It has a written constitution, which you can read at www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk (click on “about us” then “history and values”).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Two outsiders have recently been appointed to the board as non-executive directors, breaking with the 140-year tradition of promoting only insiders.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Partnership’s ownership structure came under threat in 1999 when many partners were allegedly in favour of selling the company. This, it was claimed, would allow partners to reap a windfall of up to £100,000 each. The issue was laid to rest when the central council voted against a referendum on whether to sell.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The weekly staff magazine, The Gazette, has a policy of publishing all letters, anonymous or not. Senior management is obliged to reply to letters within three weeks. The magazine, set up in 1918, is the oldest in-house journal in the country.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• More information about careers: www.jlpjobs.com

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