About Sainsbury's

The Leader of the organisation, Justin, commits a huge amount of his time to communicating and engaging with colleagues. From the face-to-face events that he does every month and his weekly store visits to the regular 'all colleague letters, responses to the Tell Justin suggestions and filming the monthly briefing and column in the Journal. The impact that this has is tangible as colleagues show huge warmth and respect for him and clearly find him very approachable. Every member of the board holds a ‘Start the day with’ session every month. These are breakfast listening groups held with a colleague from every store in a region. With no set topic these are a chance for colleagues to say what is on their minds and to ask questions raised by themselves or their colleagues back in store. The operating board and directors tend to spend most Friday's visiting stores or depots to spend time face to face with colleagues and customers to hear first hand what is working well and where the opportunities are to improve the way they work or the way they implement new ideas for their customers.

They address their employee’s wellbeing in various ways. They have an in house occupational health team of professional advisers whose primary focus is to provide guidance and coaching to their HR Management teams. They coach the teams by working in partnership to support colleagues who are absent through long-term ill health and provide advice to help rehabilitate colleagues successfully. They offer all colleagues the opportunity to apply for flexible working if they need support with a change in circumstances. They have the opportunity to apply for a career break if they wish to take time out of the business to travel, embark on a volunteering project or need support with a change in their life. They understand that home life is important. At Christmas, the management teams work long hours so they offer everyone a day off in lieu to thank them for their contribution. They also welcome families, for example, at their store support centre the IT team have a bring your kids to work day which is exceptionally popular. The children love finding out what their mum or dad gets up to at work and meeting the people they work with.

They ensure employees are rewarded for their efforts by having a clear principle about equal pay for equal roles. When considering their pay awards they take into consideration competitor rates of pay, the economic climate and any changes in roles and skills across the business. An example of this most recently would be an additional skills payment for the team leaders.