Our commitment to diversity

We are here for our members and the communities we serve, and we want everyone within those communities to play a part in our business. That could be as a colleague. Equally it may be as a member of The Co-operative. Or you could be both.

We exist for the benefit of our communities, and we want to be a reflection of them. Our aim is to create a business that recognises talent in all its many forms and encourages achievement and creates a productive working environment.

As you can sense, diversity is absolutely fundamental to our business. Even before the age legislation came into force in 2006, we were focused on making our business open to people of all ages. Now we’ve been awarded Age Positive Employer Champion status by Age Positive. In terms of sexual orientation, we are the only retailer to figure in the top 100 of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. What's more we are an Opportunity Now gold winner and have recently received a Race for Opportunity Silver Award.

Policy and strategy alone doesn’t make this a fair and open place to work. You do. Diversity is about all of us, how we treat each other, how we work together and how we create a culture of equality and inclusion. By combining all the talents inherent in our difference we believe, quite simply, that we are a better business.