The first Mr John Lewis takes the credit for the initial commercial success. However it was his son, John Spedan Lewis, who conceived the philosophy that a job in his company would be quite different from working anywhere else. Spedan Lewis’s guiding star was a personal vision of ‘fairness’. He thought it unfair that the owners of a business should derive so much more benefit than the workers. The real advantages of the ownership, he believed, should go to those who gave there time and labour to the business rather than those who had supplied the capital. In 1914 he had the opportunity to start putting his principles into practice when his father agreed to give him control of the Peter Jones business. The young Spedan promised his staff that when the shop became profitable they would share in those profits, the first step in his long-term plan to turn his emplyees into partners. He fulfilled the promise just five years later when every member of staff received the equivalent of five weeks’ extra pay. Ten years later he created a trust to take over the assets of the company and run it as a partnership. Under the terms of a second trust in 1950, he relinquished his controlling interest in the much-expanded business. Since 1929 the purpose of the business has been the happiness of those who work in it. There are no outside shareholders whose interests have to come first.
The canny Mr Lewis fully anticipated the dangers that might lie ahead. The structure he bequeathed to the partners was built around a carefully planned system of checks and balances. He laid down the principles on which the pay for each member of the partnership should be calculated – from the chairman down to the newest junior entrant. In parallel to the executive management, he appointed to positions of authority an independent team, whose function would be to act as a corporate conscience and safeguard the interests of all the partners – to ensure that the voice of every one could be heard by the management.
The vindication of Spedan Lewis’s vision has been nigh on ninety years of growth culminating in the enviable commercial success of today. The company, which began the twentieth century with one shop, entered the twenty-first with a chain of twenty-five department stores and a food division, Waitrose, with more than a hundred and thirty branches. Some parts of the business have been added by acquisition, some commissioned and built specially – and all ultimately paid for by the prudent reinvestment of Partnership funds.
WHAT ARE THE RESPONSABILITIES OF HUMAN RESOURCES?
Statistics are collected by the human resources in John Lewis. They cover the following main areas:
The number of employees in particular job categories
The skills available
Performance results
Promotion potential
Age distribution and length of service
Explanation of each responsibility?
The number of employees in particular job categories?
The figure gives a broad overview of the number in the organisation who already possess certain broad categories of skills
The skills available?
It is helpful to identify the current skills held by the John Lewis members and see if any are transferable because certain skills can be transferred to other jobs in John Lewis
Skills analysis?
John Lewis needs to be sure it has the right number of people available at the right time but also with the right skills. John Lewis, therefore, need to assess their present supply of skills across their workforce and to identify the sort of skills they will require in the future
Performance results?
John Leis gather information about the level of performance of various categories of current employees. This information is then collected in a quantitative form. In addition, information is collected that is of a qualitative nature.
Promotional potential?
Internal promotions will change the availability of existing resources. It is useful to John Lewis to know how many employees have the skills and attitude for promotion to more demanding roles. It is also important how many employees are suitable for training for promotion.
Staff turnover?
John Lewis needs to look at staff turnover so that they can predict these future losses of staff members so that they can begin to recruit more members of staff. Also it gives an idea of when promotion will be due upon existing members.
Age distribution and length of service?
John Lewis can see how different members are achieving by looking at how long they have been there and how old they are. They can see if members of the older generation perform better than the younger generation.
What is Human Resources Planning?
Human resources planning is concerned with getting the right people, using them well and developing them in order to meet the goals of the organisation. In order to meet the organisations aims successfully it is necessary to identify the means of using people in the most effective way and to identify any problems that are likely to occur (for example in recruiting the best people), and then coming up with solutions to the problems identified.
Overview of John Lewis HR Planning
John Lewis Human Resources is excellent. They know what they are doing and they do run effectively. Due to the fact that there Human Resources Planning has been eunning effectively it has helped to give the company a turnover of £3,517.6m. John Lewis can be tough on there members but it helps to make John Lewis a more profitable place. They know when certain people need promotion. I feel that sometimes certain members will never go anywhere in the company because of managers higher ranked staff will giec certain members bad appraisals because they do not like certain people when infact that certain member should be on some sort of management scheme. John Lewis Human Resources Planning keeps control of sickness, absentees, leave, employing new members to John Lewis, and looking at members for promotion.
