Retail leaders and Jess Phillips MP to attend Retail Trust summit to tackle staff violence

More than 100 retail leaders from brands including NEXT, FatFace and River Island, along with Jess Phillips MP, are to come together at a Retail Trust summit on 11 January 2023, at luxury hotel Pan Pacific London, urging retail employees to protect staff experiencing domestic abuse.

Phillips, who is the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, will join Will Crumbie, CEO of FatFace, Adam Warne, CIO of River Island and Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, among many others, who will be sharing their experiences and advice for creating a healthier and happier retail workforce at the one-day event for HR and people directors.

Addressing the health and wellbeing of retail staff, the attendees will look at everything from tackling issues with retention and recruitment to preventing customer aggression, following the launch of the Retail Trust’s ‘Respect Retail’ campaign last month.

Chris Brook-Carter, Chief Executive of the Retail Trust, said: “We’re uniting the leaders who are ready to address many of the issues facing people working in the retail sector right now, both in and outside of the workplace.

“It’s fantastic to be joined by speakers like Jess Phillips MP as we shine a light on everything we in the industry can do to improve staff wellbeing.

“We want to provide the tools, services and channels that will empower people in retail to take control of their health and wellbeing and ensure that UK retail is an exciting, vibrant and people-first industry so that we can support, attract and retain more colleagues.”

The summit also follows on from the launch of the Retail Industry Against Domestic Abuse (RIADA) campaign by the Retail Trust, Dunelm and the Domestic Abuse Alliance last year, which aims to bring more help to domestic abuse victims working in retail, following a troubling rise in incidents during the pandemic.

More than 20 other household name retailers have since joined RIADA to support employees, as experts warn cases are due to spike once again because of frictions caused by the cost-of-living crisis and the Christmas period.

Registration for the Retail Trust leaders’ summit is open via the Retail Trust’s website.