Voice of the people
Around 50 colleagues from across the business gathered at London’s Mount Pleasant Mail Centre on Tuesday 23 July for our third People Panel event of 2019.
The People Panel is the recognised forum for us to hear your opinions and ideas on initiatives designed to make Royal Mail Group a better place to work.
The event focused on this year’s Employee Survey results and what colleagues need to do over the coming months to make the business an even greater place to work.
Chief HR officer Sally Ashford highlighted how increasing and improving dialogue with colleagues, using new tools such as the Employee Voice Forum, recruiting apprentices in engineering and sales roles, trialling apprenticeships in Delivery, enhancing our leadership capabilities, and simplifying how we work will help.
Ipsos Mori presented the headline results from the 2019 Employee Survey, including the fact that 60% of colleagues said their experience is positive – our best ever score, and 70% of colleagues said they feel proud to work here – that’s 15% higher than the benchmark for other large UK organisations.
Colleagues were given updates on the 62 joint temperature check visits that occurred earlier in the year as part of our agreement activity, how the contract for our new uniform provider will be awarded in September, and the work of our diversity steering groups including the recent LGBT Allies network launch.
Engagement managers Jane Mulvey and Carly Pearson emphasised the importance of getting involved in action plans at a local team level and described the new ‘Ready, Set, Go’ digital toolkit to help managers arriving at new units hit the ground running and build a sense of trust and support amongst new teams.
Head of employee experience Gemma Webb spoke about the most recent Employee Voice Forum, which you can read more about in the coming days.
‘I hope that everyone who came found the updates useful and will take away the message that the Employee Survey results are our people’s results,’ says Gemma. ‘So please ask for them, discuss them as a team and take action, all of which help us improve how we all feel about our working life at Royal Mail.’
When asked what had improved at Romford Mail Centre since the last Employee Survey, postman Prakash Nair, from Romford Mail Centre, said: ‘The relationship between managers and frontline colleagues has definitely improved. This relationship is obviously crucial, and what I think is really positive, is the fact that newly recruited managers seem much more aware of this than before.’
Postwoman, Anita Kusi, from Croydon Mail Centre, said: ‘Managers need to connect better with staff. I think frontline colleagues should have more involvement with management decision-making.’
The People Panel is held four times a year and is a forum for colleagues to share their feedback and ideas on a wide range of activities. If you’d like to get involved in the People Panel, we’re always looking for colleagues who are keen to join. Contact the team at: culture.engagement.team@royalmail.com.
