John Lewis is one of the UK's best loved businesses - both by its customers and staff. Partners' counsellor Patrick Lewis speaks to Jonathan Stapleton about how the retailer's employee-owned structure and wide-ranging benefits offering have engaged its workforce.
Over the past 15 years, more and more people at the partnership have started to work part-time hours - something which Patrick Lewis says has presented a challenge on the communication front, along with the way in which younger people communicate.
Lewis says the firm is working on a number of fronts to make sure it can provide that level of engagement - redeveloping its online communications offering to partners.
He explains: "The aim is to make that more dynamic so it can allow a more immediate flow of conversation to and fro. We have been experimenting with a couple of examples of it which have been very powerful."
One of these examples is the task of getting a senior leader responsible for a change within the business to be online at a certain time each morning - allowing individuals who have a key stake in that particular area to ask questions and take part in a discussion.
Lewis says: "That use of technology is a very powerful way of helping ensure people are communicating and understanding each other successfully."
Lewis says that the business is also changing as it recruits an ever more diverse mixture of partners into the organisation - something which provides both opportunities and challenges for the John Lewis partnership.
He says: "It is very powerful for us in terms of helping us run the business really well because we have got a more diverse set of views and skills. But equally, it is challenging - it makes us have to think about things differently.
"As you have got a broader mix of partners in the business, we need to make sure that we are running the business in the best interests of partners, who have a broader mix of interests and desires for the business."
More for more
And while the John Lewis Partnership does invest a lot of time and money in taking care of its partners, it also expects a lot in return for this, as Patrick Lewis explains.
He says: "I think that, when you come and work for the partnership, the partnership does expect more than many organisations. And essentially, that is part of our culture - that it expects a lot in terms of what you will deliver to the organisation, in terms of both your job and also in terms of the way in which you will help your team and work with them.
"That is all built around the belief that the more we contribute, the more successful we are - and the more it is a great place to work and the bigger the benefit we get."
He adds: "If we were not putting that extra effort in, then we would not be able to afford some of the things that we really value, whether it is the approach we take to developing individuals or it is the financial bonus.
"So the culture is very much built on us taking on more responsibility ourselves and then we take advantage of that."
