Jack Wills

About Jack Wills

Jack Wills is a British fashion brand that was established in 1999 by two university friends who decided that there was a niche in the market for university students wanting a British, preppy fashion brand.

Now owned by Frasers Group, Jack Wills employs 1,800 people across 320 shopping locations.

Challenges

Working in retail brings its own set of people challenges. In the words of Colin Priestly-Wall, Head of Learning and Engagement at Jack Wills, “There are many challenges nowadays in retail because some people don't see it as a career path. Some people see it as a stop-gap.”

Colin adds, “There is so much you can do when you come to Jack Wills in terms of your employment. The challenges are making sure that we can sell that to attract people.

On top of showing prospective employees the depth of a career at Jack Wills, the people team wanted to create a more attractive benefits package which was relevant to their employee demographics. “We haven't always had lots of traditional benefits within the business and when you are attracting talent that is crucial in order to get the best people,” says Sarah Day, People Director at Jack Wills.

Nisha Suchak, Head of Reward, backs up Sarah’s sentiment, saying “In our quest to improve our benefit offering to our workforce, in addition to offering them the standard benefits like PMI, life insurance, pension, we needed something to fit in with our 80% millennial workforce spread across the country from the North in Aberdeen to down South in Brighton.”

Solution

Jack Wills chose to work with Perkbox as it aligned exactly with their goals. Nisha told us, “Perkbox perfectly aligns with our EVP, in terms of our reward. I would say Perkbox is very flexible. It's easy to use and it suits people no matter where they are.”

This was especially important as Colin saw they needed an offering which matched how their industry was evolving, “The landscape of retail has changed hugely in the last five to 10 years and we need to be responding in the right way with benefits like Perkbox and other benefits to support flexible lifestyle touchpoints.”

Sarah Day, People Director at Jack Wills, said of Perkbox, “It really plays to the demographic that we have at Jack Wills. We have a very young, very ambitious, very dynamic workforce and it's a benefit that is absolutely at their fingertips.”

Sarah also received praise from her people upon introducing Perkbox, adding, “The app is brilliant. I think we've received huge amounts of great feedback for that and actually it can be all different things to lots of different people.”

Results

12 months after launching Perkbox, Jack Wills saw just how much of an impact it had on their employees. Sarah noted, “We've seen a huge difference by launching Perkbox. For the last 12 months, we've seen evidence of at least a £35,000 saving for employees with Perkbox.”

Sarah has received lots of praise since launching Perkbox, “Since partnering with Perkbox, we received lots of anecdotal feedback about the service and the products, whether it be in exit interviews or in group huddles or in new starter breakfasts. So I think the response has been phenomenal.”

Perkbox also helped Jack Wills position themselves as a more attractive place to work, with Sarah adding, “Our LinkedIn careers page has increased by 35%, it proves that candidates who are exploring the opportunity of coming to Jack Wills are really excited by the offering that we're developing, particularly around Perkbox.”

Nisha summed up her feelings about Perkbox as, “Every employer that aspires to invest in its people should be offering Perkbox to its employees.”