Corporate Responsibility
Businesses are part of the society which produces and sustains them. We recognise this through putting corporate social responsibility at the heart of what we do; it is central to how we do business. By building good relations with employees, suppliers and groups in society, we hope to make a positive contribution to the quality of life in the communities we serve.
Corporate social responsibility is also good business practice: we need to earn the trust of our customers, who want to know they are shopping at a store which takes seriously its commitment to the environment, its employees, and in turn helps its suppliers to operate in a responsible manner. This helps to differentiate us from our competitors, as well as respond to the legislative requirements placed upon us by government.
Simply speaking, we wish to treat people the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Having said this we do recognise there is a balance between social, economic and environmental priorities and commercial success.
Social responsibility
So, what does social responsibility mean in practice? Firstly, that we ensure that what we sell is produced in an ethically and environmentally friendly way. For example, the use of packaging that is biodegradable. Secondly, that we treat our employees with respect, listen and respond to their needs as far as possible given the other demands of the business. Thirdly, wherever our stores are located, we make a contribution to the communities in the vicinity. In addition, it means that we listen and respond to the changing concerns of our customers. For example, the issue of child labour in some developing countries is one that has been brought to general attention over the last few years, particularly in the production of clothing and carpets; we screen our suppliers to ensure they implement our code of practice with respect to the employment of children.
Our employees
We expect high standards from all of our employees in all aspects of their work. In return, the business recognises its duties of care for all of its workforce.
We expect to provide a safe and happy environment for our staff to work in.
Equal Opportunities
We are positively committed to equal opportunities in our corporate practices. In addition, we recognise the value of a culturally and socially diverse workforce. This is part of our ethical values, but we are also interested in attracting the best employees, and we believe these are not to be found in just one social or cultural group. We therefore employ people irrespective of their age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, colour, religion, ethnic origin or political beliefs. We treat them as individuals and with respect, and will not tolerate harassment or victimisation for any reasons within the workplace.
We actively encourage workforce diversity by a number of policies. We recognise that the way we work will need to be sensitive to the religious and cultural activities and practices of our employees. We provide flexible working arrangements such as paternity leave, child breaks, career breaks, leave for adoption and IVF treatment.
In addition, our commitment to diversity extends to our activities in local communities, for e.g. by supporting all-girls football teams, and activities in schools which raise awareness about particular occupations for minority groups.
Working in partnership
We recognise that some of our employees will have the desire to join a trade union or professional association, to represent them in discussions over terms and conditions of employment and consultations over work practices. In turn, we will recognise those trade unions and professional associations for collective bargaining purposes where we believe they represent a significant proportion of our employees.
Unions and professional associations will be represented at the Partnership Forum (previously the Works Council) in every store, and the national company Partnership Forum, alongside employees who choose not to join either of these two types of organisation. The function of the Partnership Forum is to engage in consultation with the senior management team of The Business over important aspects of company policy.
We recognise that on a very small number of occasions there may be issues with, or raised by, our employees which are complex and require detailed discussion and negotiation. To facilitate satisfactory outcomes to these situations in the shortest possible time we have developed a company problem resolution framework where unions and professional associations have specific rights and responsibilities.
For Partnership Working to occur it is crucial that our employees have information about the company and its activities. We provide this through a number of publications e.g. the monthly newsletter and sixth monthly review, the internal web site for employees, and via the weekly team briefing sessions which cascade information through our line management structures.
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