John Lewis employees instructed to be within the workplace extra in bid to maintain up with its rivals
John Lewis corporate staff have been told they must be in the office more in a bid to keep up with its rivals.
A letter to head office staff said they were expected to be working ‘more in person than not’, meaning in the office or out with suppliers and customers.
The company said the changes would assist in increasing its revenue and create ‘better outcomes’.
It added that many of it competitors have ‘noticed improvements in collaboration and culture alongside improved business performance as a result of a hybrid model’.
The company specified this ‘hybrid model’ would be one that ‘allows for more time in person while still enjoying the benefits of working time at home too’.
It comes after John Lewis, which also owns Waitrose, posted a loss of £21million last year, compared with a pre-tax profit of £97million the year before.
Central office teams, including those working in HR and the finance department, need to be ‘spending more of their working week collaborating face to face with their team and others they work alongside’.
John Lewis said it is exploring options to ‘create more space’ in its offices to allow for more people to come in regularly.
A John Lewis spokesperson said: ‘While some in our industry are returning to the office full time, our policy hasn’t changed, and we are committed to the flexibility that comes with a hybrid approach.’
John Lewis corporate staff have been told they must be in the office more in a bid to keep up with its rivals
It comes after workers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this month won the right to permanently work from home.
Staff at the quango threatened to go on strike after bosses told them they had to come in the office for two days a week.
The dispute – which began two years ago – ended earlier this month after the ONS gave up trying to make staff come in.
Months of industrial action short of strikes happened after the organisation said staff would be required to return to the office 40 per cent of the week – up from 20 per cent.
The climbdown does not bode well for other public sector services attempting to get staff to return to the office.
Unions hailed the announcement as a ‘breakthrough’ which they said was the first time an office attendance mandate had been broken.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said the deal was ‘more sensible’ than the attempts to force staff to work from the office for two days.
