Awards for Excellence logo 2009

Big Tick Winner

Big tick winner

John Lewis Newcastle, Attract and Develop Talent

Serco Talent Award, supported by the Talent & Enterprise Taskforce

John Lewis Newcastle is a branch of the John Lewis Partnership consisting of the Department Store Division and Waitrose. Attract and Develop Talent – Fit for the future is a programme that builds on the vision of founder John Spedan Lewis to create a company dedicated to the happiness of the staff through their worthwhile, secure and satisfying employment in a successful business.

Process

John Lewis Newcastle through their expansion programme saw attracting and developing Partners as vital to helping them achieve succession targets and organisational goals. The ‘Fit for Our Future’ programme aims to achieve these goals through an integrated approach to ‘attracting and developing’ our talent, producing Partners who are passionate about retailing and developing leaders of the future.

John Lewis Newcastle have dedicated resource and their programme to both attract new talent and developing the talent within their existing partners. Attending careers fairs, providing NVQ and BTEC placements and supporting their partners as mentors in local schools and colleges are just some of the ways they have managed to engage partners both future and present.

Impact

  • Since 2006, 52 placements have secured permanent/temporary employment, eight graduates have been employed and thirty eight Partners have gained promotion.
  • 30% of vacancies were classed as ‘hard-to-fill’ by North East Employers in 2008, John Lewis found recruiting specialised roles such as Chef vacancies particularly hard but through partnerships in 2008 they placed 2 Chefs, 1 Goods Handling and 1 Kitchen Porter
  • John Lewis Newcastle currently have 312 Non Management Partners qualified to NVQ level 2 in a vocational qualification relating to their current role, which makes them well on target to achieve their aim of 400 by 2010.

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