Executive Conference & Enhanced Colleague Benefits go live
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Published 18 Nov 2022 in Phil's blog
We heard from the Chancellor yesterday and now know what changes will be made to our lives through greater Fiscal intervention. I am sure many colleagues will welcome the rise in the National Living Wage. We have been waiting for this in order to discuss with our union Usdaw the proposed pay and benefits for next year. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that household incomes will fall by 7% over the next 18 months, so I understand how important pay rises will be in the year ahead. We would have liked the Government to have gone further in support for business but we will continue to lobby them through our various associations and the work with the Coop party.
In the meantime, we have fed back to one of our associations, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), as to how these changes affect us as a business, particularly noting that it is disappointing that businesses operating purely online can continue to trade without business rates and that there is no mention of childcare support. I am pleased though that our Finance team have correctly predicted many of these changes and has generally included the impact within our forecasts.
Executive Conference
Talking of forecasts, the Executive met with senior team members over the first three days of this week to review our five-year plans and work through the 2023 budget proposals in detail. All of these plans have been centred around Member First - making members' lives easier and more rewarding in their day to day. We all know what a challenging year lies ahead of us and it is important that we make the right decisions and present the best possible plans to the Board at the end of this year.
The teams were asked to provide information on how they would meet three specific strategic objectives:
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How can we get more from what we already have, for example through refurbishments and new technology.
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How can we grow scale for tomorrow, for example by opening new stores and nurseries or developing new channels to market in travel.
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How we will deliver our Co-op difference, for example by expanding our green technologies further in utilities and more broadly encouraging more customers into membership and further developing our colleague and community engagement.
I speak for all those in attendance when I say how impressed we were with the clarity of thinking, the ambition and the amount of work put in by all the presenting teams. The quality and consistency of this work were really impressive.
We’ll continue to review priorities and schedule projects and programmes from the presentations before we present these plans to our Board for approval in January, and then share them more widely but I’d like to say thank you to all of those involved.
Importance of Colleague Councils
Finally, to demonstrate how important colleague councils are. Victoria Wilkins from our Beechcroft Food store challenged me at the Executive colleague council a couple of weeks ago on the closing time announced for New Year’s Eve. The Food business was planning to extend the opening hours to 10pm but I asked them to review this along with feedback from other colleagues and our trade union, Usdaw. Following Victoria’s impassioned plea, I am pleased to say they are announcing today a change back to 6pm to ensure colleagues can spend more time with their families during the holidays. Well done Victoria.
Enhanced colleague benefits now live - Seasonal Savings & Support
As announced in last week’s video blog, we have a number of fantastic enhanced colleague benefits across our trading areas until January 2023 along with support for you and your families. Reflecting on your feedback over the past few weeks, I hope you take advantage of these and find them beneficial as all of us continue to face the economic challenges that have been widely reported.
Going live today, please share these with your fellow colleagues. To find out more and see all the benefits & offers this pay day click here.
Colleague Pulse Survey – now live
The latest colleague pulse survey is now live and open until 27th November. It’s your chance to anonymously share your views by taking part. Just log in via Colleagues Connect and the survey link will be shown in your dashboard notifications.
Your views are so important for us to understand what colleagues think and what can be improved across our business. Plus, if you take part, you could win one of five £20 Your Co-op vouchers. To find out more click here.
Men's Mental Health Awareness Month - Everymind at Work webinars
Finally, it’s Men’s Mental Health Awareness month with International Men’s day taking place tomorrow. Did you know men are three times more likely than women to die by suicide and men aged 40 to 49 have the highest suicide rates in the UK? [Source Mental Health]
These statistics must change to ensure countless lives are saved. Mental health is experienced by everyone so the more we talk about it and remove the stigma, the better. As part of our partnership with Everymind at Work, there will be two dedicated webinars next week:
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Men's Health Awareness Month on Tuesday 22nd November at 1pm – to join click here
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Men's Mental Health session for Midcounties on Wednesday 23rd November at 2pm - 3pm – to join click here.
Please share these with your fellow colleagues.
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