Duo to share management of Birmingham's big new M&S store

Emily King and Naomi Hartley will oversee the work between now and later this autumn to get the new 65,000sq ft store ready to open to the public.

The existing team will be moving from the current city centre store in High Street.

Emily and Naomi are job sharing and previously shared the role of store manager of the M&S store at Sears Retail Park in Solihull.

Shared store management roles are still rare to find in the retail industry, but M&S is working to encourage and enable more people to consider this option with the launch of a new Job Share Finder app – a new tool to make flexible working easier for staff who are able to job share.

Launched earlier this year, the Job Share Finder app is part of the retailer’s new flexible working offering – Worklife – which also gives retail managers the option to choose to work a four-day compressed week or a nine-day compressed fortnight.

It is designed to help M&S employees achieve a better work/life balance.

The new store occupies part of the retail unit previously home to Debenhams and will have a fresh market-style foodhall and clothing, home and beauty departments.

As well as creating new jobs, the Bullring store represents a significant investment in Birmingham’s local economy and follows the retailer’s announcement that it plans to invest around £480 million in its store rotation programme, creating more than 3,400 new jobs nationwide.

“When we first started talking about the idea, Naomi and I realised that we’d actually started working at M&S on exactly the same day in September 2005 on the same retail graduate scheme. Since then, we’ve followed our own career paths, but now we’re working together as a team – so this job share was obviously meant to be," said Naomi.

“I’ve got two young children at home, so the idea of a job share was definitely motivated by wanting to be there for family. But I’m also doing a HR consultant apprenticeship alongside my store manager role, so the job share has given me the time and space to pursue my professional development too.”

Emily said: “I remember returning to work after maternity leave and worrying that the options to advance my career working part time could be more limited. My manager did say to me: ‘Why are you holding yourself back just because you now want to work part time?’ That was a key moment for me when I realised I could still progress, and not long after the job share opportunity with Naomi came along. So it was perfect timings for both of us.”

Naomi added: “It feels great to know that M&S is supporting me to do this – and that they’ve put their faith in Emily and me to open the new Birmingham Bullring store. It’s one of M&S’s biggest new stores, so we feel really privileged to be chosen to take on such a big job. And yes, there’s a little apprehension when you think of the job ahead, but we just remind ourselves that we both have the experience working together to make this a big success.”