Independent parcel carrier Yodel has strengthened its partnership with the Retail Trust, the industry charity protecting the health and happiness of people working in retail through wellbeing support.
Supporting colleagues since 2018
The partnership which dates back to 2018, has seen the Retail Trust support almost 1,000 Yodel colleagues, equating to 34% of its workforce. This includes over 10,300 interactions across the Retail Trust’s website, helpline, and retail rewards app.
In an effort to better colleague wellbeing in its workforce, Yodel has run almost 400 online and in-person counselling sessions in collaboration with the Retail Trust, supporting with experiences like trauma, loss and anxiety. The partnership also offers helpline support, financial wellbeing advice, and financial aid, in addition to employee perks including retail discounts and rewards amounting to more than £55,000 since 2018.
Yodel also has access to the Retail Trust’s new generative AI-powered dashboard which enables employers to better respond to mental health pressures by identifying wellbeing trends and generating actionable insights. Yodel can access the Retail Trust’s happiness dashboard to monitor the effectiveness of wellbeing strategies in real time, benchmark its performance against industry standards, and report back on the financial value of wellbeing initiatives to the business and the economy.
Supporting retail workers
Yodel is now supporting the Retail’s Trust’s ’respect retail’ campaign. This looks to make a stand against abuse experienced by retail workers and provides dedicated training to help colleagues feel safer and manage challenging situations. In addition to existing internal briefings on what its colleagues should do in such scenarios, Yodel is looking to introduce formal training sessions with Retail Trust in 2025. In solidarity, Yodel’s fleet of vehicles feature stickers supporting the ‘respect retail’ campaign.
Elsewhere, Yodel has supported the Retail Trust by raising over £10,000 in a charity golf day in September 2024, with proceeds going towards helping even more retail workers.
Ali Richardson, HR director at Yodel, said: “We are incredibly proud to strengthen our long-standing partnership with the Retail Trust, an organisation that shares our commitment to the wellbeing of our colleagues. Throughout the partnership, the Retail Trust has provided invaluable support to our team members, with great success and feedback. We look forward to rolling out further offerings and competitive benefits for our colleagues in 2025, while standing in support of the Retail Trust’s ‘respect retail’ campaign.”
Chris Brook-Carter, chief eecutive of the Retail Trust, said: “We’re helping more and more retail businesses build healthier and happier workplaces by providing their people with new tools and resources to manage their mental, physical and financial wellbeing and supporting employers to identify the right steps they need to take.
“Yodel is a great example of a logistics brand championing the health and happiness of its staff, so we are looking forward to providing everyone working there even more support this year as we continue to build on our existing partnership.”
