Employee engagement


Managing people across the business

We strengthened our management of human resource policy and practice in 2004/05 and restructured the HR department as the People Function. There are several elements to this, aimed at helping managers to take more responsibility in their own areas so they can act more quickly and support their people better:
  • We clearly set out the accountabilities for implementing staff policies between managers and the People Function
  • We provided simpler and clearer guidance for managers to help them do their part of the job
  • We strengthened managers' support structures by appointing business partners and introducing PeopleZone on the intranet.
By restructuring the HR department, we are now able to provide better support for managers in managing their teams:
  • We created business partners who work closely with the management teams of Camelot's various departments
  • The People Function now provides better specialist support in key areas such as performance management, reward, training and development.

Three work streams - performance management, cross-functional working and leadership development - were established in response to the 2003 staff survey (see last years report). The performance management working group is led by our Commercial and Operations Director, cross-functional working by our Finance Director and leadership development by our Chief Executive. In 2004/05, in line with the commitment made in the previous year, cross-functional working showed an improvement as measured by the staff survey . More remains to be done and we will continue to prioritise this issue.

Back to top

Engaging and consulting


We are committed to engaging and consulting with our people. But there's no point in doing that unless we are prepared to act on their feedback. Consultation does contribute to strategic decisions and influences the development of work programmes. Almost three quarters of employees said they believe that feedback from the previous year's staff survey had resulted in changes.

Engagement mechanisms include:
  • A weekly cascade of business information
  • Our intranet (i.com) and company-wide email
  • A confidential annual staff survey
  • Our Staff Consultative Forum (see below).

The confidential staff survey ran in December 2004, with a response rate of 86% demonstrating a high level of engagement among staff at all levels. This was significantly up on the previous year's 70%.

The results showed a positive change in staff attitudes (see indicators). Morale is up from the previous staff survey by four percentage points, and 78% agreed with the statement "I'm proud to be working for Camelot", which means that we met our commitment from 2003/04 to improve staff satisfaction as measured by the survey.

Staff agreement score for ‘Camelot is one of the best companies I’ve ever worked for’ (%)*
Target  above 75
2004/05 74
2003/04 73
2002/03 78
2001/02  79

We recognise that we can still improve upward communication. For 2005/06 we are planning senior manager road shows to improve contact with employees around the UK. We will also be organising regular 'speakeasies' where staff can raise issues confidentially with directors. A regular news update and magazine are also planned.

Back to top

Staff Consultative Forum


The Staff Consultative Forum (SCF) was set up to promote dialogue between the senior executive team and employees at all levels. Our Chief Executive, Dianne Thompson, now attends its meetings quarterly, reflecting her view that the Forum's effectiveness is essential for Camelot's future engagement with staff. See last year's report for more information.

In the recent staff survey, 53% of employees agreed with the statement "I believe that the SCF is an effective way of ensuring that employees' views are considered." This is a new question not strictly comparable to the relevant statement in the previous survey, which achieved around 58% agreement. Nevertheless, it is clear that we need to raise the profile, credibility and effectiveness of the SCF.

We revised the constitution of the SCF in line with our commitment to modify the Staff Consultative Forum in the light of the European Union Directive on Information and Consultation with Employees.

"As part of Camelot's commitment to consult with all stakeholders, the Staff Consultative Forum was established to provide a channel of communication and consultation on matters within the company in which employees may have an interest. Since the inception of the SCF in 1999, the Forum has been instrumental in advising the executive team on a wide range of issues where the views of staff were required.

Following the annual staff satisfaction survey in October 2003, the Forum reviewed its objectives and structure, and recently revised its Constitution in line with the Information and Consultation Directive which came into force in April 2005. The Forum is seeking to improve its image and effectiveness company-wide, and will conduct a re-launch to coincide with an election campaign later this year."
Bill Barton - Chair of the Staff Consultative Forum

Back to top