Looking after our colleagues

Our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do. They make a big difference to our customers, serving them well day in, day out, and we know that having happy, healthy, and engaged colleagues is critical to the long-term success of our business.

We put great emphasis on things that enhance colleague wellbeing, for example showing care and respect, recognising them for a job well done, anabling a good work-life balance, and providing tools and resources to support them. We have a dedicated Wellbeing team who are responsible for driving our wellbeing strategy, which is overseen by our Wellbeing Steering Committee. The Committee is made up of leaders whose roles and expertise touch colleague health and wellbeing and is chaired by Clo Moriarty, our Operating Board sponsor for Wellbeing.

We stay connected to our colleagues using specific wellbeing questions within our colleague engagement surveys, and the Operating Board and Non-Executive Directors facilitate regular listening sessions throughout the year to understand what's on colleague's minds. Our local and national 'Make it Better Together' groups also provide an opportunity for colleagues to share how they are feeling, provide feedback and shape action both at business and a local level. These insights shape decision making on key business matters aimed at improving the colleague experience, including the development of our wellbeing strategy and the design and development of wellbeing initiatives.

We recognise the impact of not supporting our colleagues in the right way, not only the effect this has on the health and wellbeing of colleagues but also on reduced productivity, increased absence, and the impact on recruitment and retention. We have a wellbeing dashboard which enables us to monitor risks through insights such as absence trends and colleague engagement scores across the business. 

Our approach

We adopt a holistic approach to wellbeing, centred around three pillars: Mental, Physical and Financial wellbeing. Through our pillars, we focus on raising awareness, education, and support, providing tools and resources that enable our colleagues to make positive and proactive choices to thrive in all aspects of life.

We hold a number of colleague wellbeing campaigns throughout the year to raise awareness of key topics, with the aim of reducing stigma and creating a culture of openness towards mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. The campaigns include a focus on each of our wellbeing pillars including the tools, resources, and support available. We work closely with industry experts and our benefit partners such as the Employee Assistance Programme, and Salary Finance to leverage their expertise. Outside of our campaigns, we have a regular drumbeat of communication through our internal social media channels to keep our wellbeing conversations alive.

Examples of our campaigns include Mental Health Awareness Week, Summer Wellbeing, Suicide Prevention, Financial Wellbeing and Healthy Habits - all of which are supported by our Company-wide network of over 2,500 Wellbeing Champions and designed to be delivered to suit our diverse colleague base. Our Wellbeing Champions are colleagues who have volunteered to support their peers by signposting them to appropriate resources and communicating Sainsbury's wellbeing messages and campaigns to help colleagues understand what support is available to them and how to access it. We meet regularly with our Wellbeing Champions to train them on mental health and various wellbeing topics, increase knowledge of benefit providers and provide guidance materials aligned with their responsibilities, to enable them to effectively help and signpost our colleagues to appropriate support. 

"We're committed to support all our colleagues with access to wellbeing and mental health guidance and support, to enable everyone working at Sainsbury's to make positive and proactive choices to thrive in life. Our absolute commitment is to be a truly inclusive retailer so all our colleagues bring their full selves to work and consistently have access to the support and wellbeing they deserve."

Simon Roberts, CEO 

Mental health

We strive to create an environment that is free of stigma, where colleagues can talk openly, reach out for help if they need to and know they are listened to without judgment.

We have a Mental Health policy that outlines our approach to Mental Health and details where colleagues can access support. An adapted version of this policy is also available to our Asia colleagues to ensure it supports the diverse needs of our workforce. We also upskill our Line Managers with manditory Mental Health Awareness training and provide guidance on Mental Health and Stress at Work to ensure our leaders are equipped to support their colleagues well.

In October 2019, we signed the Time to Change pledge – our commitment to change the way we all think and act about mental health in the workplace. We are also part of a Retail Network that shares best practices and ideas within our industry.

To further support colleagues we collaborated with the Samaritans and six other leading retailers on a ‘Wellbeing in Retail’ guide which is designed to help retail workers look after their own mental health, get advice on how to support others who may be struggling and signpost where to go for help.

Samaritans – wellbeing in retail

Colleagues can access confidential and independent support on a range of matters relating to mental, physical and financial health through our Employee Assistance Programme which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, we include the contact details of a range of mental health services such as Samaritans, Mind and CALMon our intranet so colleagues know where they can access additional support.

Physical wellbeing

The health and safety of our colleagues is really important to us, as such we have clear policies and procedures in place to keep our colleagues and customers safe.

To further support our colleague’s physical wellbeing, we focus on the importance of sleep, exercise and nutrition and taking care of your body, in maintaining good physical health - promoting the impact each of these factors has on mental wellbeing. We have a number of benefits available to colleagues such as the government's Cycle to Work scheme, discounted Gym memberships with Gympass and health cash plans through our partnership with Simply Health. In addition, colleagues can access a wealth of information via our intranet, with links to the Eatwell Guide and external support services such as NHS Screening and Health Checks, and Smoking and Alcohol cessation support services.

With an increasing pattern of violence and abuse in the UK, almost double pre-pandemic levels (BRC crime survey Report 2023), many of our colleagues and managers will sadly experience incidents of this kind incidents which could have an impact on their mental health. As such, we provide support and guidance to colleagues and managers in the event of any such incident, with an option to access Critical Incident Support through our Employee Assistance Programme where required. We're also proud to be partnering with the police, and other UK leading retailers, to develop a dedicated team to tackle Organised Retail Crime.

More on our industry partnership to tackle Organised Retail Crime

Financial wellbeing

Our objective is to have a fair, equitable and competitive total reward package that encourages colleagues to serve and help every customer and provides opportunities for colleagues to share in Sainsbury’s success. For example, colleagues benefit from a 10% colleague discount at Sainsbury's and Argos, which increases to 15% at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday, and for one day at Argos over each payday. We also make free food items available during shifts for store and depot colleagues as an additional measure to help them manage tighter budgets.
Colleagues can also access discounts at hundreds of retailers through our partnership with Reward Gateway, and participate in a pension plan on a contributory basis with company contributions, as well as the opportunity to become shareholders in the company through our all-employee share schemes. Furthermore, we work with our financial wellbeing partner Salary Finance to offer opportunities to Save through salary, Colleague Loans and Pay Advance which allows colleagues to access a portion of their accrued income ahead of their usual payday. 

We know that money can have a direct impact on mental health, so to further support our colleague’s financial wellbeing, we're working to increase the financial literacy of our colleagues through education and tools that enable them to effectively manage their money. We host a wealth of information on our intranet pages to help colleagues budget, manage debt and get more for their money through saving. Colleagues can also find links to external charities and organisations who provide support for financial wellbeing such as Money Helper and StepChange. 

Sainsbury's has recently announced a £200 million investment for its store colleagues with an increase in its basic hourly rate of pay for all Sainsbury's and Argos colleagues to £12 an hour. 

More on colleague pay

Wellbeing and the colleague lifecycle

We’re careful to consider colleague wellbeing throughout the employee lifecycle to enable our colleagues to thrive during their employment with us.

Recruitment

Right from the outset, it’s important to us that individuals feel supported during the recruitment process whether they are an internal or external candidate. We provide training and guidance to line managers in Inclusive Recruitment practises, which supports them to understand biases, write inclusive job descriptions, best practise for CV sifting and how to provide support at interview including the importance of checking in with candidates to understand whether they require any adjustments due to a disability, health/ mental health condition.

Onboarding

When colleagues join us (or change their role), they are asked to complete a Health Questionnaire so we can understand if they have any health conditions that may require workplace adjustment(s) so we can ensure they can be the best they can be, right from the outset. In addition, colleagues will also receive a colleague benefits booklet detailing the range of benefits they receive including the health and wellbeing support available from day one.  

Education, training and career Progression

We believe that opportunity to progress and develop plays a key role in colleague mental health and wellbeing. Our progressive development programmes, coaching, skill boosts and career development opportunities combine to provide all colleagues with a chance to achieve their personal and career goals.

We offer a diverse range of development solutions to support our colleagues to be the best in role with a broad range of topics that include customer service, store safety, supplier negotiation, project management, software engineering, leadership, behavioural development, as well as inclusion, wellbeing, and financial services.

Honest, everyday feedback – what’s working well/not so well, what can be improved and what could be done differently next time, is at the heart of our approach to performance. Line managers are encouraged to have regular 1-2-1s to allow colleagues to discuss their performance and any adjustments they may need to help them achieve their goals.

Supporting through all of life’s moments

It’s estimated that we spend around a third of our life at work, so we recognise that the support our colleagues need may vary at different times. Whether that’s helping to deal with changes at work, information when approaching retirement or support for mental health concerns, we have a lot of information and practical help readily available. We continue to develop this support in line with the key moments that our colleagues tell us matter to them.

Furthermore, our workplace adjustment process allows us to make reasonable adjustments to best support a colleague’s mental health and wellbeing throughout their employment with us. Whether that’s flexing work schedules, adapting workloads or tasks to ensure they’re manageable or where required when returning to work after a period of absence. It’s important to us that colleagues feel supported to thrive both in and outside of work. 

Work-life balance

We want to help our colleagues balance their home and work commitments, understanding that there may be times in life when they need to adapt their working arrangements to fit in with their personal responsibilities. We have a Flexible Working Policy that allows colleagues to make a flexible working request and a Time Away from Work Policy for when something happens, and our colleagues need time to sort things out.

We also have a Parent’s and Carers Policy for times in life where our colleagues need to care for a family member, friend, or neighbour and a Family Leave policy to support where they are growing their family, offering 26 weeks paid leave for maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and 4 weeks paid paternity leave allowing our colleagues to spend more time with their families.

Objectives

It’s our commitment that ‘every colleague will have access to mental, physical and financial health and wellbeing support that enable them to make positive and proactive choices to thrive in all aspects of life’.

Objective: By end 2024, all line managers will be trained in mental health awareness. New line managers will be trained within their first 11 weeks of employment.

Progress: In 2023, we took steps to update our Mental Health Awareness for Managers eLearning and made it mandatory, signalling the importance we place in line managers having a basic understanding of mental health and the skills to support themselves and their colleagues. To date over 16,000 managers have completed the training.

Objective: From 2023, we’ll aim to partner with industry experts to improve the mental health and wellbeing resources available to colleagues.

Progress: Throughout 2023/24, we collaborated with industry experts to bring colleagues tools and resources that support their mental, physical and financial wellbeing. These collaborations include; working with Mind on an ‘About Anxiety’ guide to raise awareness and provide tips on how to manage anxiety, a Summer Wellbeing campaign with Joe Wicks containing exclusive workouts and recipes to support physical and mental wellbeing, and we created a series of one-page guides with Moneyhelper to help colleagues manage their money. As we approached the new year, we enlisted the help of Behaviour Change Expert, Dr Heather McKee on a Healthy Habits Mini Series giving colleagues tips and tricks to form and develop the “skillpower” to make their habits stick.

Looking ahead: We’ll continue to monitor progress through our colleague engagement survey with the target to maintain or improve performance year on year. We will use this information to continually review how best to support colleagues with their mental, physical and financial wellbeing to ensure we are focusing on the things which matter most to them. Furthermore, we intend to review our mental health policies and processes to ensure they are fair and robust, whilst also exploring opportunities to further integrate our wellbeing support throughout the colleague lifecycle by the end of March 2025.