River Island jobs

Thursday, July 19th, 2012 - River island Jobs

River Island Jobs

River Island Jobs

As part of our continuing series of the review of jobs portals and job application procedures for various companies, this week we tackle River Island jobs

River Island: history and background

The company was set up in 1948 by Bernard Lewis and his brothers, operating from a small shop in East London, trading as Lewis Separates. By 1965 Lewis Separates had 70 stores, and rebranded as Chelsea Girl, chosen because at the time the King’s Road in Chelsea was the hub of fashion, music and popular culture. Menswear followed in 1982 with the launch of Concept Man, before the two brands joined together to become one retailer under the name of River Island in 1988. In 1993 the brand took the first step to become a global fashion brand when it opened a shop in Republic of Ireland, and has since expanded into a dozen markets including Russia, Poland, and the Middle East. In 2010 River Island launched Kidswear, and in 2011, Chelsea Girl was re-introduced as a capsule collection within River Island stores. Today, River Island has over 300 stores within the United Kingdom.

Applying for River Island Jobs

If you tap “River Island Jobs” into your favourite internet search engine, then you will find that no dedicated separate Jobs Portal emerges for River Island.

You have to go in through the main online River Island website/portal, and then get down to the bottom of the webpage to find the last listing, careers. It’s like they don’t want you to find it, and must be getting more than enough jobs applications at present.

However, once you are inside the dedicated jobs section, then it’s a different story. The layout on bright white pages with easy access side bar fully reflects the on-trend brand of River Island.

You will be placed on the “Want to work for us” section, which acts like the effective home page. Where ever you go on the jobs section, to the right is a big/bright “Apply Here” marker tab which seems like its stalking you. But with this and the easy access layout, job seekers can not complain about not being able to find the required information.

The information in the various sections I found were verging on the stark, but honestly all the information is there. The most obvious example of this starkness is the “How to apply” section, which simply says: “Just click on the link to the right and find a job that suits you!” Personally I would have liked an outline here of what to expect (Job Seekers Note: this information actually does come later in the process)

In the lefthand side bar you will find the following main sections, which I strongly suggest that you read before applying:

• Careers
• Store Roles
• Head Office
• A Day In The Life

Underneath each are between 2 and 5 sub-tabs, which provide access to additional information, including a specialist Work Placements section – I have not seen that in many employment portals, so useful.

We will be focusing/applying for a retail job today in this post, but like many retaillers, I found that there was a strong focus on training, ie:

• An initial induction to introduce you to River Island as a business
• A structured new starter induction & development programme for head office employees or a 3-4 week induction programme at a training store for sales advisors and store managers
• Skill development workshops relevant to your role, e.g. time management, delegation etc.
• Regular progress reviews to monitor performance and development needs

Jobs at River Island

There were various roles outlined in the lefthand sidebar, including:

• Store manager
• Product sales manager
• Sales advisor
• Design room assistant
• Buyers clerk
• Allocator

Each has its own dedicated “Day in the life of” tab, plus there are extra sections for the retail side. Taking the Sales Advisor tab for instance, there is lots of good detail:

• We rely on our Sales Advisors to represent River Island and deliver outstanding customer service in all our stores.
• Talented and dedicated sales teams are the key to our success, so if you think you’ve got what it takes to work for us we want to hear from you.
• From welcoming customers into our stores to ensuring that key products are placed correctly and helping customers find their ideal fashion fix, River Island Sales Advisors play an important role in operating procedures. You’ll be advising customers in the fitting room, processing payments, helping out on the sales floor and ensuring our customers leave the store happy with their purchases.

Job Seekers Note: much as though there is not a lot of focus on training in this section, this is more reflective of company culture over the job holders experience. Note the strong focus on customer (as always in retail), but also: talent; display and merchandising; advising; cash handling; and just to close out – more customer service

River Island Jobs apply online

I now tried to apply for a retail job in South Wales:

1. Click the “Apply Here” tab. You will get taken over to a dedicated Applicant Tracking System located on the ChangeWorkNow.co.uk (CWN) portal (NOTE: we have not provided a dedicated link for you to click to apply, as these url’s change regularly. Simply go to one of the links above, click that, and then click “Apply Here” on River Islands own website)
2. You will land on a dedicated CWN page for River Island, which looks like River Islands own portal/website. The job and application information provided on River Islands own website now disapears, so we suggest that you keep a second window open to refer back to this while applying
3. There are three options: Head Office; Store Management; Sales Advisor – I clicked the third one
4. You are now taken to a dedicated search page on CWN’s website, where you can search for jobs. The River Island branding now mostly disapears, although you can tell its still River Island. The page layout is clean and clear, and easily accessible
5. You can search for: permenant and temporary jobs; by distance from city/town or postcode; or region. I choose temp and perm, 15miles of Cardiff
6. After a couple of searches, I only found five jobs within the UK: 2xBrent Cross; 2xStevenage; 1xRotherham.
7. Job Seekers Note: Accepting that it is the end of July 2012, post both university, college and school break-up, I conclude that most of their seasonal vacancies are filled. However, if you register, there is a CWN provided eMail service that will alert you to newly listed River Island jobs in your region
8. For the purposes of this exercise, I choose the Friday/Saturday perm but part-time job at Brent Cross (Job Seekers Note: read the job descriptions carefully. They may look like the same job, but the hours will be different)
9. I now got taken to a dedicated page for that job. There is more detail here, highlighting that there are three teams in operation in a store: Operations; Product: Sales & Stock. This job was in Operations, and highlighted its backroom nature but also that applicants needed to love fashion and keep the stock room clean and tidy. There is also a map showing the location of the job, but no details about the positions salary/package
10. You will now need to register on River Island’s dedicated CWN portal. I didn’t do this, but its their standard three-stage procedure: About You; More about your experience; Your personal details. You are also given extra details now, such as when the job application window closes. At any point, there is the opportunity to save your job application part way through creating it.

River Island jobs UK

Overall, this was a good job applicant experience. Although the jobs application portal is difficult to find (SEO it River Island!!!), and the information in places stark, there is enough information there to allow the average job seeker to make a great job applcation for a River island Job. There is good integration between River island and the CWN Applicant Tracking System, and don’t let my experience with lack of jobs put you off applying.

Overall, a good experience which could be improved in a few areas: 9/10

Good Luck!

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2 Responses to “River Island jobs”

1. Karel Grochowski Says:
   July 19th, 2012 at 9:09 pm

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2. Henry Pangilinan Says:
   July 23rd, 2012 at 7:31 pm

   Why didnt I read about it before! So much time wasted!