Boots: "Immensely proud" of pharmacy teams

In response to the findings, Boots says while it did not award bonuses during its 2019-20 financial year – which runs September to August at the multiple – 96% of “eligible” pharmacists and pharmacy managers had a salary increase.

Bernadette Lavery, director of pharmacy at Boots, says: “We are immensely proud of the work of our colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Named an ‘essential retailer’ by the government, Boots stores have remained open throughout to ensure that communities have access to everything they need, including healthcare, medicines, prescriptions, and pharmacy services and advice.

“The wellbeing of all our colleagues will always be hugely important to us and we recognise that the pandemic has added to very real workplace pressures.

“During the year we have continued to regularly talk to our pharmacists and pharmacy teams about their wellbeing. We offer support to our pharmacy colleagues through our employee assistance programme and other initiatives as well as investing in new technology and colleague training to help reduce the workload for our teams.”

Boots says its employees continue to have access to its wellbeing steering group and a professional helpdesk with pharmacists who are all trained as mental health first aiders to manage concerns on mental health issues.

Lloyds: Employee wellbeing is “top priority”

In response to the findings in the tool, Lloydspharmacy says: “The wellbeing of our colleagues has remained our top priority this year, along with ensuring that as a company we recognise the commitment and dedication they have shown to their customers and patients during this pandemic, and throughout what has been a challenging year for community pharmacy.”

It outlined a “number of initiatives” introduced last year to support pharmacy teams.

“Our pharmacists are at the heart of our business. We make time to listen to them and recognise there is always more we can do to help manage workload and promote work life balance,” the multiple tells C+D.

“We are pleased to see a significant reduction in stress levels on last year’s survey (by 32%) and continue to explore ways to make Lloydspharmacy a great place to work.” 

Well Pharmacy declined to comment on the results.

The C+D Salary Survey 2020 – the largest UK survey of community pharmacy – ran between October 19 and December 10 and was completed by a total of 1,667 pharmacists and pharmacy staff. C+D's ongoing coverage from the survey can be found on our dedicated hub.