We offer everyone the opportunity to work at Action. We also offer a safe and healthy work environment, flexible working hours, and training and promotion opportunities, so that our colleagues can reach their full potential.

Our colleagues are the beating heart of Action – because they help our customers. As we grow, we want our colleagues to grow and develop too. We have six values that guide our behaviour:

Employees by location

(number, end-2024)

We employ 79,681 people across our stores, offices and distribution centres. Many of our colleagues appreciate the flexible hours we offer – combining work with other priorities such as study, school, or caring for children and other family members. 70% of our colleagues work part-time, and 72% are women.

In 2024, Action was named among Forbes and Statista’s Best Employers in Poland.

Our employees are as diverse as the communities where we work. Diversity brings new perspectives and a better understanding of our customers. In our stores, offices and distribution centres, we employ people from 151 different nationalities. In recent years, we have worked to make inclusion and equal opportunities a part of everyday business and decision-making, ensuring that all employees, for example, have equal access to training and career opportunities.

In rolling out our DE&I approach, we have set a target for women in senior management positions. We aim for women to make up at least 40% of our management by 2027 – up from 37% in 2024. In recent years, we have made significant progress in this area. Our priority is to further embed equal opportunities into our day-to-day operations. Women are already well represented at store level, making up 74% of Action store management.

At international headquarters, DCs and country offices

All our colleagues receive regular training to help them in their work. Where possible, we encourage our people to learn new skills. We also promote from within – our target is to have, on average, at least one internal promotion per store each year. In 2024, the average was 1.1 promotions per store. In total, we promoted a total of 3,507 colleagues across our stores, offices and distribution centres. Employees all undergo regular performance reviews – an opportunity not only to review progress, but also to identify, for example, personal training needs or prospects for promotion. Starting in 2025, we will conduct performance reviews twice a year for all colleagues – instead of just once a year as before.

We promote a safe, healthy work environment across all our stores, offices and distribution centres. To prevent accidents and injuries, we provide mandatory health & safety training, and conduct regular risk assessments, audits and inspections. We also provide targeted training for workers in our distribution centres and warehouses who may be operating machinery or loading and unloading trucks.

Average training hours per employee

We wish to develop a new generation of leaders within Action. To achieve this, we are creating specific growth tracks. In 2024, we began extending our development programme for managers. In addition, we launched our first group 18-month traineeship for young employees looking for professional roles in areas such as supply chain management, finance, store operations and real estate.

We engage regularly with our colleagues to hear their views and suggestions for improvements. As part of this, we work closely with works councils, trade unions and other employee representatives. Every two years, employees take part in our Voice of Action (VoA) survey – this is followed up by a smaller Pulse survey each year to get a better understanding of particular topics. Our latest VoA survey showed colleagues appreciate flexible hours, the sense of teamwork and our entrepreneurial spirit. We also identified areas for improvement, taking steps to further strengthen our onboarding process and focus more on certain aspects of employee well-being.

We take responsibility for ensuring that workers in our supply chain have a safe working environment where their human rights are respected. That is why we maintain strict standards through our ethical sourcing policy, which our suppliers are required to follow.

To enforce these standards, we need transparency – in other words, we want and need to know exactly where our products are manufactured, by whom, and under what circumstances. In recent years, we have made considerable progress. We now have 99% transparency for our private label products. Our aim is to extend this to all white-label products by the end of 2025.

Standards in our ethical sourcing policy cover everything from health & safety, maximum working hours, to non-discrimination and environmental protection. The policy also includes our commitment to zero child or forced labour in our supply chain. These standards are based on international regulations, including International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Suppliers and factories screened

Supplier assessments

(at-risk countries only)

All Action suppliers are required to commit to our ethical sourcing policy. We recognise, however, that some suppliers face greater potential risks than others – generally, those based in countries with poor environmental or human rights protection. In those higher risk countries, we carry out regular social audits and factory spot checks.

We always investigate reports of violations of our ethical sourcing policy. In 2024, we recorded 21 such cases, 17 of which were resolved during the year. Remediation for the other cases is in progress. Most of the human rights cases investigated related to health & safety incidents. The main issues undermining our monitoring activities include a lack of transparency with auditors, an attempted bribery case, and the unauthorised subcontracting to other factories. Where there is a failure to comply, our preference is to work with our suppliers to implement real improvements and redress any damage caused. That way, we help raise standards across the retail industry. However, in cases where the risk is too great, we may exclude certain suppliers or products. As an example, we do not buy cotton from areas with elevated risks related to labour and human rights issues. Instead, we rely on guidance from, and align closely with, our primary cotton partner, Better Cotton.

Speak for Change gives workers a voice in Vietnam

Amfori’s Speak for Change has proved to be an effective way of protecting workers in our value chain and giving them a voice when confronted with unsafe working conditions.

Action uses Speak for Change at factories in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and Turkey – it is a programme that allows workers to report alleged human or labour rights violations anonymously and without fear of retaliation.

In January 2024, for example, we received a complaint – via Speak for Change – from a worker in a factory making artificial grass matting for Action and other retailers. According to the complaint, workers were exposed to chemicals and stone dust without using proper protective equipment or access to adequate ventilation.

With the help of amfori and our sourcing agent Li & Fung, we were able to verify the complaint and issue a warning to the factory that they were in violation of Action’s ethical sourcing policy.

With factory management, we agreed measures to correct these violations and restore a safe working environment for the company’s employees. Shortly after, the factory provided proper personal protective equipment, ensured adequate ventilation and carried out an extensive environmental inspection. Workers were also given medical checks and training on how to use Speak for Change.

To protect workers, Action also draws on outside expertise. We work with the Centre for Child Rights and Business, for example, on child labour issues. The Centre is also helping us develop a new policy to protect those working from home who are sometimes at risk of poor working conditions. Homeworking is most common in products requiring piecework, including decoration, weaving and embroidery.

Similarly, we have also been working closely with Fairtrade International, helping cocoa farmers in our value chain secure a living income. To support them, we recently became the first international retailer to commit to paying an additional premium into a new Action x Fairtrade Cocoa Fund to help farmers and their families in Ivory Coast by funding education programmes, for example. We pay these Fairtrade premiums as a company and do not pass the cost on to our customers.

Children deserve a start in life that is safe, healthy and fulfilling. We work with our long-term international partners, SOS Children’s Villages and the Johan Cruyff Foundation, to support disadvantaged children around the world.

International NGOs

Action works through recognised international NGOs – the Red Cross and UNICEF – offering financial support to help children affected by natural disasters and conflicts. Children are often among the most vulnerable groups during times of crisis.

TCS Amsterdam Marathon

In 2024, nearly 500 Action colleagues took part in the TCS Amsterdam Marathon to raise money for the UMC Cancer Center Amsterdam. The world-renowned UMC Cancer Center conducts research into cancer, and aims to discover new breakthrough treatments and cures.

SOS Children’s Villages

Since 2018, we have a strong partnership with SOS Children’s Villages, which operates worldwide, providing care for children and financial support for families. As part of our partnership, for every Action store, office and distribution centre, we sponsor a child or village, so our support grows with our business.