The Co-operative Food Supporting Suppliers- Workforce Cohesion Forums and Communication Toolkit

1. The Co-operative Food Supporting Suppliers- Workforce Cohesion Forums and Communication Toolkit

2. The Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group is one UK’s most diverse commercial organisations with a turnover of £13.3bn and 5,000 trading outlets serving 21 million customers a week. • UK’slargest convenience store operator and fifth largest food retailer • UK’slargest Farmer (now part of the Food business) • UK’s 3rd largest Pharmacy • UK’s largest Funeral director • UK’s largest independent travel service provider • Financial Services and Legal Services provider

3. Co-operative Food 2800 outlets serving 14.5 million customers a week Over 3,000 Co-op brand products from sourced from 1700 production sites located in 66 countries 500,000 workers in the Co-operative Food Brand supply chain Co-operative Farms, the UK’s largest farmer is integrated with Co-operative Food

4. Supporting our suppliers We are committed to working in partnership with suppliers to create good workplaces Delivery of supplier workshops focused on labour issues in the UK, Egypt, China, Morocco, Italy, Spain, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand Courses on the GLA Standards, Agency Worker Regulations and Workforce Cohesion in the UK Co-operative Food’s Ethical Operating Plan commits to providing training to sites in our supply chain- we cannot ‘audit away’ route causes Regional forums since 2010 on “Meeting the Challenges of a Migrant & Multicultural Workforce”

5. Background There are key workforce management issues facing our supply base: • Recruiting and integrating migrant workers         •          Managing and benefiting from a diverse workforce  •       Training and communicating with a multi-language workforce There are also changing expectations of what meets ethical trade requirements- a new focus on training for staff and supervisors, generating feedback from staff and responding to this with an action plan.

6. Regional Focus • Regional Groups established across the country from 2010 to 2012 • Each group began with a ‘kick-off’ event with key expert speakers • Key outcome of these events- ongoing working groups that meet 2/3 times a year in person. • The groups also have a dedicated confidential web space to share documents, discuss online and suggest new areas of collaboration. • Working groups / forums build their own agendas and set unique priorities

7. Regional forums 4 regional groups have been established in Scotland and Northern Ireland, North, South and East of England. Speakers have includedICoCo, Association of Labour Providers, Improve, the GLA, and Equality and Human Rights Commission • The aim of sessions is facilitate discussion and sharing of good practice about workforce issues and challenges at a regional level

8. Varied groups

9. Areas the groups work on… Recruiting fairly to avoid discrimination and optimise outcomes Delivering effective workplace training to a multi-language workforce Supervisors training- effective supervision of a diverse, workforce Agency provider due diligence Worker well being

10. Areas the groups work on… Encouraging a culture of worker participation and communication- sharing experiences, taking part in surveys and pilots and helping create toolkits, benchmarking processes

11. Creating useful tools- Communication Toolkit Authors - the Association of Labour Providers, Poultec (ESOL training providers), and Workforce Cohesion Alliance Contributors to the toolkit include; the Institute of Community Cohesion, Dunbia, Greencore Cakes (Hull), Hitchen Foods, Tulip, Speedibake and Vion Food Group Ltd. Supplier input a crucial point of difference- peer reviewed Financially supported by the Co-operative

12. Aims of the toolkit To create a tool aimed at managers and supervisors responsible for the training and supervision of the migrant workforce To increase understanding of the difficulties faced of the non-English speaking workers To provide practical common sense advice on how to increase effective communication To provide ideas on creating a Language and Communications Policy

13. Roll out 2000 copies printed and distributed Online on Co-operative Food’s dedicated supplier website Available through ALP and other retailers and organisations http://www.labourproviders.org.uk/labour_users_area.aspx Used by forum members to shape action plans- recruitment, training, day to day safety and quality communications

14. Future Plans what the forums can achieve Share advice and service provider information Funding joint projects and sharing tips on accessing funding Benchmarking and comparing training programmes Standardising English testing Creating standardised translated documents e.g. food safety and Health & Safety Share supervisor guidelines/ job profiles Building up online good practice examples- online ‘hub’ for each group

15. Questions??