Our colleagues
Our colleagues
Our approach
Our colleagues are our most important competitive advantage – that’s why we invest time, energy and resources in their learning and development, benefits, and health and safety at work.
We aim to build a diverse workforce that reflects our diverse customer base. We also recognise the part colleagues play in building a successful business by delivering great customer service, supporting their local communities and reducing their impact on the environment.
74% colleagues work part time
49% of colleagues are women
What we’ve done
Throughout the year, we’ve worked hard to make Home Retail Group a great place to work by:
- Developing training programmes that give colleagues the skills and knowledge to deliver great customer service, develop their careers and support their local communities
- Enhancing our benefits package and launching a new benefits website
- Developing our systems to provide important data on absenteeism and voluntary turnover so we can identify and resolve issues more effectively
- Launching a new community policy that supports and recognises colleagues who make a difference in their local communities
- Acknowledging and promoting the successes of our top health and safety performers while also providing clear best practice for the whole Group
- Running colleague focus groups to help us improve the colleague and customer experience in stores and to assess the effectiveness of our communications
- Launching a partnership with Keep Britain Tidy to support the Eco-Schools volunteering programme in 35 Homebase stores
Colleague engagement
Colleague engagement
Our approach
Our colleagues play a vital role in delivering success and we want them to understand and contribute to what we’re trying to achieve. We keep them informed about our performance, strategy and other priorities through team briefings, conferences, roadshows, our intranet sites and colleague magazines. We also encourage them to tell us how they think we can become an even better business.
Our volunteering policy aims to build colleague engagement and pride, to support personal development and to enhance our employer brand.
What we’ve done
Local support
Responding to feedback from colleagues, we’ve developed our community policy to provide support at a more local level. We donate to local charities and communities through our community prize fund draw and reward top fundraising stores and sites with charity gift cards that they can use to support a local charity of their choice. We also provide subsidised materials for colleagues undertaking volunteering projects to use.
Colleague opinion survey
This year 94% of colleagues took part in our annual colleague opinion survey – up 2% year on year and far higher than average response rates in our sector. Based on the survey, 75% of colleagues feel ‘engaged’ with our business. They also provided positive scores above the average for other comparable companies surveyed by Towers Watson, the research company that conducts our survey.We use the results of the survey to understand colleagues’ concerns and develop action plans to address them.
Two questions in this year’s colleague opinion survey related directly to the basis of good business:
76% responded favourably to the statement “I am encouraged to contribute to my community in the workplace” (a similar level to last year)
91% responded favourably to the statement “I am clear on what I need to do in my job to be environmentally responsible” (new question this year)
Colleague feedback
This year, colleagues provided almost 1,500 ideas about how we can improve the way we do business in Argos, while all 37 of the regional ideas submitted to the Homebase free2 National Forum are currently being assessed with a view to implementation.
Reward and recognition
We’ve introduced a new recognition scheme ‘Appreciate’ in our head office and continue to recognise our store colleagues’ contribution to business performance. We recognise their charity fundraising efforts through our ‘Star Where You Are’ scheme.
Learning and development
Learning and development
Our approach
Giving colleagues the chance to learn and develop with us is vitally important. It ensures we have the skills we need to deliver great customer service and helps us identify our leaders of tomorrow. We offer a wide range of learning and development opportunites, covering all aspects of our business, including:
- Training for accredited vocational qualifications
- Technical, functional and skills training
- Training in first aid, manual handling, security, recycling, waste management and health and safety
- Tailored programmes supporting specific business objectives or individual needs
- Management development programmes for people moving into leadership roles
- Fast-track programmes – including ‘Advance’ and ‘Aspire’ to support high-fliers moving from role to role
- Computer-based training courses that make it easier for people to learn in ways that work for them
All our colleagues receive regular feedback on their performance and can discuss their development with
their line managers.
What we’ve done
We’ve achieved an impressive list of successes this year:
- Over 1,200 colleagues in Homebase have completed a City & Guilds kitchen planning course
- We’ve recruited and trained DIY experts - colleagues with relevant experience to provide specialist advice in 24 stores
- In Homebase, our suppliers have briefed colleagues on new products to help them advise customers and provide specific training
- Through the STEPS programme we’ve provided store colleagues in Argos with the training and development they need to do their job effectively – from induction right through to their first management role
- We’ve helped colleagues in Argos prepare for their next role thanks to the High Potential Development programme
- We’ve set up a dedicated training facility at Magna Park Distribution Centre where our instructors can train and assess our long goods vehicle drivers
- Colleagues at our Distribution Centres have topped up their professional expertise by completing a Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport course
- We’ve provided colleagues with commercial training through the PACE programme – Pathway to Commercial Excellence
- We’ve recruited three graduates onto our Graduate Leadership programme in Argos and three graduates onto the Home Retail Group Finance Graduate Scheme
- We’ve worked in partnership with an academic awarding body, EDI, and Urban Mines, an environmental consultancy, to develop the first qualification to be offered to retail sector employees to improve their understanding of environmental sustainability
Colleague benefits
Colleague benefits
Our approach
To be a successful business we need to recruit and hold onto the right people. One of the ways we can do this is by offering them a comprehensive benefits package. We currently offer all our colleagues:
- A remuneration package that (in most cases) includes the opportunity to earn a bonus based on business or personal performance
- The chance to save tax-free for three or five years by buying Group shares at a 20% discount
- A discount on purchases – currently 10% off all catalogue items and gift vouchers in Argos and 20% off all Homebase purchases
- A great range of voluntary benefits through our ‘Discover’ scheme
We also provide benefits that positively encourage colleagues to support good causes:
- A Payroll Giving scheme to donate regularly to charity – with all administration fees paid by Home Retail Group and their first donation matched
- Our Community Cashback scheme, which boosts colleagues’ fundraising efforts with a Group donation of up to £1,000
- Two paid ‘volunteering’ days a year – to do their bit for a local charity or community group
- Access to subsidised materials if they participate in a local community project
We also offer our colleagues a discount on energy saving products and services for the home, including cavity wall and loft installation.
What we’ve done
- Relaunched our Discover benefits website, incorporating some of the benefits colleagues requested, including a dental plan and retail vouchers
- Continued our Company Sharesave scheme, with 8,000 colleagues (18% of those eligible) currently participating
- Developed programmes to support colleagues who want to take advantage of their two paid volunteering days – including a Homebase partnership with Keep Britain Tidy to help local schools to improve their school grounds and grow their own fruit and vegetables; an Argos work experience programme; and a collaboration between our Avebury offices and Business in the Community to support disadvantaged local schools
- Promoted our Payroll Giving scheme – recognised by our award for the 'Best Innovative Promotional Partnership' at the National Payroll Giving Awards
Health and Safety
Health and Safety
Our approach
We’re committed to providing a safe and healthy environment in our stores, distribution centres and offices. We have robust control measures in place to minimise the risk of accidents occurring.
Managing health and safety
Our health and safety policy is reviewed every year and signed off by our chief executive, Terry Duddy, group HR director, David Guise, Argos managing director, Sara Weller, and Homebase managing director, Paul Loft. Our group HR director is responsible for implementing the policy and chairs a quarterly group strategic health and safety committee comprising senior managers from across our business.
Health and safety committees in each of our businesses report into this group committee. They’re both chaired by a senior manager and are consulted and informed about health and safety in regular meetings. Our health and safety champions explain any actions agreed in these meetings with colleagues and we also publish them on our health and safety intranet site.
We have a dedicated full-time health and safety team, led by our health and safety manager – who also chairs the British Retail Consortium’s Risk & Safety Policy Action Group and is vice-chair of the Institute of Safety and Health’s (IOSH) Retail and Distribution Group.
Health and safety training
Our induction programmes for new starters cover health and safety and we provide additional instruction for colleagues working in roles where it’s required – for example, fork-lift truck operations. Managers and supervisors in our stores and distribution centres also complete specially tailored training. We use our group-wide training management system to manage computer-based health and safety training.
What we’ve done
Performance
We track our safety performance using categories defined by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), and include accidents reportable in Ireland as ‘IR1's’
This year we’ve achieved reductions across the Group in:
- RIDDOR/IR1s per 100,000 employees
- Overall number of lost time accidents
- Number of major injuries (Group and Homebase)
- Customer accidents
Training
This year we ran our first health and safety conference – to share the latest safety advice, dispel health and safety myths and to raise awareness of how important health and safety is. We explained how risk assessment is designed to help colleagues in their jobs whilst limiting the risk - not stop them doing what they need to do. We launched a behavioural safety training programme in Argos and this is being rolled out across the Group in 2011. We also launched technical training guides in Homebase stores to aid the retraining process
Assurance process
Every store conducts its own annual audit. The completion of each store's risk assessment and their training records is monitored centrally. At least 20% of our stores are audited annually by the health and safety team.