A little over a year ago, LUSH began to collaborate with entities in favour of employment inclusion. As indicated by Gloria Pavia, PR Lead for Europe, through "Por Talento", ONCE's employment management platform for people with disabilities, the UK cosmetics company has hired several people for the shop teams in Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza.
They are currently in collaboration agreements with Binomis for the Barcelona shops, Avante3 in Madrid, Gaude in Bilbao and Asedown in Seville. Thanks to the support they receive from these organisations, LUSH is in the process of inserting people with intellectual disabilities or at risk of social exclusion in each of its shops and in fulfilment. The aim is to provide real opportunities for integration, to help them to have a salary that allows them to decide their future and not to feel dependent all their lives. In the case of Avante3, it is an association that works for the promotion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families, providing individualised support for the achievement of their life plans.
Lush regularly shares with each of the entities, the tasks that are carried out in the shops and from here they are channelled into the search for profiles that they have in their employment exchanges or among the students who are in the training process. LUSH emphasises that they adapt to what they need, whether it is to be able to carry out internships in order to obtain training qualifications or employment contracts. Once the presentations have been made with each of the people, the tasks to be carried out for each of the profiles are adjusted, taking into account their individual abilities.
In addition, they participate in tailored interview workshops, group visits to shops, product workshops, product donations for supervised flats and materials for training workshops.
The team knows in advance who will be the person who will be part of the team, so we prepare ourselves to give them the necessary support. The employee always has a person who accompanies the candidate, before starting, during the signing of agreements or contracts and once they are already occupying the different positions, they have their Job Coach who is present in the shop the first few days and spacing out the visits depending on what each person needs. This job coach is in contact with the shop to establish feedback on how the integration is going and if any changes need to be made in the adaptation, as each integration process is personalised.
Marta Forcat , Retail Support in Spain and Portugal, has declared to Next in Beauty that it is a luxury carry out this type of actions: "Collaborate with Avante3 is being a big project of learning for Lush. they are helping Us In the process of insertion that have for Spain and, specially for the shops of Madrid, giving us support in the selection and contracting of people with intellectual disability. Give labour opportunities with entities so professional, does that the way to visit was very rich for all the parts involved in the project."