John Lewis Cardiff - Wales People Development Award - Highly Commended

John Lewis is a co-owned business with ownership of the business transferred to employees in 1929 by founder John Spedan Lewis. This means that every employee (or partner) owns a share in the business, has a voice in how John Lewis conducts its business and shares in the reward through an annual bonus. John Lewis Cardiff is a branch of the John Lewis Partnership which consists of 32 department stores, 241 Waitrose supermarkets, JohnLewis.com and John Lewis Insurance. The Partnership employs a total of 72,000.

Every John Lewis branch produces an annual operating plan which is written around three components which the business measures itself against – partners, customer and profit. John Lewis believes that partners who are given every learning and development opportunity will provide outstanding customer service resulting in more – profit for the business. Profit is then shared among the partners.

John Lewis needed to train people in both retail and brand. A series of workshops were delivered to demonstrate what being a partner meant. Partners’ induction started 6 weeks prior to the opening of the store. Each partner spent time in another branch in the departments where they would be working prior to returning to Cardiff.

Every partner was set a target of achieving Selling Academy Level 1 head of a divisional deadline. A network of partners named ‘Horizons heroes’ was developed throughout the branch whose objective was to feed any learning and development opportunities to shop-floor based partners. By regularly communicating with partners, ‘Horizons heroes’ and management teams, John Lewis were able to identify training needs and respond quickly to ensure gaps in knowledge and training were being filled.

A thorough induction structure was created providing the partner with a three month timeline/checklist, providing training dates for Horizons and Selling Academy familiarisation, customer service training (‘ABC’ – Acknowledge, Build, Close and ‘BBC’ – Basic Brand Conversation), management of performance familiarisation and appraisal training. A bespoke development programme for partners, ‘Cardiff Talent Programme’ has also been devised for Cardiff partners who have management aspirations.