As we grow our business and invest for the future, it’s important we keep strengthening our team at every level, from the shop-floor through to management.

To attract and retain the best talent in the industry, we have to demonstrate that M&S is a good employer, committed to making all our people feel valued and providing them with career opportunities and quality training. The following section reports on how we delivered against these objectives in 2007/08.

Training and development

Good training and a clearly defined career path are essential to our staff. That’s why we have over 7,500 people in stores who coach their colleagues so their skills are kept up-to-date. In our stores, most training takes place on-the-job, since learning is more effective in real-life situations. All new joiners complete a thorough induction and up to 26 weeks ongoing training – the longest on the high street.

We also run a number of specialist training initiatives for people moving into senior management roles. Additionally, more than 4,000 people completed our Buying Academy and Food Academy courses, and we’re now trialling similar academies for womenswear and merchandising.

Valued and proud to work for M&S

Our staff turnover rate is among the lowest in the industry – 27% for customer assistants, and 12% for management. Moreover, some 40% of our people in the UK have been with us for at least five years, with about 680 celebrating 25 or 40 years service during 2007/08. For us, this is one of the clearest signs that we’re succeeding in making our people feel valued and proud to work for M&S.

In addition to our commitment to providing quality training and rewarding our people well, we have a number of specific initiatives designed to make them feel well cared for. For instance, we provide free breast cancer screening to M&S employees and pensioners – last year we screened more than 13,000 people. The service is available from the age of 40 (10 years earlier than the NHS), and can play a potentially life-saving role by detecting cancer early.

Rewarding our people

	Employees participated in our Sharesave Schemes in 2007/08, saving between £5 and £250 a month.
	Employees shared a gain of £37m from the Sharesave Scheme that matured in 2007.
	Great Service Awards handed out to staff who did a particularly good job taking care of our customers.

Going the extra mile

Our people are passionate about what they do. They care deeply about M&S, and want to make a contribution that goes beyond just doing their job, to making a difference on issues that matter to them and their local community.

Now in their seventh year, our national Employee Volunteer Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of the many hundreds of staff who fundraise and volunteer for local charities in their own time. A special mention must be made of Jean Turner and the Chester store team, who have won the group fundraising category three years running. In 2007 they did whatever it took – selling cakes, running the ‘Great North Run’ and even managing car boot sales – so they could raise more than £30,000 for a number of charities including their local children’s hospice, Hope House.