We believe that a fair and inclusive world is one where people respect and celebrate their differences, and everyone has the chance to succeed. After all that’s the kind of world we want to live in, and it’s why we embrace the talents, beliefs, backgrounds and experiences of all our colleagues. Find out more about what we're doing to support our commitment.
We are committed to growing and sustaining our diversity and inclusion efforts, and to being a force for change in our communities and society. We believe that by embracing our differences and leveraging our collective strengths, we can create more value for our members, suppliers, colleagues and stakeholders. We also recognise that we have a responsibility to use our influence and resources to address the social and environmental challenges that affect our business and the world.
To achieve our vision of being a leading cooperative that fosters diversity and inclusion, we have established or are exploring various external partnerships and collaborations that help us to amplify our impact and learn from best practices.
We also engage with our stakeholders and communicate our progress and achievements, as well as our challenges and areas for improvement, through various channels and platforms, such as:
We have put steps in place to allow our colleagues to feel comfortable at work and strive to their full potential in our people process, enabling all our colleagues to fulfil their potential. A development programme has been launched specifically to help our BAME colleagues to progress. We have also started to scope our approach to how we support colleagues with disabilities and ensure they can easily access reasonable adjustments.
We ensure our recruitment and talent pipeline is more diverse, representing the communities we serve. Our approach includes partnering with organisations that can help us to reach more diverse talent outside of our existing channels. We currently have partnerships in place with Princes Trust, Catch 22 and Black Young Professionals.
The Co-op Career Development Hub helps job seekers tackle the most common career obstacles. As a mobile first platform it allows users to access these tools on any device, making it accessible for people without PCs or laptops at home.
We actively understand and celebrate difference, as well as tackling non-inclusive behaviours such as bullying, harassment and discrimination. We have studied how our colleagues’ lived experiences is impacted by identity and will use these to create more meaningful interventions.
We also educate colleagues in areas of diversity such as gender, LGBTQ+, disability and neuro diversity through events and learning sessions in National Inclusion Week, International Womens’ Day, Pride and International Day of Disability. We empower our Colleague Networks to educate and inspire from store level and beyond.
We enable leaders to lead diverse teams and create an environment in which diversity thrives.
From coaching members of the Exec to become more inclusive leaders, to delivering bespoke inclusivity leadership training, we have tailored our training programmes to suit colleagues at all stages of their leadership journey.
All leaders and colleagues have a core priority goal which centres around making a positive impact in their role, through creating an inclusive culture and supporting our Co-op Vision. This includes the requirement for our Leaders to be anti-discrimination advocates, by ensuring that their own behaviours, and those of others, treat people with respect regardless of their identity.
Equality is making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to reach their potential, while equity recognises people have different starting points.
We pledge to make diversity work by creating an inclusive culture where all differences are celebrated and valued. We are working towards being anti-racist and focused on being proactive in combating discrimination in all its forms.
