Forty-eight percent of businesses in the UK food and grocery sector have adopted a co-ordinated strategy to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce, a new study has revealed.
The study also found that 84% of companies believe that they are presently performing better in diversity and inclusion than five years ago.
Conducted by the IGD and The MBS Group, in collaboration with PwC, the report is a first-of-its-kind on diversity and inclusion in the food and grocery industry.
IGD chief executive, Susan Barratt, said, "Studies have shown that more diverse and inclusive workplaces have a higher level of employee engagement, are more productive and are more profitable.
"The response and interest in this project from across our industry has been fantastic; there’s no doubt much is happening at an individual business level as well as collaboratively. However, this research also clearly demonstrates there is a need – and an appetite – to do a lot more."
The research used data from more than 200 companies and conversations with more than 100 chairs, CEOs and HR directors to understand the state of diversity and inclusion in the food and grocery sector.
Gender Pay Gap
The median gender pay gap within the food and grocery industry was found to be lower than the UK economy as a whole, according to a PwC analysis.
Fewer than 10% of companies surveyed said they were prepared for ethnicity pay gap reporting, if introduced in the coming years, the study pointed out.
Women comprised 27.6% of the board roles, with the figure dropping to 22.2% at the executive committee level.
The study also noted that women constituted 35.9% of direct reports into the executive committee.
Managing partner at The MBS Group, Elliott Goldstein, said, "The food and grocery industry can be proud of the progress is it has made to date changing the dial-in diversity – but with just 22.2% of executive committee members being women, it is clear that as a sector there is still some way to go."
In terms of ethnicity, 11.4% of board members in the food and grocery industry were from BAME background (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic).
The study also found that 82% of executive committee members in the sector were British across a sample of 50 companies. Out of the remaining, 13% were EU nationals and only 5% were from non-EU nations.
'Other Levers Of Diversity'
Barratt added, "There are other levers of diversity beyond gender that can also help to create a diverse workforce – age, ethnicity, LGBTQ, social mobility, and disability, amongst others. The research shows there is much more to do in these areas, to help businesses unlock new sources of talent for the future."
Twenty-seven percent of respondents were able to identify an openly LGTBQ leader within their business in the wider senior leadership teams.
As most companies do not collect data on LGBTQ, it was difficult to measure how accurately the food and grocery industry workforce reflects wider society, the study noted.
While 15% of interviewees identified someone with a physical disability, no one was identified at the executive committee level despite 19% of the working-age population has a disability.
The average age of board members in the food and grocery industry was found to be 57 years, slightly below the FTSE 350 average of 60 years.
The study also found that it was common for businesses to have three generations within the same teams, mainly because of constantly evolving advances in digital technologies.
Food and grocery emerged as the best industries for promoting social mobility for 70% of the respondents, while two-thirds of companies reported taking active steps to encourage it.
People and organisation consulting partner, PwC UK, Jon Terry, commented, "What’s clear from businesses that are making the strongest progress on diversity is that this requires the same board-level direction, organisation-wide push, understanding of the data and regular reporting, intervention, and incentives that would be applied to any other strategic priority. In short, diversity and inclusion need to be a part of an organisation’s strategy and its cultural DNA."
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
