The Kind Society by River Island
River Island
THE KIND SOCIETY: PEOPLE
From store teams, to HQ, to RI's warehouse, suppliers and YOU – the community is the heart of River Island. They're helping fashion become a force for good, sprinkling extra kindness on the everyday. That means making sure we protect and support everyone in network: creating a culture that’s fair, open and kind for all.
These commitments are a snapshot of what they’re working on, and there’s so much more going on behind the scenes.
Fashion is for everyone. So, they're working to ensure that RI is a diverse and inclusive workplace across all areas of their business.
Over the past year, they've been celebrating and supporting the diversity of their Islanders, launching our Your ID action group, hosting diversity workshops and introducing a blind recruitment tool.
Looking ahead, they're pledging to continue actively promoting the recruitment of candidates from diverse social backgrounds and improving the representation of diverse groups at a senior level.
They're building a culture centred on protecting well-being for everyone at RI.
Their Mental Health Allies project launched in 2021, offering support for all Islanders whenever they need it. They're also hosted training and workshops that help teams to place wellbeing at the heart of our day-to-day.
Next year they want to take this further: leading more workshops and conducting a survey to assess the wellbeing of all their Islanders.
Everyone in their network – from the people making our clothes, to the Islanders on the shop floor – deserves a safe, fair, supportive workplace.
They are continuously improving working standards for our own employees and for those in our supply chains, underpinned by a commitment to eliminating Modern Slavery.
They've already made a start with a rigorous code all suppliers must follow. In 2021, they visited over 300 of our suppliers to ensure conditions meet their standards. They're set to introduce programmes that will help our factories improve their social and environmental practices.
Community is everything to them; they're giving back to our network and beyond.
Last year over £1.6m was raised partnering with charities and social enterprises, and their internal teams donated over £100k to causes close to their hearts – with their Giver Island scheme matching individual charity donations.
They're growing this even more in the future, creating a strategy for community investment – supporting initiatives in the UK, and throughout our international supplier network.
