Employee engagement

It is essential that we engage our employees as it is through their efforts that we can deliver our strategy. We do this by listening to feedback made in our annual employee surveys and through clear top down communication cascaded through team briefings, large employee events, our Intranet sites and our staff newsletters.

• We conduct regular employee opinion surveys across all areas of the Home Retail Group, to understand our colleagues’ views and to identify ways in which we can continue to improve our working environment. The surveys calculate an ‘engagement’ score which comprises a number of different measures including pride and advocacy. Surveys were carried out in the summer of 2006 and in the early part of 2007. The 2007 results are now being used to facilitate discussions and develop action plans.
  
  
• Regular team briefings are held at Homebase and Argos to share key messages and create a cascade to all employees, where relevant. Store managers across both brands also brief their employees daily on key operational issues and new product launches.
  
  
• Employee events are held at offices, distribution centres and at Argos and Homebase conferences and these are used to communicate important changes within the Group, such as the recent demerger from GUS and the launch of new business initiatives, including Christmas and Easter trading plans to our staff. In addition, we hold a number of functional conferences on a regular basis.
  
  
• The Intranet is a key business tool which holds documents such as HR manuals, making it easy to provide up-to-date information. It has its own CR section which describes our policies and community relations to employees and is also used to communicate announcements, news and social events.
  
  
• Newsletters – ‘Argos Post’ and ‘HOMEpage’ are issued bi-monthly to all colleagues across both brands to update them about current company initiatives, employee achievements regarding fund raising, new store openings, and new product and service launches.

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