John Lewis Partnership Annual Report and Accounts 2015

98

John Lewis Partnership plc Annual Report and Accounts 2015 The Partnership Council report (continued)

Influencing Policy

Unlike the more formal and very visible ‘holding to account’ moments, the process of influencing policy is more gradual.

Partnership Council actions There were three key areas of focus this year:

a Pensions, which culminated in an historic vote in January;

a Pay, where the debate on pay for performance, the living wage and benefits continues to gather pace into the new Council term; and

a Systems, where increasing centralisation and complexity can quickly lead to frustration at sub-optimal reliability or process change.

Pensions

This second year of the Pension Benefit Review included two occasions on which Partner opinion was “rolled up” through PartnerVoice, Forums and Divisional Councils in response to draft proposals brought by management. The strong feedback that Partners gave on the proposed halving of the accrual rate to 1/120 resulted in an improved proposal that included a 3% contribution from the Partnership to the Defined Contribution pension for those Partners who had qualified for the Defined Benefit section of the scheme.

But as well as shaping the main elements of the proposal, Partnership Councillors also influenced some of the more detailed aspects – such as increases to pensions in retirement, death in service benefits and ill-health pensions – during additional briefing sessions which included sense-checking progress with an independent pensions expert.

Pay

Pay was the subject of two separate sessions at the Council’s November Conference. Firstly a confidential briefing on senior pay and pensions was designed to give a “warts and all” reassurance in response to some disquiet and puzzlement expressed at earlier meetings around whether this small group of Partners was being treated more favourably than others.

Secondly, the Partner Group (the Council’s Specialist Group working with the Personnel Directorate) had been scrutinising our first year of Pay for Performance and the link to questions around the pay review process, pay budgeting, the Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage. That led to a session with the whole Council and coincided with lively debate on the intranet and in the Gazette letters pages. The responses to the 2015 Partner Survey questions on pay will then provide a springboard for further influence when they are discussed in the coming year.

Systems

Influencing our systems is also a gradual process and Councillors recognised that they needed a better understanding of the Partnership Services division in order to appreciate the scale of change that the Partnership was managing. A well-planned afternoon’s visit in July 2014 to Spedan House in Bracknell was for many Councillors their first direct insight into the division, including some frank questioning of those responsible for the recently launched Resourcing service. The Partner Group’s follow-up visit to that area in February 2015 found a much more stable operation, but on both occasions Councillors were struck by Partners’ openness to feedback and strong desire to get things right.

Partner Group

Our pay policy is monitored by a committee of the Partnership Council, the Partner Group. The Partner Group is consulted on changes to policies, and can make their own recommendations for change or review.

Live streaming

Rule 64 of the Constitution provides for Partners in exceptional need to receive financial assistance from the Partnership. This assistance is funded through monies granted to the Partnership Council. In 2014/15, the Partnership provided hardship loans to 824 Partners totalling £538,000 and hardship grants to 756 Partners totalling £474,000.

All formal meetings of the Partnership Council are live streamed to branches and sites across the country. The meetings are reported in the following week’s Gazette, the Partnership’s magazine. After each Partnership Council meeting, full written summaries and highlights films are available from the Partner intranet.

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