Tesco - Leadership Programme and Building Balance

By 1995, Tesco was the largest food retailer in the UK. In it’s last financial year, the company reported total sales of £28.6bn, with pre-tax profits of £1.36bn. Tesco has over 1,000 stores worldwide with 780 in the UK. The company currently has over 220,000 full-time employees in the UK.

"Treating people the way we like to be treated" is one of the key Tesco values, which, in Tesco’s words "expresses the consideration we give people within and outside the company".

The Office for National Statistics reported that 3 in 10 employees will have a mental health problem (mainly depression and anxiety disorders) each year. This suggests that potentially up to 66,000 Tesco employees could have a mental health issue in any given year. Tesco, aware of the pressure on managers imposed by the demands of a driven, high performing business, also recognised these possible knock-on effects of stress, in particular the impact on performance and stress-related absenteeism.

As a result, Tesco decided to implement not only reactive remedial support, but more critically targeted pro-active preventative methods which would build the resilience of their workforce.

SyCon - The Sporting Bodymind Group designed and delivered a ‘Building Balance’ module, as part of the Stores Leadership Programme which was rolled out throughout the business. The module focused on allowing individuals to gain awareness of the keys to well-being, to pay attention to their current situation (through personal evaluation) and to make meaningful steps towards re-gaining a personal balance. Attention was paid to addressing the barriers to change and also to providing individuals with key support information in the form of fact-sheets and a toolkit of relevant links.

Due to it’s successful impact and the extensive interest that it has generated, the Building Balance Module is now being delivered to over 800 in-store leaders UK-wide.

"We have found that SyCon add a dimension to our Leadership training that we have not been able to find before. They are fresh, interesting and practical. Their work has made a sustained impact on our managers."

Maxine Dolan, Head of Leadership Stream, Tesco

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