The Partner Survey

When our founder, John Spedan Lewis, set up the Partnership, he made it both commercial and democratic. Our structure gives our management the freedom to be entrepreneurial and competitive in the way they run the company, while giving Partners the rights and responsibilities of ownership through active involvement in the business.
Maryann Hannan, Waitrose Rickmansworth
Maryann Hannan, Waitrose Rickmansworth

All 81,000 Partners have a say in how the Partnership is run, as well as an equal percentage share in the profits. Giving our Partners a voice is central to the principles of co-ownership, and we engage their views and opinions in a number of ways, including the annual Partner Survey, first started in 2003.

Methodology

The Partner Survey goes to all Partners and is anonymous. Each shop receives separate results so we can identify Partners' concerns more easily and act on them, without compromising their anonymity.

The Survey has questions on a number of subjects including job satisfaction, pay, career development, management, their branch, the democratic bodies and the Partnership as a business. Partners' replies are processed by an external company: no-one in the Partnership sees individual responses.

For each question Partners are asked to mark the answer box that best matches what they think about the statement, ranging from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. Each answer has an associated score. If, for example, for any particular question everyone strongly agreed with the statement, the score would be 30; if they all disagreed strongly, the score would be -30; and if half agreed and half disagreed, the score would be 0. 

2011 results

In 2011, over 66,000 Partners (90 per cent) shared their views on a range of issues, from pay and working hours to personal development and job satisfaction. The 28 questions (21 of which were new or amended in 2010) were divided into three groups, each one reflecting elements of the three commitments which make up the Partner Strategy. The range of possible survey scores ran from -30 (if everyone strongly disagreed) to +30 if everyone strongly agreed. The average scores for the three Partner Commitments were:

  • Take responsibility for our business success: 9
  • Build relationships powered by our principles: 12
  • Create real influence over our working lives: 13.


Across the Partnership, 84 per cent of Partners agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the Partnership, a figure that put us in the top 25 per cent of the other UK companies.

Acting on the results

The scores are just a snapshot - the value comes from the questions and discussions these results prompt and the action that follows. Following the results from the Partner Survey, shops work to tackle those issues where they scored lowest. John Lewis and Waitrose Management Boards work on those issues that need to be tackled across each division.

Since the survey began, as a result of Partners' feedback, the Partnership has reviewed its democratic arrangements and commissioned an equal pay audit.

Benchmarking

2011 was the first time that the Partnership was able to compare its movement against other companies after external benchmarking was introduced with the 2010 Survey. The benchmarking is carried out by two employee research companies that collect and share employee survey results from hundreds of UK companies.  The Partnership's scores improved against the external benchmarks for 11 out of 28 questions this year, with the most significant positive movement for 'I feel secure in my employment'.

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Related

  • Democratic bodies
    All Partners have a say in how we run the business through a set of councils and committees.

  • CSR reports
    Our CSR performance is publicly reported. Read our current and past reports.

  • Our Partners
    Partners from around the business speak passionately about why they work for the Partnership.