John Lewis Partnership

Employing a diverse mix of nationalities helps John Lewis Partnership deliver exceptional service to customers from different communities and cultures.

At its Scottish stores in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, the department store chain employs 2,297 partners from diverse ethnic origins including Asian, Chinese, Black and European.

In Aberdeen, the international mix is fairly typical of stores across the group and includes recruits from countries including Poland, Nigeria, India, China and France.

"What recruiting from different nationalities allows us to do is communicate with customers who come from these different ethnic backgrounds," says Personnel Manager Julie Dawson. "It also allows us to reflect the Aberdeen community in our staff makeup.

"In Aberdeen we have less than 1% unemployment, so to be able to attract the right calibre of any nationality to work with us is important due to our challenging recruitment conditions. However we want to recruit the right person with the right calibre, regardless of where they're from."

The international recruits have applied to John Lewis through the company's website or adverts in the Job Centre or media. They work in a range of sales, administration, supply chain and catering roles that require a flair for customer service, good interpersonal skills and flexibility.

"We're looking for people who actually want to learn and develop whilst they're working in the business. We want people who really want to push their career forward, whether they're progressing through the management structure or just expanding in their role," Julie explains.

John Lewis Partnership offers its own management development scheme and a non-management training programme called Horizons for those looking to get the most from their career at John Lewis Partnership.

Several of the non-UK workers in Aberdeen already have management degrees or have completed Masters in Business Administration. They started at the group as 'High Performing Partners', with opportunities to take on additional responsibilities and apply to be section or department managers. The company is helping one of its Nigerian partners in Aberdeen to learn English by funding a course at Aberdeen College.

"I would say that the work ethic from our foreign Partners is very strong," Julie says. "They tend to have a good understanding of what customer service means in their own country and apply that standard here in John Lewis Aberdeen. They also offer everything we're looking for in terms of loyalty and productivity."

The 68,000 permanent staff of John Lewis Partnership are all partners in the business, jointly owning: 26 John Lewis department stores; 187 Waitrose supermarkets; an online and catalogue business, John Lewis Direct; a direct services company, Greenbee; a production unit and a farm. They had a turnover of nearly £6 billion last year.

Formed from a single shop in 1864, John Lewis was voted Britain's favourite retailer in a poll of over 6,000 shoppers by retail analyst Verdict in January 2008.

Contact

Julie Dawson
Personnel Manager
John Lewis Aberdeen
George Street
Aberdeen
AB25 1BW
Tel: 01224 625000

Web: www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk
Email: PM_Aberdeen@johnlewis.co.uk