Our people strategy is focused on promoting high performance, high engagement, and high levels of inclusion.
The Group’s people are critical to the delivery of its strategy. We invest in both formal and informal delivery of learning and development and recorded 1,715 hours of formal learning in FY23 (FY22: 890 hours).
We pay all employees in the UK and Guernsey at or above both the legal minimum wage (National Living Wage) and the Real Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation1. In the Netherlands we pay at or above the legal minimum wage (Minimumloon). There is a Works Council in place at Greetz.
Our ESG strategy includes two people goals, which focus on inclusion and engagement.
Goal 4: Maintain the combined leadership representation of women and ethnic minorities on the Leadership Team at around 50%2.
Goal 5: Reach and maintain an employee engagement score at or above 72%.
Leadership diversity
The Group is committed to maintain the combined leadership representation of women and ethnic minorities in the leadership team at around 50%. We want our organisation to be representative of our customers and the communities in which we operate.
As at 30 April 2023, the combined representation of women and ethnic minorities on the Leadership Team2 remained consistent with the prior year, and aligned to our commitment at 52% (2021: 53%).In FY23 we launched two new development programmes, aimed at building leadership effectiveness and supporting high potential talent to progress to director level.
Across the Group, 42% of individuals newly appointed into Leadership Team1 roles were female (FY22: 67%).
We will continue to develop our next generation of female leaders and monitor the retention of women and ethnic minorities currently in leadership roles.
Employee engagement
The Group has a goal to reach and maintain an employee engagement score at or above 72%. Improving engagement in our teams will improve productivity and hence business performance. It will help to ensure that employees are retained for longer, reducing recruitment costs.
In FY23, our average engagement score across two surveys for Moonpig and Greetz was 61%, which was below the prior year (65%) and our goal (72%). This reflects the challenges of operating in an economic downturn, characterised by more disciplined cost control and greater pressure to meet targets.
The surveys continued to show many positive aspects including 77% of our employees say they would recommend a friend to work for the Group (FY22: 81%).
We intend to capture engagement data for the whole Group, including Experiences, in FY24.
We will also commence a staged process of aligning Experiences employee benefits with the rest of the Group.
1Guernsey employees are paid in line with the UK Real Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation for “rates outside London”.
2Comprises the Executive Committee (including Executive Directors) and their direct reports who are also members of the Extended Leadership Team.