Our people

Over recent years, Coles has implemented many accessibility initiatives including establishing a team dedicated to digital accessibility, modifying car parks in new stores to allow better access and recognising International Day of People with Disability.

In June 2018, we launched our second Accessibility Action Plan (2018 - 2020) detailing the specific steps needed to improve the accessibility of Coles’ stores, sites, workplaces and digital assets. The Plan was developed with support from the Australian Network on Disability (AND) and highlights our commitments to improve the shopping experience of all Australians and the working conditions of team members with a disability (or who are associated with someone with a disability).

Our Accessibility Action Plan focusses on three key areas:

• Community and Engagement;
• Great Place to Work; and
• Products and Services.

We also take part in the Access and Inclusion Index. Created by AND, the Index measures an organisation’s maturity on its journey to be accessible and inclusive to people with disability and helps us focus on initiatives that make the most difference.

We offer Quiet Hour in 265 Coles supermarkets across Australia every Tuesday between 10:30-11:30am. Quiet Hour involves reduced noise, lighting and distractions in-store, making it easier for customers who find it challenging to shop in a heightened sensory environment.

Coles participates in AND’s Stepping Into Program, a paid internship scheme that matches university students with disability to roles in Australian businesses.

Gender balance continues to be a focus area across the Coles Group. Our aim is to promote gender balance across all levels and areas of the company, ensuring that all team members have access to the same opportunities to build great careers at Coles.

In addition to company-wide gender balance initiatives, there are also particular initiatives aimed at improving gender balance within specific business and functional areas.

We are making year on year progress to meet our goal of achieving 40 per cent representation of women in leadership positions at an organisational level and at least 30 per cent representation of any gender at an overall functional level by 2023.

Our FY19 Gender balance highlights included improvements to the representation of women at Executive Leadership Team level, with female representation on the executive team at 38%, compared with 18% in FY18. The number of females in our general manager population has also increased compared with last year to 40%. With our total number of women in leadership roles at over 33%, we are making progress towards achieving our Gender balance target of 40% by 2023. We are also very proud that at our most senior level the Coles Group Board comprises 38% women.

Coles reports to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in accordance with the requirements of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. You can find our Workplace Gender Equality Reports here .

Our Pride pillar aims to create a supportive environment for all team members to feel empowered to be themselves at work every day. We focus on important Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) topics, driving awareness, education, engagement and behavioural change.

Pride at Coles, our LGBTI group, is focused on four key areas: internal policies, communication, community engagement and internal events.

Coles has partnered with Pride in Diversity, Australia's first and only national not-for-profit employer support program for all aspects of LGBTI workplace inclusion. This partnership is helping us to drive positive change across our four focus areas.

In 2018, with the support of Pride in Diversity, we welcomed our first trained cohort of 20 LGBTI allies in our Store Support Centre, further highlighting our commitment to creating a safe and inclusive environment. In FY19, we trained a further 80 LGBTI allies. Team members in our People and Culture department at Coles have also completed LGBTI Awareness Training to enable them to better support team members who identify as being part of our LGBTI community.

In January 2017, we launched our Gender Affirmation and Transition at Coles Guidelines. Through these guidelines, we hope to raise awareness within Coles about our transgender community, as well as provide information, tools, and resources to assist all Coles team members to gain a greater understanding on how they can support or be supported.

In 2017, Coles also participated in the Australian Workplace Equality Index for the first time. We received a bronze award, indicating that we are active in the LGBTI inclusion space.

We strongly believe that flexible working improves team members’ wellbeing, job satisfaction, engagement and performance which ultimately creates a better experience for our customers. We encourage our leaders to create an environment where all team members can request to work flexibly to help them achieve their personal commitments or goals and know that their request will be considered.

We provide team members and managers with resources to make it easier for them to have conversations about flexible working. We have also established a Flexibility IT Working Group to review and update IT infrastructure to continue to improve team members’ ability to work remotely.

Coles launched our first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan ten years ago and we have made significant progress over this period.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement document highlights some of the inspiring stories behind this progress and outlines our new commitments for the next three years.

The plan outlines Coles Group’s commitment to provide more opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities and organisations to engage with our business. The plan focuses on three key areas – employment, supplier diversity and community engagement. 

Employment – Provide more jobs for Indigenous team members and actively develop their careers

Coles is one of Australia’s largest corporate sector employers of Indigenous Australians. As at April 2020 we employ over 4,800 Indigenous team members nationally, representing 3.9 per cent of our total workforce. We currently have over 250 Indigenous team members in skilled and leadership positions and retention for Indigenous team members is higher than for non-Indigenous team members. 

We are proud of these achievements considering that in 2011, when the original plan was launched, there were only 65 Indigenous team members across Coles.

Supplier diversity – Create more opportunities for Indigenous suppliers throughout our supply chain

Coles continues to increase opportunities for Indigenous suppliers, with over 50 Indigenous businesses engaged in the past year across categories including design, recruitment, professional services, printing, facilities management, liquor and fresh produce. 

Community – Develop mutually beneficial relationships with Indigenous communities, organisations and individuals

Coles works with and supports hundreds of Indigenous community stakeholders each year, including almost 70 Indigenous community organisations benefiting from Coles’ partnership with food rescue and redistribution organisation SecondBite. As part of the implementation of an organisation-wide remote and rural location strategy, formal partnerships have been established with Aboriginal organisations in Broome, Darwin, Kalgoorlie and Kununurra to assist in creating stronger connections to the local community and drive improved employment outcomes.

We have also worked with local communities and artists to create murals and artwork for a number of new and recently renewed supermarkets.

This artwork was created by Indigenous artist Marcus Lee to represent Coles' connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia and the commitment and support of these communities through Coles Indigenous initiatives.

The artwork features open cut bush tomatoes which represent growth within communities as well as horticultural opportunities leading to sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises. The pathways represent the fostering of Coles relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to make a real difference.

The terms and conditions of employment of more than 89.9 per cent of Coles’ team members are set through collective agreements. We recognise the right of team members to negotiate either individually or collectively, with or without the involvement of third parties. Coles’ collective agreements include provisions for notice periods and provisions for consultation and negotiation.