Currys has announced a new partnership with the retail industry charity the Retail Trust that will give its 15,000 staff more support to protect their mental health.
Staff at the UK’s leading omnichannel technology retailer now have access to a range of new wellbeing resources, including counselling for themselves, all household relatives, and a specialist service for young people, as well as financial aid and 24-hour support from the Retail Trust’s wellbeing helpline.
Free training and online tools to help colleagues deal with abuse at work are also being provided as part of the partnership and the Retail Trust’s generative AI-powered wellbeing dashboard will help Currys better identify and respond to mental health trends.
The Retail Trust’s latest Retail People Index revealed declining levels of wellbeing across the UK retail workforce last year and nearly half of all retail workers told the charity they also faced weekly verbal or physical attacks while doing their job.
Alongside its work with the Retail Trust, Currys has made significant investments to improve colleague safety in stores, including the rollout of a new incident reporting platform, improved in‑store CCTV and strengthened security infrastructure.
Currys also continues to see strong colleague engagement. Its latest colleague survey places it in the top 3% of companies globally for engagement (Viva-Glint), reinforcing the importance of continued investment in colleague wellbeing and support.
Paula Coughlan, chief people, communications and sustainability officer at Currys, said: “I’m really proud to share that we’ve launched a new wellbeing partnership with the Retail Trust, which provides all colleagues, and everyone in their household, with access to a significantly broader range of wellbeing support than ever before.
“It’s another meaningful step forward and builds on the culture of care, trust and support across Currys. My hope is that this makes a real difference for our colleagues and their families, whenever life throws something their way.”
Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “Our new partnership will help Currys to create happier and healthier workplaces in its stores and offices across the UK.
“We’re giving Currys colleagues access to new training, tools and expert help whenever they need it, and providing managers with more insight to better protect their teams’ wellbeing.”
The Retail Trust brought together a range of resources to protect colleagues against abuse following the launch of its Let’s Respect Retail campaign last year, while its happiness dashboard provides an overall picture of mental health and actionable insights to address specific issues.
Employers can also use the platform to monitor the effectiveness of workplace wellbeing strategies in real time, benchmark their performance against industry standards and report back on the financial value of wellbeing initiatives to the business and the UK economy.
Currys is the latest major employer to start working with the Retail Trust. Poundland and Mountain Warehouse also began new partnerships with the Retail Trust in the last year, to bring more support to over 16,000 workers, and bp extended its partnership with the charity for another five years, last month.
