The Post Office

Around 20 million customers and half of all small businesses in the UK visit a Post Office each a week.

Key facts

• 20 million customers and half of all UK small businesses visit a Post Office every week.(1)
• With over 11,500 branches nationwide, the Post Office network is larger than all of the UK high street banks combined.
• The Post Office network's estimated social value as of 2009 was at least £2.3bn per annum.(2)
• 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a Post Office.
• 5,351 Post Office branches are ‘urban’(3)and 6,469 branches are ‘rural’.(4)
• The Post Office network employs around 56,000 people. The vast majority of the network – over 97% of Post Office branches are operated by small businesses and agents working in local communities.
• The UK Government have pledged to provide £1.34bn of funding to modernise and safeguard the Post Office network.

Strategic priorities

• Continue to play a key role in the social and economic fabric of the UK. We must put the business on a successful and sustainable footing, via a transformation of the Post Office network.
• Win more government business. We must establish the Post Office as a genuine ‘front office’ for Government at both national and local level. Post Office Ltd. shares and exemplifies the corporate responsibility values of Royal Mail Group. As Post Office Ltd. moves towards becoming a separate company in its own right, Royal Mail Group’s corporate responsibility values will provide a strong platform for the development of Post Office Ltd.’s future approach to corporate responsibility. Whilst our corporate responsibility principles cannot be directly applied to our franchises, we seek to encourage the whole of the Post Office network to adopt responsible and sustainable business practices.

Transforming the Post Office Network

Around 20 million customers and half of all small businesses in the UK visit a Post Office each a week.(5) With over 11,500 branches nationwide, the Post Office is the largest retail and financial services chain in the UK. The UK Government have pledged £1.34bn of funding to modernise the Post Office network and safeguard its future.

As part of this package, Post Office Ltd. has committed to maintain a network of at least 11,500 branches and to continue to adhere to the strict access criteria which demand that 99% of the national population live within three miles of a Post Office outlet. Post Office Ltd. is therefore committed to continuing to offer geographical accessibility unrivalled by any retail organisation in the UK.

Post Offices often represent the ‘last shop in the village’ or the last retail business in an urban deprived area. They are local businesses, employing local people, using local premises. Research conducted by the Plunkett Foundation found that 58% of community run shops in England contain Post Offices.(6)  The vast majority of Post Offices change hands – when a Subpostmaster decides to sell their business – without a break in service or closure. There will of course be cases where Subpostmasters retire or resign and we have to find an alternative location. If no obvious replacement is available, the Post Office Field Force works with local people to seek imaginative ways to preserve services. Examples include branches in churches, pubs and mobile branches.

We are working with Subpostmasters to develop and introduce more flexible operating models which offer greater convenience to our customers. Post Office local is a pilot which is designed to deliver a more sustainable Post Office in certain locations. In many cases, this moves the Post Office from the back of the shop and places it on the front retail tills.

The idea is to create a Post Office that is straightforward enough for a Subpostmaster to run from the same area as his/her retail till and which can therefore match the long opening hours of the store in which it is located. The Subpostmaster gains because the cost of operating such a branch is comparatively less. The customer gains from longer opening hours and from the fact that the most used Post Office transactions are still available.

Front Office of Government

The Post Office needs new revenue streams in order to continue to deliver the services that customers want. Traditional government business and Post Office revenues have declined significantly over the last five years. We are very encouraged by the commitment shown by the UK Government in providing the opportunity for Post Offices to be the ‘front office’ for national and local government.

Our wide distribution and unparalleled national coverage means that the Post Office represents the ideal physical complement to the new digital age.

Our branches are well placed to do those things that cannot be done online – such as checking documents, handling physical cash, checking identity etc, as well as providing a convenient universal channel for those who cannot, or choose not, to use the internet. We are engaged in discussions with all Government departments to see whether there are areas in which we may be able to do more work with them. These include supporting Jobcentre Plus in National Insurance applications and helping people complete Criminal Record Bureau applications. We will be running a number of pilots over the next year to take this forward.

Our People

Engagement

Ensuring that our people are engaged is critical to our future success. We need to help create positive mindsets which enable our people to perform better and encourage them to take ownership for improvements which will help us achieve our goals. This year has seen the launch of our Ambassador Group. This involves approximately 100 employees of all grades from across the business volunteering to work on a range of engagement issues. Their role is to act as a local voice at a national level and be actively involved in moving forward our culture and people policies. This year has also seen the creation of a strategic programme of activity  looking at a range of employee issues. Post Office funds a number of full time CWU regional and local representatives and a number of national Unite/CMA officials, helping to support positive industrial relations.

Safety, Environment and Wellbeing

Safety

We make safe and healthy working a way of life. Pursuing this aim reflects the high value we place on our employees and all those touched by our business activities. To achieve this, we ensure that the health and safety responsibilities of all our colleagues are clearly defined and understood. Through effective health and safety management systems we provide safe premises, equipment and processes.

To measure the effectiveness of our safety management system we carry out annual health and safety audits at all our ‘cash in transit sites’ and cash centres and two yearly audits are undertaken at our Crown Post Office branches. Highlights from the past year include:

• Total number of accidents 25.7% down on last year and absence accidents 29% down on last year.
• Days lost due to accidents showed a decrease of 30.4%.
• There were only sixteen instances of bullying and harassment last year.

To emphasise our belief in the value of collaborative working all health and safety trade unions representatives are now aligned to the Post Office Safety, Environment and Wellbeing Team.

Environment

With a network of over 350 Crown Branch Offices along with a fleet of over 400 vehicles to manage our supply chain, we understand our impact on the environment and significant effort has been put into developing an environmental strategy for Post Office that includes:

• Embedding environmental considerations into all change projects.
• Ensuring that all supplier contracts include environmental considerations.
• Ensuring that responsible disposal forms part of any purchasing decision for new equipment.
• Maximising the effectiveness of UK recycling schemes.
• Reducing our use of electricity and gas.
• Ensuring that the specification for new vehicles includes environmental impact control innovations.

To achieve this strategy we have ambitions to:

• Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
• Reducing the quantity of general waste sent to landfill by at least 50%.
• Reducing our fresh water use.

Working towards these ambitions will stand us in good stead for the future, developing our reputation as a sustainable, ethical business, saving us money and reducing our overall impact on the environment.

Wellbeing

We take an active interest in personal wellbeing of all our colleagues and promote healthy living through discounted gym membership and proactive health initiatives. We also offer an Online Check-in which is a free, online health advice website which gives all colleagues - and their families – access to unique health and wellbeing advice.

Our Customers

Post Office Ltd.’s customer base reflects all facets of UK society. We offer social as well as geographical universality. Post Offices are seen as a neutral place in society where all customers feel a sense of ownership, familiarity and welcome. We are transforming the way we deal with our customers. We are currently piloting means of operating Post Offices to increase opening hours and ensure greater sustainability. We have also focused on addressing customers’ concerns regarding queuing time and staff helpfulness in Crown Offices. As a result, complaints are down, but there is further work to do.

Accessibility

We are committed to making all Post Offices more accessible. Many older people and people with disabilities rely on their local branch. With over 11,500 branches in all types of buildings, with the vast majority not directly owned by the Post Office this all makes for an enormously complex picture when it comes to accessibility.

However the size of the challenge has not put us off. We independently audit our branches on a regular basis to help us and our customer understand the physical accessibility within our network. We publish full information on the accessibility of all our branches on our website and Direct Enquiries website, the UK’s leading provider of access information. We have also had in place for a number of years a fund to help our Subpostmasters with the cost of making disability related adjustments to their premises.

In 2010 we ran a conference for over 140 colleagues within our Marketing and Sales functions to ensure that good accessibility practice is a fundamental part of the way in which we do business. A specially-designed Audit Pack helps Subpostmasters assess how to make their businesses more accessible.

We continue to work closely with our Disability Leadership Panel (7), made up of leading disability practitioners, to ensure better accessibility in all that we do. We have created an accessibility engagement toolkit for our web designers and put in place governance processes to ensure that all new websites are accessible

Our Communities

During 2010/2011 the partnership between the Post Office and Barnardo’s was an enormous success, raising £640,000. This will help to turn around the lives of 4,000 children and young people across the UK.

Disabled, ultra-distance athlete Chris Moon MBE embarked on the ultimate challenge of running an average of 36 miles a day for 30 days. Chris started the Post Office 1000 Challenge in Edinburgh and finished in London, visiting Barnardo’s projects and Post Office branches along the way. The Post Office website was a key channel in the fundraising activity, allowing supporters to track Chris Moon’s progress online.

2010 also saw Post Office join forces with BBC Children in Need. Almost all Post Office branches worked to collect £500,000 in Pudsey buckets distributed throughout the network.

Priorities for 2011/12

• A continued commitment to maintaining the Post Office network’s social and economic contribution to communities and customers, via increased investment in our network and the establishment of the Post Office as a genuine ‘front office’ for Government.
• A continued focus on improving Post Office customer service in order to meet the rising expectations of consumers, through continued investment in staff training and self-service.

Further information

Post Office: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po

National Federation of Subpostmasters: http://www.nfsp.org.uk/

Consumer Focus: http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/

Direct Enquiries: http://www.directenquiries.com/

(1)This figure is based on quarterly research. The most recent quarter was July – September 2011.

(2)See here for further detail: http://www.nera.com/extImage/PUB_Postcomm_Aug2009.pdf

(3)Settlements with population > 10,000. March 2011.

(4)Settlements with population < 10,000. March 2011.

(5)This figure is based on quarterly research. The most recent quarter was July – September 2011.

(6)See here for further detail: http://www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/rcs/ruralcommunityshops.cfm

(7)Membership includes: http://disabilityequalityprogramme.com/panel.htm