John Lewis is set to increase the number of staff working on its shop floor, as part of a multi-million-pound investment in store technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department store announced to staff on August 13, 2024, that it is making significant changes to roles and staffing <\/strong><\/a>needs to better meet customer demand. The retailer aims to manage this reduction through natural attrition and a voluntary redundancy process. The changes include combining front and back-of-house roles into a single position. John Lewis claims the move will offer greater flexibility and allow more staff to support on the shop floor during busy periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changes will cost John Lewis \u00a35 million in new digital headsets to help reduce wait times and eliminate the need for staff to track each other down within the store. Customers will be able to call for assistance using call points installed at key areas such as fitting rooms and customer collection points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A John Lewis spokesperson said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeking to make sure partners are in the right place at the right time to help customers. We\u2019re also removing unnecessary tasks and introducing new technology to make their roles easier.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Need Career Advice? <\/strong>Get employment skills advice at all levels of your career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n New John Lewis boss Peter Ruis reportedly wants to adopt a more \u201cSelfridges-style\u201d approach to customer service. A\u00a0 recent report said Ruis believes shop floor staffing levels have been cut too much<\/strong><\/a> and aims to bring the sales culture of John Lewis\u2019 beauty halls to other departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the new changes, John Lewis will spend \u00a31 million on over 600 new mobile printers, allowing store employees to easily replace missing shelf-edge labels. The retailer <\/strong><\/a>will also introduce mobile payment options to its 5,000 partner devices, enabling staff to serve customers on the shop floor rather than directing them to the nearest till. This initiative is expected to speed up transactions, reduce queues, and increase sales and conversion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Lewis has piloted these initiatives in its Horsham, White City, Brent Cross, and Cheltenham branches, reporting a four percent increase in customer satisfaction scores when alternative payment methods were used. The proposed changes follow a similar program introduced in Waitrose last year, which resulted in over 17,400 extra partner hours on Saturdays and Sundays, the busiest times for its stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Waitrose\u2019s product availability is also at a record high following a range of investments, including the introduction of additional shelving in shops to facilitate replenishment. These improvements demonstrate the positive impact of strategic investments in technology and staffing realignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow us on <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>X<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Lewis is set to increase the number of staff working on its shop floor, as part of a multi-million-pound investment in store technology. The department store announced to staff on August 13, 2024, that it is making significant changes to roles and staffing needs to better meet customer demand. However, these changes will result … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":63680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[415],"tags":[188],"class_list":["post-63676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-employment-news","tag-john-lewis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
However, these changes will result in a proposed reduction of 153 roles, approximately one percent of its workforce<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRealigning Staffing Needs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Investment in Technology<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
New Leadership Vision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Additional Investments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Pilot Program Success<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Waitrose Success<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n