If you passed by a billboard in Brent or Bradford in the UK this April, you may have noticed something unusual and attention-grabbing. If you saw the advertisement during daylight hours, you would have seen a large table full of colourful empty dishes, the Tesco logo, and the words “Together this Ramadan”. But once the sun set, anyone passing by was treated to a vision in which those same plates and bowls slowly filled with a variety of traditional celebratory dishes.
Innovation from within
“Together this Ramadan” honoured Iftar, the evening meal that marks the end of the day’s fast for Muslim’s during Ramadan, was the first of its kind from Tesco and has won industry plaudits
Toni McKay-Lewis, head of diversity and inclusion at Tesco
The innovative advertising campaign honouring Iftar, the evening meal that marks the end of the day’s fast for Muslim’s during Ramadan, was the first of its kind from the supermarket chain and has won industry plaudits. Credit for the award-winning campaign goes to a number of agencies and creatives, but also to the retailer’s “colleague network”, according to Toni McKay-Lewis, head of diversity and inclusion at Tesco. “Our Race and Ethnicity colleague network played a key part in the design of the campaign,” she explains. Tesco’s customer team consulted with the network to test their original idea and, after further developing the approach with their marketing agencies, circled back to the network to make sure that customs were accurately represented.
McKay-Lewis, along with her colleague Laura Hong, group diversity and inclusion manager at Tesco, has spent the last two years working to strengthen and expand these networks. Sometimes referred to as “employee resource groups” at other companies, Tesco’s colleague networks join colleagues together based on shared characteristics, life experiences, common interests or common needs. The business currently has six colleague networks, for those identifying as or an ally of those with identities such as disability, LGBTQ+, and parents and care-givers.
Networks of real business benefit
“The networks are first and foremost a support mechanism for our colleagues, but they also underpin our diversity and inclusion strategy. They create real business benefits and are a valuable resource that we often tap into to influence and improve the colleague experience, and increasingly the customer and community experience too.” In recent years, the colleague networks have been instrumental in helping to develop new initiatives including Tesco’s business diversity internship, which aims to bring diverse talent into the business, and shaping the business’s refreshed bullying and harassment training, explains Hong.
While the networks have been an integral part of the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion for years, Hong has been leading the drive to maximise their impact since she joined the business in 2020. Working with a consultancy, the D&I team has clarified the roles and responsibilities of the networks and their chairs, boosted budgets to support their objectives, strengthened communication between networks with an emphasis on intersectionality, and created new, full-time roles to support the networks.
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The effort has not just focused on making sure the company gets the maximum benefit out of the networks, but also that colleagues get the maximum benefit from participating in them. To support those colleagues taking on voluntary leadership positions within the networks, Tesco has worked with line managers to set aside dedicated time for network-related activities and has provided access to relevant leadership training and development activities. In order to ensure the networks continue to generate new ideas, perspectives and innovation, Tesco has set up a succession process for network chairs which also provides greater opportunity for passionate and talented colleagues to access an important development opportunity.
The result, Hong and McKay-Lewis both insist, is not just higher participation in better functioning networks – it’s also valuable ideas that help drive Tesco’s success.
“Our colleague networks have come up with great ideas,” says McKay-Lewis. Tesco was, for example, the first supermarket to produce a skin tone plaster. “Having colleague networks willing to share lived experiences and challenges helped us to better meet the needs of our diverse customer base,” she says.
The networks are first and foremost a support mechanism for our colleagues, but they also underpin our diversity and inclusion strategy. They create real business benefits and are a valuable resource that we often tap into to influence and improve the colleague experience
Toni McKay-Lewis, head of diversity and inclusion at Tesco
Tesco’s skin tone plasters were in part inspired by colleague network
More progress to come
Another recent improvement was spearheaded by the LGBTQ+ colleague network. “Some of our store colleagues reached out to our LGBTQ+ network to share how pronouns being added to name badges would make a difference in reducing misgendering,” she adds. In response, Tesco became the first supermarket to include pronouns on name badges. They introduced gender-neutral uniforms at the same time.
“There's been lots of things that’ve come through the networks that just wouldn’t have happened within our stores or for our customers without having our networks in place. We’ve definitely seen some huge wins across the business,” McKay-Lewis says. A focus on diversity and inclusion, she concludes, is “not just morally the right thing to do it. It absolutely can make a difference.”