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POL00033420
Introduction to Post Office essentials
Post Office Ltd is committed to exploring opportunities
to maintain access to products and services by providing
an alternative form of convenience outlet. During the
past year Post Office Ltd has been trialing a new concept
for delivering Post Office services called Post Office
essentials.
N..B For the next phase of Post Office® essentials
pilots, these will be branded externally as Post Office®
Local, however there are references to Post Office®
essentials in various documents ( e.g. Operating Manuals
). Should we decide to continue with this model after the
pilot stage, all references and documents relevant to
this model will bear the same name.
The Post Office essentials service is available all the
hours that the retail host is open which in most cases is
7 days per week
e The new service offers a wide range of core Post
Office products and services, including electronic
banking, bill payments and budget payment schemes,
Post Office® Card Account withdrawals, Postal Orders
and postage, inland letters / packets and parcels
(including recorded delivery and special delivery)
international letters / packets, or the individual
country limit for small packets or printed papers.
Customers can also order foreign currency for
collection the next day.
Services not available via Post Office essentials
include: cheques as a method of payment, transcash
bills (non automated payments) and Parcelforce
Worldwide International items are not accepted.
e Post Office essentials service point is located
alongside retail till.
e Post Office essentials branches will EITHER be
retailer cash funded ( Post Office essentials Version
1) OR will receive POL remittances in the normal way
( Post Office essentials Version 2).
Apart from this all the procedures and processes are the
same.
Please make sure you read the appropriate Post Office
essentials Operating Manual EITHER Retailer Cash Version
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OR Post Office Ltd Cash Version. This will give you all
the information you may require.
A printed copy of the Operating Manual will be sent to
directly to the branch by Elaine Kidd (HR Farnworth)
prior to commencement of the training this is the
Operator’s copy to be left on site.
FUNDING
Branches will EITHER be retailer cash funded OR will
receive POL remittances in the normal way. TAB 4 on the
Vacancy Report under Core and Outreach will tell you what
type of branch it is.
POL Funded Branches
Cash and stock is received in the normal way.
Retailer Cash Funded Branches
Stock
Stock will be received and returned by Special Delivery,
but still needs to be remitted in.
Cash
The funds required for retailer cash funded branches are
provided from the shop till by means of the process in
the Operations Manual, using icons ‘Loan To PO’ and ‘Loan
from PO’.
ALL LOANS TO/ FROM PO MUST BE ACCOUNTED FOR
IMMEDIATELY AND FULLY ON HORIZON WHEN THE CASH IS
MOVED
(Please make sure you read and understand the Handout for
Inputting and Removing Cash).
Ensure there is enough money in the Post Office at the
start of each day for that day’s transactions. Cash
needs to be monitored on a daily basis and any surplus
cash needs to be banked by the Operator in their
nominated bank account as soon as possible. The Post
Office will reclaim surplus cash via direct debit 3 days
after a surplus has been declared.
During the training support it will be possible to judge
how much money is required for each day’s trading from
the deposits made to the Post Office and the cash
declared figure at the end of day.
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Best Practice is to keep a float of approximately £3000
in the Post Office to start each day, depending on the
transactions in individual offices
Insurance cover for cash
For both Retailer cash funded & POL cash funded branches
the Operator is responsible for providing suitable
insurance for the maximum amount of cash held at the
branch also for providing appropriate security including
alarms, safes etc as required by the insurance company.
For POL cash funded branches only the Operator can opt to
purchase an insurance waiver from POL to cover cash held
at the branch rather than arrange for their own insurance
policy to include this cover. The waiver covers loss of
cash through burglary and robbery only (terms and
conditions apply).
TRANSACTIONS AND STOCK
PO essential branches offer limited transactions and
stock items. Section 5.6 (Other Pertinent Details) on the
Vacancy Report will list any bolt on transactions for
that branch. Please be aware that the bolt on
transactions will vary from branch to branch. The
complete list of transactions and stock held in Post
Office essentials is in the Operations Manual. The only
Special Stamps that will be received as stock will be the
Christmas Issue. The stamps will need to be booked in
and sold as ordinary stamps as the Special Stamp “sell”
icon is not available.
You will need to be aware that some of these branches may
previously have been SPSO’s and did a full range of
transactions, there will be publicity available to make
the public aware of the difference of the new offer.
Please read the handout ‘Objection Handling’ and leave
this with the Agent to cascade to his assistants.
Pens, Paperclips, staplers, etc are provided by the
Operator and are not included in the stores pack.
ASSISTANTS
Compliance
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The Operator will responsible for ensuring all existing
and future members of staff serving at the Post Office
essentials have completed the Post Office Foundation
online test along with any current & future compliance
tests.
Registering
Please take a set of forms for registering new assistants
(P250) to leave with the Operator as an example;
stressing that new assistants’ should be registered
before they work in the Post Office. The Operator should
contact the HR centre to obtain up to date forms when
required.
TRAINING SCHEDULE
The Operator is to be fully trained on all transactions
and products and up to 5 assistants are to be trained on
basic transactions and products. The number of agreed
assistants to be trained will be detailed on the Vacancy
Report. A maximum 6 days on site will be scheduled for 1
Operator and 1 Assistant, 7 days for 1 Operator and 2/3
Assistants, and 8 days for 1 Operator and 4/5 Assistants.
Below is a proforma to schedule on site training time.
The FA will be on site for normal core hours (approx 8.30
- 18.00 Monday to Friday and Saturday morning). The
training schedule needs to be discussed and agreed with
the Operator during set up, to plan the training for the
period. It will help focus the Operator on when they and
their assistants need to be available for training,
maximum two people at any one time, and everyone receives
training during the allocated time on site.
On site Training
schedule Jan 2010
If full training for the Operator and all the assistants
is completed early, this time can be reduced. Tick lists
should be completed for both the Operator and assistants
and any training gaps on the assistants tick list will be
picked up by the Operator. Tick lists are to be printed
from toolkit (EASE: Training - On Site: PO essentials
file).
NOTE: If the PO Local is located in a “One Stop”
shop you should liaise with Rod Hipperson (One
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Stop PO Local coordinator) as part of you
preparation for onsite training support.
BUY BACK
Only branches that have the Euro bolt on product are
allowed to transact currency buy backs with a Post Office
receipt. Euros should be re-sold, other currencies should
be returned with the next collection if POL funded. If
the branch is retailer cash funded the buy back should be
returned when it reaches £2500 in value or before the end
of the Trading Period.
SECURITY
In all cases ensure Operator and assistants are aware of
security requirements for open plan working. Full details
are on the Toolkit under Core and Outreach, PO
essentials. Ensure a copy of ‘Security Requirements for
Post Office essentials’ is available and has been read
and understood by you and the agent.
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SET UP DAY/PREP
You will need to print all the relevant materials and
handouts from the POe file held on EASE to use on site
for training and then leave with the Operator. A easy
guide to the use of the materials and can be found by
following the Poe2 EASE Guide. You may need to allow
extra time for personal development if this is the first
PO essential office you are training, so please discuss
this with your line manager.
Here are some best practice and tips from the pilot
branches:
e Ensure that the Horizon system is in the correct TP.
e All PO essential offices are in GROUP C for Trading
Period dates
e Allow the operator to rem in the stock, then take
them through a balance and roll over to the next BP.
This will give them extra balancing practice.
e Check that the Stores Ordering icon is working, if
not phone the helpline.
e During the set up ensure that the Operator and any
assistants who will be working in the post office
are able to load and unload the safe as this will
need to be done before the retail opens or after it
closes and you may not be in attendance at those
times.
e Enter the Paystation opening times on Horizon.
- From the Front Office
- Licences & Government
- Compliance
Paystation hours ay
n select:
cr
When entering the hours it is important to remember
to “backspace” 00:00 otherwise the system won’t let
you enter any figures.
OPERATORS LEARNING ACTION PLAN
This is to provide ongoing focus for the Operator to
continue staff training using the tick-lists to identify
knowledge gaps. Additionally the Learning Action Plan
will serve as a reminder to the Operator to meet POL
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security requirements and maintain a good standard of
house keeping. Email an electronic copy to Bra
Team within 7 days of onsite support completion.
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FEEDBACK
Level 1 Feedback Form
The Field Advisor should leave a standard Level 1 form
with the Operator.
MI Data Feedback form: The Field Advisor should complete
one form for the Operator & one form for every 3
Assistants, There is a separate MI Data Feedback form for
any Bolt-On transactions and only one of these forms are
required per branch to cover both Operator & Assistants.
The forms have been designed to be printable &
electronic. To add a tick in the boxes on the form
electronically set the “Caps Lock” to the “On” position
and then press “R “.
To enable this feedback to be used by the Post Office
essentials team & Network Support PTC process, as a
measure of reviewing the effectiveness of the training
package please forward the electronic version of the MI
Data Feedback Forms (Operators/ Assistants /Bolt-on’s-if
transacted) Named as: "MI: (Office Name) : (Office Code
(Date: dd/mm/yy) : Operators/ Assistants /Bolt-on: For
Filing On EFC” (eg MI: Ellenborough : 123 456: 041009:
Operator : For Filing on ECF) and a copy of the Operators
Learning Action Plan within 7 days of the completion of
the training to:
BranchSupportTeam!
PLEASE feed back any other best practice to Rita
Kendellen using the form embedded below -it could help
your colleagues.
POe Best Practice will be updated and held on EASE under
the PO essentials section.
@
POe Best Practice
v1.0
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