Sainsburys.jobs

We will not accept or ignore unfair decisions, practices or requirements that qualify or exclude a colleague from meeting essential employment requirements. We never discriminate on grounds including, but not limited to, a person's age, race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin or community background, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, family status, religion or belief, disability, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy, maternity, paternity, carer responsibility, real or suspected living with HIV/AIDS, differing working patterns, political or religious affiliation, ex-offender status or membership or non-membership of a trade union.

We firmly believe in the benefits a diverse workforce brings. It helps us to understand and adapt to the changing needs of our customers, and offers new and different perspectives on the challenges we may face. Our aim is to create an environment where everyone is welcome and where everyone can be the best they can be.

As part of this, we are continuing our commitment to diversity and have a Diversity Champion programme involving 140 of our managers. Their role is to gather feedback on key aspects of diversity, helping to shape our diversity programmes and driving forward possible improvements in diversity related issues. Our sponsorship of the London 2012 Paralympic Games has given us cause to rethink how we support our colleagues and customers with disabilities. Our Diversity Champions have helped introduce a new Disability Confidence programme, training all of our managers in how best to serve customers and colleagues with disabilities. In addition, we continue to make improving the facilities and services we offer our customers a high priority.

Our Diversity Champions will also promote our renewed focus on ethnicity and age, acting on in-depth research into how we reflect the communities we serve and our colleagues' views on career progression and equality. We are committed to helping all of our colleagues achieve their full potential and are focused on identifying and removing any barriers to progression that they may face, be that race, gender, age, religion or sexual orientation. Within our You Can careers framework, every colleague has the opportunity to discuss their career aspirations and options, and it has given many of them the chance to join a development programme or sign up for a job-related qualification.

In creating our policies and coaching for managers, we use the expertise of our external partners, including Employers Forum on Disability and Employers Forum on Age. We were also able to sponsor and support the AgeUK Later Life conference, where we met older people and explained how we actively champion diversity in our business. We have never had a compulsory retirement age, preferring instead to let colleagues decide for themselves when they wish to retire. In fact, 25% of our colleagues are over the age of 50 - and our oldest colleague is 92.