We positively celebrate diversity & inclusion in the John Lewis Partnership. Truly embracing individuals’ contributions, regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion or belief. Having a diverse and inclusive culture throughout the business is vital for our future success and that’s why it is at the heart of our ultimate purpose; the happiness of all our Partners.
Workforce diversity and inclusion is a relevant and continuous process in which individuals are considered for hire and treated correctly regardless of their situation. Diversity is the recruitment strategy and mission of a company to employ a wide range of people to make the most out of their different knowledge and experience. Inclusion in the Workplace is when people are made to feel valued regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability and social background.
Diversity and inclusion are reliant on each other; therefore the John Lewis Partnership encourages and provides diversity and inclusion training at every opportunity to educate others on how others would like to be treated in the workplace.
To ensure that our Partner’s happiness is maintained, we’ve set up seven networks to represent the diversity and inclusion of our Partners. Their aim is to provide support and diversity training among their members and give everyone the opportunity to connect with people who are similar or different to them. Also – and just as importantly – the Partnership networks influence the business’ overall Diversity and Inclusion strategy.
Find out a little more about each of our network’s diversity and inclusion efforts:
Our Ability network has a mission to foster an understanding and supportive environment in which all Partners with or without a mental, physical or learning challenges are enabled to flourish and celebrate being themselves. They’re making conversations about different abilities easier, helping Partners, managers and the wider business to have open and honest conversations about ability as part of everyday life.
If you have a disability, learning difficulty, medical condition or any other individual needs (which you feel you need support with in making an application) we’ll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to provide you with an equal opportunity. For more information on the support we can offer, please click here
UNITY is the Partnerships’ Network for BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) Partners. It’s vision is to support the Partnership in recognising, valuing and unlocking the potential of BAME Partners.
This FAB (Faith & Belief) Network is aimed at educating, celebrating and increasing awareness of all faith’s and belief’s. We aim to promote inclusivity within the Partnership.
Our Gender Equality Network focuses on gender equality. It empowers Partners to overcome barriers and be more involved in Gender topics outside of their day job
LinkAGES is our intergenerational or age network aiming to build awareness of the benefits and challenges of an intergenerational workforce.
Pride in the Partnership was the first network to develop in the Partnership and supports the LGBTQ+ community and their allies. They are focused on enriching the happiness of Partners through increased visibility and support. They regularly attend and celebrate Pride events across the UK.
The Working Parents’ Network (WPN) has been set up to support individual working parents at every stage of the parenting journey and to influence and inspire the way the Partnership supports working parents.
The Care Experience Network provides a safe community for the voices of care experienced Partners to be heard, including those who foster and adopt, those involved with kinship and guardianship arrangements, and allies of the care experience community.
To support our commitment to creating an inclusive culture, we partner with a number of different initiatives to ensure everyone has the support they need to succeed when applying for a job with us. We also work with these organisations and lean on their expertise which helps shape our recruitment processes so that they remain inclusive for everyone. Just some of these organisations and programmes are shown below:
