Background
Our founder Karin has always volunteered in the community, with small charities and community groups. This has happened more frequently in the last 10 years or so, when she has had to give up “work” in the conventional sense due to ill health.
In fact, since then, she has tried to be involved (mainly as an advisor / media and marketing support / innovator) anywhere that she felt she could make a positive difference.
If a small group would have her, she would be there. This has run alongside her running Celeb FC from home.
Co Op Member Pioneers
That is why, when a friend sent her an advert one day, (of a role in an area where she was already very active in the community), which was only 4 hours per week, mainly home based, connecting the smaller groups that really needed financial support to a funding stream they may not know of (Co Op Local Community Fund), it was a dream come true job!
She applied and after breezing through the interview stages very quickly, she met with the local “Member Pioneer Coordinator”, and the job was hers!
Co Op was innovative in their approach to funding community and charitable causes. They had people like Karin actually living and working in the communities that the fund was there to support. This gave them the edge in finding the smaller groups that truly needed support of all levels, with Member Pioneers actively seeking them out and connecting them not only with the available fund but with local Co Op stores and with the teams within the stores.
Many like Karin would regularly work (unpaid) over and above their 4hr remit as they organised events, created and posted relevant social media to engage with groups and communities online, spoke to members in their local stores and raised awareness of what being a cooperative is all about. This was an unwritten given through the hundreds of MPs, as the work was so very rewarding but also as when it came to the events and funding applications etc the 4hrs on many occasions simply didn’t cut it. BUT they loved what they were doing.
Innovations
Another amazing part of the role was the ability to send ideas and innovations “up the chain” which led to fabulous fundraising events such as the Co OP v Celeb FC Football event in Sutton and the Co Op attending and supporting (via a £3000 LCF payment) the St Helier Festival (plus Funeralcare from Co Op brought along recycling bins for plastics, children games and books and handed out free recycled water mugs etc).
However not all innovations were agreed upon (Our founders fully costed and planned out “Chatty Tills” was rejected sadly – an idea for a “Slow Lane” manned till to be in every Co Op, for the elderly, disabled, families or indeed anyone to access who wanted to just feel comfortable whilst shopping). This came from some of the feedback from existing customers when she was in-store on occasions. Some felt rushed, or worse still disregarded by the self-serves. This scheme could have been funded by a Government Innovation grant and manned by employees from local charitable initiatives (supported by the Access to Work Scheme). Sadly, it was a no go, BUT how great to have that ability to put something like this forward based on actual customer feedback.
The Member Pioneer role was so much more than the 4hrs pw of “chatting to people over a muffin” (This quote is a direct quote from someone senior who should’ve known better)!
The Beginning of the End
Sadly, in June the group was all told to meet on a video conference where they were told Co Op were to replace its Member Pioneer programme and a redundancy consultation period was starting with 766 part-time employees, which was made up of 689 Member Pioneers and 77 coordinators.
MPs were bluntly told that they were being replaced by a centralised online hub for charities / groups to engage with and the field would be overseen by just over 60 new full-time equivalent Member Engagement Activators, who have “the sole remit to connect, engage and support member-owners in communities at a regional level, whilst making a real difference in how people experience our Co-op in their community”. (Co Op verbatim).
Co-op said (to fellow retailers, via industry news), that the move would support its strategy of expanding its membership programme to 8 million active users by 2030.
They went on to say that “the existing structure and systems don’t enable the Member Pioneers to maximise their time in the community and the limitations of role hours means it is not able to broaden the scope of these roles to engage in important, broader membership activities”. Member Pioneers were informed a new role (MEA) was being created with longer hours, with better remit and more substantial areas, which would cover what the existing MP’s were doing, but with more focus on membership engagement and to enable a better all-round experience for members and communities alike.
This sounded like a mix of good and bad news. Good as they realised the MPs were doing more than just charity connection work, but bad as the workforce was being cut by 90%. However the MP’s all agreed that maybe just maybe – where many of the Member Pioneers had worked more hours than the 4, they were paid for, on a regular basis and had routinely increased the memberships, created amazing community events, sought out the smaller groups where LCF funding would really make a difference, the Co Op had had finally noticed and was acting accordingly..
So, they waited to be told what the next move was, what the structure of the consultation was and what the new roles would be and how they could slot into them.
Oh, Ye of Little Faith
Sadly, it did not happen the way any of them hoped.
The new roles “MEA’s” had already been earmarked for the existing Member Pioneer Coordinators (also being made redundant) as MP’s were blanketly deemed to not have the skill-sets necessary to do the role. (Yes, you heard right).
Without anyone asking any of the 600+ Member Pioneers about their backgrounds, their skills, their educational achievements, their employment, their managerial skills or indeed any other work (voluntary or other) that they do, every single one of them were discounted as being unsuitable for a role many had already been doing!
A spokesperson from Co-op said: “We have an exciting vision for the future, one which places Co-op Member Ownership back at the heart of our Co-op, with an ambition to grow membership from 5 million to 8 million active member-owners by 2030. As a result of this, we propose to evolve our existing Member Pioneer Programme from the end of July, with the new Member Engagement Activator programme live from August. We have commenced collective consultation with our trade union. We recognise the impact this proposal may have on a number of our colleagues and our priority now is to support those colleagues potentially impacted and help find alternative roles within our business including from the newly created roles and vacancies we have available.”
But they knew the newly created MEA roles were NOT being offered to the MP’s and after the announcement in June, many of those affected have looked at other Co Op roles online – there are simply none available that resemble anything like the role of MP. No 4 hr roles and definitely none based from home / in the community.
Redundancy Support
When the Co Op mentioned the Trade Union had represented the MPs at the consultation, many were confused as the vast majority have no Trade Union.
Our founder Karin said ” I work (on paper) such bare minimum hours for Co Op and I have never in the 4 years I was employed been asked to join a union, so just WHO was it that consulted on our behalf? No one contacted me. To be blunt I think they did a shoddy job, as over 600 amazing people, many of whom are in protected categories, female, older, disabled (like myself), carers or from poorer backgrounds and are in the demographic that Co Op are always saying they are proud to have as part of their teams have simply been canned! I am not even sure anyone has looked at this, particularly as they have just had a very interesting interview published, all about diversity and inclusion, talking with their head of social mobility and inclusion, explaining why this retail giant wants to create a fairer workplace, and society for all . It simply makes no sense”?
Going back – After the Video Consult, Member Pioneers were offered an initial meeting (zoom/teams’ type) and almost everyone said the same thing – it was robotic, read from a script and felt like a foregone conclusion. Many of them felt a second meeting simply wasn’t merited as it was all done and dusted even before it had started!
Outstanding Queries
There are a number of outstanding issues (The MPs are now all “redundant” having all been laid off in July and August) There are 2 dates as a group have put in a formal grievance about how this was handled, so were employed for an extra couple of weeks to facilitate that.
Also, there are a number of other issues – not just the way the skills were dismissed and redundancy alternatives not explored which MPs are raising with Co Op.
The group of Member Pioneers who are awaiting the collective grievance outcome are incredibly strong, impassioned people who are worried the areas they have come to know and care deeply about, simply wont have the community knowledge and empathy at the heart of the role that they had. They are concerned that there simply wasn’t enough thought given to how this amazing program of ensuring funding (paid into by Co Op shoppers) was filtered through to the right causes in communities before the facilitators of this (the Member Pioneers) were removed.
They are upset that they didn’t get a chance to at least fight for their roles or give a balanced , well prepared counter proposal to this mass redundancy.
They are all sad that their (in some cases, 4 or 5 decades of) experience outside of Co Op was simply ignored and dismissed.
Grateful
For our founder, She will remember the Co Op time with a warm feeling, as Celeb FC have met and made lasting friendships with not only amazing Co op employees BUT some simply inspiring causes and their founders.
She will also forever be grateful for being able to go to the first ever event hosted by Princess Kate and Prince William and supported by The Royal Foundation – the Royal Carols: Together At Christmas community carol service which paid tribute to the work of individuals and organizations across the U.K, thanks to a nomination from Co Op in 2021. Also just before the redundancy she was nominated for the 2024 Being Co Op Award . Although, she isn’t sure what will happen with that now.
#ItsWhatWeDid
Our founder really did sing the praises of Co Op through her 4 years, especially the amazing people she met and worked with whilst being with them.
Particularly the Member Pioneer for Wimbledon – Nichola, The Funeralcare Area Manager for Earlsfield -Sarah, The Carshalton Store Managers Peter and Steve, The Wimbledon Chase Store Manager Darren, The Wallington Store Manager Perry and my Member Pioneer Coordinator Tom – HE is an absolute diamond and someone Co Op is VERY lucky to have!
