‘It’s the little things’

Managers in West Yorkshire have been raising smiles by greeting colleagues on delivery with cups of soup and hot chocolate.

With West Yorkshire’s postmen and women having to brave everything that Storm Ciara was determined to throw their way, operations manager, Jan Wormald and his team were determined to show their appreciation.

‘In West Yorkshire we always try to do the “little things” that make a difference to our people,’ said Jan. ‘Recognition plays a big part in our overall performance and all my managers try to lead by example from the front. In the summer, we handed out choc ices, but this is the first time we’ve done something similar with hot drinks.

‘I asked my team of managers: “If you were out in the freezing cold and wet delivering mail, would you appreciate it if I came and found you on delivery, stood in the rain alongside you (even if only for a few minutes) and served you some warm soup?” Within the next two hours, I was being inundated with photos from the team serving soup to our frontline people out on their rounds in the bad weather.

‘The smiles on everyone’s faces said a thousand words. Our postmen and women are only human, and working in poor weather conditions can obviously cause a lot of frustration. Showing our appreciation can help ease those frustrations, build relationships between management and the frontline and also help increase morale.’

The delivery office managers involved in the initiative included, Dean Cotton and the Halifax Delivery Office team, Rob Hawley and the Bradford North Delivery Office team, Shane Whitford at Skipton Delivery Office, and James Bailey and the BD Valley team.

Service delivery leader, Anton Harding, said: ‘Excellent idea. Keep thinking outside the box for different ideas to keep our engagement with our people top of the agenda and let them know their efforts in difficult conditions are appreciated. Well done to the whole team.’

Have you been taking action? 

This year, our Employee Survey is moving online and will be delivered in partnership with our new survey provider, Qualtrics. Press play to hear from our chief HR officer, Sally Ashford.

We’re looking for other teams who have been acting on feedback from last year’s Employee Survey and making changes in their workplace. If you’re happy to share your story, please email groupcommunications@royalmail.com.