Lidl's backing for Katie Taylor key to its inclusive recruitment ethos
Robert Ryan, CEO of Lidl Ireland. Picture: Conor McCabe Photography
Inclusive values are at the heart of the personnel strategies of Lidl, the supermarket chain which has been in constant recruitment mode ever since its entry into the Irish market.
At the time of writing, Lidl had more than 70 career opportunities posted on its website, from manager and warehouse to customer assistants, and with vacancies dotted all across the island of Ireland.
Lidl’s commitments around diversity and inclusion, its teamwork ethos are also comprehensively mapped out on the site, along with the company’s programmes for the ongoing training and career development of staff members.
In this Q&A interview, Robert Ryan, CEO of Lidl Ireland, says that it also important for Lidl to promote these values beyond its doors through its public engagements and its supports for communities across Ireland.
Lidl has supported the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) for more than a decade, investing €22.5m to date, with the partnership now extended to 2030.
And, of course, there is also Lidl’s role as event title partner for Katie Taylor’s return to Croke Park on Saturday, September 5, suggesting that these and other investments in women’s sport in Ireland are part of the company’s wider commitments to fairness and balance in society.
Those five values, Performance, Respect, Trust, Belonging and Grounded, aren't just words on a wall for us, they genuinely shape how we operate day-to-day, from how we treat our own people to how we show up in the communities we serve. With close to 7,500 colleagues across the island of Ireland, retail is a people business first and foremost, and we know that a workforce that feels valued and recognised is one that performs better and stays longer. That's why we've built initiatives like our Autism Awareness Quiet Evenings in store, our leadership on LEAD Network Ireland Chapter Committee which supports women in the retail and consumer goods industry, and our "Work Safe. Live Well." programme, which looks after colleagues' physical safety, mental health and financial wellbeing as a package rather than as separate boxes to tick.
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Inclusion for us isn't a campaign that runs for a few weeks a year, it's something we're held accountable for at Board level. We have three employee resources groups that are overseen by director sponsors which track our progress too. We've still plenty of work to do, but I'd like to think our team can feel the difference between a company that talks about inclusion and one that's built into how decisions actually get made.
We’re incredibly proud of our longstanding partnership with the LGFA which began in 2016 and has evolved and grown significantly over the past decade. The ethos with our partnership has always been to show serious support from grassroots right up to inter-county level, with a clear focus on growing membership, keeping girls in sport and promoting the visibility of female athletes. Being Title Event Partner for Katie's fight at Croke Park felt like a natural extension of that same commitment rather than a one-off moment. Our own research has found that Katie is named by more than half the public as the athlete who inspires them most, and by 27% of LGFA inter-county players as the sportsperson who shaped their own careers. That tells you the impact one visible role model can have, and it's exactly why we back it. For a business built on more than 7,500, almost half of whom are female, supporting the visibility of women in sport isn't a marketing decision, it's an extension of the same values we try to live by internally.
Hugely important, and our own research backs that up. When we surveyed LGFA inter-county players, 37% said they looked up to male sports stars growing up simply because there weren't enough visible female role models at the time, but that number drops to almost nothing once they reach senior level and have athletes like Katie Taylor, Cora Staunton, Ciara Mageean or Rhasidat Adeleke to look to instead.
It's a similar story in business and in retail. People need to see someone who looks like them, or who comes from a similar background, doing the job they aspire to and facing the same challenges as them in order to believe it's genuinely open to them. That's true whether we're talking about a young woman picking up a football for the first time or a colleague in one of our stores considering whether a career in management is realistic. With three young girls at home, it’s a personal passion of mine to ensure they grow up in a world where equality is celebrated and women are given the same opportunities as men. Part of my own job is making sure our people can see that pathway clearly, whether that's through how we promote from within, or through the athletes and community partners we choose to stand behind publicly.
Lidl operates in more than 30 countries, but every single one of those markets only works if it's genuinely rooted in the community it serves, and Ireland is no exception. My job is to make sure our commitments, whether that's opening new stores, sponsoring the LGFA, or backing Katie Taylor at Croke Park, actually mean something to people here. Scale gives us real advantages, particularly around buying power and supply chain, which lets us bring better value and quality, like our most recent World's Best Steak award-winning Irish range, to customers globally. But the trust we've built with those customers is earned locally, one store, one sponsorship, one community partnership at a time. I coach my own daughter's LGFA team, and can see how the participation numbers have grown and there's something grounding about that. It reminds me that behind every strategic decision at head office, there are real people, real clubs and real communities who are affected by it.
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