The Women’s Network is one of the ways that Tesco is creating a workplace of diversity and inclusion.

The challenge
Like many organisations today, Tesco is committed to investing in the diversity of its people. Everyone is Welcome is the name they have given to their diversity programme. It is a name that is inclusive, meaningful to all staff, and reflects one of their core organisational values “to look after our staff so they can look after our customers”.

Lorna Bryson, Head of Resourcing and Diversity UK, explains: “We recognise that our workforce needs to reflect our customers and the communities we serve as an organisation. Everyone is Welcome is our commitment to developing a workforce that reflects the society around us.

“At grassroots level we are fairly representative of different age groups, different genders and different ethnic communities. At higher levels moving into the centre of the business, we are much less diverse.”

Through this programme, Tesco is addressing key issues of under-representation throughout the organisation. They are also offering staff flexible working arrangements from part-time roles through to encouraging job sharing opportunities.

The solution
A key strategy of Everyone is Welcome is the Women’s Network. The Network offers a programme of events, training and development to women leaders with the aim of increasing the number of women in senior management roles.

Bryson explains, “The Women’s Network was formed because as a company we realised that we were under-represented at a senior level when it comes to women leaders.”

Work on the Network commenced a year ago with a series of focus groups designed to identify the role of the Network, the needs of the business and what a voluntary network would and could offer to Tesco women.

In September 2007, the Network was launched at a formal event with over 150 women signing up on the day. A website to support activities quickly followed. The website features chat forums and monthly topics that link to key activities across the business, such as health and well being. The profile of each member is also listed on the site to promote networking.

Importantly, the Network has proved a useful platform to support other diversity initiatives such as the recent online parent survey. The survey was sent to Network members as well as general staff to understand the working needs of staff with families. Forty per cent of respondents to the survey were men, another example of the inclusiveness of the Tesco diversity programme.

Bryson comments: “Diversity is a two-way process. It is about everyone coming together and working together as opposed to saying we are only going to think about under-represented groups.

“There is a lot of cynicism about positive discrimination, over tolerance and minority groups. In fact, there is a real danger when you work in this area of diversity that you create more divisions because the starting point is unrepresented groups. We are looking at what the business barriers are and acknowledging that these barriers are in-part responsible for this under representation.

“It is also about creating the right mindset and empowering people within the business to take responsibility for their career development as well as promoting a culture of diversity.”

The success of the Network to date is demonstrated by the recent response to the most recent Network event, Inspiring women leaders. Within the first three hours of invitations being issued, over 160 women had accepted. As a result, the number of attendees was increased to 200.

In addition to networking opportunities on the day, women participated in three learning zones:

• Building powerful connections
• Understanding your organisation
• Self believe and fate control.

In each zone, the themes of personal brand, perceived and actual barriers to promotion and drivers for success were explored.

The event also included a discussion panel of senior Tesco staff, including Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco chief executive officer, answering questions about diversity from the women present.

This three-hour event was facilitated by the Centre for High Performance Development. Reflecting on the role of CHPD, Bryson comments:

“CHPD were a fundamental contributing factor to the success of the day. The event sparked everyone’s imaginations and got people thinking. The training and engagement sessions were essential to this engagement and commitment. They helped us make the event something we needed to do as opposed to something nice to do.”

The future
In just 12 months, the Network has achieved a membership of nearly 200 women, over a third of senior women leaders across the UK. Membership is currently limited to work level three managers and above. Such roles range from store managers in retail through to operational directors and HR directors.

The aim is to expand the Network in the next 12 months, by growing the Network locally across the UK. As Bryson states:

“The Network should not be limited to office based staff or senior women. Of the 280,000 people who work for Tesco, under 10,000 are office based or in a senior position. Our challenge is out in the field. So while it is good to get the support from our office population, we really need to engage our senior leaders who are out in retail and distribution.”

It is through these local networks that Tesco has real potential to grow its senior women population. Bryson continues:

“We want to continue to draw more talented women through the business. We want to increase the number of women in traditionally male dominated roles such as store managers and store directors moving up into the board. The Network will be a key driver, but not the only driver, to make that happen. It will help us achieve our vision of a more gender balanced workforce at all levels.”

The success of Everyone is Welcome is not only reflected in the engagement of senior women but the fact that this year Tesco was one of 19 companies to be included in a European Commission compendium of good workplace diversity practice.

Lorna Bryson, Head of Resourcing and Diversity UK, was interviewed by the Centre for High Performance Development in June 2008.

Further information: To speak to one of our consultants about our women in leadership programme, please contact us on info@chpd.com or visit our diversity page on our website to learn more about how we help companies address diversity.