M&S launches recruitment drive to fill 11,000 Christmas roles

Marks and Spencer has announced it will be recruiting over 11,000 new customer assistants to support in stores across the UK over the festive period.

The retailer is recruiting even more colleagues than last year with over 1000 more vacancies available, reflecting the additional investment M&S is making in colleague hours to deliver “exceptional customer service”.

A customer assistant at M&S is responsible for serving customers on the shop floor and at service points, ensuring the shelves and rails are always stocked with products and engaging with customers to understand their needs and make recommendations.

It said Christmas colleagues also play an “integral role” in delivering M&S’ Christmas Food to Order service, which launched this year on 24 September, ensuring millions of customers get their festival essentials on time.

The retailer also revealed M&S Support Centre colleagues will continue to spend seven days in store each year to help store colleagues, with four of those completed in the lead up to Christmas. Last year, Support Centre colleagues spent 103,000 hours helping M&S stores and customers over the festive period.

Sacha Berendji, operations director at M&S, said: “Our fantastic store colleagues play such a big part in delivering the magic of M&S at Christmas to our customers. And this year we’re recruiting even more colleagues to ensure we’re closer to customers.

“The Christmas period is a busy but exciting time for M&S and no two days are the same – in fact, many colleagues started their M&S careers at Christmas and after the festive period were invited to go onto our Stepping Into Team Manager programme. With a range of roles and flexible working patterns available, anyone who is interested in being part of something special this Christmas should visit our careers website to apply.”