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OUR HIGHLIGHTS

• Developing and delivering our new Partner Strategy.
• Creating a new Partnership Services division.
• Refreshing our Partner Survey.

OUR CHALLENGES

• Bedding in new shared services arrangements.
• Managing the necessary change, and its effect on those who work for us, that comes with growing and diversifying our business.


Partner comitments

By working in partnership, we:

• take responsibility for our business success by delivering the right experience for our customers and generating profits for us all to share
• build relationships Powered by our Principles of honesty, respect and encouragement
• create real influence over our working lives by taking opportunities to develop ourselves, balance work and life priorities, and support others.


The Partnership’s newest division, Partnership Services, was created to provide simple and efficient shared services for Partners and to support business success. Launched in October 2009, Partnership Services currently has responsibility for financial processing and developing the business procurement strategy for ‘goods not for resale’ with the team focused on ‘working together to buy better’. Current priorities include the Finance Optimisation programme, which will improve the service and efficiency within Finance, and the development of support functions for Partners within the division, such as learning, personal development and communication mechanisms and protocols.


To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our business over the long term, management must take decisions in the best interests of the Partnership, even where this may mean posts are declared redundant or terms of employment are changed. In such circumstances, we have a commitment to make every effort to provide Partners with continued employment in the Partnership.


EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP

The John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s largest employee-owned business. Our vision of co-ownership, instigated by our founder John Spedan Lewis, is based on building a sustainable business in which all 70,000 permanent staff (Partners) have shared rights, responsibilities and rewards. It also has the happiness of our people as its ultimate purpose.

Our written Constitution states our aim to employ and retain people of ability and integrity who are committed to working together, and to supporting our business principles of honesty, respect and encouragement. To achieve this, we seek to develop relationships with our Partners based on mutual respect and courtesy, and aim to recognise and reward their individual contributions.

OUR PARTNER STRATEGY

Our Partner Strategy defines three Partner Commitments (see left) and is underpinned by a number of goals and projects covering all aspects of the Partner experience. This strategy will enable us to ensure our Partners’ experience of the Partnership is increasingly relevant, consistent, rewarding and effective, and encourages them to demonstrate their responsibility as co-owners of our business.

One of the initial workstreams has been developing a set of measures to enable us to better track how both Partners and the Partnership deliver on the Commitments. This has included the launch of a revised Partner Survey (see page 12), as well as the development of additional ways of measuring and reporting against a wider set of Partner indicators. This will provide us with a greater level of detail that can be utilised for internal decision making.

We have also set out a clear internal framework to govern who should be defined as a Partner. Where people fall outside this scope – such as our arrangements with Boots (see About us) – we review the standards those employers provide to ensure they are aligned with, and support, our own principles and values.

DIVERSITY

The Partnership is committed to providing equal opportunities for all, and developing a working environment in which everyone engaged in the Partnership – not just Partners, but customers, suppliers and neighbours too – has a consistent and rewarding experience.

We already do much to celebrate individual differences, and our ‘Fair Treatment’ policy ensures discrimination of any kind is not tolerated. We will continue to focus on supporting initiatives like our diversity toolkit, which provides Partners with practical advice and information on issues ranging from race and religion to age and gender equality, and through our relationships with organisations such as Remploy, we are providing opportunities to people who experience barriers to work.

TALENT

Over the last 12 months, we have focused on clarifying the distinctive requirements of leadership in our business. We have created one model for the senior team that explains the unique characteristics of leadership within the Partnership. This model now forms the basis of selection, assessment and development, targeting activity to get the best value for the individual Partner and the Partnership at large.

Our desire over the next year is to fully embed this model and adopt a modified version for all Partners in the organisation. These Partnership behaviours will include elements relating to environmental, social and ethical issues. We will also continue to define our Partnership-wide Learning and Development Strategy so as to leverage the full benefits of all the development activity conducted in the divisions.