People
As we continue to grow our business and invest for the future, it’s more important than ever to keep strengthening our team at every level, from the shop-floor through to management. To attract and retain the best talent in the industry, we have to demonstrate each day that M&S is a good employer, committed to making all our people feel valued and providing them with career opportunities and quality training.
Recruitment and retention
We employ around 71,000 people in the UK, 75,000 worldwide. We have one of the lowest employee turnover rates in UK retail, at 27% for customer assistants and 12% for management. Around 40% of our people have been with us for over 5 years and 22% for more than ten years.
We can offer graduates a fast track into management and last year received a record 8,500 applications in just over two months. Each year we employ between 150 and 200 graduates and business placement programme undergraduates for positions in retail, food technology, design, HR, buying, IT and other specialist roles. We won four major graduate recruitment awards, including the 2008 Times’ ‘Graduate Employer of Choice’ for retail. Click here to view our employment handbook.
Training and development
We need to train people thoroughly to do their jobs, but we also want to retain their skills and experience by giving them real opportunities to plan and build a career with Marks & Spencer. We have defined career paths in place for many of our people, including Customer Assistants and store management. During the year we introduced new career paths for store Section Managers and our HR and marketing teams. Everyone joining our stores completes a thorough induction and up to 26 weeks’ ongoing training – the longest on the high street. We have over 7,500 people in stores who act as coaches to train and support their less experienced colleagues.
This year we’ve also run specialist training for people moving into senior management roles or taking up international assignments. Additionally, more than 4,000 people completed our Buying Academy and Food Academy courses. We’re now trialling similar academies for womenswear and merchandisers.
Our Code of Ethics is communicated across the company and senior management are asked to confirm acceptance annually with breaches reported to the Audit Committee.
Employee health, safety and wellbeing
We’re committed to help our people make informed health choices at work. In February 2008, we launched a pilot wellbeing programme in several stores to trial a wide range of mental and physical health initiatives. We’ll assess the results of these trials to fine tune our longer-term employee wellbeing plans. We also continued our breast screening programme this year, completing around 13,000 screenings for employees and pensioners. The service is available from the age of 40 (10 years earlier than the NHS), and can play a potentially life-saving role by detecting cancer early.
We’re working hard to help our people prevent fire, health and safety related incidents, but also to report them if they happen. This year, we’ve completed further training for all the Fire, Health & Safety officers in our stores and offices. The number of reported incidents was 27,828 (or 26,210 if new stores are excluded) against 30,883 in 2006/07. The number of RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) incidents fell to 957 (or 892 if new stores are excluded) compared with 1057 in 2006/07. No work-related fatalities occurred during the year. Click here to view our Health & Safety policy.
Diversity
Our store teams and workforces across the UK generally reflect national diversity averages. We regularly review our policies and procedures to make sure we comply with legislation. Click here to view our Equal Opportunities policy.
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