Supporting & Celebrating Our Colleagues

You, our colleagues, are what makes The Midcounties Co-operative the successful Society it is and we are continually looking for ways to support you in doing the fantastic work you do. Here’s a lowdown of some of the biggest colleague-related stories from the year… 

Everymind app launches

Maintaining good mental health has become more challenging than ever during the pandemic. In order to support our colleagues, we launched the Everymind wellbeing app, which can be tailored to your own self-care needs.

Use the app to access:

• Anonymous support 24/7
• Weekly coping strategies and content
• Self-tracking and management of mental wellbeing
• Free monthly webinars

If you haven’t already downloaded the Everymind app, you can do that by clicking here.

Supporting diversity and inclusion

Equality is one of our DOES values, and valuing our differences is a key part of that. To drive our diversity and inclusion work forward we now have 5 working groups:

• The Women in Retail and Men in Childcare groups look at ways we can encourage and support recruitment or promotion for under-represented genders within these trading areas. During the course of the year the groups have been busy promoting role models, unblocking issues and challenging stereotypes.

• The EmbRACE Group launched in March to explore the opportunities and barriers faced by colleagues with ethnic minority backgrounds. Following on from an initial survey and listening sessions, the group continues to explore how we attract, develop and engage a diverse mix of colleagues.

• The Co-op Pride Group was established in May to create a safe space for colleagues (both those identifying as LGBTQIA+ or an ally of the community) to build new friendships and take part in social activities, as well as understanding the issues faced by LGBTQIA+ colleagues and what can be done to address these.

• The Men’s Wellbeing Group was set up to offer men the chance to speak openly about their experiences, provide peer support to one another and address any wellbeing and mental health concerns they are facing in a supportive environment.

If you’re interested in joining one of these working groups, please contact Colleague Engagement Manager, Rebekah Smallwood: Rebekah.smallwood@midcounties.coop

Developing and protecting Retail colleagues

Putting our young talent at the forefront, congratulations to the 24 apprentices who have graduated this year – best of luck for your career at Midcounties! With difficulties due to the pandemic, our apprentices showed true determination and inspiration to succeed in their qualifications. Well done to each and every one of our colleagues who graduated in 2021.

Unfortunately, since the pandemic began, violence and abuse against shopworkers have been on the increase. Our CEO Phil Ponsonby who is on the board of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) along with our Food teams, have been championing the call for a change in the legislation bill.

This included encouraging colleagues, members and customers to write to their local MP to make assaulting retail staff at work a specific offence and continue raising awareness (through our trade union Usdaw), on the Freedom from Fear Respect for Shopworkers campaign.

We’ll continue to support you through 2022 and are hopeful for a change in the bill soon. If there’s anything, in particular, you’d like us to look at, please contact your Colleague Council representative.