How 10 leading retailers and brands are breaking biases this IWD

In order for retailers to create an industry free of bias and discrimination, proactive solutions must be adopted and strategies embedded – and the good news is there are a number of retailers making inroads.

In support of today’s IWD theme #BreakTheBias, Retail Week Be Inspired has reached out to UK retail leaders and industry executives to hear first-hand insights on how they are raising awareness against bias and taking action for equality.

Learn from them and see how they’re saying ‘no’ to bias to help – in the words of the IWD charity – create “a world where difference is valued and celebrated”.

The Body Shop: Using open hiring to #BreakTheBias

Antonia Tony-Fadipe, inclusive hiring lead, The Body Shop

“We are #BreakingTheBias by open hiring for entry-level positions across our retail stores. Open hiring is a model where the first to apply is the first to get offered the opportunity.

“We’ve replaced scrutiny with trust and purpose. We are trusting that those who apply are committed to taking up employment with us and they are trusting that we will create a safe environment for them to work, learn and develop in. We have subsequently enhanced our learning provisions to equip new entrants to do their roles. The Body Shop’s purpose is to fight for a fairer and more beautiful world, and we believe that education and access to employment are the greatest equalisers. 

“Open hiring enables us to fight for a fairer world by breaking down barriers to our employment opportunities, which has enabled young carers, care leavers, racially minoritised, disabled and young people to be employed with us.”

Sainsbury’s: Setting targets and tackling inequality across the supply chain to #BreaktheBias

Jim Brown, chief executive of Sainsbury’s Bank, Sainsbury’s

“At Sainsbury’s, we are committed to being an inclusive retailer with diverse representation at all levels of our business. We’ve made real progress on our diversity and inclusion journey. We have put in place ambitious and stretching targets for representation, including that 50% of our most senior leadership positions will be held by women by 2024. We have responded to the unique challenges faced by our female colleagues, including improving our parental leave, developing new guides to the menopause and having an even greater focus on zero tolerance for discrimination, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment and victimisation.

“We also know that female workers play a critically important role in our supply chains and we are committed to tackling gender inequality across all the countries we source from.

“We’re delighted to be celebrating International Women’s Day in 2022. This year we’re sharing our pledges to #BreaktheBias, showcasing brilliant women in our business and spotlighting our Sainsbury’s Introduces programme, which celebrates and supports fabulous female-founded brands.”

Pets at Home: Maximising colleague networks to #BreakTheBias

Trude Thomas, co-chair of gender network and business change partner, Pets at Home

“Our colleague networks are breaking down barriers and biases by sharing experiences through storytelling. At each of the informal sessions, a colleague shares a personal experience on a theme. Colleagues are given the opportunity to ask, contribute their own perspective and take part in what have consistently proven to be very active and passionate discussions. 

“The sessions are virtual and recorded to enable as many colleagues from all areas of the business to join as possible. We’ve covered topics such as body image, imposter syndrome, allyship, menopause, the intersection between race and gender, neurodiversity, mental health and recovering from a stroke.

“The feedback from colleagues has been fantastic. Many were completely unaware of their colleagues’ stories and that in itself is a great way to #BreakTheBias. Signposting by network leads after each event provides additional sources of support and access to other resources.”

Fujitsu: Acting on diversity data to identify gaps to #BreakTheBias

Kelly Metcalf, head of diversity, inclusion and wellbeing, Fujitsu

“Diversity and inclusion are core to our purpose at Fujitsu. We use both employee insight and diversity data to inform our approach. Our employee networks are essential in giving a voice to the perspectives of diverse groups. We then couple this insight with deep analysis of our diversity data to understand objectively where we have gaps in representation, recruitment and retention.

“Here are some ways in which we’re breaking biases. We require our recruitment partners to achieve 50% diverse shortlists for all roles. We voluntarily published our ethnicity pay gap in 2021 and have targeted action plans to address underrepresentation in leadership. Since being in the first 1% of UK organisations to publish our gender pay gap in 2017, we have achieved a 34% reduction in the gap and 50% of our UK leadership team is female. 

“We are a disability-confident leader and recently introduced a centralised reasonable adjustments process, taking away any barriers for line managers to ensure a supportive experience for employees requiring adjustments from the moment they join Fujitsu. 

“Our current programme of allyship training and allyship guides helps to remove stigma and educate all colleagues to the lived experiences of LGBT+ people.”

New Look: Introducing a dedicated I&D lead and diversity reporting to #BreakTheBias

Elaine Wrigley, head of people experience and inclusion, New Look

“The introduction of my new role as head of people experience and inclusion is a deliberate and positive step by New Look to accelerate how we support our people to #BreakTheBias.

“Equality, diversity and inclusion completely underpin our business transformation plan, and our focus for inclusion is about how we can better represent our customers, both internally and externally. We work equally hard with our third-party suppliers, too, and are delighted that we’ll be discussing this very topic on International Women’s Day, with some very inspiring women across our supply chain.

“We continue to explore how we measure our impact and monitor our data, as well as communicate business-wide and evolve platforms to actively discuss this topic, and drive positive and meaningful action. This includes ensuring model and influencer diversity, which we will begin reporting on annually from 2022. Our ultimate aim is that everyone at New Look feels supported to be the very best they can be.”

Wickes: Investing in training and education to #BreakTheBias

Fraser Longden, chief operations officer, Wickes

“At Wickes we want all our colleagues to ‘feel at home’ and we’re working hard to break down any barriers and biases that may prevent that from happening. It’s all about education; by helping colleagues to understand, appreciate and celebrate people’s differences we are beginning to build a more inclusive workplace culture. 

“Our Let’s Do it with Pride, RAACE and Balance for Better networks run amazing allyship training programmes, while our Ability network has rolled out mental-health first-aider training to all store managers and provides online support for everyone.  

“We make sure we celebrate different communities at important calendar events such as Black History Month and Pride, and we encourage and enable rich conversations to happen around these events.

“For example, we run gender webinars on International Women’s and Men’s Day, while our Peppy healthcare service for parenthood, infertility and menopause and our Period Positive campaign are helping to #BreakTheBias on issues that affect many of our colleagues.”

Tesco: Making inclusivity training mandatory for all staff to #BreakTheBias

Holly Skinner, beauty category planning manager and chair of the Women at Tesco network, Tesco

“At Tesco, we believe that everyone has a part to play in order to #BreakTheBias. We’ve developed mandatory inclusivity training, which supports all colleagues with recognising their own biases and provides tools to manage them. Colleagues learn to understand the value of each other’s differences, recognise barriers to inclusion and find ways to reduce these.

“Our colleague networks also play a vital role. Members of our Women at Tesco network have told us that they want to feel inspired and empowered to drive their careers forward. They want to be able to get advice and listen to life stories from both leaders and their peers, in order to help them make the right choices. 

“We use external and internal communications and events to share inspiring colleague stories and raise awareness of the wide variety of roles that Tesco has to offer – regardless of gender.”

Retail Trust: Holding steering groups to understand how to #BreakTheBias

Amy Prendergast, transformation and operations director,
Retail Trust

“We want to help #BreakTheBias by ensuring anyone working in retail has the foundations to flourish through access to our health and wellbeing support, and by working closely with employers to ensure they have the right tools and guidance in place to embrace diversity and provide more inclusive workspaces. 

“As part of this, we brought more than 100 retail leaders together at the end of last year to help them learn from the experience and insights of others and understand what diversity and inclusion really look like on the ground.

“We are proud to be helping retailers across the UK build empowering and supportive environments for all their colleagues, and will continue to shine a light on the role everyone can play in the diverse and dynamic world of retail.”

Beaverbrooks: Treating every colleague as an individual to #BreakTheBias

Anna Blackburn, managing director, Beaverbrooks

“Our collaborative and inclusive culture means each member of the Beaverbrooks family is treated as an equal while celebrating our individual differences. We are closely connected to every single team member and supportive of their individual needs, as well as providing opportunities for internal career progression – 80% of colleagues within our management teams are female, which is proportionate to our gender split.

“Family is so important to us at Beaverbrooks – we recognise that working in retail can mean unsociable hours, so giving our people the opportunity to be present for important life moments, such as school nativities or sports days, is something we really support.

“For us, to #BreakTheBias is to show we genuinely care for our Beaverbrooks family and treat each team member as an individual in their own right.

“This approach means our people feel supported and empowered, and we pride ourselves on the fact that one in three of our colleagues has been with the business for more than 10 years.”  

Retail Week Be Inspired: Standing together with retailers to #BreakTheBias

Laura Heywood, head of I&D programme, Retail Week Be Inspired

“This year’s rallying cry of #BreakTheBias couldn’t be more pertinent. We know the retail sector has a long way to go before it can truly call itself inclusive, but while the challenge might be vast it’s certainly not insurmountable. Just look at how far the industry has already come – research shows 89% of retailers currently have a mature I&D strategy in place or are in the early stages of establishing one. 

“At the heart of every retailer’s co-ordinated I&D initiative – be it active allyship, employee network groups, reverse mentoring, data reporting, specialist training or inclusive recruitment – is the need to listen to and amplify underrepresented and marginalised voices. 

“That’s exactly what we’ll be doing at the Be Inspired in-person conference on June 14 and we hope you’ll join us to celebrate and share the phenomenal diversity of ideas and experience that the retail industry boasts. 

“We all have a collective responsibility to #BreakTheBias and drive equity in our own organisations and the wider sector. At Be Inspired, we stand together with our community and IWD 2022 to do just that.”