CEO please read this. How to fix Royal Mail?

[grumpazoid]

1. Stop the practice of smaller delivery offices being absorbed into the larger ones. They simply do not have the space to accommodate the increased volume of work, the additional frames, the extra vehicles etc.

2. Impose stricter limits on the size and volume of oversize parcels to be taken out by posties.

3. Review the length of the walks and adjust them accordingly, rather than focus purely on the number of delivery points. I'd argue that it's unreasonable for a postie to have a walk of more than ten miles, yet some of ours can easily reach fifteen on a heavy day.

4. Ensure that all company vehicles are properly maintained.

5. Offer full-time contracts to those who want them and assign them a permanent duty.

6. Stop the routine practice of absorption/lapsing. This should only take place as a last resort and as overtime in recognition of the fact that it is addition to an individual's full-time duty.

7. Return to a structured training programme for new-starters, rather than just throwing them in at the deep end.

8. Invest in competent managers, capable of actually "managing" their staff rather than reverting to their usual shtick of bullying and harassment.

9. Pay overtime above flat rate (no-brainer).

10. Stop being so bloody condescending (calling us "team", telling us to "clear the office") and actually LISTEN to the people doing the job, rather than insisting that we are performing remarkably well when, in reality, RM are failing on a massive scale due to the complete lack of support from above.

Fantastic post I would add to this 11 No managers in areas without actual job experience ie if push comes to shove they can actually do the job they tell staff how it should be done
12 If there has been Casual Staff doing a job for 6 months or longer this should be converted into the relevant hours job either PT or FT as quite clearly there is the work to justify the hours
13 Return to having Night Sorters at Larger Walk Offices as the volume of packets leaves most offices with a need to get a head start on IPS

14. Stop referring to the pandemic in the past sense. Covid is still with us and such dangerous rhetoric is clearly leading to complacency with regard to standards of personal hygiene, wearing of masks, maintaining social distance etc.

15. Ensure that staff members with less than a year in the job are paid when they follow NHS guidance to isolate pending a PCR test result for displaying potential Covid symptoms. Currently, those who adhere to this guidance and receive a negative result are not paid a penny for any days that they have missed. What sort of a message do you think that it sends to your employees when they fear financial punishment for following advice intended to stop the spread of a potentially fatal virus?

[postieblueshirt]

Being still youngish but I've done nearly 27yrs paying me off would benefit the business for a few reasons if they want to turn into hermes or whoever I won't turn with them,I refuse to throw parcels on doorsteps I refuse to just put specials through the door etc etc.Almost all new starters I've worked with in the last 7 to 8 years don't give a dam so that's the way forward il stay left behind.

[oypostie]

Change the entire board would be a good start

[WASD]

My opinions is properly not favourable by many. I believe the future of RM is just going through employees on a short term basis, unrealistic work loads and bully type management from top down. I can't see RM ever reaching top spot in the courier industry.

On my unrealistic and illegal vision, it would be:
Remove all staff above postie/warehouse level.
A decent HR team that is contactable.
No DOMs or managers, just teams and team leaders.
Hire decent marketing team.
Hire competent I.T team that communicates and knows what's needed.
Ditch seniority.
Ditch sick pay.
Ditch the unions.
Ditch the USO for marketing mail only.
Ditch the holiday booking system.
Make all rounds feasible, and rotate teams around to allow driving routes be done by all employees who need a rest.
Run every office with excess staff to allow good service.
Pay per item of D2Ds again.
Scrap and redo postage costs, stamps and types of services offered. (£1 1st stamp, 35p 2nd but 5 day lead time), etc.
Have staff take actual responsibility for their actions, re van damage/messiness.
Positive work environment for all, but based on hard work pays. Rewards for no sick days, etc.
I'd probably stick everyone on a 4 day on, 4 day rota too, but with 20/30/40 hour contracts fitted into the 4 days.

Dunno if this would actually be profitable, but the current setup is a joke.

[Jahpostie]

Replace DOMs with team leaders who would act as postmen if duties couldn't be covered due to sickness. We're all in it together after all!

What do they actually do after all posties have gone? It can't amount to much surely!

[Chelseablue]

Pay workplace coaches when they actually do it and not when they do nothing for it at all. Bring in ppl with ppl skills . Stop looking after favourites. Be more flexible regarding wanting a day off. Listen to the posties whove far more experience than doms will ever have. Never bring in these joke revisions again!

[Munchboii]

My opinions is properly not favourable by many. I believe the future of RM is just going through employees on a short term basis, unrealistic work loads and bully type management from top down. I can't see RM ever reaching top spot in the courier industry.

On my unrealistic and illegal vision, it would be:
Remove all staff above postie/warehouse level.
A decent HR team that is contactable.
No DOMs or managers, just teams and team leaders.
Hire decent marketing team.
Hire competent I.T team that communicates and knows what's needed.
Ditch seniority.
Ditch sick pay.
Ditch the unions.
Ditch the USO for marketing mail only.
Ditch the holiday booking system.
Make all rounds feasible, and rotate teams around to allow driving routes be done by all employees who need a rest.
Run every office with excess staff to allow good service.
Pay per item of D2Ds again.
Scrap and redo postage costs, stamps and types of services offered. (£1 1st stamp, 35p 2nd but 5 day lead time), etc.
Have staff take actual responsibility for their actions, re van damage/messiness.
Positive work environment for all, but based on hard work pays. Rewards for no sick days, etc.
I'd probably stick everyone on a 4 day on, 4 day rota too, but with 20/30/40 hour contracts fitted into the 4 days.

Dunno if this would actually be profitable, but the current setup is a joke.

[Kenfandango]

Size/weight limits on parcels. Girl signed onto light duties had 2 25kg bags of bird seed to deliver last week. Someone else had A BAG OF CEMENT. Managers just laughed at it, haha enjoy putting your back out... They're tracked so don't let them fail.

Pay people to sort things early.

Actually penalise people who do a bodge job so they can leave early. Guy on a rest day cover is friends with DOM. He only ever takes tracked and leaves everything else. Rarely does more than 4 hours.

Train people properly. Encourage managers to listen. There's a real attitude of "well that's the job". Stock answer to things like "I have 2 full large York's a day, I'm struggling," "my rest day inexplicably moved without me being told," "I'm expected to work Sundays?! That was never mentioned in the advert or interview, but the term 5 out of 7 is slipped into the contract." On top of this, I regularly hear "you can just go over" as an answer to people struggling

[Adison]

Despite only having been here a short time, agree with all the above..

I’m lucky as people I have worked with are genuinely kind and have been generous with their time.

However, the recruitment process was very unfair and I would go as far as to say undignified. I was desperate to get out of an office job and I was delighted to be offered an interview. The dates of the interview were not as advertised and of course I had already booked the time off my previous job - this just changed without any communication with no option to attend any other date/time.

From there onwards I waited over a fortnight to find out the outcome, I received the job offer subject to checks that weren’t carried out for another 3 weeks and not a dicky bird from anybody during that time - nobody at all. I received a formal offer of employment a week into my job as a postie…

It was Friday before the Monday that I started when somebody from the onboarding team let me know that I would be starting on the Monday. With so little communication from the beginning i was anxious about handing in my notice and equally about what would lay ahead at RM.

As I’ve mentioned people I’ve met have been truly kind. But I can understand why there is such a high staff turnover as you are as a new starter basically going to sink or swim, this is my impression anyway. And even if you’re swimming it’s not because it’s not difficult because it bloody is!

I would also like to throw in contracts… hours and days are nothing as advertised. I feel that this is very unfair to the candidate who of course has a life/children/commitments to organise around their working hours. Please consider how this feels to somebody who’s just given up employment, to walk through the doors at a new organisation where expectation is entirely different, and not knowing how to re-organise everything around what is actually expected at your new place of employment. Again, I have been able to move things around (not without difficulty on occasion).. but I imagine there are many out there who’ve had to leave because there’s such a big discrepancy. I totally get being flexible and willingness to support colleagues etc, but we should all be working to live and not living to work!

[Hyrrokkin]

My two pennies worth

Remove ALL managers - they are useless work shy bully shysters
Train new starts properly - do not dump them in the deep end sink or swim
Give us the right equipment that actually works and is actually tested
Give the contracts that posties deserve - with the pay they deserve
Give decent overtime rates
Stop over-complicating the job with new this new that - posties have enough to do with all this new nonsense on top
Stop patronizing the workforce - who can see through the BS every time
Give decent bonuses for all the hard work done

[WASD]

...

What's the bit you don't like?

[Kenfandango]

I second the comment about interview process/ job advert.

Took 5 months from application to starting, and wasn't sure I was actually starting until I was in on my first day. Job advert said "8.30-2.30 Monday to Saturday with a rolling day off in lieu" which is perfect for picking kids from school. They've had to go to paid after school club a LOT since I started, and I'm asked to start with the full timers literally every day.
Oh, and have to work Sundays whenever managers decide it's "my turn." Which is, apparently, in the contract despite not ever being mentioned prior to starting.

The interview was a shambles, the training videos were just common sense (don't drive drunk. Wear a seatbelt. Use a handbrake. If you find a customer attractive, don't show up at their house in the night) and offered no real help with the actual job. Maybe explain to new people how to prep a frame, where to find your mech in the morning, Redi's, IPS, how to get specials done in time, how to tie up effectively.... And so on

[Krypteia]

Stop job and finish.

Stop ghost overtime

Penalise the ones that cut corners and reward the ones who do the job how it should be done and do a good job not just finish a walk any which way they can to look good.

Stop promoting failed/lazy OPG's to management positions. 18 months in a job is nowhere near long enough to qualify an individual to move up to be a line manager. 5 years minimum.

Stop allowing managers to investigate mangers when OPG's put grievances or bullying and harassments in. Too much back scratching goes on and too many nasty barstewards get let off by their manager mates.

Every year all senior mangers have to do a month in a delivery office. This'll stop all the stupidity they spout about things being do-able when in fact the ideas they come up with look like they've been designed on the back of a cig packet and are based off of hours saved through OPG's starting before their time, not taking breaks, dumping packets in bins so they don't have to write a card out, not using trolleys, running on delivery, writing cards out in the office before going out on delivery etc etc etc.

Stop making managers feel they are untouchable when in fact they are the biggest problem the company has. The only pandemic the company should be dealing with is the pandemic of incompetence that runs through management.

[Munchboii]

...

What's the bit you don't like?

Get rid of sick pay

Why should we lose one of the only actual benefits of this job ?

[Chelseablue]

After the worst revisions ever , its clear they are not interested in any fairness etc at all .