Empowering our employees and giving them the right tools to deliver industry leading customer experience.
Our people are our key asset and we have a clear focus on ensuring our business is a great place to work. We have invested in equipping them with the right tools and training, providing a safe and secure working environment, and promoting their wellbeing.
We know that an engaged and highly skilled workforce enables the delivery of consistent and excellent customer service. We also seek to support the communities in which we live and work, as this supports the wellbeing of our people and reflects the importance of the local communities to us.
Our progress
FY2022:
What we said we would do
- Continue to standardise policies and procedures, embedding them across our Group.
- Listen and respond to colleague feedback and implement initiatives that will continue to enhance both our colleague and customer experiences.
- Increase accessibility to our industry and improve the diversity of our workforce through targeted programmes.
- Launch our Group-wide intranet, creating a single source for information and benefits for the entire workforce.
FY2023:
What we have done
- Introduced a system wide approach to health and wellbeing, through the launch of a Wellbeing Strategy.
- A suite of benefits was made available to all our people to help in many areas from new family-friendly policies to an extensive flexible benefits scheme.
- The development of an early careers strategy which shines a light on the vehicle automotive career opportunities available to young people.
FY2024:
What we plan to do
- Expand our health and safety certifications to other parts of the business.
- Develop a Group-wide recognition scheme and improve the communication of our business strategy to our people.
- Develop a carbon literacy training programme to help our people better understand how they can contribute towards the achievement of our carbon reduction targets.
Internal communications
We know leaders are the key to colleague buy-in, so we have created a support framework for managers to aid localised discussion around how their roles support our long-term strategic aims, helping to establish a connection to our brands. This is supported by people-focussed collateral, updated quarterly, hosted on our intranets to consistently bring the strategy to life. This promotes ongoing colleague understanding and engagement with our strategy. Listening and introducing new things like more management training to drive better conversations between colleagues and managers saw the response to the ‘culture’ question in our annual survey increase by 14ppt from last year.
Listening to colleagues
The Employee Engagement Forum (EEF) was established to provide an opportunity for the Board and leadership team to hear direct feedback from colleagues and to increase engagement. Listening forums within the business units also feed into the EEF. We also regularly run local business leadership calls where we seek feedback on important issues from our teams and track colleague feedback through our intranets.
Colleague survey
To measure engagement and gauge sentiment we conduct an annual colleague engagement survey, ‘Have Your Say’, which covers a broad range of topics including health and safety, personal development, and pay and benefits.
Turning ideas into opportunities
We have formalised the process to add some structure to the way that our colleagues submit suggestions, and to how our management teams consider the merits of each. The Product Ideas Hub is a place for colleagues to share their ideas on new products or services they feel should be introduced.
We are committed to ensuring that our colleagues feel supported and happy in their place of work and we continue to elevate our offering in this area. Increasing support for colleague health and wellbeing was a key theme from our previous colleague survey.
Colleague rewards
We conducted a Group-wide pay review and made the decision to pay a minimum of £10 an hour, regardless of age and experience, and ahead of the UK living wage of £9.50.
The Group’s SAYE scheme is an opportunity for all colleagues to put money aside from their net pay to buy shares in Redde Northgate at a discounted rate and invest in the company.
Benefits HUB
The new Benefits HUB has broadened the suite of benefits available to appeal to different demographics, geographies and lifestyles, and provides visibility to colleagues of their total reward statement. Colleagues are able to view the majority of their existing benefits, as well as the opportunity to opt into a wide range of other available benefits, including GymFlex memberships, the Cycle2Work scheme, dental, travel, and health insurance and extended life assurance.
Wellbeing initiatives
We believe our managers are best placed to understand their colleagues’ requirements and therefore we make sure they are equipped with the tools to provide the right support.
There is a manager’s toolkit available which can be accessed via a Mental Health training module to help managers promote positive mental health in their workplace and make adjustments so that colleagues receive the support they require.
We have partnered with a leading GP service to offer all colleagues remote access to advice from a medical expert, 24/7, via a free and confidential app. Our colleagues also have access to professional support through the Employee Assistance Programme, which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Inclusive & diverse culture
The Group is committed to promoting equality and preventing discrimination at work. We aim to create an inclusive environment, where everyone can contribute their best work and develop to their full potential. We also want to celebrate the fact that everyone is different yet valued and to make sure that every colleague is treated with dignity and respect.
We have shaped our Group values by looking at those existing across each of our businesses and creating new ones that simply build on what we know matters to everyone and that will help us be the Group we want to be. One of those values is that ‘We respect one another’ and hold ourselves accountable to act with integrity and honesty and to encourage and respect diversity.
The Group continuously evolves its recruitment processes to ensure we continue to attract excellent candidates. We expanded our internal recruitment team with specialist capabilities and partnered with a UK Applicant Tracking System to better manage and improve the candidate experience. With our enhanced team, we have increased the number of check-ins we do with new joiners and improved the materials shared at the beginning of each colleague’s career, so that they are best placed to excel in their roles.
Apprenticeships
In FY 2023, we supported 270 apprenticeships, from workshop placements in our FMG RS and Northgate businesses, to finance apprenticeships in our Group functions. Apprenticeships are a great way to help our business build a talented workforce that is equipped with future-ready skills, whilst also being an opportunity for those looking to upskill or have a career change.
Training & development
We want to ensure we are giving our colleagues the best opportunities to develop their skillsets, knowledge and experience. We have rolled out an e-learning platform, the Redde Northgate Academy, across the entire Group, improving access to training for all colleagues. The platform acts as a portal for mandatory training that our colleagues need to complete, and it complements the in-person training that takes place in the workshops and body shops.
Broadening horizons
We actively promote greater internal mobility and job opportunities across the enlarged Group as part of our programme to retain and develop key talent. We advertise job vacancies through our internal channels across the Group to give our colleagues the opportunity to take the next step on their career journey or progress into different or more challenging roles.
Keeping colleagues safe
The health and safety of our colleagues, and for anyone else affected by our business activities, is of paramount importance and fundamental to our culture. Underlying strong governance, we have a robust operational approach to health and safety. We have detailed procedures, engagement practices and training to reduce the risk of harm or injury, and processes around investigation of near misses to ensure Group-wide learning.