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POST OFFICE LIMITED
BOARD REPORT
Title: Ethos and People Update Meeting Date: I 28'* November 2023
Owen Woodley, Deputy CEO
Sponsors: and Karen McEwan, Group
Chief People Officer
Tim Perkins, Programme
hor: A
Author Director
Input Sought: Noting
The Board is requested to:
i. Note the primary aim of the Ethos programme and the activity underway across the
business;
ii. Note the initial considerations for the Strategic People Plan; and
iii. Note the initial results from the colleague engagement pulse surveys.
Executive Summary
The Ethos programme is providing oversight and coordination to help accelerate outputs that
drive and assure the culture of Post Office. Since the last Board update, progress has been
made across the core workstreams identified in the September Board paper - assurance,
ethics, governance, people, Postmasters and the Group Executive.
The Strategic People Plan will be presented at January Board. Work has started on defining
this plan with input from across the business being taken to ensure it is a plan that delivers
both for the business and for its people.
The latest colleague engagement pulse surveys have shown improvements in the focus areas
identified in the last full survey in November 2022. Whilst this progress is positive, we remain
clear, from a wide range of data sources and inputs, that there is still significant work to do
on the people strategy and the culture of Post Office.
1. The primary aim of the Ethos programme is to act as an accelerator for activity across
the business that will evolve and assure the culture of the business. The programme will
provide oversight and coordination of these activities, ensuring they align to the Group
Executive's shared culture ambitions.
2. A few highlights of activities in train, or already completed since the last Board update,
follow.
3. The programme is working with Businessfourzero, a specialist external provider, to
develop workshops for the Group Executive in January. These workshops will set the
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Group Executive up to lead the evolution of the business’ culture and ensure alignment
on the shared cultural ambitions.
4. Post Office has continued to work with the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) in two key
areas since the last Board update:
a. A workshop was held with the Group Executive on 24" October covering the IBE’s
findings on ethics maturity in Post Office and to outline potential next steps for
implementing an ethics strategy within Post Office.
b. The IBE has helped the Ethos programme to develop a set of indicators to measure
culture in the business. These indicators are being finalised and will be a key
element of assuring the culture of the business going forwards.
5. Grant Thornton completed a deep dive audit of Post Office’s approach to equity,
diversity and inclusion (ED&I), the results of which were presented to the Group
Executive on 8" November. There was particular praise for the ED&I policies, networks
and initiatives that Post Office has developed, with the next stage of maturity being
identified as moving from a characteristics-based approach led by the People team, to
an inclusive approach as an overarching business strategic objective. The planning for
the next stage of the ED&I strategy forms a key part of the Strategic People Plan, as
noted above.
6. A new tool has been introduced in SuccessFactors to capture feedback on Ways of
Working for SLP and GE-grade colleagues. This was used for the first time in mid year
reviews that were completed by 17 November. The tool has been introduced in
response to the feedback in the November 2022 colleague engagement survey that
senior leaders’ behaviour does not align to the Ways of Working. As noted above, this
engagement survey metric moved forward 4bps in the latest pulse surveys.
7. Anew platform, supported by Reward Gateway, for colleague benefits and recognition
was launched on 29" September. Account activation has reached 70%, with over £155k
being spent on employee discounts and over 3,140 recognition e-cards sent. The
capability to give public recognition through the platform is new for Post Office and will
continue to form a key part of the awards and recognition framework for colleagues.
8. Grant Thornton has also started its governance review and will report to management in
January, with the remuneration governance report due imminently.
9. Work has started on developing a training module for all Post Office employees and
contractors that broadens the experience of restorative justice beyond the Group
Executive members’ planned meetings with victims. The aim is to enable everyone
working at Post Office to understand the human impact of the scandal, while identifying
the cultural conditions and behaviours that led to the failings. To ensure sustainability,
this is planned to be e-learning rather than face-to-face learning and work is currently
underway within the Remediation Unit to identify some victims who may be willing to
share their stories direct to camera as part of the training. The initial draft storyboard
for the training is complete, with the module expected to go live in early 2024.
10. Reporting on improvements required by the Common Issues Judgment and Schedule 5
of the Group Litigation Settlement Agreement continues through the Improvement
Delivery Group (IDG).
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Strategic People Plan
11. Work has started on the development of a Strategic People Plan that will be presented at
January Board.
12. Input from across the business is being sought in developing the plan with the topic
having been covered at the November Townhall and a People Plan priorities session held
with members of the Senior Leadership Group on 20" November.
13. Some of the priority areas identified so far for inclusion in the People Plan are:
a. an organisational clarification of roles and accountabilities;
b. a leadership behaviours framework;
c. an assessment of the capabilities of the existing leadership team against the
leadership behaviours framework;
d. the design of targeted development for the leadership population considering the
outputs of the assessment against the leadership behaviours;
e. a model for identification of potential;
f. a set of transparent job families and a supporting career framework; and
g. a 3-year inclusivity strategy and plan.
14. The People Plan will be the most critical component of developing and changing the
culture of the business, and will work in lock step with the Ethos programme.
15. It is critical for both the Ethos programme and the People Plan that traction and
momentum are built. To this end, we expect to have completed the activity outlined in
paragraph 13. a-c above by the end of January to coincide with the completion of the
Group Executive workshops.
Colleague engagement pulse surveys
16. Pulse surveys were completed with employees across the business in a phased (function
by function) approach from 21* August through to 23 October 2023.
17. The response rate, when compared to the full survey in November 2022, grew 29bps to
65%. The low 2022 response rate was largely driven by Union instruction to PO grades
to not complete the survey whilst industrial action was taking place at the time.
18. The pulse survey was designed to deep dive into the areas being focused on in the
action plan from the November 2022 survey. The action plan was set up to drive the
metrics that were identified as the key drivers of engagement.
19. The results of the pulse survey show an improvement of 1% in the headline engagement
index which is 68%.
20. Progress has been made in the areas of key focus from the action plan:
a. Perceptions of being able to achieve career objectives moved forwards 6bps;
b. Ways of Working being demonstrated every day moved forwards 8bps;
c. Improved internal 2 way communication was a new measure in the pulse survey
with 50% of colleagues saying that communications are open and honest, 11bps
ahead of UK norms;
d. All measures related to removing strain, bureaucracy and inefficiencies moved
forwards, with teamwork and cooperation up 6bps, effective management of
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barriers up 5bps, and a 5bps improvement in those feeling under constant strain;
and
e. Confidence in senior leaders moved forwards 1bp and senior leaders demonstrating
the Ways of Working moved forwards 4bps.
21. A full overview of the results will be taken to the Group Executive on 29"* November,
with further analysis of how the action plan has driven improvements. Results will be
shared with the wider business after that.
22. The next full survey is in February 2024 and the People team’s focus will be on driving
participation in the survey to further improve the response rate from the pulse surveys.
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