Our people

We employ over 133,000 people and have operations in 55 countries across Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia. The people across our businesses are united by our purpose, culture and passion for delivering for our customers. We empower them to innovate and support them to grow and develop.

Supporting our people’s mental health and their sense of general wellbeing also remains a priority. We continue to invest in our support across the Group, including programmes designed to raise awareness and provide practical assistance. In response to rising living costs this year, we have continued to focus on ensuring financial wellbeing tools and resources are available internationally.

We engage independent HSE specialists to provide us with an objective opinion of our safety performance, through a compliance and risk management audit programme.

Of our factories and retail stores, 69% have operated for one or more years without an on-site employee injury.

This year, the Group’s on-site employee Lost Time Injury (LTI) rate has reduced slightly from 0.36% in 2022 to 0.35%. The number of onsite employee LTIs has also reduced by 2% from 355 to 348. Primark has reduced its on-site employee LTI rate again this year by 15% from 0.40% of employees experiencing an LTI to 0.34%.

The on-site contractor LTI rate this year has increased from 0.14% to 0.33% and the number of on-site contractor LTIs has increased significantly by 85% from 41 to 76. Of this year’s onsite contractor LTIs 80% are attributed to our Retail and Sugar segments. The two segments are working hard to address the reasons for these incidents.

Engagement and development

Our businesses strive to attract and develop the most talented people. We enable this by creating opportunities for professional and personal development, and by fostering environments that enable our people to showcase their diverse and unique skills.

We offer a variety of learning opportunities and development programmes to help our people gain the skills our businesses need, including apprenticeships and mentoring. Our people are supported to build a rewarding career with us, we help them explore their own aspirations by building awareness of what their business and the wider group has to offer.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

We celebrate diversity in all its forms. Our businesses are focused on widening and deepening their talent pools, attracting new recruits and connecting with the diverse communities they serve. We believe engaging with a diverse talent pool gives us a competitive edge and enhances our ability to deliver long-term success.

Many of our businesses have their own diversity policies, alongside the Board Diversity policy which applies across the Group, DEI teams and dedicated programmes to support their people, be they women, people from ethnic minorities, those working with disabilities or people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Our Group DEI Network brings together people from across our businesses to share knowledge, best practices and ideas. We have over 300 DEI advocates across the Group, who benefit from access to masterclasses and self-study kits across a range of topics, including allyship, handling difficult conversations, neurodiversity inclusion, disability inclusion, racial and ethnic diversity and anti-racism, female careers and leadership, gender identity and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

To create a more inclusive workplace, we ensure leaders and line managers have the skills they need to set the tone, model appropriate behaviour and put in place targeted campaigns relevant to local circumstances. We provide unconscious bias and cultural awareness training and tools to all our businesses. 

Overall, the gender balance of the Group is fairly equal, with women making up 55% of our total global workforce. 

For more information please see our Responsibility Report 2023.