Empowering the retail workforce: bp becomes first energy company to partner with the Retail Trust, enhancing health and wellbeing
bp is the first energy company to partner with the Retail Trust, the retail industry charity whose cause is to create hope, health and happiness for retail workers.
Sonya Adams, VP mobility and convenience retail UK at bp said: “Day after day colleagues across our nationwide network of convenient roadside locations are helping us to deliver strong, compelling offers to meet the evolving mobility and convenience needs of our customers.
“We want to raise the number of touchpoints customers have with bp to more than 15 million per day globally and, in order to do this, we know we must continue to invest in and take care of our colleagues. As Retail Trust partners, we will provide our teams with access to tools that boost their health and wellbeing, as well as seek to support the valuable work the Trust is doing across the UK to support retail workers.”
Since 2019 Tracey Clements, bp SVP mobility and convenience Europe has been one of over 40 senior leaders taking part in the Retail Trust ambassador programme – championing health in retail by raising awareness and promoting crucial fundraising initiatives.
Over 200 other major British retailers work with the Retail Trust to help improve the mental health of the retail workforce amidst falling morale across the industry. A survey of 1,500 retail staff for the Retail Trust’s Health of Retail report in June found 80% are experiencing declining mental health due to issues such as concerns around their finances and abuse from customers.
More than eight out of 10 retail managers said they now needed more mental health training to support their teams’ wellbeing.
The Retail Trust will also give bp access to its new ‘better you’ happiness assessment which provides retailers with tailored data, insights and plans to manage wellbeing across their business, and staff with a personalised programme of clinically-advised support, and it will provide accredited training to over 300 bp store managers so they can support their teams’ wellbeing.
Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “We’re partnering with bp to give its people some of the vital support, tools and training they need to boost their wellbeing and look after one another.
“Organisations of all shapes and sizes work with the Retail Trust in this way but we’d encourage even more to join us as retail workers continue to face huge uncertainty around everything from the rising levels of abuse in-store.”
About BP
bp’s purpose is to reimagine energy for people and our planet. It has set out an ambition to be a net zero company by 2050, or sooner and help the world get to net zero, and a strategy delivering on that ambition. For more information visit bp.com.
About the Retail Trust
The Retail Trust has been caring for and protecting the lives of people working in retail from 1832 onwards. We believe the health of our colleagues is the foundation they need to flourish in both work and life. It will also help create a more sustainable and successful future for retail. We put people at the heart of everything we do, from colleagues just starting out, right through to those at the end of their careers.
We like to remember how our very first chairman, Thomas Helps, described the purpose of the charity: “To promote the happiness and interests of those engaged in the trade....” This still holds true today. In fact it guides everything we do, why we do it and what we believe in. We believe in it so passionately, our charity has become a movement with a very clear cause: to create hope, health and happiness for everyone in retail.
We create hope, health and happiness for everyone in retail by giving them the foundation to flourish. A foundation that provides help, humanity and feeling to all our colleagues. One that gives them the opportunity to flourish, to grow and develop now and in the future. And feel happier in everything they do. www.retailtrust.org.uk