An introduction
In June 2024 we implemented a demographic profile feature for UK&I employee profiles via our HR system, MyView (Zellis). We will be using the snapshot date 23rd August 2024 for this transparency report on Lush’s diversity. The profile is available to all UK&I colleagues, which totaled 3765 colleagues on the snapshot date.
The questions were each optional, meaning respondents could answer all, some or none of the demographic questions. ‘Disability’ was the most responded to option at 16.49% response rate (621 out of 3765 Lush colleagues chose to answer this question). The overall response rate averaged at 16.14%.
To accurately gather Lush UK-based leadership demographic data, we utilised Google forms to directly survey attendees of Lush leadership meetings. This group includes a total of 55 people including Founders, Directors, Senior Leads and Heads of Departments based in the UK. The total number of regular attendees is 55, however not every attendee is in a senior leadership position. Of the 55, 25 filled out the demographic survey, with an overall response rate of 43.43% and 83.33% response rate from Lush Founders.
It is important to note that self-identification was used throughout the surveys. We asked demographic questions about race and ethnicity, religion and belief, pronouns, sexual orientation, dependents and disability. The information for Lush Group and Partners for age demographics was amalgamated from employee records.
The MyView survey profile allowed for respondents to choose one option per question. The Google Leadership demographic survey mirrored the MyView profile. There is more on this included in the ‘Learnings on Collecting Demographic Data’ section under the report summary.
The aim of the surveys is to understand diversity across the Lush UK&I business. This report states the findings and figures from the surveys. This report is part of a commitment to regularly monitor and measure diversity at Lush, to offer transparency about who we are at Lush, and continuously work towards the goal of diversifying the Lush business. All are welcome, always.
Race & Ethnicity – Lush UK&I
16.4%
response rate
Race & Ethnicity – Lush UK-based Leadership
| Group | Total / Response rate |
| UK-based leadership | 55 / 45.45% |
| Founders | 6 / 83.33% |
| Mixed ethnicity, mixed race, more than one race/ethnicity | 4% |
| White | 96% |
Race & Ethnicity – By Lush UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | ||
| Retail respondents | 290 | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 103 | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 178 | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 40 | ||
| Race & ethnicity | Lush Retail | Lush Manufacturing | Lush Limited & Cosmetic Warriors | Lush Digital |
| Gypsy, Roma, Traveller | 0.34% | / | / | / |
| Southeast Asian | 0.68% | / | / | / |
| Hispanic, Latinx | 0.68% | 0.97% | 0.56% | 0.56% |
| Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, West Asian | 1.03% | 1.94% | / | / |
| African, Black, Caribbean | 1.03% | / | 0.56% | 2.50% |
| East Asian | 1.37% | / | 1.12% | 2.50% |
| South Asian | 3.44% | 0.97% | 0.56% | 7.50% |
| Mixed ethnicity, mixed race, more than one race/ethnicity | 8.62% | 0.97% | 7.86% | 10.00% |
| White | 81.03% | 91.26% | 89.32% | 77.50% |
| Prefer not to answer | 1.72% | 3.88% | / | / |
Religion & Belief – Lush UK&I
15.9%
response rate
| Religion & belief | Response rate (total respondents) | |
| Christadelpains (Christian) | 0.17% | |
| Church of Scotland (Christian) | 0.17% | |
| Jain | 0.17% | |
| Pantheism | 0.17% | |
| Animism | 0.33% | |
| Chinese traditional | 0.33% | |
| Humanist | 0.33% | |
| Religious but not specific/unaffiliated | 0.33% | |
| Protestant (Christian) | 0.49% | |
| Satanist | 0.49% | |
| Sikh | 0.49% | |
| Jewish | 0.66% | |
| Buddhist | 0.83% | |
| Hindu | 0.99% | |
| Observe cultural practices | 0.99% | |
| Other | 1.49% | |
| Muslim | 1.82% | |
| Roman Catholic (Christian) | 2.15% | |
| Pagan | 2.32% | |
| Church of England (Christian) | 3.65% | |
| Spiritual | 4.15% | |
| Christian | 10.63% | |
| Agnostic | 15.61% | |
| Atheist | 23.92% | |
| No religious belief | 25.08% | |
| Prefer not to answer | 2.15% | |
Religion & Belief – Lush UK-based Leadership
Response rate of UK based leaders and founders
Lush UK-based Leadership
| Religion & belief | Response rate (total respondents) | |
| Observe cultural practices but not religious or spiritual | 4% | |
| Christian | 4% | |
| Agnostic | 8% | |
| Roman Catholic (Christian) | 12% | |
| Spiritual but not religious | 12% | |
| Not religious or spiritual | 16% | |
| Atheist | 20% | |
| Prefer to self-describe | 12% | |
| Prefer not to answer | 4% | |
Religion & Belief – By UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | Response Rate | ||
| Retail respondents | 282 | 13.53% | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 102 | 9.70% | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 172 | 35.39% | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 40 | 50% | ||
Pronouns – Lush UK&I
16%
response rate
Pronouns – Lush UK-based Leadership
| Group | Total | Response Rate |
| UK-based leadership | 55 | 45.45% |
| Founders | 6 | 83.33% |
Pronouns – By UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | Response Rate | ||
| Retail respondents | 289 | 13.67% | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 102 | 9.70% | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 172 | 35.39% | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 40 | 50% | ||
Sexual Orientation – Lush UK&I
16.2%
response rate
Sexual Orientation – Lush UK-based Leadership
| Group | Total | Response Rate |
| UK-based leadership | 55 | 45.45% |
| Founders | 6 | 83.33% |
Sexual Orientation – By UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | Response Rate | ||
| Retail respondents | 290 | 13.92% | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 103 | 9.80% | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 175 | 36% | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 39 | 48.75% | ||
Disability – Lush UK&I
16.5%
response rate
Disability – Lush UK-based Leadership
| Group | Total | Response Rate |
| UK-based leadership | 55 | 45.45% |
| Founders | 6 | 83.33% |
Disability – By UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | Response Rate | ||
| Retail respondents | 292 | 14.01% | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 103 | 9.80% | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 181 | 37.24% | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 39 | 48.75% | ||
Dependents – Lush UK&I
15.7%
response rate
Dependents – Lush UK-based Leadership
| Group | Total | Response Rate |
| UK-based leadership | 55 | 45.45% |
| Founders | 6 | 83.33% |
Dependents – By UK Business Entity
| Group | Total | Response Rate | ||
| Retail respondents | 284 | 13.63% | ||
| Manufacturing respondents | 100 | 9.51% | ||
| Lush Limited and Cosmetic Warrior respondents | 161 | 33.12% | ||
| Lush Digital respondents | 40 | 80% | ||
Learnings on Collecting Demographic Data
We acknowledge that the data is not complete. We began the project with the ambition of surveying the Lush UK&I market to get a snapshot of who makes up the business. However, due to utilising a new software (MyView provided by Zellis) we learnt that the implementation of a new system for colleagues was going to impact our response and user rate, as it is down from previous surveys. It was an important learning experience, as we would like to continue utilising the one platform so we can see how the data is correlated with other HR data points, for example, tenure, seniority and salary. The ambition is to improve on our future People reporting, such as pay gap transparency.
As MyView is not primarily designed for diversity monitoring, we did come across a few hurdles with data collection and how that fed through to collated reporting. Respondents were only able to select one option per section. We have learnt that we can improve the selection basis for future demographic surveys, for both the accuracy of the data collected and for the experience of the respondents. Whilst grouping demographic information is useful for understanding who is represented at Lush, multi-select and open box responses enable Lush colleagues to comfortably identify across multiple groupings, or to comfortably describe their identities in their own words. The goal is to make this available for all Lush global colleagues with future surveying, as the user experience of the survey is important for the data that is produced.
One of the benefits of MyView is that all UK colleagues have a profile which they can edit at any point, meaning we don’t technically have a switch on and off period for diversity monitoring, we simply choose a snapshot date, this time being 23rd August 2024.
Future Goals for Surveying
Diversity enriches our lives and our business, and our future aim is to continue to regularly capture Lush’s diversity and representation data.
The purpose of this report is to offer transparency about diversity and representation at Lush UK&I. With the data we have collected, we now understand that transparency is a goal in and of itself, and we will continue to work towards accurately reporting diversity at Lush. We have made changes since we last conducted this survey, and our response rate has significantly dropped so we know we have some way to go to implement the system and build trust with colleagues.
We aim to actively create meaningful connections and a sense of belonging within Lush. We continue to work on growing our internal networks through dedicated spaces for community.
From June 2024, we were pleased to see the Lush UK&I market go into the third term of Community Networks, including networks for: Disability and Chronic Illness, People of the Global Majority, LGBTQIA+, Menopause, Neurodiversity, and Family Support: Parents and Carers. As of this term, we are running a leader and reverse mentorship scheme alongside the Community Networks, meaning each Chair of each network is partnered with a senior leader within the business.
We have elevated our collaborative focus groups through an initiative called Lush Co-Create, which enables and empowers colleagues to get involved in product development, from Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah, Lunar New Year and more seasonal ranges. Regular diversity monitoring will support us to understand what community and focus spaces can be provided and invested to contribute to inclusion and belonging at Lush.
This will be the company we want it to be.
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