Human resource practices: Waitrose Company - Essay Example

Human resource practices: Waitrose Company Introduction When Wallace Waite, David Taylor and Rose established their first grocery store in London 1904, they had no idea that a century late, the company would dominate the food retailers industry and employ over 37,000 people (Tan 2002). John Lewis Partnership went on to acquire the company in 1937, establishing the famous Waitrose supermarket in 1955. Presently, there are 280 branches aimed at offering top-notch customer service and value for their money. . Presently, the partnership has a visionary and resourceful way of carrying out business, key among its priorities being the happiness of its Partners. It is the embodiment of an ideal, the result of close to a century of an effort to set up a company with a difference, owned by Partners committed to serving customers utmost flair and competence. All 69,000 permanent workers are Partners who together own John Lewis department stores, an online and catalogue business, johnlewis.com, Waitrose supermarkets, and a direct services company, Greenbee.com, with a turnover of close to £7bn last year. The partners unanimously share in the profit and benefits of a business that has them as its first priority. When John Spedan Lewis(founder), established the Partnership, he was keen to set up a governance system, spelt out in the company’s Constitution. The constitution would be both commercial, making it easy for the business to act quickly to remain ahead of its competition and democratic too, considering the voice of every Partner in the business they co-own. His unique combination of corporate knowledge and commercial acumen has contributed to the success of the company. The Partnership’s shares are held in Trust whereby the employees of the company are the beneficiaries of that Trust, i.e. the partners themselves. They split the profits equally and make leadership decisions through a number of democratic bodies (Richards 2011). Waitrose Human Resources Practices This report seeks to address in detail, the aspects of some of the concepts and human resources strategies which Waitrose has implemented to achieve such success in employee satisfaction and subsequently in their business field. This report however focuses on how two practises have helped improve their employees and the entire partnership system.  Learning and Environment The Open University has collaborated with Waitrose to assist its employees attain their career aspirations. PartnerLearn is a tool developed by the Waitrose Learning & Development Team and The Open University and Ashridge Business School, to enable personal and team growth. Employees can reach the site both at work and outside the workplace, thus fitting professional growth around their lifestyles. The program offers content from four of the University’s professional training courses on personal and team enhancement. This adds to over a hundred 20-minute bite-sized modules incorporating a long list topics from Increasing ones Potential to Leading ones Team and Attaining Excellence. The merge of Continued Professional Development (CPD) and short course content allows for an extent of knowledge that can be put into action immediately in the workplace once learnt. The Enabling Performance Program (EPP) is designed to equip managers with the tools they need to boost their performance together with their subordinates. It provides an array of techniques to improve effectiveness, which includes questioning, coaching, rapport building, feedback and listening. Simon Rae, a Professional Development Lecturer at the University said that they were pleased to have collaborated with Waitrose in providing learning and development opportunities to their staff, incorporating the synergies of the two institutions to benefit each other mutually. Both have a lot in common in regards to seeking to offer first-rate chances for personal growth. The University’s material borrows much from joining workplace experience with academic views for them to be easily put into practice to the benefit of all those involved. Through offering individual learning solutions in quantity and quality via the PartnerLearn site, workers can schedule their study to fit their own needs. Head of Talent at Waitrose, Jo Kelly, said that since the company was growing rapidly it was important that they introduced a new development in learning and development that would cover a wider and more complex business, as theirs was going to be. They are confident that PartnerLearn will go a long way in assisting them continue with their commitment to aid their employees better themselves and attain their career objectives (Cook 2012). Rewards The John Lewis Partnership provides a unique working experience and employment proposition and part of that offering is the total reward package, which prospective Partners are made aware of during the recruitment process. It aims to be a market leader in how we reward Partners. Their policy is to pay Partners according to the market rate for the job they are doing, and as much above that as is justified by performance. When they add to that the annual bonus, their pension scheme, the Partner discount and all the other benefits Partners enjoy, their total reward is market leading. The following is a brief guide to some of the benefits of working in the Partnership to which a new Partner may be eligible subject to the Partnership’s written terms and conditions. Pay policy This policy aims at being fully commercial, in that, the partnership sets out to reward payment rates, which will sound good and keep staff of the highest calibre. Pay rates of individuals are centred not only on the Partnership’s familiarity with local market rates but also on every Partner’s performance and contribution. Though the Partnership does not pay more for the period of service, the experience that length of service brings with it counts if it contributes to consistent good performance to the business. Every March, pay is reviewed. Profit Sharing Partnership Bonus is a yearly distribution of the additional income of the business after giving way for retentions set aside for more investment. Each Partner in the partnership at the end of January qualifies to engage in the scheme unless otherwise stated. If there are profits to be shared, the distribution is made in relation to a percentage of earnings. Though the percentage varies from time to time every Partner’s share is based on the exact percentage of earnings in the privious year. Most recently, the bonus has been varying between 12% and 20% and averagely 16%. Pension Scheme The Partner becomes a beneficiary of the Partnership’s non-contributory pension scheme after some years of continuous service. During that duration, they are able to make pension contributions voluntarily, up until 85% of the value of their salary, to purchase retirement benefits at their own expense. The Partnership subsequently matches their monetary input up until 6% of the value of pensionable pay. Life Assurance The life assurance scheme offers a sum equal to triple the yearly salary of the Partnership’s nominated beneficiary. .Private Medical This private scheme is available for every Partner who earns £44K and above. The cover may extend for the family of the Partner. Give As You Earn (GAYE) The Partnership provides an avenue for Partners to give regular monthly donations to charity thus allowing them to benefit through the available tax concessions. Deductions are facilitated through the payroll. Cars Here, the partnership offers 2 schemes which include the Business Use cars for those in need of a car to assist in implementing their role and a personal car which is normally given to Managers in appropriate criteria. Season Ticket Loans These loans are given by the Partnership to assist partners’ buy season tickets, though at an interest charged at 3¼% of the value of the loan for an entire year and pro rata for a shorter period. This represents a real yearly rate of interest that is close to 6%. A partner can take loans for much less than the full value of the ticket. Other rewards include: Holidays Partnership Leisure Benefits Conclusion We have discussed two vital models of effective human resources, employee motivation, and learning and development in relation to the Waitrose Company in this report. I have identified that Waitrose management has incorporated a wide range of tangible and intangible tools to fuel the levels of employee satisfaction and further motivate them. An analysis of the learning and development within the company, on the other hand, reveals how closely the company attaches their success in business with nurturing its employees to attain higher levels of education in their respective fields. The simple act of making it convenient for employees to access education whenever they want surely goes a long way in creating a good working environment in organisation and serves to ensure the employees reach their ultimate potential. The human resource of the company would not want to miss such benefits offered by the company so they will surely work hard to ensure that they keep their jobs (Gilmore & Williams 2012). This ensures that they deliver quality standards for the company, which translate to more business for the Waitrose company. References Cook, S. (2012). Complaint management excellence: creating customer loyalty through service recovery. London, Kogan Page. Tan, F. B. (2002). Cases on global IT applications and management successes and pitfalls. Hershey, PA, Idea Group Pub. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=66160. Gilmore, S., & Williams, S. (2012). Human resource management. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Richards, G. (2011). Warehouse management: a complete guide to improving efficiency and minimizing costs in the modern warehouse. London, Kogan Page. Read More