Jason's journey at WHSmith
15 years ago, I joined WHSmith as a Store Manager in a newly opened High Street store. Back then I couldn’t have imagined the career I now have, it’s one of the things I love about working at WHSmith – the endless experiences and opportunities to grow. Working within our stores cultivates invaluable skills and behaviours that open doors to many career paths at WHSmith. My journey from a decade of High Street stores experience to our Learning and Development team exemplifies this. It was here that my passion for aiding others led me to co-chair our inaugural Pride employee network, aligning perfectly with my values of fairness and respect. This experience propelled me into my current role as a manager overseeing diversity, equity, inclusion, and wellbeing initiatives. It's a journey filled with purpose and endless potential opportunities.
I advise senior leadership on complex business issues, performance, reward and pay, talent and succession goal planning, and more. My role also involves challenging certain senior stakeholders in their decisions. I act as their critical friend for decisions impacting people from both engagement and well-being perspectives, I also work closely with our talent acquisition partners to ensure we have sufficient diversity representation across all levels."
I feel like I'm appreciated and I'm proud that I get to go every day and do a job that I love. I love it with a passion. I really do! I've got such a passion for my job.