POL00460574
POL00460574
Proposed Narrative
We now have a new structure proposal for the People Function that we would like to take you
through for your builds and approval.
Our vision for the work was:
ture
rebuilding trust and
confidence,
motivating, challenging
space to grow.
And the general principles were:
¢ That this gives a fuller structure for the next 18-24 months with the options to decrease the
size of this as capabilities get embedded; we would anticipate doing this by natural
attrition/movers/promotions etc — particularly in the partnering space.
That we align structures to support future opportunities, e.g. strengthening Talent
Acquisition team to better manage the way that contractors (contingent workers) are used
within POL, reducing reliance, risk, cost and bringing in better in-house capability
¢ That we remove unnecessary hierarchy from the structure, to use as a template for
organisational changes to work levelling at a later stage across the rest of the business.
e@ = That we introduce and pilot tools as part of this change that will help with improving culture
and will use learnings to roll out to the rest of the business — e.g., redeployment approach
and principles, hiring manager training, interview guides and toolkits that align to a
leadership framework and give a consistent way of recruiting in POL, partnering
training/development.
e¢ That this removes single points of failure and provides opportunities for career development
and growth without the need to have to leave the Post Office to grow your skills and further
your career. Retaining and growing skills and keeping corporate memory.
© That we can present a ‘one team’ view to the business of the people function, removing
duplication, inconsistencies, silo’d working (all area strengthen each other) and confusion,
with clear points of contacts to align to business and strategic priorities.
POL00460574
POL00460574
Then the specific themes that we have pulled out and are addressing:
1. Partnering is too light, too top heavy and inconsistent across different business functions.
© We have removed 3 partnering director roles and report this now to a single
director.
@ = We have introduced a head of partnering role, a people partner role and an hr
advisor role.
This increases the number of heads supporting partnering from its current 7 (which
doesn’t include un-replaced leavers) to 20 and 4 different levels (currently 2). This
ensures that partnering happens at the appropriate experience level, giving full,
value adding roles, clear routes of succession and the best support to the business.
e Alongside structure changes, we will also be pulling together a ‘partnering in the
post office’ development programme and supporting communication, to ensure a
consistent approach and clear guidance to the business to increase line manager
accountability and guide self-serve journey.
2. There are blurred lines of accountability in IR and ER
¢ We have moved these accountabilities to sit under one director and combined
roles, to make accountability clearer.
e In the case of IR, we have housed this in the area of most activity (retail
partnering), this allows for shrinking of this team should the amount of DMB
decrease and the need for unions reps decrease as a result.
3. Mland data is poor and not readily available. This impacts both the function, the ability to
support the business the credibility of the function. Systems are not as user friendly as
they could be. The Support from PSS can be variable.
e Weare investing in MI and Data capabilities and reporting these to a dedicated
Manager role
e Alongside structure changes, we will also be pulling together a systems
improvement plan with product development roadmaps and clear ownership
and support, working with tech team experts for light touch support.
e Weare removing ‘data’ accountability from the systems manager role.
e The rest of the headcount isn’t increasing or decreasing, but there is work to do
to remove hand-offs, duplication and improve capability. This can be managed
by the Services Director and Head of Shared Service.
4. There is inconsistency in our organisation design activities and despite this being a GE
accountability for the CPO and many change activities planned for 24/25 , has no
dedicated resource.
e Weare investing in dedicated OD capability.
e¢ Wewill develop a set of consistent OD principles to guide the design of the
future organisation to:
0 identify areas of investment versus cost saving
0 decide how and when to work with third parties and when to build
capability in house.
POL00460574
POL00460574
© deliver full and meaningful roles that deliver career progression
opportunities.
© maximise spans of support to provide the right mix between
empowerment and line manager support.
5. Wellbeing sits outside of the People function, despite this being a key driver in colleague
engagement.
* Weare moving wellbeing back to the people function, carefully separating the
role from the current line of accountability, giving a dedicated home and owner.
@ We would recommend keeping supplier relationship with the H&S Manager and
over the remaining length of the contract for both of these roles to work
together to agree the future of optima contract or if this should be spread across
more suppliers/delivered in-house.
6. There is work to do on E,D & I to make this truly alive in the business. Culture needs to be
owned by all
e Asone of the strategic people priorities, we need to strengthen our E,D & I.
capability in order to develop a compelling strategy, with robust and challenging
objectives and business wide commitments.
e Wewill do this by introducing a senior expert role into our structure, reporting
to Talent and Capability Director, who can work across the whole of the business
and all point in the colleague lifecycle, to educate and coordinate activities to
address gaps and opportunities.
¢ The recent audit gives a good starting position, and this needs to be driven
through the leadership team.
7. There is a need to have a clearly defined people strategy, with governance, planning and
reporting.
e Weare introducing a Strategy, Governance and Planning role, with supporting
roles and capabilities, that will report directly to the CPO.
This role will help the continued development of the function, challenging status
quo, brining outside in, managing and governing budgets and plan, setting
meeting cadence of the team
¢ This will initially be filled by Tim Perkins, until he moves from the Ethos
programme in March. The plan, governance and reporting of Ethos plan will
remain here.
* Colleague experience and engagement will also be sat here, removing this from
current home under the Culture and Leadership team
© We have removed ‘culture’ from job titles, with the view that Culture is not the
accountability of one role or area, but the responsibility of everyone. The people
function is responsible for designing experiences that reinforce the culture —
such as leadership development programmes or that nurture the culture — such
as reward and recognition schemes.