We’ve heard the calls for businesses to provide information on the ethnicity of their employees and we recognise it has taken too long for us to address this. Over the past week, we’ve had some incredibly important – and uncomfortable – conversations which have laid bare a number truths which are difficult for our communities and for us at The Body Shop. We have a responsibility to deal with them honestly, and to ensure that we are becoming the fair and diverse organisation we need to be.
Of our UK based Executive Leadership Team, 10% is made up of ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, we don’t have complete information on the ethnicity of all our employees across the globe. Here’s why. When we became part of the Natura &Co. group we had to rebuild all our HR systems globally, from scratch, which has been further delayed by COVID-19. In the meantime, we have relied on payroll systems, which aren’t set up to capture the required information.
It’s crucial to us that we address the subject of diversity within our business, take accountability and take immediate action. We know we need to do better and we’re preparing a thoroughly considered plan to make sure we have the right impact. While we work through those details, we want to outline the areas we’ll be focusing on. It’s important that our customers can hold us to account.
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will do the following:
Capture Data Where we are legally allowed to, we are capturing data such as race and ethnicity, ensuring our people are comfortable to share this information.
Launch The Body Shop’s Listening Project Our first priority is to listen to, hear and be led by our own Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities on this issue. We have created a forum for colleagues to share their frank contributions so we can better understand their experiences and challenges.
Expand our Open Hiring initiatives An important action is to progress our journey as an inclusive employer. We will expand our US Open Hiring initiatives; a model that eliminates barriers in our hiring practices, which we started in the US Distribution centre last year and will expand into US retail stores later this year 4.) Focus on Anti-Racism Education We are placing a huge focus on Anti-Racism Education for our teams and community by bringing in experts and advocates in this space.
Promote our 24 hour support for our colleagues’ We recognise the importance of tending to our mental health, not just in this crucial moment, but always. So we have introduced free support and counselling services for all our colleagues, through 24 hour Employee Assistance Programmes as well as a team of trained Mental Health First Aiders, available for one-on-one support sessions. We want to get this right – not just now, but ongoing. This is just our first step. You’ll hear from us again soon.
