Our Colleagues
Our aim is to create a culture where our people can bring their whole selves to work, or as much of themselves as they’re comfortable to. Whilst this is simply the right thing to do, it’s also the best thing to do – as we know when people feel they belong here, they perform better too.
We know education and awareness is key in helping us achieve this, so we’ve introduced an inclusion training programme for all of our colleagues and managers to take part in. We also know that there are many diverse cultural, celebration and awareness events throughout the year that are great opportunities for us to learn more about the moments and things that matter to us all.
We’re committed to reaching at least 50% female representation and 15% ethnic minority representation in our senior management by 2025 and we believe the plans we have set us up to achieve this. Beyond these two groups, we also remain focused on ensuring candidates and colleagues who live with or experience a disability, and those who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are represented and feel empowered to thrive and progress with us.
Here’s just a few recent initiatives that have helped to get us on our way to becoming a more diverse business:
- We were the first national retailer to support 10,000 Black Interns initiative, which aims to tackle the under-representation of Black talent. We’ve built on the success of this through our own Early Careers programmes that focus on recruiting and developing diverse talent at a young age
- The 30% Club is another important part of our plans to help maximise backgrounds, breadth, and quality of future leaders. In 2021/2022 we joined the new ‘Mission Include’ programme, to open up the scheme to all under-represented groups. We received a record number of applicants and on this years programme have 60% ethnic minority representation and 30% have a form of disability or health condition
- Our RISE (Recognising in-Store Experience) programme helps us promote internal diverse talent, ensuring that colleagues from underrepresented groups feel empowered to explore these opportunities if it’s right for the
Colleague Networks
One of our biggest assets is our range of colleague networks! These are made up of passionate colleagues with a range of lived experiences, led by incredible co-chairs and sponsored by a member of our senior team.
These networks provide a wide-range of support for us – from helping us shape our strategy and land our plans to, importantly, amplifying the voice of the people within these groups so we can be confident we’re making the right decisions.
The GEN group is focused on working to deliver a gender balanced workforce, by driving gender awareness, and encouraging the development of female talent to bring about a better gender mix at a senior level. The network led the first ever M&S Ideathon on International Women’s Day, generating ideas and suggestions on how to #breakthebias.
For everyone who wants to make M&S a more inclusive place to work, regardless of race, faith or culture: - this group is about promoting racial and religious equality and diversity and provides a space to discuss, question, challenge and take action. The network hosts exclusive events, including Black History Month, to celebrate the past, promote the present and build for the future.
Supporting colleagues to manage their own mental and physical health challenges or to support the disabilities or health conditions of others. It is a safe place to share your journey, ideas, personal stories, coping strategies and top tips.
Representing the different types of families that exist, and acts as a support network and sounding board for ideas and suggestions. It also includes an interactive blog, where colleagues can post or hear from their peers’ experiences of becoming a parent or carer.
A community who promote equality, celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and encourage everyone to be themselves, whatever their sexual or gender identity. This network focuses on creating an inclusive culture for our colleagues, customers and communities.
The Menopause Network is a forum for all colleagues to share their experiences and concerns, as well as interesting facts and articles on the subject. Our aim is to help others feel comfortable to talk about the subject openly, as well as providing a listening ear and helping to turn this into a positive experience.
A community of ex-forces personnel, who welcome anyone who is interested in M&S’s commitment to The Armed Forces Corporate Covenant. This network aims to raise awareness of veterans in our workplace and supports business wide activities relating to the armed forces community.
Our customers
We understand the diverse make-up of our customers and are focused on ensuring that inclusivity is embedded into the way we do business. This covers the ranges we sell, how we market them and the experience our customers have when in our shops or browsing online.
We’re always looking at the ranges we sell (and sometimes that we don’t sell!) to see how we can make our offer more relevant for our customers. A recent example of this was in June 2021, when we proudly launched a new range of lingerie called ‘New Neutrals’ – offering more colours, sizes and choice within ‘neutral’ (also known as nude) bras and knickers. Giving customers the freedom to complement or contrast their skin tone. And in August 2021, M&S beauty launched the expansion of M&S Autograph foundation – seeing the range offer 30 different shades of colour vs previously offering 10 shades.
Accessibility
We were the first national retailer to introduce sunflower lanyards to all our stores in 2019, supporting people with hidden disabilities to feel confident when shopping with us. We’ve also published ‘AccessAble’ guides in all our stores, providing information n accessibility for disabled people and their carers to use. The guides are available on our M&S store locator, include information such as lighting levels and the number of accessible parking spaces.
We’re also committed to giving back to diverse communities. Our Sparks Donations where customers can donate to various diverse charities such as Albert Kennedy Trust, Bluebrint for All, The Black Curriculum and Scope. Our colleague networks also work closely with charity and community organisations of different sizes to provide funding and support where they can too.
Whilst we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, we know there’s more we need to do. We’re confident that we’ve got the teams in place, supported by our brilliant colleague networks, to continue our progress even further.