To ensure the implementation of our strategy and consistency of our practices and behaviours, it is vital to raise awareness and empower our leaders and Teams on matters related to Diversity and Inclusion in its various formats.

To this end, we concentrated our efforts on developing appealing formats, such as the podcast «Poder Falar É Poder Ser» (Power to Talk is Power to Be), to capture the attention and interest of our Workforce. The first podcast focused on Disability, one of the priority focus areas within our strategy, namely demystifying ableism, i.e. the prejudice against people with disabilities. The podcast also discussed our in-house journey by offering views on this subject from first-hand accounts.

The «Enviesamentos Inconscientes» (Unconscious Bias) training programme was also an important milestone in 2021. Starting from the premise that we all have unconscious preconceptions and that these are primarily based on inequalities, we developed a programme that cut across the entire organisation. Thus, we reached 34 thousand Employees to explain these preconceptions, raise awareness of the impact they may have on our personal and professional lives, and provide mitigation strategies.

We participated in the “Promova” programme for the second consecutive year, which aims to create conditions to accelerate women's careers. This innovative training and skills development project offers techniques and emotional strategies, with a strong coaching and mentoring component designed by the Universidade Nova in Lisbon and the Confederation of Portuguese Businesses (CIP).

In partnership with the Vila com Vida Association, we designed a selection, integration and monitoring project for People with disabilities in Continente, Continente Modelo, Continente Bom Dia and Bagga stores.

Through this partnership and this pilot, we will be able to test and guarantee the effectiveness of an integration process that we hope is holistic and integrated and offer training to the respective teams and leaders and carry out close monitoring through a talent manager.

Over the past year, we continued to promote a self-learning culture. Our aim is for this to be imbued within MC. To this end, we carried out initiatives in terms of support tools and developed toolkits. This innovative way of addressing future skills brings together a set of varied training resources to read, watch, listen to, interact with, and practice in a single space.

To mitigate the gap between the skills available in the labour market and our strategic development pipeline, we remained on course with the partnerships established with different institutions within the training and academic universe.

Within this scope, at the beginning of the year, in conjunction with the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (IPS), we supported the creation of a new master's degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM). This is a pioneering training programme in Portugal. It qualifies participants with professional competencies and follows a project-based learning methodology. This partnership represents an unprecedented junction between the academic and corporate worlds to provide privileged contact with expert faculty members and highly esteemed professionals in sectors relating to Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Also, with the same institution, we advanced with the CTeSP (Higher Professional Technical Course) in Retail Management, promoting the entry of MC Employees into higher education, in a strategy of upskilling our human resources.

With MC's “Centro Qualifica” (professional training qualification centre), we continued to work towards the goal of increasing our Workforce qualifications whilst simultaneously granting them certifications in various modules. In 2021, we supported the increase in qualifications of 602 Associates and 248 saw their qualifications increased via RVCC (Recognition, Validation and Certification of Competencies) with a total of 12,400 hours of certified training.

“Lead Better” embodies MC's leadership vision and what we aspire to and are inspired by. It resulted from a collaborative and co-building project involving focus groups, surveys, interviews, and workshops with our leaders. Thus, enabling us to design the MC leadership model based on five principles. A model aligned with our culture and ambition to experience leadership with purpose. One which is more agile and human and adaptable to the different contexts within MC.

“Lead Better” was presented at a live event for more than 3,300 leaders. A 6-week follow-up period ensued where leaders were involved in a deep and structured process of self-analysis, gathering feedback and reflecting on their leadership practices. This translated into over 15,000 feedback sessions.

To mobilise the organisation and generate awareness, we organised an additional set of 5 live sessions focused on deep diving into each of the 5 principles. Subsequently, in addition to adapting our assessment tools, we launched digital “Learning Journeys”, customised to the improvement opportunities of each leader, in a self-learning format that is flexible and adaptable to individual paces.

In 2021, we remained on course with the «Programa Operacional de Saúde e Segurança no Trabalho» (Occupational Health and Safety Operational Programme). The goal is to strengthen our safety culture by implementing appropriate leadership behaviour and measures and the management of working conditions, thus reducing frequency and severity rates in line with the European benchmark. Within the scope of this programme, we carried out 2,530 technical visits to our units.

The “Safetyway” programme was developed for our logistics warehouses. It is structured around three principles: (i) recognise (unsafe conditions); (ii) evaluate (measure in loco); (iii) change (adopt immediate and effective actions). Thus, contributing towards a sustainable reduction in accident indicators.

We also designed “Zero Acidentes” (Zero Accidents), a strategic communication plan to be developed over 3 years. The aim is to reinforce preventive and spontaneous behaviour among our Workforce that establishes a modus operandi and thus implement the concept of "zero collective assets", where each Associate is responsible for their own safety.

Overweight and obesity threaten one's health and they are risk factors for developing and aggravating cardiovascular and osteoarticular disorders.

Our programme to fight overweight and obesity aims to prevent this problem among our People. With the support of a multidisciplinary team (occupational health experts, nutritionists, sustainability and communication personnel), our initiatives were two-fold: (i) creating awareness by disseminating content in different formats that clarify and detail the principles of healthy eating, physical exercise and motivation, and (ii) intervention, in a pioneering pilot programme that reached 130 Employees.

In this context, a personalised monitoring plan was designed for overweight Employees who, following a diagnosis consultation and initial evaluation, were monitored over the course of six months by a team focused on helping them create healthy eating habits for weight reduction, food re-education and the importance of taking regular physical activity: 69% lost weight at the end of 6 months, with 50% losing up to 5 kg and 19% losing between 5 and 10 kg. 50% of the participants decreased their abdominal perimeter, 55% decreased the percentage of fat, 26% lowered their BMI and 29% of the participants obtained improvement of the lipid profile in the repetition analyses.

n 2021, we implemented the “#PrecisamosFalar” (#WeneedToTalk) programme, which aims to raise awareness across the organisation regarding mental health and equip our Workforce with the necessary tools to spot warning signs (their own and those around them) and use them for the greater well-being.

The programme was developed in 3 dimensions: (i) awareness, through the launch of a quiz for self-assessment regarding levels of well-being and an app with several features to further self-knowledge and personal development; (ii) dissemination of debate podcasts on various topics connected to well-being and a dedicated playlist for well-being, with inspirational and exclusive content to promote self-learning and evolution on these subject matters; and (iii) training, through specific initiatives with tips and tools to improve self-care and care for others.