Over the past two years, we’ve made significant in-roads on our journey in LGBT+ inclusion. To deliver our inclusion aim, we recognise the importance of supporting our LGBT+ colleagues and believe that it’s vital to be genuine and authentic in everything we do.
In 2020, we partnered with Akt, a charity that supports homeless LGBT+ young people and in 2021, we’re looking to continue our charity work by donating a portion of the profits from our new Pride collection.
The last fifty years have witnessed a huge change in attitudes towards the LGBT community, but we know there is always more to be done. We are committed to creating a culture that promotes and takes pride in diversity. Our progress in the LGBT+ inclusion sphere over the past 2 years has seen us introduce a dedicated policy to support our trans colleagues, LGBT+ dedicated inclusion training which focusses on personal stories and the impact of the language we use. We’ve rolled this out further by platforming and profiling our LGBT+ leaders to show our colleagues that everybody is welcome at Sainsbury’s.
Marching toward our goal
We’ve done a significant amount of work to really show up to our customers in the LGBT+ inclusion space and we take our role as champions of diversity and inclusion seriously. We’re proud to sell same-sex Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day cards, and in 2021 we’re launching a range of Pride rainbow and lifestyle products.
We have been recognised for our commitment to LGBT+ inclusion by being named as a Top 10 Inclusive Employer by the British LGBT Awards this year. In 2019 and 2020, we were also honoured to be named the top retail employer in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.
In 2019, our LGBT+ colleague network, Proud @ Sainsbury’s chair Jemma Kameen was honoured by winning the award for Future Leader at the British LGBT Awards, for her incredible work with Proud @ Sainsbury’s and her passion for advancing the rights of LGBT+ people in the workplace.
Our colleague presence at Pride continues to reflect our spirit of inclusion. Summer 2020, felt different as we celebrated Pride with our colleagues virtually. However, in 2019, we attended 43 Pride events and hope to attend over 50 when restrictions are lifted. Over 10,000 of our colleagues have joined us at Pride events since we began attending and we want that number to keep growing, as we continue to strive to be the employer of choice for LGBT+ people.