Operational efficiency Case study
The beauty spot
Superdrug has worked hard over the past 18 months to
become a more diverse and inclusive workplace, with plenty
of positive results. THIRZA TOOES reports
The organisation
Superdrug is the second-largest health and beauty
retailer in the UK. It was founded in 1964 by
brothers Peter and Ronald Goldstein. As well as
selling a variety of branded products it has its own
lines and offers various other services such as
prescription filling, opticians, nurse clinics, and
eyebrow threading. Superdrug has 830 UK stores, as
well as distribution centres in Dunstable,
Bedfordshire and Pontefract, West Yorkshire. It is a
subsidiary of the AS Watson Group, which is in
turn part of Hong Kong business CK Hutchison
Holdings. It maintains strong links with sister
companies Savers and The Perfume Shop, which are
also owned by the AS Watson Group.
The retailer has focused heavily on vegan and
cruelty-free products in recent years, particularly
in its own-brand offerings. Superdrug’s own lines
have been approved by Cruelty Free International
since 2010.
The problem
As the brand has gone from strength to strength
and both store and employee numbers have
increased, the retailer needed a solid people
strategy. As part of the work done around this it
came to the business’ attention that more could be
done around diversity and inclusion.
Although the organisation had already set up
some employee networks it was felt more people
could be represented.
“We already had our gender equality and
wellbeing networks up and running, and we
had such great interest in them and a huge level of
engagement from people in both those networks,”
explains Jo Mackie, Superdrug’s customer and
people director.
It was clear that efforts could be pushed further
though, and so the brand’s desire to be more
inclusive and engaging for both staff and customers
was shaped into its D&I strategy Everyone Matters
around 18 months ago.
The method
Everyone Matters is made up of six pillars – gender
equality, LGBTIQ+, BAME, wellbeing, social
mobility (known as Access All Areas), and flexibility
at work (called Make Work Work). These were
formed from a combination of employee feedback,
external research on what other organisations were
doing with D&I, and discussions among the
leadership team.
“So we could understand what people wanted
and what future employees wanted we did surveys,
some listening groups, and looked at what best
practice there was around. And we ended up with
six networks at Superdrug and Savers based on our
employee base,” Mackie says. “These really seemed
to resonate with the business, and they’re all areas
we’re passionate about, that colleagues are
passionate about, but also that we knew we could
do more to push forward.”
Each pillar is made up of a director sponsor, a
steering group comprised of employees from across
the business, and a senior member of the HR team.
Getting executive buy-in was very
straightforward as there was a lot of energy from
the C-suite around the pillars and the strategy as a
whole. HR ran engagement sessions, unconscious
bias testing and one-to-one meetings with the
executives to ensure they were truly on board and
establish who might be a good fit for each pillar.
Mackie herself leads Access All Areas.
“Each pillar is now headed up by a director
sponsor and they are actively involved in the
steering groups and support the networks. Not just
as a figurehead, but also working with the teams to
help them and direct them,” she explains.
Superdrug CEO Peter Macnab is particularly
passionate about Everyone Matters, and even
creates podcasts to help inform and engage the
workforce around D&I.
Steering group members have a range of roles
within Superdrug and come from retail, back office
and the distribution centres. While most members
volunteered to be part of a pillar’s steering group,
Mackie says they “tapped a few people on the
shoulder” if it was felt they could particularly add
to a group’s effectiveness. To get the word out to all
business premises and gather volunteers Superdrug
used its internal communications platform The
Hub. Mackie admits that although all areas of the
There are six networks at Superdrug and Steering group members come from retail, 46 HR February 2020 hrmagazine.co.uk
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