organisation are represented in the steering groups
they are (understandably) retail dominated and
more needs to be done to even things out.
Steering groups “manage the overall direction
and what that particular pillar wants to go after,”
Mackie says.
“Last year we put in a senior inclusion manager
as part of my team who now pulls all of that
together. It was getting a little bit unwieldy; there
was so much going on we knew we needed to pull
it together so that the groups not only go and do
their own thing but it then forms part of the
overarching strategy.”
The groups put on various events and
campaigns and celebrate key dates to raise
awareness of their pillar.
Some of these include a panel for International
Men’s Day with a mixture of colleagues and
external influencers; a session for National
Coming Out Day, where LGBT employees talked
to a group of 40 senior leaders about their
experiences and what inclusion means to them;
Summer work experience for care leavers as part
of Access All Areas; and a store manager social
mobility pledge.
“We’ve had 100 managers sign up to our social
mobility actions, which are things like giving
additional interview feedback to candidates to help
them when they next apply for roles, or providing
quality work experience and making sure that
there’s good feedback on the back of that,” says
Mackie. “We’ve done quite a lot with different
activities in the pillars. And then we’ve also got
some partnerships with external organisations.”
Some of the external partnerships are with
organisations such as the LGBT Foundation, Carers
UK, Drive Forward Foundation, and Retail Week’s
‘Be Inspired’ campaign.
“They’ve been incredibly useful in two areas.
One they’ve given us credibility in what we’re trying
to do, but they’ve also been able to offer us advice
and support in how we move things forward,”
Mackie says.
Superdrug has been making good use of internal
resources as well, for example its nurses attending
employee events to give health checks such as blood
pressure tests as part of the wellbeing
pillar. Mackie says many employees
have made changes to their lifestyles
as a result.
The result
Everyone Matters has been received
extremely well by staff. Feedback
from managers and assistant store
managers has all been positive,
and in the latest employee survey
Case study Operational efficiency
Superdrug has more than 100 days of events and
celebrations planned this year
engagement was at an excellent 82%. Other
impressive figures include getting 500
apprentices into the business and having 70%
internal succession.
The strategy has been recognised externally too.
In a Europe-wide ranking of 700 companies by the
Financial Times Superdrug came fifth in retail and
52nd overall, beating businesses like P&G, L’Oréal
and Sainsbury’s.
Going forward, Superdrug has a full calendar of
D&I events for 2020, with more than 100 days of
celebration and recognition planned.
“We’ll do more inclusion leadership training for
our store managers and more employee panels. We
are also doing more around getting people from
disadvantaged backgrounds into work as we go
through 2020. And then we want to explore around
what we do with race and ethnicity and disability.
We’re looking at and considering the Race at Work
Charter and basically looking at other schemes to
see what else we could buy into,” shares Mackie.
The business also wants to analyse how it can
measure the reach and efficacy of Everyone
Matters and is considering introducing pulse
surveys. It has an eye on potential future legislation
such as ethnicity and disability pay
gap reporting too.
Mackie says: “We want to be
prepared for either of those coming
through. We’ll carry on listening to
our colleagues and making sure what
we’re offering is what they want. Just
to keep building on Superdrug and
Savers being an inclusive place to
work and open to everyone with
opportunities for everyone.” HR
Fact file
UK locations
830
Number of employees
12,500
Global revenue
£1.2 million
and Savers based on their employee base
back office and distribution centres
hrmagazine.co.uk February 2020 HR 47
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