Aldi sets the bar higher and higher for their colleagues

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aldi store worker checkout

Winner: Aldi UK

Winning this award for the third time in four years “Aldi seems to set the bar higher and higher every year with what they are doing for their colleagues,” said one judge. “They take it seriously at all levels and for all grades.”

That doesn’t just mean being the best paying supermarket in the sector and investing £79m last year in colleague pay – twice boosting wages for hourly paid store colleagues – to exceed the real living wage, as well as being the only supermarket to pay for breaks.

Aldi is also committed to career growth at all levels – promoting over 2,000 people last year, one in every 20 employees.

And it introduced several new benefits last year, including a flexible bank holiday policy, to allow colleagues to work a bank holiday and take the day at a better time to suit them.

It also enhanced its maternity and paternity pay provisions in the event of a still birth along with paid neonatal leave to give families time to get through tough situations without the worry of work.

Diversity and inclusion remains central to the supermarket’s culture with it enhancing its ‘Embrace’ strategy last year through new training initiatives while attending nine Pride parades across the UK, and adding pronouns to email signatures.

It also celebrated cultural events such as a company-wide Fastathon for Ramadan and a Diwali celebration

The results of Aldi’s latest colleague engagement survey were mighty impressive: 75% of colleagues say they would rate Aldi as a great place to work, 14% above the Europe Retail Benchmark set by Mercer. Meanwhile, 78% said that they intend to stay for the next year - 7% above the benchmark.

And it speaks volumes that employee turnover dropped from 25% in 2023 to 20% last year, which one judge added was “astounding” for a retailer.