Getting Partners involved

Encouraging Partners to get involved in our community activities reinforces our commitment not just to our communities, but to our Partners as well. They can develop their confidence, learn skills, take on new responsibilities and become more motivated.

Our signature volunteering programme is the Golden Jubilee Trust (GJT), established as a charity in 2000. Through the GJT, any Partner can apply for a full- or part-time volunteering secondment with a UK-registered charity for up to six months. We hit a record in 2010 with Partners spending over 24,000 hours on GJT secondments.

Building on the success of this scheme, we are exploring new and more flexible ways of encouraging Partners to be more active in their local communities.

Local investment

Our shops are very much a part of the communities they are based in. When planning new shops, we engage with community groups to ensure they will suit the surroundings and offer long-term value. We also make sure that we build stronger relationships with our neighbours and attract, train and recruit local people into rewarding, fulfilling jobs.

The Partnership is playing a key role in the East London regeneration programme, by developing flagship low-carbon John Lewis and Waitrose shops adjacent to the Olympic Park in Stratford, Newham. Together, they will create up to 930 jobs. We are also committed to offering free employment training and at least 250 job opportunities to the long-term unemployed. In 2011, Andy Street, Managing Director, John Lewis, was appointed the first Chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership. This role will allow Andy to play a leading part in regeneration and growth, which are vital to the UK’s economic recovery, particularly in a region of increasing significance to the Partnership.

In 2010, the Partnership commissioned nef consulting, the strategic consultancy arm of the new economic foundation, to assess the social and economic impact of opening a new shop. It found that:

• local economic impacts include the benefits of construction expenditure, money spent by Partners locally and trade from additional expenditure drawn to the town centre

• through wages, the average John Lewis and Waitrose shops contribute £9.1 million and £1.7 million to the local economy respectively

• Partners have higher wellbeing than the national average, supported by the Partnership’s unique ownership and governance structure. Scores are 10–15% above the national benchmark for wellbeing at work.

See a summary of nef’s findings online.

“ The GJT programme is one of the benefits that makes the Partnership such a unique place to work. People find it difficult to believe that the scheme is open to all Partners, that they are paid as normal while on secondment and their job awaits them when it is finished.”

Andrew Slater , Chairman, Golden Jubilee Trust and head of branch, John Lewis, Welwyn

Retailer of the Year

Waitrose was named ‘Retailer of the Year’ at the British Council of Shopping Centres Gold Awards. The awards recognise achievements in retail-led developments and projects that drive regeneration and improvement in the quality of the built environment. Waitrose was praised for its brand development and its ambitious expansion plan in 2010.