CW EMPLOYEE VOICE ARCHIVE

A: We do indeed have a CW Board, in the latest CW business update we linked to Companies House so you can see the full CW Board. 

22/04/22

A: At the moment there is a Pensions Working Group who are reviewing the pension schemes we offer, across both Lush and CW. As part of the working group a discussion is already planned on the % contributions that are paid by the business and the contribution by the employee. The group haven't yet tackled this discussion but it is on the agenda. Your question has been shared with the working group so that it can be considered as part of this discussion.

Once we hear back on the outcome of the discussion we will update you to let you know if any changes are being made and when a decision is made what the considerations have been.

17/08/22

A: Pay is a topic that is regularly discussed and reviewed across the business. The Living Wage calculations inform the base rates of all the ‘pay grids’ so as this increases, it does also show the impact for the lowest salaried staff. The Living Wage foundation recalculates the Living Wage annually, consequently, the base level salaried staff will find their pay reviewed following the increase and implementation of the Living Wage.

Annual and inflationary pay rises are something that have been explored, however, Lush does not currently operate on a pay strategy that involves inflationary pay rises for support staff.

The key reason Lush does not have a strategy of inflationary pay increases is that the rising living costs do not match the financial success of our business. It takes some time to find the balance and we need to be mindful that any changes we make to our pay approach are sustainable. In addition to this, applying a flat percentage increase to all wages based on inflation would result in our already higher paid team members receiving the most benefit. For instance, if you look at a 4% rise on a 20K salary that’s an £800 increase, if you did that same 4% on a 50K salary that would be a £2,000 increase, which would increase the gap between the lowest and the highest salaries, and this is the opposite of how we want to introduce improved pay and reward across the business.

Concerning pay review requests, the Pay Circle exists to ensure that pay levels, rewards, bonus schemes and benefits are designed fairly and responsibly and are connected to the values of our business. This is done by building a holistic view of pay within our business using ‘pay grids’, including considering external market rates giving us a better understanding of our own internal benchmarks. The work ultimately looks to improve fairness within teams and ensure everyone is within a correct pay band for their role.

On an individual level, the process of a successful pay increase proposal begins before the Pay Circle. Developing the proposal with your manager so a detailed picture of your role and its impact should allow you to reach a realistic idea of where your work sits in relation to your pay. Sometimes, the Pay Circle may request some more thinking or shaping of a proposal before decisions are actioned. There is the possibility that the proposal does not align with the broad picture and criteria of consideration we have detailed above, in this case recommendations would be made for example, improved alignment with the team or the banding of other similar roles.

The business completely understands and appreciates that across the UK many are facing financial pressures as a result of the current cost of living crises and that for many members of Lush staff, their pay may not be seeing them as far as it has in previous years. As a business, we are exploring what we can do to support Lush staff during this time. Currently, there are additional financial benefits and support offered to Lush employees including Lush Loans, Lush Advances and financial advice. Read more about the benefits available here- Benefits Document

17/10/22

A: We're happy to confirm we are still part of the Cycle to Work Scheme. For further information on this scheme and how to sign up check out the 'UK Cycle to Work Scheme' article here - https://labs.lush.com/en/article/cycle-to-work-scheme

This can be used both online and in local stores, but only certain local retailers do take part in this, you can check out which store and online retailers participate at this link - https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/getting-a-bike

We hope this helps! If you did have any further questions regarding the Cycle to Work Scheme we would recommend contacting the Payroll team at payroll@lush.co.uk and they will be able to assist further.

15/03/22

A:  We’re just reaching out as we have had a response to your question on where Lush stands on advertising. The following response is from the Digital Trading team:

“The anti-social media policy applies to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp and TikTok because these platforms have been identified as providing unsafe environments for their users. We did promise not to be completely anti-social however. We will do all we can to find new ways to connect, to build better channels of communication elsewhere, as well as using the older tried and tested routes. YouTube is one of those tried and tested channels that we currently feel comfortable with. In addition, from 1st March we’re using a brand tool for our ads on YouTube to make sure they appear next to human-verified, safe and relevant content.

Regarding our broader policy on advertising, Mark, Jack and I spoke at length about this at the start of the year. We do advertise. We don’t take part in million pound advertising campaigns on TV or enormous out of home advertisements in city centres, but we do advertise on our digital platforms. This was born out of necessity as we found that other brands were bidding on our branded terms to divert customers away from our website. Our strategy continues to be organic first, and by that I mean through the content that we produce for our digital platforms, but there is competitor bidding globally and we need to defend our brand/trademarks.

Approximately 70% of online experiences begin with a search engine, but if you search for bath bombs or toothy tabs you will ads for many other companies. This is particularly damaging to us on mobile where highly visual shopping ads take up the entire screen - and mobile accounts for 70-80% of our traffic. So we invest here to ensure that customers see a Lush when they search for Lush. However, we aim to do this as efficiently as possible by monitoring where our competitors are and excluding loyal customers from our ads, where possible. As part of the Google network, these ads will be displayed across search engines, shopping and YouTube. In Japan, we also do a small amount of Yahoo advertising because it’s a more relevant search engine for that market. Fundamentally, all of our advertising is selected because it shares our digital ethics around privacy and will drive a high return on investment.”

This question was also answered in the live support Q&A that took place last week, here’s a link to the video, if you watch from 2:52 Catherine Spencer answers the question on advertising in a little more detail there.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/181PCgZgqG72CjZioQ-o0kVCeGTlPgQ5n/view 

14/03/22

A: After a lot of discussion and consideration from the Family Support Working group, which includes members of the People Partners team, People Operations team and UK&I Payroll we have now had a response from them which we can share with you.

The criteria for the Childcare Support Scheme will not be changing due to its original intended purpose: to support those returning to Lush after taking longer periods of time away to look after their children and secondly, the criteria is deemed an affordable benefit for the business to sustain and commit to.

We appreciate every family's circumstances are unique, and each parent is going to make financial and care decisions that are best suited for their family. Whilst we cannot comment on any specific family, we can assure you that any colleague who opts to take shared parental leave, and therefore takes the majority leave, has to meet criteria that is set by the UK Government, and checked by Lush Payroll.

We would not consider anyone taking the majority of parental leave as sitting at home whilst away from work, we appreciate that childcare is an important responsibility, and the leave time is during key formative months in a child-parent’s or primary caregiver relationship. We understand that where this responsibility is placed within a family is personal to each family, and Lush will always do our best to support each colleague with their family circumstances and responsibilities.

The equity piece of the policy is to remove barriers for those who are returning to the Lush workplace. The criteria is set in such a way because it does tend to be the case that the person who has taken the majority of leave is the person primarily responsible for childcare. Whilst maternity and adoption rights have progressed in the workplace, the intention with the Lush Childcare Support Scheme is to go beyond that to encourage and retain parents, and remove barriers often faced when returning to work.

Thank you for your query, we appreciate you may be frustrated with our response, we would like to reiterate that we value your perspective. We regularly review policies and benefits, such as the Childcare Support Scheme, to ensure we have the means to sustain the benefit across the business, as well as understanding the impact of the scheme. It is unlikely that the criteria will change, as upon financial and evidenced review, the scheme is intended to support those who have to take the majority of parental leave, and that is what it currently achieves.

15/06/22