People First

We recognise the impact we have on our employees, communities and beyond, and are committed to ensuring that we engage appropriately with all our key stakeholders.

Employee engagement

Engaging all our employees and galvanising their efforts in line with our purpose and values will set us on a successful path to achieving all our business objectives. We engage with employees through a variety of methods, to ensure all have the opportunity to be heard. 

Board engagement

We continue to run colleague focus groups, led by our designated Non-executive Director Alison Littley, to ensure employees’ views are heard and understood by the Board. These sessions have received a very positive response.

Pulse survey

In 2023 we conducted our third annual Pulse survey to provide employees with the opportunity to tell us how they feel and take a temperature test on overall employee satisfaction. Key questions remained unchanged from the 2022 survey, to provide a good basis for comparison, although items specifically relating to health and safety were added, reflecting our increasing focus in this area.

We are encouraged by the increased response rate, but we recognise there is further room for improvement.

Although there has been a decline in the overall employee satisfaction rate, the feedback we received has been used to develop our People First strategy and build actions plans. Satisfaction relating to health and safety was strong, whereas topics relating to job security, mental health and wellbeing received weaker scores by comparison. Our response and plans are described further in the paragraphs which follow.

We intend to perform a more in-depth culture survey once our new purpose, values and strategy are embedded in the business.

Internal communications framework

EPiC (Eurocell People in Communication) is our internal communications platform, which engages and informs colleagues on topics such as business performance, new initiatives and people successes. It takes the form of monthly e-newsletters, which include a CEO vlog, and a triannual printed magazine.

We recently completed the appointment of an Internal Communications Manager (a new position). As a result, in 2024 we expect to make further progress with our plans to develop an internal communications framework, improve our cascading of important company information and measure colleague engagement.

Colleague engagement forum

In 2024, we intend to launch an employee engagement forum, to drive colleague engagement through two-way communication channels. The forum will provide a platform for representatives from across the Group to meet quarterly with senior leaders, receive company updates and share questions, feedback and ideas from the wider workforce. We expect that the forum will develop trust with management teams and facilitate the creation of action plans for issues and improvements.

Community partnerships

We are increasingly aware of the benefits of connecting with local communities within the areas we work, for example, from a networking, social impact and good neighbour perspective.

In 2023, our charitable efforts focused on Maggies, which provides emotional support and care for cancer patients and their families. They are a fantastic charity, with centres in 24 locations across the UK.

We raised £22,500 for Maggies in 2023, through several events including car boot sales, bungee jumps, bike rides and family hikes. We also hosted a supplier and customer golf event, and a ‘GO Orange’ day across our business in October. We intend on keeping the positive momentum into 2024, and reflecting our own 50-year anniversary, have a target to raise £50,000.

Our employee value proposition captures the various topics which together aim to ensure our employees feel valued and supported as members of the Eurocell team. Importantly, this includes reward and recognition and our wellbeing framework.

Fair working practices

We are committed to providing a fair working environment for all our employees, including a fair salary, terms and conditions of employment and statutory benefits. Our policy is to comply, at the very least, with minimum wage legislation for all employees and we seek to be as competitive as possible with all our roles.

Employee turnover

We are pleased to report that our labour turnover decreased from 32% in 2022 to 27% in 2023, although it remains above our 2020 baseline of 21%. We believe that the biggest drivers of turnover have been complex systems and processes, facilities that require improvement, the need for more training and competitive pay. We are addressing these concerns, including a significant investment now in progress to upgrade and simplify our systems, ongoing improvements in site welfare facilities and increased training budgets. We have also benchmarked our pay and reward in key areas of the business and made changes accordingly. As a result, we expect to make further progress in 2024.

Reward and recognition

Each year we ensure that all employees are paid at or above the National Living Wage (NLW), and can confirm that we remained in line with this ambition again in 2023.

Following a detailed review of the levels of pay and reward in our branch-based, manufacturing and warehousing teams, new and improved pay structures were launched in 2022, which have supported a reduction in labour turnover and improved retention since implementation.

Our total reward strategy ensures that all employees are eligible for a range of benefits and incentives that include a defined-contribution pension scheme, life insurance, Save As You Earn (‘Sharesave’) schemes, and access to a range of savings and special offers through our Eurxtras platform.

Eurxtras is a savings portal, which also provides employees with information on health and wellbeing, and a platform for managers and employees to recognise the good work of their colleagues.

On recognition, we are introducing a quarterly reward scheme, based on nominations from colleagues, to highlight fantastic efforts from our people which contribute to the values and strategy of the business, with their stories shared in company-wide communications.

Wellbeing framework

We provide tools to help our colleagues reduce stress and we are committed to supporting their wellbeing. All employees can access support and advice through our Employee Assistance Programme, promoted through EpiC and other employee communications.

In 2023, we improved our occupational health provision with targeted health surveillance and launched our Health Shield cash plan for all employees, which supports colleagues with everyday health concerns, providing easy and accessible help in areas such as GP appointments. It also provides access to mental health and wellbeing support.

However, we have more to do in this area and are currently working on a plan to offer in 2024 a wellbeing platform that can provide individual assessments and action plans.

Diversity and inclusion

The overriding policy in any new appointments we make continues to be one of selecting candidates with an appropriate mix of skills, capabilities and market knowledge, to ensure the continued success of the business. However, we recognise fully the benefits of encouraging diversity and inclusivity across the business and believe that progress in these areas will contribute strongly to our continued success.

We have recently reviewed and updated our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy and our Anti-Bullying, Harassment & Victimisation Policy, as we aim to continually improve our processes.

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces opportunities for everyone. We treat all employees and job applicants equally, without bias or discrimination. Our recruitment policy ensures that full and fair consideration is given to all applicants based purely on their aptitude and that all appointments are made based on merit and measured against specific objective criteria, including the skills and experience needed for the position. We seek to ensure that discriminatory practices are removed from all of our employment decisions, and from working conditions.

We are committed to non-discriminatory practices against candidates and employees alike on the basis of any characteristic, including gender, race or ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, social background, nationality, and political opinion.

We continue to promote flexible solutions tailored to, and supportive of, individual needs. Our internal processes support all employees who may require help and support, including employees who are disabled or become disabled during their employment, to fulfil their day-to-day work activities through our occupational health provision. We provide tailored support for specific groups and individuals throughout our business, including the provision of free English and maths tuition for non-English speakers.

Whilst we operate in an industry in which, historically, women have been underrepresented, we are very committed to increasing the participation of women throughout the Group. Our historic target has been to deliver year-on-year increases in the proportion of female employees in the Group. This was achieved in 2023, with female employees increasing to 16% (2022: 15%). See below for development of future targets for diversity in 2024.

All Board and senior management appointments are made on merit, in line with the approach adopted throughout the Group’s workforce. However, the Board also recognises and embraces the benefits of diversity and, in particular, the value that different perspectives and experience bring to the quality of debate and decision making. The Board is committed to consider diversity, including gender, as a key element in senior appointments and at Board level.

Gender diversity statistics

The relatively small size of the Board and the pre-existing Directors’ service contracts have inevitably limited the pace of change. Nevertheless, as set out in the Nomination Committee Report on page 89, over the last 18 months we have made significant progress towards compliance with the Financial Conduct Authority’s board diversity targets and now expect to be substantially compliant following our 2024 AGM.

In addition, following changes in 2024, female membership of the Executive Committee has now increased to 33%.

More generally, following implementation of our new HR information system in 2023 (see below), we intend to report ethnicity data. However, we acknowledge that our people have no legal obligation to provide this information and therefore our reporting will be limited to those employees who do.

Looking forward, as part of our People First strategic pillar, we are reviewing our opportunities with a view to setting appropriately challenging diversity and inclusion targets for the future and will report our conclusions in 2024.

New HR information system

The core modules of our new HR information system (People XD) went live in 2023, with further modules to follow in 2024. The new system is fully integrated and covers payroll, people administration, learning management, onboarding, talent management, recruitment and time and attendance. It also provides a platform to set objectives and complete regular performance reviews.

Looking forward, once embedded, the system will allow us to better track and report our people-related metrics, including training data, and therefore support the key activities that will drive our People First strategic pillar.

Resourcing and recruitment

We are now sourcing talent using the new HR information system, which provides a digital platform to help attract, select, and recruit the best people for our vacant roles, delivering reduced time-to-hire and recruitment cost savings.

Induction and retention

Our People XD system also provides a platform to give new starters a more effective and engaging onboarding experience. We implemented several initiatives in 2023 to help new colleagues feel connected to Eurocell as they begin their career with us. These include enhanced welcome packs, eLearning compliance and mandatory training pathways, a Eurocell Handbook, all supported by follow-up calls from our onboarding and training teams. We have also continued to embed our Network Essentials guide and Branch Network SharePoint site to help new colleagues understand how we work within our branches and trade with our customers.

Employee development

Our Managing Performance policy outlines our intent for all employees to have development objectives which are regularly discussed and formally assessed in mid-year and end-of-year reviews. We are developing a simple, holistic one-to-one Performance, Personal Development and Talent Review (PDTR) process, supported by our new HR information system.

We are committed to providing training to help with the development of our colleagues. Through the PDTR process, training, learning and development will be prioritised and succession planning will be routinely considered.

More recently, we have focused on developing our colleagues’ managerial skills. Our Manager’s Toolkit is available to all managers across the business and provides a one-stop shop of information to help them complete everyday people management activities. During 2023, 99 of our managers took part in training workshops covering the following themes:

• Managing investigations
• Coaching for one-to-ones
• Managing absence
• Managing underperformance
• Coaching through observation and feedback
• Time management
• Effective meetings
• Effective presentations.

Leadership development

We have widened the participation in our third-party facilitated Leadership Development Programme, following its success in the Branch Network over the last two years.

Other development programmes
Grow programme for first-line leaders/team leaders

We introduced the Grow Programme for team leaders in 2022, with a total of 31 colleagues now enrolled, from manufacturing, secondary operations and warehousing. It is a 12-24 month programme built around the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and Institute of Apprenticeships Level 3 Standard, leading to a recognised management qualification.

Aspire2b supply chain warehouse operative programme

The Aspire2b programme also commenced towards the end of 2022 and provides structured training in a variety of warehouse activities, as well as a refresher on English and maths and results in a Level 2 qualification.

Apprenticeships

We continue to make use of the apprenticeship levy through developing our in-house capabilities in disciplines such as accounting, engineering and supply chain operations.