Marks and Spencer is to recruit 12,500 extra employees during the run-up to and over the busy Christmas period.

An in-store poster campaign asks applicants to call their local M&S for a phone interview. This will include a multiple-choice questionnaire to test how they would react to a variety of situations.

Head of recruitment at M&S, Catherine Muirden, said: “To share our enjoyment with shoppers, we need people who can build an instant rapport with customers no matter how busy the store.”