Our shared commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is one of the most impactful ways we can sustain that sense of family and keep it relevant as we grow.

As the business charges ahead into F25, we’re going to re-introduce our DE&I commitments to teammates in a way that connects them to new, inspiring outcomes: better workplaces, better customer experiences, and better communities. Before we do that, I think it’s important to acknowledge how far we’ve come and reflect on where we are now.

In 2020, we identified some aspirational goals to help us make progress on DE&I priorities that would create lasting and positive impact:

• • We looked at the range of gender identities across the business to better understand our opportunities and imperatives to strengthen our team by prioritizing diversity in key roles.
  • Today, we have increased representation of women to 37% in leadership at the VP level and 40% at Director level.
• • In 2021, we took the bold step of establishing a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the business, tied to our annual incentive plan, that focused on building capabilities to help leaders and teammates make our company a more inclusive place to work and shop.
  • Today, these initiatives help us improve the diversity of our teams, and they give leaders and teammates better tools and resources for fostering an inclusive workplace. We can now be transparent about accountabilities because we have formalized DE&I as part of individual and team performance goals.
• • We set out to enhance our offering of products made by and for diverse communities, and we leaned into directly supporting marginalized communities in Canada at the local level.
  • Today, we are forging and strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities and supplier partners, following the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business framework towards Truth & Reconciliation. We’re proud to be unique among grocers, and one of the largest companies in Canada, to participate in this framework and pursue the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) accreditation.
• • We also prioritized programs that would support our teammates to speak up and to be heard, to ensure we’re doing what it takes to be a fair and welcoming organization.
  • Today, we are hearing feedback from teammates—both in person and in our Employee Experience surveys—that tells us we’re on the right track, and we’re seeing collaboration and innovation reach a pace that shows how we win in business when we bet on our people through our DE&I initiatives.

Our DE&I commitments remain consistent, but the way we fulfill them evolves and matures over time. These changes in our approach tell the story of a company that is eagerly learning from the rich diversity of its 134,000 teammates and the 11 million families in over 900 communities that we serve.

We each have different responsibilities to help advance diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments in our roles. But, let me be clear: DE&I is not an additional task. It’s not an extra accountability, above and beyond your regular duties. It is deeply ingrained in our core values and how we work. It is essential to our continued business success. Keeping our focus on it is absolutely necessary to achieve our ambition to be the best retailer in Canada.

I invite you to read through the DE&I Goals and Progress page to find out more about what we are doing and why, and how each of us can contribute and commit to making Sobeys a special place to work.

Simon Gagné
Executive Vice President Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer