Our ambition is to create happy, engaged and empowered teams with a strong sense of belonging and trust, and to be a place where our leaders foster an inclusive culture.

 

With over 65 nationalities represented at Fortnum’s globally, we are proud to have an incredibly diverse workforce. That’s because at Fortnum’s, we believe in embracing individuality, valuing our differences and empowering our people to succeed.

 

Over the past year, following the appointment of Jon Weg as Executive Sponsor of Inclusion & Diversity, we established our Belonging Network: a group of passionate people from across Fortnum’s who meet regularly to explore how to drive real action across the business and create meaningful and thoughtful dialogue. The Belonging Network recommends how Fortnum’s can celebrate our people and show support for different aspects of inclusion and diversity, developing recommendations for initiatives and education relating to key agendas such as: gender, sexual orientation, race & ethnicity, disability, age and religion. Over the last year the network has been the driving force behind celebrations and dialogue on: International Women’s Day, religious festivals, Black History Month, neurodiversity and Pride in London - to name but a few.

 

In 2021 we became a signatory of the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter, demonstrating our commitment to recruiting from the widest pool of talent and improving equality of opportunity in the workplace. We know that ethnic minorities still face significant disparities in terms of employment and progression, and this needs to change. Signing the Charter means taking practical steps to ensure our workplace is tackling barriers that Black, Asian, Mixed Raced and other ethnically diverse people face in recruitment and progression.

 

In a quest to attract diverse talent and people who may not otherwise have considered a career with us, over the past year, we have engaged with local councils, attended career events, and partnered with two charities - Hotel School and The Clink Charity – helping the vulnerable, homeless and previous offenders to gain the confidence and opportunity to develop careers in hospitality. We have also trialled opening up our apprenticeship programme externally; this year three students joined our Fortnum’s apprentices to learn, grow their experience and gain an invaluable qualification, to help further their careers.

 

We know that our actions mean nothing if we can’t measure our progress. As well as holding regular employee surveys with a focus on I&D, we have been inviting our employees and new joiners to disclose their personal characteristic data, to build a more accurate picture of Fortnum's – without it, we can't ensure a truly inclusive company.

 

Whilst we are proud of the actions we took in 2021, we know there is much more to do.

 

By cherishing everyone’s differences and a love of learning we can help our people be their best selves, creating a caring community of people striving to do the right thing for our people, customers and brand. Nurturing our talent internally will always be a priority. But we know it is not just a case of looking inwards. We also need to reach further into new communities externally to acquire and nurture new and diverse thinking and skills.

 

We look forward to sharing more of the work underway, led by our Executive Team, our Belonging Network, and embraced by all our people.