People are at the heart of everything we do at M&S. We employ over 65,000 colleagues across our stores, support centres, logistics operations and international teams, and we are committed to a sustainable future that is commercially successful and socially and environmentally responsible. That includes providing colleagues in the UK and overseas with a safe and healthy working environment, and fostering a culture that promotes diversity, inclusivity, personal development and respect.
When colleagues feel supported, included and able to grow, they bring their best selves to work. While this is simply the right thing to do, it’s also the best thing to do - as we know when people feel they belong, they perform better too.
Our public commitments under Plan A 2030 include helping one million people through our community and employability programmes, donating £20 million to charity, and reaching 20% senior-manager representation from ethnic minorities while maintaining at least 40% female representation on our Board. Read more about our Plan A 2030 targets.
Inclusion and diversity
We know that to truly embrace inclusion and diversity, we need to take action to support under-represented groups into work, and from there help them progress into senior roles.
When our people can bring their whole selves to work, we know they feel better and perform better – which is good for all of us. We also know that to continue to be successful, we must understand and reflect our diverse customer base and the communities in which they live.
Employability
At M&S we understand the importance of respecting and valuing each other’s differences and helping each other to be the best version of ourselves.
Employability is about supporting people looking for work who may be at a disadvantage. Since 2004 we have helped over 28,000 people through training and work experience in our stores and offices predominantly in the UK, but also with programmes internationally, in India and Sri Lanka.
People principles
Our People Principles underpin our vision of being a responsible employer and establish minimum standards with respect to recruitment, reward, employee relations, employment engagement and how employees can communicate their views.
These apply across all our operations for our direct employees and Joint Venture partnerships. Similar standards are in place in our franchised operations.
In seeking to always ‘do the right thing’, when determining our global principles, we have been mindful of international standards and benchmarks
Colleague wellbeing
At M&S, we know that the success of our business and our colleagues’ wellbeing are mutually dependent. Our wellbeing strategy aims for a supportive and inclusive workplace that nurtures healthy minds and lifestyles.
Feedback from our colleagues tells us that we need to focus on providing for colleagues’ mental wellbeing. Over the next year, we’re making sure that our managers and store teams have the resources to support their mental health so that everyone can bring their best to work, every day.
