John Lewis hiring thousands of temps
The John Lewis Partnership has revealed plans to recruit more than 7,000 temporary roles across the country this Christmas - with free food and drink to help tempt people in.
Bosses at the employeeowned business said there would be 2,000 more positions than last year, to meet expected increased demand over the festive period, which comes as the UK hits a record one million job vacancies.
As well as the city centre store in Leicester, the partnership will need some of the 7,000 to work at branches of Waitrose, which has stores in Market harborough, Lutterworth, Mountsorrel and at Leicester Forest east services.
The partnership said the new temporary staff will be spread across its supermarkets and department stores and will include warehouse and delivery driver jobs at various depots.
The partnership has a new 300,000 square foot distribution centre in Bardon, near Coalville, which is also going to need extra staff in time for Black Friday, which falls on November 26 this year.
The Bardon site has already created about 200 jobs in this area.
Bosses also revealed they will recruit 550 permanent full-time driver and warehouse workers across distribution centres and Waitrose.com and John Lewis. com customer delivery sites.
The company added that new staff – known as “partners” because they share in the annual profits – and temporary workers will be offered free food and drink to “help ensure we can attract the help we need”.
Nikki humphrey, people director at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We know that as the first Christmas after lockdown, customers will want to make it really special and we’re throwing everything we can into helping them celebrate – our festive team will have a crucial role to play.
“We’re looking for people who can deliver extraordinary service to help customers get what they need to celebrate.
“We look forward to welcoming people into our team across the country.”
The company will also launch Christmas stores in shops from October, alongside 100 new Christmas products.