Section head
Case Study - Flexible Working - The Royal Mail
RMG continues to be committed to making the most of women’s skills and potential and is determined to create a workplace where women are able to give and achieve their best. For us this is simply a case of good business. We remain wholly supportive of the Women and Work Commission report and are proud to be an exemplary organisation.
RMG has implemented and is continuing to develop initiatives that support our female employees. These address our 5 key priority areas of:
Flexible job design
Work-life balance
Changing mindsets
Development and progression
Bullying and harassment
- A successful bid for matched funding through the Quality Part-Time Work Fund (QPTI) is enabling Royal Mail Letters to develop Job Sharing / Part Time Work opportunities across a range of managerial operational roles in two test sites. Our aim is to achieve 10% of management jobs in two work locations on less than full time hours within 18 months and for this learning to be shared across the business. In addition, to create a career structure within which part time people may progress and achieve their full potential. This work is already underway.
- Events in RML, PFWW and POL that encourage women to come together to network, share their experiences, identify with each other and present themselves as role models continue to take place. These have proved highly successful and also provide us with the opportunity to showcase new programmes and gather feedback from our female communities.
- Over 425 women in non-management roles have put themselves forward for the ‘Springboard’ scheme and have either completed or are going through the programme at the moment. The development is focused on the development of self-confidence, goal-setting and inter-personal skills. It concentrates on positive role models and provides a flexible support system and networking opportunities. Evaluation of the programme has demonstrated that this is making a tangible difference to women so we are continuing with it.
- In addition to the Flexible Working Toolkit, which provides a wide choice of shifts and work times that our female employees can access, Royal Mail Letters has also developed a Flexible Working Guide. The senior operational team has endorsed this guide and the Operations director wrote the foreword. It contains internal examples of flexibility that has actually happened and importantly, for such a male dominated business, it features examples of men working flexibly.
- A Gender Steering Group, chaired by one of our most senior women leaders, meets quarterly. Attended by representatives of the business units it’s role is to champion the strategy, monitor progress and assist with the implementation of activities.
- To challenge the image of Royal Mail as predominately an employer of men new recruitment advertisements have been developed and have produced promising results. For example, in PFW there were no women drivers in the London area we are now in double figures. In our RML delivery units there has been some success in attracting women to work both on a full and part-time basis.
- The area of bullying and harassment remains critically important and we are making encouraging progress on this front. We understand that if Royal Mail is to be seen as a potential employer by women then we need to address this area. We have invested heavily and have produced an award winning dvd ‘With Friends Like These’, which has been shown to several thousand of our people. In September we launched an online training tool to help managers develop their expertise in managing these situations and this is complemented with the availability of workshop based development. Over 800 managers have participated so raising their ability in this area.
When we committed ourselves to exemplar status we recognised that change would take time. We remain on the journey and are not complacent. Our goal is to be seen by women as an employer of choice.
Contact Points
