Describe your business in 3 words

Create The Extraordinary

About the business

Selfridges was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge, changing the world of retail forever when the first store opened on Oxford Street in 1909.

Powered by imagination and innovation, Selfridges has always been more than a shop – recognised as a brand driven by a vision to reinvent retail.

We are part of Selfridges Group – one of the world’s leading collections of luxury omni-channel retailers.

We offer our customers extraordinary products, destinations, and experiences across our four physical stores and digital platform. A landmark destination and social centre where everyone is welcome, Selfridges is powered by imagination and filled with creative spirit.

From the in-house cinema, restaurants, bars and skate bowl, to an ever-evolving roster of collaborators and cultural partnerships, Selfridges is a creative playground in which to discover new ideas and live brighter.

Selfridges is committed to creating a more sustainable future for people and planet and continues to build on over a decade of retail activism.

Since banning fur in 2005 and removing all plastic-based cosmetic glitter from its stores in 2021, Selfridges launched its circular ecosystem ‘Reselfridges’ with products and services across resale, rental, repair, refill and recycle.

The business continues to pursue ambitious targets and transition to more sustainable materials, explore new business models, and challenge the mindsets of partners and customers, with a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Why is diversity and inclusion important to your company?

At Selfridges, we believe that diversity, equity and inclusion should be more than the sum of our parts and it should play a genuine role in how we operate, how we build relationships with customers and how we create extraordinary experiences.

That’s why, in 2020, we established a democratically elected Diversity Board to help shape a more inclusive and equitable future at Selfridges.

The board, which sees a refreshed member panel each year, facilitates ongoing education, and community engagement, and challenges existing norms, further enriching our business’s collective perspective.

We believe that working collaboratively is key to an inclusive culture, so we continue to build on our work around our D,E & I agenda, as well as our values; Create The Extraordinary, Lead With Purpose, Embrace Every Self.

Our focus on Inclusive Hiring course has been created to support our hiring managers in building their skills to select the best talent for their team using reliable and fair assessment processes.

What is the culture that you foster within your company?

We take immense pride in our commitment to the wellbeing of our team members, by fostering a healthy workplace culture. In response to the evolving needs of our people, we have introduced various initiatives to support our teams.

We run our company-wide Wellbeing Hour and flexible core hours, enabling our teams to achieve a work-life balance that works for their individual circumstances. We have also introduced policies to support wellbeing with neurodiversity at Selfridges.

Collaborating with our Thinking Differently community members and external partners at Exceptional Individuals, we introduced our Thinking Differently at Work policy, and we launched our Mental Health policy supported by a programme of face-to-face workshops in partnership with The Self Space.

We also became the first retailer to gain a Fertility Friendly Accreditation, partnering with community interest company, Fertility Matters at Work, underlying our commitment to creating an environment that is family-friendly and inclusive.

How do you support personal development?

At Selfridges, we create extraordinary learning experiences for our team members by empowering them to invest in their personal development.

Through a combination of face-to-face workshops, online learning, webinars, apprenticeships and our commitment to feedback through our inclusive Performance and Development process, we provide team members with the tools and resources they need to progress their careers, both within our business and beyond.

In 2023, we launched The Yellow Careers Club – a service dedicated to internal recruitment – providing practical support and skills to give all team members an accessible way to explore new opportunities here at Selfridges.