Our People

OUR PEOPLE

We’re committed to making our working lives meaningful, inclusive and enjoyable. We aim to create a culture that champions diversity of thinking and supports the growth and development of our people. And we create opportunities for people at all levels to both start and progress their careers.

It’s also important that we improve people’s lives outside of Matalan. So we take part in activities and invest in partnerships to support people in the communities we work with.


What We’re Doing

As part of our focus under ESG, we’re working across

4 key areas:

1. Supporting Talent of the Future

We are focused on creating career opportunities for those who need it most. Shaping different routes for people to grow and develop where they might not have been able to otherwise. We do this through engaging with the communities we work in, building partnerships with charities and other businesses who share the same values as we do, and bringing the things to life that make Matalan a great place to work.

Here’s what we’re working on:

• Playing our part in improving social mobility and tackling challenges such as youth unemployment through supporting schemes such as Kickstart, Traineeships and Apprenticeships


• Working with local communities and charities to offer opportunities for young people affected by homelessness through our partnership with ‘End Youth Homelessness’


• Connecting with the communities we work within by working with schools, colleges and universities to support early careers through work experience, placements and apprenticeships


• Investing in the development of all our future leadership talent through partnerships like Be Inspired Future Leaders Programme as well as offering targeted programmes to improve the pipeline of Women in leadership roles

2. Championing Inclusive Cultures and Diversity of Thinking

We are always working to make sure we maintain a culture that welcomes diversity of thinking and allows people to bring their true self to work. We know we’re on a journey, and we continue to listen and learn from our colleagues so that they can help us to shape the future of the business and retail as an industry.

Here’s what we’re working on:

• It’s really important that we have an inclusive culture across the business. And we believe the best way to shape this is to create internal communities who can give us feedback and advise us on the best ways to change things for the better. We’re growing a number of colleague-led communities to help us improve


• Matalan serves a diverse customer base, and we know it’s important for our workforce to reflect that level of diversity. We continually challenge ourselves to make sure we have measures in place to reduce the risk of bias in our recruitment processes and career progression routes, so we can provide equal opportunities for everyone to tailor make a career they love


• Our business is made up of three separate areas; Retail, Logistics and Head Office, all which have a different mix of colleagues when it comes to how diverse their teams are. We are committed to continually reviewing the data to make sure the plans we have don’t just take a blanket approach, but instead are targeted towards building talent pipelines of underrepresented groups in key areas


• Linked to this is our data which outlines gender pay position, the latest report and actions for which can be found here. Lots of our activity outlined within our ESG plan aligns to and supports our aim of improving opportunities for women across the business and doing what we can to reduce our gap


• We are also reshaping our leadership development offer to improve capability in terms of creating an inclusive culture for all colleagues


• We signed up to the BRC (British Retail Consortium) Diversity and Inclusion Charter at the start of our journey to ensure we hold ourselves accountable and play our part in improving the diversity across Retail as an industry


3. Supporting Colleagues’ Wellbeing

We support our colleagues’ wellbeing and work hard to create an environment and culture that supports this for all. We want to create the opportunity for people to help themselves, while also offering additional support through key partnerships such as Retail Trust.

Here’s what we’re working on:

• Our wellbeing team has developed a programme that aims to support colleagues with their physical and mental health. Support is easy to access through all of our channels


• The Retail Trust provides our people with wellbeing support whenever they are in need. Whether it’s access to online resources, on the end of the phone or face-to-face, the expertise, care and support that the Retail Trust is able to offer is invaluable whenever and wherever they are called upon


• We also use our colleague communities to support our wellbeing agenda. Most recently, we took part in Menopause Awareness Month with our menopause community. We created platforms for colleagues to share their personal experiences and we’re working hard to support colleagues going through the menopause with masterclasses and the development of our menopause policy


• We’re continually encouraging conversations around issues that impact people’s wellbeing in their working lives, but are not often talked about. For example, we’re raising awareness through panel discussions and online forums around topics such as neurodiversity and challenges experienced by LGBTQ+ colleagues and women in the workplace


4. Holding Ourselves Accountable Through Good Governance

We have governance processes and practices in place to hold ourselves accountable to our internal commitments to colleagues, as well as the external expectations both at home and across the globe.

Here’s what we’re working on:

• As a responsible business, our board is actively involved in decision-making on issues such as gender pay, our ethnicity balance across our workforce and our pay strategy


• Our Your Voice community represents colleagues across the business. Meeting monthly, these groups input into business decisions and are a valuable conduit on important topics from working hours to our sustainability strategy


• Matalan’s confidential whistleblowing channel allows colleagues to speak up with confidence if they see or suspect that our values are not being met in any part of our business


Our Ambition By 2025

Social Mobility

Achieve a 70% or above rate of progression to permanent employment following schemes such as Kickstart, Traineeships and entry level Apprenticeships. Making credible leadership. development progression routes available to a range of demographics whilst proactively marketing these to marginalised groups.

Diversity

Improve the diversity mix of applications by 20%, being fair and consistent in our recruitment approach at every stage of the process across all roles (in relation to the demographics of each business area).

Inclusive Culture

All leaders to experience training around how they can drive a more inclusive culture a minimum of once a year. Have 3 or more well established colleague communities which help us shape the future of the business for employees from within marginalised or underrepresented groups.

SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE!

We’ve been commended for the quality of our Apprenticeships and Student Placements.



TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Get in touch with our people team with feedback on our plans. We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Contact us on talent@matalan.co.uk.



FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WORKING WITH US

If you want to know more about what it’s like to be part of the Matalan family, you can access lots of information and resources by visiting our careers website.



Working in Partnership

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