The corporate reponsibility element of the Wyevale Garden Centres annual report offers an intriguing insight into how it is tackling staff relations as it aims to improve the performance of the business.
The report’s use of language will be familiar to anyone who has worked in a large corporate environment. For example, staff are now referred to as colleagues (not unlike John Lewis calling its 84,000 employees ‘partners’ because they own the business).
In 2016, the annual report explains, WGC undertook its first ‘colleague engagement’ survey for two years, producing results the group says will be a strong foundation on which to build a better work experience for its 6,169 staff (the year-end count).
Management were gratified when 89% of colleagues responded to the survey, which was 10 percentage points up on the previous response rate and nine percentage points above benchmark organisations. The overall ‘satisfaction’ score improved three percentage points to 64% - a figure reported to have gone up significantly further since its findings were acted on.
Garden centre and head office employees identified three clear areas they felt left room for improvement – ‘Communications’, ‘Development and recognition’ and ‘Tools to do the job’ – and soon became the focus of attention at group level. To ensure all areas of the survey were tackled, WGC appointed more than 160 ‘colleague engagement representatives’ across the business.
One topic the survey highlighted related to the business working together as one team – so a competition was held to rename ‘Head Office’ to “something that better reflects that we are One Team, working together to support our Garden Centre colleagues, helping them deliver an exceptional shopping experience to all our customers”.
The winning name was Customer Support Centre (CSC), which is the title by which Syon Park HQ is now known.
Keeping employees clearly informed of what’s going on in the business was recognised as vitally important so CEO Roger Mclaughlan hosted a series of head office and garden centre listening groups, something he intends to continue. Fortnightly team meetings (known as ‘Huddles’) take place at Syon Park for all head office staff, to share key business objectives, developments and performance are recognise and reward key successes.
A new training programme run by Lifetime Training gives employees, primarily garden centre managers, team leaders and department managers the opportunity to obtain nationally recognised professional retail qualifications.
In a new performance development annual review process, employees have two conversations a year – the first to agree objectives and the second to review progress after 12 months –“reducing the time spent completing paperwork, enabling colleagues to spend quality time with line managers and more time with customers”.
As a result of benchmarking benefits entitlements across the industry, more than 100 head office staff now get an increased holiday allowance. The company says this makes WGC a more competitive employer “and also encourages colleagues to have more work life balance opportunities”.
Garden centre hourly rates of pay have been brought into line with the National Living Wage, but employees who demonstrate the right skills and customer orientated behaviours after six months service are paid above the minimum.
The report suggests the implementation of new ERP and EPOS systems, currently under way, will enable staff to do their jobs in a more efficient way.
Footnote for gender watchers: At the end of the year the overall gender split of the WGC workforce was:
Male – 2573
Female – 3596
The Board comprised six men and no women
The Senior Leadership Team comprised 17 men and nine women.
