POST OFFICE LIMITED
STRATEGIC EXECUTIVE GROUP REPORT
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Title:
2024 Engagement Survey
Meeting Date:
1%* May 2024
Author:
Tim Perkins, People Services
Director
Sponsor:
Karen McEwan, Group Chief
People Officer
Input Sought: Noting and approval
The Strategic Executive Group is requested to:
Note the results of the 2024 Colleague Engagement Survey.
Approve the proposed next steps outlined in this paper.
Executive Summary
Post Office completed an Engagement Survey at the start of 2024 and 86% of colleagues
responded to the survey.
Engagement has fallen and this is driven by a decrease in the sense of pride colleagues have
in working for the business. Given the external pressures on the business this was to be
expected, and despite those external pressures colleagues remain motivated to do the best
job they can and to remain at Post Office in the long term. Senior colleagues are under
significant strain and this, coupled with poor internal communications, seem to be
compounding a lack of confidence in senior leaders. Colleagues are looking for a refreshed
strategic direction and for it to be communicated effectively across the business. Indeed,
when colleagues understand the strategy, they feel more confident delivering for
Postmasters, partners and customers. Colleagues experience of line management and
technology has improved and Post Office is seen by the majority of colleagues to be an
inclusive place to work.
The proposed plan is to share the results with all line managers from 7‘ May and then with
the full business on 15‘ May at the Colleague Town Hall. Action plans will be completed by
28" June with a potential future Pulse Survey in August or September 2024.
Report
1. Post Office completed an Engagement Survey over three weeks in February and March
2024. The survey is run end-to-end by Ipsos, Karian and Box (IK&B) through the Qualtrics
contract.
Completion rate
2. The completion rate for the survey was 86%. This was an increase on the completion rate
of the last Pulse Survey (at 65%) and the last full Engagement Survey in 2022 (at 36%
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when Union activity impacted the completion rate). This level of completion is ahead of
UK norms for completion of engagement surveys and means that the outcomes of the
survey can be seen to be very representative.
Headline results
3. The overall outcome report (Appendix A) was shared with the Strategic Executive Group
(SEG) on 23 April 2024. It has also been shared with the ‘Create New Confidence’
Leadership Team group.
4. The key headline results from the 2024 Engagement Survey are as follows:
a. The engagement index has fallen 11% to 57%. This has been driven by a 22%
decrease in colleagues feeling proud to work for Post Office. There has been a
direct ‘switch’ from colleagues feeling proud of working for Post Office to not
feeling proud of working for Post Office between the Pulse Survey and this survey.
Our survey providers have noted that this ‘switch’ is unusual as pride normally
erodes over time with colleagues migrating from positive to neutral and then to
negative responses. This outcome and ‘switch’ was to be expected given the
amplified external pressures on Post Office.
b. Whilst all drivers of engagement have fallen, colleagues’ motivation to do the best
job they can remains 12% higher than UK norms at 73%. This suggests that
whilst colleagues do not feel proud of working for Post Office, they are determined
to contribute to the transformation of the business.
c. 58% of all colleagues plan to be at Post Office for longer than 5 years - typically,
even for businesses with high engagement, intention to stay for over 5 years only
tends to reach the high 20s. So, whilst pride in working for Post Office has fallen,
this has not translated into more colleagues planning to leave the business. More
colleagues who plan to leave cite concerns about Post Office’s future and culture
than previously, with fewer colleagues citing reward.
d. The level of strain felt by senior colleagues at Post Office is substantially different
to the level of strain felt by more junior colleagues and this is impacting their
wellbeing. The predominant descriptions of the Post Office culture for junior
colleagues are ‘friendly’ and ‘supportive’, whilst for senior colleagues they are
‘bureaucratic’ and ‘political’. The barriers which have the highest impact on strain
have decreased for junior colleagues, whilst increasing for senior colleagues.
Proximity of senior colleagues to governance processes is likely a cause of strain
and job and organisation design should be reviewed for senior colleagues.
e. The strain that senior leaders are under is also likely having an impact on their
ability and capacity to lead brilliantly. This, along with the very public issues
surrounding senior leaders at the time of the survey, may be a root cause for the
lack of confidence that colleagues have in senior leaders. 35% of colleagues said
they had confidence in senior leadership, down 4% from 2022 and down 5% from
2023. This fall in confidence might have been expected to be greater for this
survey, but the lack of confidence in senior leaders is a long-term issue for Post
Office and is significantly behind UK norms where 69% of employees have
confidence in senior leadership.
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f. Poor internal communications are driving a lack of colleague confidence in both
Post Office and the senior leadership. 43% of colleagues suggest that the one
thing they would do to make Post Office a better place to work is to either ‘improve
internal communication’ or ‘be more honest and transparent’. In most businesses,
suggestions to make the business a better place to work tend to centre on
improving pay and benefits or improving progression opportunities, so the
overwhelming feedback on communications at Post Office suggests this is a real
area of opportunity.
g. Colleagues are asking for a refreshed strategic direction and for it to be
communicated effectively. This can be found in the verbatim comments of
colleagues, but is also visible in the decline in colleagues views on whether the
vision for 2025 and strategic priorities motivates them (-12% vs 2022 to 32% of
colleagues). This question makes up one of the four drivers of colleague
confidence in senior leaders and is both the largest declining driver against 2022
and the worst performing versus UK norms. It is also critical to note that when
colleagues understand their role in relation to Post Office’s strategy, they are
much more confident that they can support Postmasters, partners and customers.
81% of colleague who understand their role in relation to Post Office strategy are
confident in supporting Postmasters, partners and customers against only 26%
of colleagues who do not understand their role in relation to Post Office strategy.
h. Colleagues experience of their direct line managers and the technology they use
in their jobs have both improved. Colleagues have a broadly positive experience
of their direct line manager, particularly in relation to having regular check ins
and caring about wellbeing and it has improved on all measures since 2022.
Technology remains the biggest barrier colleagues feel they face at work, but this
has fallen from 59% finding it a barrier in 2022 to 42% finding it a barrier in 2024.
i. The colleague experience at Post Office is generally seen as equitable with 17%
of colleagues having no improvements to suggest in relation to ED&I (and 8% of
colleagues thinking that ED&I has gone too far at Post Office). However, the
underlying responses suggest that more can be done to improve the experience
of some groups of colleagues. Colleagues with a disability are less likely to feel
included at Post Office, colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds are less
likely to feel that they can progess their career at Post Office and senior women
are much more likely to have received an unwanted comment at work than senior
men.
Next steps and timelines
5. The proposed timeline for next steps is detailed below:
a. 23" April - Outcome report shared with SEG and ‘Create New Confidence’ group.
b. 1% May - Review the headline results and approve the proposed next steps at
SEG (brought forward from 8" May).
c. 2" May - Headline results shared with Leadership Team.
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d. 7‘ May - Access to Dashboards becomes available to all line managers. This also
enables line managers to begin building local action plans. There will be a
standardised template for action plans which can be found in Appendix B.
e. 15% May - Business wide update at May Town Hall on survey results and next
steps. To be led by Karen McEwan and/or Tim Perkins.
f. 4% June - Indicators from the colleague engagement survey to be included in
broader culture update to Board.
28* June - Business and local action plans to be finalised and submitted.
July - Survey dates and question set for Pulse Surveys to be agreed with SEG.
i. August/September - Potential timeline for Pulse Survey completion. This will be
under a new contract, so there is an opportunity to reset timeliness of results with
a new provider/under a new contract.
6. The sharing of the business level results with the ‘Create new confidence’ group will allow
this group to lead on the creation of the business-wide action plan with support from
Kayleigh Young (as Colleague Experience and Engagement Manager). The ownership of
the business-wide action plan by this group indicates that the engagement results are
‘leadership owned’ rather than ‘People function owned’ to align to the broader shift of
culture being owned by the Leadership Team rather than the People function.
7. In addition to having business-wide and local (functional) action plans, we are proposing
that action plans should also be created for three specific populations whose experience
of working at Post Office differs from the norm. The purpose of this is to indicate that the
results from the engagement survey are being addressed in a different way to the past,
and this approach also indicates a move away from a siloed mentality within the business.
The additional populations we propose action plans are developed for are:
a. Band 4 and SLP colleagues - with a specific focus on the strain that these
colleagues have reported being under
b. Colleagues with a disability - with a specific focus on the level of inclusion that
these colleagues experience
c. Colleagues from an ethnic minority background — with a specific focus on career
progression within Post Office
8. Subject to SEG agreeing to having these additional non-functional action plans, a sponsor
for each from within the Leadership Team will be sought and action planning will be
completed in line with the timelines for the business-wide and local action plans.
ze
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