Skills & Opportunities
Iceland is often described as ‘a family business’ – we just happen to employ 30,000 people. Our aim is to provide skills and opportunities for all.
The business has always seen its people as the absolute heart of its success and encouraged the unique sense of family that brings people together to support their colleagues and community.
Our ‘Doing it Right’ sustainability strategy is directed and brought to life through the passion of our colleagues on the front line, telling us the causes they care about and improving people’s lives on a daily basis through outstanding customer and community service every day.
In fact, our business culture is described as “Doing it Right”. This principle is the foundation of everything we do.
for equal work, irrespective of age, length of service, or any other factor
growth in Store Manager internal succession by the end of 2023 v 2021
store participation target in our Talking Shop colleague representation scheme
apprenticeships will be offered every year at Level 2, 3 and 4, from 2022
Talking Shop Engagement and Influence
Every Iceland and Food Warehouse store has a colleague-elected representative known as their Talking Shop Rep, or TSR for short. The role of the TSR is to influence the business, get involved and support all colleagues.
They do this in a number of ways. They are the voice of their colleagues in store and can feedback weekly to their Store Manager, and raise any issues or ideas at quarterly Area Talking Shop meetings or via monthly Teams calls. TSRs get involved by making new starters feel welcome and they shine at supporting colleagues in times of need. They also challenge the business and drive improvements, influencing positive change and adding greater value by being involved in all things Iceland.
Once a year, around 80 Area TSRs from across the country are invited to our National Talking Shop Conference – an exciting event in which they share the views of their colleagues directly with Iceland’s Board of Directors. The conference is a great way to celebrate Talking Shop’s valuable contribution to increasing colleague engagement and retention in stores, as well as celebrating success and having some fun.
Pay
We review our colleagues’ pay at least once every year, to ensure that the business remains competitive. We pay our frontline colleagues the same hourly rate, no matter their age or length of service, and we pay our apprentices at the rate of pay for the job they are in, which is always higher than the Apprentice Rate.
We also offer enhanced and competitive maternity and paternity leave policies to support mums and dads at the time they need it most. Colleagues are entitled to 14 weeks’ full pay and 25 weeks’ statutory maternity pay (SMP) during their maternity leave. Expectant fathers are offered one week’s full pay and one week’s statutory paternity pay (SPP) for paternity leave.
Recent improvements in this offer were a direct response to challenges from Talking Shop and Deeside Voice.
Apprenticeships
In 2017, Iceland introduced a Level 4 Management apprenticeship scheme, which has since been extended to Level 3 and 2, involving more than 1,100 apprentices so far, delivered by our dedicated external training provider.
The schemes have been recognised with an Investors in Apprentices Gold Award and a further award for the Best UK Development Programme at Level 3.
Find out more about careers with Iceland here.
See our gender pay gap statement here.