Meet Jonathan, Head of Insight, looking after the Colleague Insight Team. Jonathan has been part of the Tesco Group since 2011. Here, he shares his experiences of how Tesco has supported him throughout his career journey, and how colleagues are valued.

 

I joined One Stop in 2011 and did about three or four different roles during my time there. I looked after Customer Insight and Experience, Trade Planning and Pricing, as well as Customer Services. Then in 2017, following a restructure, Insight in One Stop became part of the Tesco Insight structure. This opened new avenues and doors for me and I started to reframe what I thought I wanted to do.

Over the next five years, my experience and interest in Insight grew while I took on more responsibility. I really enjoyed working for One Stop, but I knew Tesco had the opportunities I was looking for to grow my career. There were more roles, more seniority, and more chances to move around and do different things. I officially joined Tesco in 2022.

Tesco is the biggest private sector employer in the UK. We have to be bold and brave with our choices in terms of what we get behind, and the culture that we try to live and work by, whether that’s in stores, distribution, or in the office.

We’ve got a huge network of colleagues – there are about 300,000 of us – and my Insight team looks after everything we do to understand how our colleagues feel about working for Tesco, and across different parts of the Tesco Group. We’re here to help the business deliver on our target of making Tesco a great place to work.

How do we do this? We have a massive colleague listening research programme called ‘Every Voice Matters’, and we use analytics to understand how our colleagues behave. We do ad hoc listening as well, speaking to smaller groups of colleagues to understand their thoughts about particular initiatives.

It’s a really difficult time for a lot of people right now, so I do feel a lot of responsibility in my role. I’m not directly in charge of what the company decides to do but it’s up to me and my team to provoke and agitate, and put our colleagues at the heart of our work. We’re here to help make sure we change stuff where we need to, so we can make our colleagues’ experiences better. We’re here to try and understand them to give them more of what they want. So, ultimately, we keep them working for Tesco for longer.

Our work has led to a number of different investments into reward packages for colleagues. These investments are crucial because we need to reward and motivate colleagues to want to work and stay working for Tesco. I’m very proud that we’ve been able to help initiate these changes.

And we’re beginning to see real results, with more of our colleagues rating Tesco as a great place to work. This is also a testament to all the hard work that the People team and our colleagues in our stores, distribution centres and office are doing.

Tesco has also helped me thrive professionally. My career journey has involved having really honest conversations with my line managers and my director about where I would like to develop.

You’ve got to look for your own opportunities, because ultimately, it’s down to the individual, but when you prove you can do a good job, you get backing you need. My line managers have helped to open doors for me, and I’ve been able to craft roles or talent plan into different roles, and get the promotion I was after. There’s no better evidence than this to show the kind of support Tesco can offer.

So, if I were to give three reasons why someone should join Tesco, career support would be one. It’s definitely a place to get on. Whether it’s in your existing role, different roles or different functions. Whether it’s development at your current work level or progression up the work levels, there’s plenty of opportunity if you work hard.

I think my second reason would be the flexibility – this is super beneficial to me. The ability to work and live in different places has opened up a whole new career path that I might not necessarily have considered before.

My final reason for choosing Tesco is having the opportunity to make an impact. Tesco is passionate about doing the right thing for its people, its customers and the planet. These are, culturally, values that are important to me, and I feel rewarded to work for a business that feels the same way.

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