MARKS & SPENCER PLC

Corporate profile

• Established in 1884
• Multi-site: 294 stores
• 12 million square feet of selling space
• 75000 employees at peak
• Retail/financial services
• Company turnover £6.6billion

Key work-life balance initiatives

• Unique working patterns for all staff
• All benefits pro rata
• Job sharing
• Homeworking
• Term time contracts
• Career leave
• Fostering and adoption leave
• IVF leave
• Dependency leave
• Community involvement - e.g. Prince's Trust programme
• Secondments - 30 hours/1 year
• Education sponsorship
• Paternity leave
• Child break
• Life planning seminars
• Extensive occupational health facilities
• Health screening programmes
• Welfare fund
• Compassionate and emergency leave
• Enhanced parental leave - eligibility extended to all parents with child under 5
• Confidential employee help-line

Workforce profile

• 79% female
• 34% over 45
• 9% of management work less than maximum hours 11% staff turnover

Business benefits

Marks and Spencer understands and supports the wider responsibilities that employees have in their lives, and has developed an extensive range of work-life balance initiatives that make a major contribution to staff retention and morale.

The society in which we live is constantly changing and throughout its history Marks and Spencer has stressed the importance of treating people with fairness and respect. We aim to create an environment at work where people can find time to enjoy what they do, and our existing flexibility of options enables us to make individual arrangements with each of our staff to help us achieve this.

In these challenging times we must never allow ourselves to overlook the importance of taking time to be aware of each other and appreciating the different demands life places upon each of us.

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