Asda has won big in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours’ List, whose publication in June was delayed in order to recognise “unsung heroes” of the coronavirus pandemic.
Eight colleagues from the supermarket chain have been honoured for their contributions in tackling the virus on the frontline and support for their communities, the most among the multiples.
Imran Rashid Dawji, Asda head office colleague, received an MBE in recognition of his work in creating a recruitment process that allowed the retailer to bring on board an extra 25,000 temporary colleagues.
Imran Rashid Dawji, human resource administrator at Asda head office, received an MBE in recognition of his work in creating a recruitment process that allowed the retailer to bring on board an extra 25,000 temporary colleagues.
“It was a pivotal time to ensure everything was close to perfect as we had a duty to ensure support was provided to everyone around the country,” Davji said.
“Myself and the team bought into the idea that this work would be accomplished by knowing conscientiousness would be imperative whilst working outside of process. Hard work and tenacity were the key ingredients of this success and gave impetus to this journey over the past few months.”
Working outside of usual process, Dawji gave crucial support in creating around 50 positions in every single Asda store so as to recruit the temporary colleagues, which also helped the retailer to shield vulnerable colleagues.
In addition, seven others from the retailer received a British Empire Medal for going above and beyond for their local communities.
They include: Geoff Norris, home shopping driver at Asda Wisbech; Julie Cook, community champion at Asda Aberdare; Karen Clark, e-commerce customer trading manager at Asda Ellesmere Port; Lucy Mansell-Render, nights department manager at Asda North East Clothing Depot, Washington; Samantha D’Souza, community champion at Asda Hayes; Simon Lea, general store manager at Asda Altrincham (previously Marple) and Faisal Tuddy, Asda house superintendent pharmacist.
Geoff Norris has been a true hero over the last few months, looking after vulnerable and elderly customers by doing their shopping for them on his days off and delivering it in his own car. Highlight of his work during the pandemic has been the surprise birthday party he organised when he learned that a regular customer would be by herself on her 90th birthday.
"There were a lot of people out there who were in need and couldn't get anything and I knew I had to do something to help. Some of them were in tears. It wasn't just me; my wife and daughter were taking phone calls, and a lot my colleagues at Asda helped too. They were fantastic,” Norris, who's married to Vanessa and has a 22-year-old daughter Anna, said.
"We never, ever expected anything like this. My wife and daughter were as shocked as I was,” he commented on the medal.
Julie Cook, who has gone above and beyond to help with anything and everything for her local community, particularly care homes and local hospitals in Aberdare, said, for her, lockdown was also about putting smiles on people's faces.
“I couldn't ignore anyone who was struggling just because it was lockdown, so I tried to be as normal as I could. I had no problem dressing up as the Easter Bunny. We followed social distancing guidelines and it was so lovely to see the smiles on the faces of these children who were from disadvantaged backgrounds when they saw that the Easter Bunny was still here and that they hadn't been forgotten about. It will be the same at Christmas too,” she said.
Karen Clark has played a key part in keeping the online grocery team at Ellesmere Port store’s wheels turning, even while the store’s home delivery service was full to capacity. She made the difficult and brave decision to have her Autistic son James shield with his dad for 11 weeks rather than take time off.
Cordelia Kingsley, Asda general store manager at Ellesmere Port, said “We’re all very proud of Karen. She gives 200% in everything she does and always looks out for the customer. She works so hard – in fact she’s the hardest working person I’ve ever known. When she found out about this award she was quite overwhelmed – I think she thought the email was junk at first! Well done Karen.”
Lucy Mansell-Render has given incredible support for local care workers, who she knew were struggling with being key frontline workers throughout the pandemic, but not feeling as appreciated as other sectors of frontline workers. She even arranged a socially distanced warm welcome for the team at the depot.
She said: “I feel honoured to be recognised for this award, however it was a team effort and I’d like to thank everyone involved on behalf of myself and the team here.”
Jennifer Stelling, general manager at Washington North East clothing depot of Asda, added: “The care workers that attended our depot for the socially distanced recognition were extremely touched and I am sure that in such a terrible climate Lucy gave them one memory that the team will look back on positively.”
In her role as community champion, Samantha D’Souza at Asda Hayes had weekly phone calls with vulnerable people from local community groups, including Alzheimer's Society Café, the local church and the W. I knit and Natter group and spent her own time arranging for donations to local charities, foodbanks and frontline workers.
“When the pandemic hit, I knew my local community needed me the most, not only that but I wanted to ensure that I was supporting my colleagues and keeping up morale to enable us to continue to serve our customers. I’m really proud that I was able to play my part – whether that was supporting colleagues, providing comfort on the telephone to the most vulnerable or organising care packages for our frontline and care workers,” she said.
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Leading by example, Simon Lea who was the general store manager at Marple during the virus outbreak, has worked extra days in store and given up holiday to support his team. In addition, he has volunteered his free time outside of work to support vulnerable and elderly people in his local community.
Lea, who is now the general store manager at Asda Altrincham said: “I’m literally bowled over to receive this award, it really is such an honour. I felt it was our duty to step up and ensure we were supporting our community when they needed us the most and in any way we could, a lot of people were relying on us.”
Faisal Tuddy, Asda house superintendent pharmacist, ethics and compliance, ensured every single one of Asda’s 254 pharmacies open during the Coronavirus pandemic.
He created a prescription delivery service from scratch, in a little under two weeks, which included establishing the process, recruiting temporary drivers, briefing all pharmacy colleagues and communicating to customers about the service. Asda is now delivering over 10,000 prescriptions every week, with 3,000 of those going to patients who are shielding.
Tuddy has also created a UK-first prescription call and collect service to protect customers still coming into shops to collect their medication. This market-leading service is now used by more than 1,000 customers per week.
“I feel honoured and humbled to be accepting the British Empire Medal, it’s a testament to the incredible work of all our pharmacy teams in stores and the support of my head office colleagues,” he said.
“They have all really pulled together to go above and beyond to look after our patients when they needed us the most. It’s an absolute pleasure to work with so many dedicated people.”
Roger Burnley, Asda chief executive, said: “I cannot express how proud we all are to have eight colleagues recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. These colleagues, key workers along with thousands of others, have done an amazing job looking after our customers in phenomenally challenging circumstances.
"I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to them all for the way in which they have risen to the challenges of the pandemic and played their vital role in feeding the nation.”
