At Oliver Bonas, our promise is to do our bit to make living a joyful experience and give cause for optimism. This promise is central to our work in equity, diversity and inclusion. To bring joy to others, we must first ensure everyone at OB feels valued, included, and can be themselves at work.

At a company level, we have set out our approach to EDI with our Leadership team, who are committed to leading on all our initiatives and conveying that message across the business. We empower our managers to promote a sense of belonging within their teams. We also expect everyone at OB to value and look out for each other by always being considerate and mindful of others.

EDI at Oliver Bonas

The ‘E’ in our EDI work (formerly equality) now stands for equity. These two words look and sound very similar, however, the implementation of one against the other can lead to a dramatically different outcome for all.

Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities to reach an equal outcome. Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates whatever resources and opportunities each individual needs, personal to them, to reach an equal outcome.

For example, if you had an able-bodied person of average height, a taller able-bodied person, someone in a wheelchair and a small child and you gave them all the same size and model of bicycle, they wouldn’t have the same outcome. However, if you gave each of those individuals a bicycle tailored to their needs, you’re levelling the playing field a lot more.

Our equitable approach is illustrated most notably through our transparency statement, but it goes beyond that – from positive action and reasonable adjustment at recruitment stage to ensuring that all our team members are set up for success at every stage of their time with us.

Research and innovation

As well as listening to our teams, we need to challenge ourselves - what are we doing with the information that we were presented with? What needs to change? Who do we need support from to strive for this change? Through research and innovation we will continue to foster a supportive environment.

Accountability

We have a sense of responsibility to equip all our teams with educational and supportive resources, empowering everyone to learn more about equity, diversity, and inclusion. But we also recognise that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that OB is an inclusive place to work.

Measuring and evaluating change

Measuring the impact of our policies and processes on our team’s sense of inclusion and belonging is very important to us, so we will continue to evaluate these, ensuring our EDI values are embedded throughout everything we do.

Advocacy

We have made significant changes to our recruitment practices, helping us work towards our commitment to the British Retail Consortium charter. We are also looking at how progression is assessed to ensure a fair and equitable treatment for all throughout OB.

Making and maintaining meaningful partnerships

Whether internally through our Voices networks or through existing external partnerships and collaborations, we strive to engage with even more of our people from across our Store, Support Office and Warehouse populations, as well as other organisations who share our values

What we are doing to improve

As much as we have made positive strides, we consider EDI to be a work in progress – a continual commitment that remains a priority for our EDI team and our Founder and MD, Olly Tress.