Iceland’s new employee reward puts customers ‘at heart’ of staff recognition

Iceland Foods is giving shoppers the chance to reward shop staff who go above and beyond, with the launch of a new internal colleague award.

For the new Customers’ Choice Award, Iceland is inviting shoppers to nominate a store worker or delivery driver from their local Iceland or Food Warehouse “who consistently goes above and beyond for customers and their communities”.

The overall winner will be announced at Iceland’s Doing It Right Awards later this year.

While all supermarkets have processes through which customers can highlight colleagues that have gone above and beyond, Iceland claimed this is the first time customer feedback will be linked directly to a standalone award as part of its wider internal rewards programme.

Iceland’s Customer Choice Award, which is sponsored by potato supplier Agristo, marked a “significant step” in how the supermarket rewards its 26,000 colleagues, Iceland said.

It reflected its “customer-first philosophy” and would be promoted across in-store PoS and customer communications nationwide. Nominations opened on 16 February and will run until 8 March.

“Doing the right thing means listening to our customers and recognising the people who make their shopping experience better every day,” said Iceland executive chairman Richard Walker.

“The Customers’ Choice Award gives our customers a real voice in celebrating our colleagues, and that matters – because what our customers think genuinely shapes how we run Iceland.”

Despite being the lowest-paying supermarket in the sector, the Deeside-based Iceland has made back-to-back appearances in The Sunday Times Best Places To Work list. Companies have to pay a fee to enter.

In September Iceland rolled out the most significant change to staff uniforms since before the Covid-19 pandemic, in what it described as a “major investment in people”.

The three new uniforms – for Iceland, Food Warehouse and delivery drivers – had been designed with “comfort, style and practicality in mind”, while in keeping with the supermarket’s brand identity, it said.