Sign up to the wholesale and convenience sector charter
Standards and Dignity at work
best practice at events and in the workplace
Setting the standard

 

 

FWD and the Association of Convenience Stores have relaunched the Standards & Dignity Charter, which has been updated.

After meeting with a group of event companies and leading businesses across the wholesale and convenience landscape, we all agreed the charter can serve as a tool to unify our members on best practice whilst at events and in the workplace.

The biggest change is the launch of the Standards & Dignity badge.

It is the hope that an employee of a business which has signed up to the charter should feel reassured that they will be mixing with colleagues and contacts which will follow the highest standards of conduct when the Standards & Dignity badge-style logo is seen on ticket confirmations, companies websites and email signatures.

To sign the Charter please contact nikki@fwd-uk.com to confirm your intent to be a Standards & Dignity business and we will send over the badge logo for you to display.

Send us your company logo and we’ll add your name to the list of companies that have adopted the charter.

If you are an event organiser, please adopt the process below for ensuring compliance with the values in the Charter at any events that you run.

FWD, ACS and Women in Wholesale will be displaying the logo on all event communication moving forward and we encourage you to do the same. Recent sign-ups include:

 

The recommended events process for organisers: 

If you’re running events (including face to face and online meetings, tours, social and business events) in wholesale, convenience and related sectors, please make sure that all attendees know about the Charter and know how they can raise issues related to standards of behaviour:

 

  1. In pre-event communications include the Charter logo with a link to the Charter itself andthe other supporting resources for it.
  2. Make clear to attendees who they should raise any issues with. Ideally this should be a senior person with responsibility for the event. It needs to be clear how that person can be contacted in advance of, during andafter the event.
  3. Think beforehand about how you might handle issues related to the Charter that could arise during the event and respond to issues. As a broad framework for good practice:
    1. support complainants by making sure they are not forced to stay in close contact with individuals who are behaving inappropriately, and
    2. as soon as possible engage with complainants to commence action under the “dealing with complaints” guidance.
  4. Include in your feedback forms an opportunity for participants to raise specific issues or to comment on the safety andstandards of behaviour at the event. Suggested standard questions are:
    1. “Were there any incidents or examples of behaviour contrary to the Dignity at Work Charter (link) that you would like to report or raise?”
    2. “Did you feel the event was safe andsupportive of everyone attending, and that behaviour at the event was consistent with the standards in the Dignity at Work Charter (link)?” (Maybe a four point scale: very safe, safe, acceptable, unsafe)

Making a Complaint: If someone has been treated in a way that they feel in contrary to the Charter, they should be given a variety of methods through which to raise these issues. Suggested guidance on making a complaint is below, which would need to be finessed but this is the key substance proposed:

Your wellbeing is paramount, so please use the resources available to you as you feel appropriate. There may be HR and mental health first aid available in your business, and we strongly support the Grocery Aid Helpline (link) which offers free support from trained counsellors for all issues related to your work and personal life.

The signatories to this Charter fully support you in raising issues with the perpetrators of behaviour that contradicts our values and the Charter itself. You can do this by:

  • Raising the issue with the organisers of any event at which you have experienced this behaviour.
  • Raising the issue direct with the relevant individuals’ HR departments, contact details for which can be sourced through ACS, FWD or Women in Wholesale.
  • You can raise these issues through ACS, FWD or Women in Wholesale who will approach the relevant HR department on your behalf. It is your choice as to which if any of these organisations you wish to make this representation, and names contacts for taking a complaint forward are here (link). Your chosen organisation will work with you through to reaching a satisfactory conclusion.

Dealing with complaints: The three organisations named above, and events companies, and potentially any organisation, needs to have a clear path to follow in dealing with issues raised with them.

  1. You should nominate a named individual in your organisation to handle complaints, whether they relate to events and activity you are running or not.
  2. Any complaints should be logged, and must:
    1. Include key details of the issues raised, the nature of the complaint, an account of the incident(s), and any witnesses
    2. Be treated as strictly confidential, be stored securely, not in shared files, and should only be discussed with the complainant and the your line manager in circumstances where guidance and support is required.
  3. The complainant should be made aware of the Grocery Aid Helpline and any further resources that may be helpful to them.
  4. You should discuss with the complainant, if necessary over more then one phone call, how they wish to approach the situation, and assist them in pursuing this course of action, which could include:
    1. Finding details for the relevant HR department or other contact and passing them to the complainant.
    2. Approaching that HR or other contact on the complainant’s behalf.
    3. Making other representations with or on behalf of the complainant.
    4. Deciding how to deal with any response, and advising on options to escalate or progress the complaint if needed.
  5. Write a report covering the details above and file this. With their agreement this may be shared with the complainant, the HR department of the person felt to have breached the Charter, and that individual.