Benefits for employees

Our new head office will give our employees a working environment they can be proud of, with first-class facilities, and in a building that will itself be an inspiring testament to our co-operative values.

A new head office will overcome the inefficiencies of our existing complex of buildings and make better use of space to allow greater co-ordination and interaction between business teams. Our approach will be to minimise individual office space and maximise the flexibility given by open plan floors. But where confidentiality is required it will be available.

Our new building will be disabled-friendly for both staff and visitors. New technology and management practices will also allow us to work more flexibly with greater efficiency and a better work/life balance – for many workers, physically being in the building during office hours, Mon-Fri, will no longer be a necessity.

Our refreshment facilities will showcase our own food products and the communal space will promote our whole range of services and encourage our employees to be the strongest advocates of our brand. The building will provide a healthy inspiring environment reflecting a modern staff-focused business. It will create a work culture that embodies co-operative values, creates shared co-operative spaces and a working community of different teams interacting.

It will demonstrate that The Co-operative Group is a leading 21st Century employer.

Flexible working

The new building is our opportunity to radically update the way our employees work together by taking advantage of new technology to create greater flexibility to the advantage of both the business and individuals.

We've been running pilots across the Manchester complex to test how we can adapt to more flexible ways of working. The aim has been to test both the cultural and technical aspects of changing the way we work.