Employee Engagement
Every 2 years we complete a staff survey to gain valuable feedback on a range of topics including staff engagement, growth and development. The survey is a group-wide initiative and was therefore completed by all employees from around the world who work within the various Wesfarmers companies including Incorporatewear.
Whilst there is always room for improvement the ICW team scored well on ‘My Job’, ‘Team Work’ and ‘Communication’. This ties in with our Company Values that we promote throughout the team, especially ‘Openness’ – We work together as one team and ‘Customer First’ – Our customers come first.
The words that were used to describe the things that make an employee’s part of the business a great place to work include:
[column width=”2″]
- Colleagues
- People
- Support
[/column]
[column width=”2″]
- Team
- Challenge
- Respect
[/column]
This is great to see as it shows that our team are working together to ensure we give our customers the best possible service. It also shows that our team here at ICW enjoy a challenge as it gives them the opportunity to learn new skills and find new ways of completing tasks.
Employee Benefits Team
Despite the good results we wanted to know how we can continue to improve conditions for our team. One important area is employee engagement. The first initiative we introduced was our Employee Benefits Team (EBT). Their job is to take ideas and suggestions from employees and put these across to our senior leadership team for consideration. The EBT were tasked with discussing the results and selecting key areas to address and create action plans to be developed and communicated to the rest of the team. They meet monthly to conduct introduction and on-going monitoring of initiatives.
The EBT have initiated the following activities to increase employee engagement and involvement in the business:
- 20th Anniversary party – in July 2017 we celebrated Incorporatewear’s 20th Anniversary by holding a party for the whole team.
- Job Swap – The idea behind this is to give employees the opportunity to improve interdepartmental understanding.
- Introduction of Apprenticeship schemes for staff
- Charity days – Various fundraising days and activities including Red Nose Day, McMillan Coffee Morning and Crisis at Christmas
It is also important that all team members are aware of the company performance that they have a direct impact on, so regular trading and business updates are circulated to all staff. Also quarterly “Townhall” meetings are arranged where everyone gathers to see and hear about how we are performing and what is going on in other parts of the business.
ICW introduced the Values Awards Scheme. ‘Customer First’, ‘Integrity’, ‘Openness’, ‘Boldness’ and ‘Accountability’ are our core values. Employees are nominated by their colleagues if they have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help the business or a customer. These people are recognised on a monthly basis and celebrated at the end of the year.
Questions for rating on the survey included:
- I feel I am working for a successful organization
- I believe in what my part of the business is trying to accomplish
- I’m able to maintain a balance between my personal and working life
- I believe that positive change will happen as a result of this survey
- I would recommend my part of the business to a friend as a great place to work
- People I work with cooperate to get the job done
