As Marks & Spencer embarks on a round of high-profile store openings, its flexible work approach is creating opportunities for people to progress in their careers while balancing that with other commitments.
Marks & Spencer is opening 20 new branches this year as part of a £480m investment in bigger, better shops.
The five biggest, all in former Debenhams premises, are all being led by female managers – including some who are taking advantage of M&S’ flexible employment scheme Worklife and a newly launched job-share finder app.
The M&S Bullring store in Birmingham, scheduled to open later this year, will be run by Naomi Hartley and Emily King as a job share – quite a rare occurrence among store managers in retail generally.
Job sharing appealed to each for different reasons. Hartley says: “I’ve got two young children at home, so the idea of a job share was definitely motivated by wanting to be there for family.
“But I am also doing a HR consultant apprenticeship alongside my store manager role, so the job share has given me the time and space to pursue my professional development.”
King says: “I remember returning to work after maternity leave and worrying that the options to advance my career working part time could be more limited.
“My manager did say to me, ‘Why are you holding yourself back just because you now want to work part time?’ That was a key moment for me when I realised I could still progress – and not long after the job share opportunity with Naomi came along. It was perfect timing for both of us.”
The appointment of the all-female group of store managers – the others are Justine Brook at the newly opened Leeds White Rose branch, Kirsty Williams at Liverpool One, Laura Smith at Manchester Trafford Centre and Dior Hudson at the Lakeside Centre – to oversee the five flagship branches was also partly enabled by the introduction of the Worklife scheme, which is expected to help with retention and recruitment by offering much-valued flexibility.
Multiple options
As well as job sharing, there are opportunities to work part time or ‘compressed’ hours over a four-day week or nine-day fortnight.
Smith says: “I was lucky to be part of the trial last year, which led to the new Worklife options. I found the four-day compressed week worked best for me and among all the colleagues on the trial 75% said it had a positive impact on their family life.
“For me, it really transformed how I thought about work and forced me to reflect on how I can best use my time. Sometimes in the past, I had worked myself too hard and just felt burnt out on days off. Now I find it so much easier to relax and switch off, so when I am in work I’m able to be much more productive.”
M&S group HR director Sarah Findlater says: “We want to make sure that M&S is a great place to work for our colleagues. We all love working in retail because it’s such an exciting and fast-paced industry, but that doesn’t mean we need to miss out on the moments that matter in our lives, so we’re determined to offer our colleagues the options to help them achieve a good work–life balance.
“Whether it’s working flexible hours or job sharing, our colleagues have told us that these options have given them more choice and freedom on how they’re able to make time for their families and themselves.”
M&S’ store rotation plan, which the new openings are part of, is central to its strategy as it targets greater success to come following the turnaround programme of the past few years. As across retail, great store managers will play a crucial role.
Between them, the six women have 115 years of experience – experience that M&S aims to continue to benefit from by offering the flexibility that staff increasingly value. Sixty per cent of management colleagues in M&S stores are women, and the flexible work programme could make a difference both to personal life and performance at work.
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