Marks & Spencer Senior Leadership FAQ

Pros

20% Staff Discount, Sharesave scheme, Tech4Home scheme, Paid in advance, Head of Business Service Centre is absolutely brilliant at looking after employees, make you feel part of a family in head office roles.

Cons

Poor support for graduates in retail, very political and often bullying in store from higher management, horrendous sparks loyalty scheme, no overtime, progression is difficult when roles are split between London and Manchester, slow to act on automating manual tasks. Despite no pay rise last year and yet to announce this years pay increase, there are expectations for everyone to lose out on income to come back into the office 3 days a week, very little consideration for those who have come into financial difficulty during the pandemic, also it's a clear way to save money by reducing office space but instead the cost of travel and food will hit employees harder.

Advice to Management

Stop pretending to listen to your customers and employees, changes to the store estate do not outweigh the fact you've been selling the same clothes for the past 50 years and you cannot keep blaming the hard times of COVID for low sales, the younger generation are spending more on fashion, so why aren't you keeping up and targeting new audiences instead of doing the same old to please the over 50's? People in and out of the business have been telling you you're behind the times in your product offerings. Provide better support for graduates and lower level employees looking to progress, Finance Assistants often have more work and longer hours for much less pay because you do not feel their jobs are as important, creating difficulty for RLA's to show their competency with progressing to RLB. Stop giving higher paying salaries to those new to the business than increasing the pay for your current employees who have stayed loyal to you.

Pros

Decent mix of roles and responsibility

Cons

Resources were often stretched and overtime was expected.