Introduction: To mark International Women’s Day (8 March), ARI Chief People Officer Siobhan Griffin discusses how the retailer is inspiring inclusion in terms of recruitment, developing female talent, and by launching various training programmes and initiatives that put women in the spotlight.
She addresses the biggest challenges in driving ARI’s extensive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) programme and the role that its ‘Joy on your way’ ethos plays in highlighting its efforts towards building a more equitable world.
ARI has partnered with The Moodie Davitt Report to motivate and encourage stakeholders in the travel retail industry to join the pledge to inspire inclusion, not just during International Women’s Day, but all year round. Click here for more.
The Moodie Davitt Report: What does the International Women’s Day theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’ mean to you and to ARI this year?
Siobhan Griffin: International Women’s Day has been celebrated at ARI for many years now. It is firmly set in our calendar and it is something we are proud of.
The theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’ is about providing a supportive culture and work environment which addresses the needs of women in the workplace – this is a key priority for us at ARI as part of our wider DE&I strategy.
At ARI, inspiring inclusion is also about recruiting, retaining and developing female talent, and supporting women in their careers to be ambitious and to achieve key leadership positions during their career development with us.
All of the events, initiatives and activities for International Women’s Day at ARI are organised and driven by our team. This year we have some exciting initiatives, from a book of shared stories about people in our business who inspire inclusion to our DE&I champion holding leadership conversations around this topic – a lot is going on to spotlight, support and celebrate female colleagues in our business on this occasion – and beyond.
We believe International Women’s Day is an occasion to put a spotlight on inclusion, but it is something that is equally important to us at ARI all year round.
How are you aiming to inspire your teams to do more around inclusion through this campaign?
We are delighted to partner with the team at The Moodie Davitt Report to encourage everyone to pledge to inspire inclusion and bring an important spotlight to this theme. This is an initiative that we developed and encouraged our colleagues all around the globe to join us on. We are delighted now to partner with The Moodie Davitt Report team to see this come to life.
This isn’t something that we just talk about or something that we want to share for the occasion of International Women’s Day. This is something firmly rooted in our DE&I objectives as a business for 2024, and something we are striving to ensure we are committed to every single day right across ARI and indeed the broader daa group.
At ARI, we are putting a focus on education to bring this message to life for all our colleagues. Through our collaborations with excellent external partners, who offer superb self-directed DE&I training courses, we are giving our ARI colleagues the information and understanding to embrace inclusion as part of their everyday.
In addition, we have a line-up of webinars for International Women’s Day, in partnership with healthcare provider VHI, specifically around the theme of inspiring inclusion. We are excited to be welcoming some inspiring women to visit us in the business to share their stories and through their journeys lift us all to be braver and more determined to achieve our own goals and support those around us to achieve theirs.
This year we are taking a fresh look at gender balance through all aspects of our recruitment processes and through our talent pipeline. We have launched a global recruitment toolkit, with diversity at the heart of the content. Specifically including gender-bias decoders for our job specs, gender-balanced shortlists for roles, and of course balanced selection panels, are just a few initiatives underway.
How does being an inclusive employer help the business in practical terms? How does it help appeal to prospective employees?
Being an inclusive employer is core to our value proposition at ARI. We embrace diversity and we like to say “You are Welcome” – in other words, we welcome all. For us, this is a fundamental part of our culture and our values.
Employees expect work to be rewarding and meaningful, an inclusive environment, and to be rewarded fairly for their contributions. We strive to deliver on these principles and see that our colleagues globally really value the diversity of our business and are proud to work in an organisation where they have unlimited potential, regardless.
What are the major initiatives group-wide through which ARI is driving the agenda around inclusion? What are the next steps?
Our ARI Mentoring programme, now in its third year, continues to be hugely successful. The purpose of this programme is to tap into the knowledge, skills and experience within ARI, and to support colleagues to excel in their careers and reach their potential. Through this, we are growing our colleague network across the globe, sharing cultures, sharing ideas and gaining new perspectives.
We also have continuous investment in development programmes to support women to develop and progress their careers at ARI. This year, we have launched a Global Retail Leaders’ programme, which aims to grow talent within ARI to future senior leadership roles. We are delighted to have a strong number of female participants in this.
Getting recruitment right is critical for us and, as a global business, we aim to support our business units with the right resources to ensure they can recruit successfully and support and develop their teams locally. Having the right start to this process sets us up for success year on year, and right into the future.
The roll-out of a new recruitment toolkit has been a phenomenal resource for us to share with our global colleagues for their recruitment processes across all locations. This toolkit was designed and developed in collaboration with our HR colleagues across the ARI estate globally, so a truly inclusive piece of work in itself.
Spotlighting and recognising women is something ARI does very well. We do this through initiatives such as a recent International Women’s Day campaign, where we invited colleagues to share stories of people across our business who inspire inclusion for women; and another is our annual global Star Award programme, which recognises excellence in ARI.
Are there challenges to face in enhancing the inclusion agenda across a multicultural organisation? Can you elaborate on those?
We never sit on our laurels, and we love a challenge. There is a huge opportunity in the pace of change in the broader DE&I space. This is different in each location, so teams are at different stages of the journey, but we work closely to support each other through shared learnings. We spend time, from a leadership and indeed a global HR perspective, listening to each other, learning from each other, and ensuring we support each other – and we will continue to do this in 2024.
We have a global DE&I committee through which we share initiatives from different locations, giving us an opportunity to learn from each other and see how we can face challenges better together.
How can your efforts around inclusion extend to inspiring your partners and end consumers?
At ARI we are pioneers, so leading the way is in our DNA. We see being inclusive as core to what ARI is as a business. We feel that this translates across languages, cultures and locations so that our colleagues all around the globe live by the same values.
Our redefined brand principles guide us to ensure that our business partners, brand partners, stakeholders and end consumers can all see the impact in how we engage, how we express our brand behaviours and people values, and how we live up to our brand expression, to deliver ‘Joy on your way’. At ARI we may not be the biggest in our industry, but we always aim to be the best in all that we do.
What role does ‘Joy on your way’ and the brand identity for ARI introduced a year ago play in highlighting those efforts?
Indeed, last year we refreshed the ARI brand and launched our new brand expression – ‘Joy on your way’. As part of this, we clearly redefined our brand principles and brand behaviours. These align ARI not just internally but also give us clear positioning and point of difference in our industry, when engaging with suppliers and stakeholders, and in how we show up for our customers.
A big part of this is about how we all have an inclusive mindset and approach, working together, thinking differently, doing things right, and how we can each live this in our daily interactions. We are in the midst of rolling out our ‘Joy on your way’ workshops to all locations, to help our colleagues better understand our brand and to ensure that we are all aligned in our brand expression. This is being received incredibly positively.
We’re very excited to see the evolution of our new brand expression as it further embeds into the wider business for this year and into the future. ✈
*This feature first appeared in The Moodie Davitt eZine. Click here for more.
