Target is one of the largest US retail stores in North America which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It has its outlets in all 50 states of America and the district of Columbia. It has 20 office locations and more than 1900 stores all over the country. It was created by the Dayton Foundation in 1918. Target’s responsibility inclines towards improving people’s lives and making a difference with the inclusiveness, connection, and safety of their team members, guests, and the communities they serve. Target maintains that it has always built its policies, processes, and operations around that theme. With its 350,000 employees, Target’s attempt to better the lives of its team members and communities and their guests has led this company to introduce many policies and plans towards bettering its services and impact on the community at large. Here, let’s know about Target Social Responsibility.
Target’s focused diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE & I) which have been there for more than a decade hold to their commitment to these values. The year 2020 has seen another one introduced. Through the Racial Equity Action and change (REACH) committee, the enterprise will work to further aid progress in the Black Team members, guests, and communities. Another plan for sustainable development has also been introduced called the Target Forward. Target’s new sustainability plan holds promising things for the coming days. This was launched in June 2021.
It commits to working with three critical ambitions. They are:-
- They intend to work towards designing and elevating sustainable brands. It commits to a sustainable and inclusive supply chain working for the fair and equitable treatment of all its workers.
- Target also aims to use innovative ways for eliminating waste and commits to becoming a net-zero enterprise by the year 2040.
- Target aims to give an acceleration of opportunity and equity to their team members and the communities they serve.
- They gave away $245 million in cash and a kind donation from their total sales of $93,561 Million.
Amanda Nusz, the senior vice president of corporate responsibility and president of the Target Foundation says that “Sustainability is the key pillar in their strategic road map.
Target’s constant investment in the lives of their team members can be seen by their increased wage and bonus payouts paid leave support.
- The enterprise’s keen interest in providing the team members free healthcare services are fulfilled by virtual doctor visits.
- There is free backup care for all US team members and donations for the team members or funds for different life-changing purposes.
- Target and its foundation have committed together $10 million to support Nonprofit partners for addressing issues of systematic and structural barriers that the black community faces.
- An additional $10million has been committed to expanding their assistance to their team members and local, national, and global organization instead of the covid19 pandemic.
Target’s plan for 2030 and beyond is an interesting one.
- By 2030, Target aims to be the first in creating and establishing inclusive sustainable brands and work towards innovative ways to enhance the experience.
- By 2025, they plan to take full control of their owned brands.
- They plan to have policies and processes to advance gender equity by 2025.
The four areas where they plan to have an impact is:-
- Maintaining an equitable system for hiring and advancement.
- Working towards making financial security for its team members.
- Providing a way for effective anonymous channels for various incident reporting.
- Making access to gender-responsive health information and services to their workers.
- They plan to achieve it by reducing annual total virgin plastic in their owned-brand packaging.
- They plan to make their owned-brand plastic packaging to be made possible for recycling, composting, or reusable, thereby working towards reducing the environmental impact of packaging and materials.
Their goal for sustainable development is they plan to be a net-zero enterprise by the year 2040. Which they plan to achieve by,
- Committing to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across their enterprise.
- By the year 2025, it plans to have 60% of its electricity from renewable sources on all its operations.
- And by 2030, it commits to make it 100 percent. This will greatly reduce the carbon footprint with solar.
- Target commitment to engage suppliers to give importance to renewable energy and work on protecting sustaining and restoring nature is aimed to achieve by the year 2025.
- They commit to achieving a 50 percent absolute reduction in operation emissions and a 30 percent absolute reduction in the supply chain by 2030.
- Target aims to be net-zero in carbon emissions by the year 2040.
- By the year 2030, the enterprise plans to achieve zero waste to landfill in its U.S operations. It intends to divert 90 percent of waste from landfills through reusing, recycling, donation, and by its reduction strategies by using Innovative ways.
Target has policies in place for addressing its inclusiveness among its workers.
- It uses a variety of recruiting resources to select people from diverse pools.
Target works in liaison with the National Black MBA Association and management leadership for tomorrow and the enterprise’s works with HBCUs. There is a Target HBCU alumni group for its team members which the enterprise maintains to better serve the diversity of its team members. There is also a provision for development sessions to invest in current students and active campus recruiting for entry-levels pledged five years ago to regularly review their compensation, hiring, and promotion, Target maintains good practices in pay equity across the business to help close the national pay gap.
The program that aid these ambitions are as follows:–
- Target offers team member life resources by phone, web which is available for up to five sessions per issue per year.
- Through that, team members and their families have free and confidential round-the-clock access to trained clinicians.
- Target also has optum which is a substance use helpline. The digital apps provided help to combat sleep and anxiety.
- Target’s disability and mental health business are available to build understanding and awareness to its team members.
- There are also virtual health care visits for all US-based team members through the cirrusMD app.
- Target is committed to bringing health and well-being to its team members. The grokker platform is a free fitness and wellbeing platform for all its team members.
- Along with the normal discount the team members also receive another additional 20% discount on fitness and wellness products.
The enterprise’s UnitedHealthcare(UHC) plans to help team members in understanding treatment options and get connected to condition support programs or help them decide on the best care path. Since the enterprise emphasizes the team members’ financial security, they offer daily pay, starting from 2020. Pay advance app allows team members to request their earned but unpaid wages in an Instant or the next day.
The various financial aid provided to their team members are:–
- Budgeting Tools and encourages saving.
- Education assistance or tuition.
- The reimbursement is given.
- Credit union membership.
- Team member giving fund.
Conclusion
These are some of the corporate social responsibility goals of Target. There is a huge emphasis on taking a holistic approach to sustainability and team members’ overall well-being and enhancing the guest experience by including inclusiveness in their apparel, designs, etc. Since respect for humans is the company’s core value, they continuously work towards avoiding adverse human rights infringements.