The monthly newspaper for our Tuffnells operations colleagues. We are bringing together stories of success and achievement, plus all the latest news to keep you updated.

April 2019

This issue

We tell you all about our NEW Extra Mile Awards which are now live and kicking! Look out for our Everyday Steps boards which will be making their way to all our locations during early April. The boards are there for us all to celebrate fantastic work and colleagues who are living our values.

We’ve got an update from our National Colleague Forum meeting where colleagues from across all our locations come together to discuss important topics and issues.

We also share information about our new Connect People system – make sure you take two minutes to take a read!

Don’t forget that Get Connected is for you, so if you have news to share, comments or questions, please email communications@connectgroupplc.com

Get Connected Editorial Team

Our Extra Mile Awards are here!Celebrating our colleagues who go the Extra Mile.

We’re delighted to let you know that from the beginning of April we’re going to be introducing new and improved workwear for our drivers, warehouse operatives and shunters.

The new Personal Protection Equipment is different from our old style uniforms. It has been developed and sourced using your feedback about quality and safety. We had the following priorities:

Safety First – to improve the safety of all our frontline colleagues who work in our busy depots. By moving from a uniform to Personal Protection Equipment. Keeping everyone safe.

Valued colleagues – giving our colleagues quality Personal Protection Equipment which includes our new branding, the workwear having more modern designs that are comfortable and warm that help colleagues to do their jobs.

Pride in Tuffnells – we know how proud you are to work for Tuffnells and we wanted your workwear to reflect your pride and to stand out when you’re working so hard for our customers.

Our continued investment – to continue our investment in Tuffnells and our colleagues who work so hard.

The introduction of the new workwear takes place from now until the summer to allow our suppliers to deliver the new kit on time and to ensure that we meet the needs of our colleagues and provide a good service. You’ll hear more in the coming weeks but we wanted to give you all a sneaky peak of what it looks like!

TUFFNELLS NEW WORKWEAR ARRIVES

At Connect Group, we’re proud of what our colleagues and teams do every day. The work all our colleagues do to please our customers and support other teams is great. But what about when our colleagues go the extra mile?

We’re launching the Extra Mile Awards to recognise, celebrate and thank our colleagues who do go the extra mile, who live and breathe our values and stand out from the crowd when it comes to delighting customers, teams or colleagues.

If you have any questions about Extra Mile Awards – please speak to your Colleague Forum.

Everyday Steps – being quick to share everyday successes. Has your colleague produced great work, are they living our values, have they been recognised by a customer? All colleagues can pass on their thanks to anyone and use a postcard to write a personal note for others to see and celebrate. At your location, you will have a board where the postcards can be displayed.

We have three levels of celebration:

Blazing a Trail – our annual winners who live and breathe our values and their contribution will have made a difference to our business.

Going Further – are for our colleagues who perform and work to a great standard. They typically role-model values and make a positive impact on their team or customers - our winners are selected from our Everyday Steps boards by Colleague Forums at each locations and will receive a £25 voucher.

You’ll start seeing our Everyday Steps boards appear in your locations – as soon as they’re up –feel free to start posting your cards!

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Or visit: theangle.connectgroupplc.com/content/today-we-have-published-our-gender-pay-gap-report

Scan this QR code to find out more about your pension, or visit:

theangle.connectgroupplc.com/content/pensions

Discussing What Matters in Birmingham

Thinking Safety First

Our colleague, Ruth Ovens from the People Team wanted to be friendly by sharing news of a Safety First app which really helped her after a running incident. Ruth downloaded ‘OS Locate’ which can pin point exactly where you are and give a grid reference (not only good when lost on mountains, or stuck on remote paths, but also when you break down in your car) and ensures you are located more quickly. Thankfully Ruth was able to use this app when she was badly injured in a fall in a remote area and was able to be located quickly! We hope you get better soon Ruth.

Celebrating International Women’s DayOur female colleagues in Birmingham were all given a red rose to mark International Women’s Day. What a lovely friendly thing to do and a great way make people smile!

Our Ipswich depot is on a great service roll!The team in Ipswich received three emails from customers in 6 days to celebrate great service.

Mark Aldridge impressed one of our customers so much she wrote in to tell us: ‘Just wanted to say your driver Mark is an asset to your company. Very polite, helpful and just a very nice man Extremely happy with my delivery. Thank you’. We’re loving your great work, Mark!

Well done Dan Taylor – our customer said ‘All parcels delivered perfectly from a very polite and helpful driver – thank you’.

‘I missed our Tuffnells delivery but the parcel was left very safely – fab service. I thought I’d email in as we all need to hear a thank you’. Yes we do – so thank you to our customer for telling us about Edward Soare brilliant service.

Stockport team raise the fundraising roof!The team in Stockport, including Warrington and Liverpool, just couldn’t stop giving. Their events to raise money for our Pass It On campaign were tremendous!

They ran a combination of cake sales, raffles, an event week with a daily tuck shop, onesie day, Christmas Jumper Day, tombola, games, baby photos and a cake sale. They also ran a competition to name giant bears. The team’s grand total was over £2000 for the group. What an exceptional response to help people who are homeless or vulnerable. A massive well done team!

What Matters feedback creates a friendly and open development opportunityColleagues in Birmingham, who work nights, asked for more development opportunities. So the team made a commitment to hold workshops for night managers and future night managers to support training and development. The interactive session was run by Gavin Howard, Kelly Leech and Dave Moore. The feedback from colleagues who attended was awesome!

It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do!Ben Winspear, Ron Hughes and Mel Muryn have decorated part of the Yeovil depot based on feedback from colleagues.

The environment is now more inviting compared to the dark and dreary areas they had before. There are still a few areas to finish along with the toilet refresh, but a great start and real team effort. Paul Latham told us ‘It was mentioned on the recent Colleague Ambassador call about how it has really lifted the team in Yeovil so we’re really pleased’.

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Living our values

The Company is only required by the Government to pay in 3% of your pensionable pay but we are delighted to be paying in more to support you with getting the kind of retirement you would like. You should now have received a letter and fact sheet giving you more details about your own pension. If you haven’t received yours please ask you manager.

The Government is increasing the minimum amount of money that must be paid into your Pension from April 2019.

Pension contribution enhancements for all!

Gender Pay Gap ReportIn March we announced our Gender Pay Gap Report, if you’d like to read more please scan the below QR code.

Celebrating International

Women’s Day

Yeovil gets a makeover

Our Everyone In Forum is launchedOn Friday 8 March, Connect Group Swindon invited colleagues across our depot and office locations to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Everyone In is a group of people from across the business who have a passion for making Connect Group a great place to work for everyone. Our aim is to create and sustain an environment of respect where everyone has the opportunity to flourish and achieve their potential.

The Forum’s role is to drive engagement and awareness against various Diversity and Inclusion activities and topics. Ones to look out for in the near future are Mental Health Awareness Week in May and Carers Week in June.

We are looking for all our colleagues to get involved and there’s so many different ways to do that. It could mean attending some Inclusion training that we’ll be rolling out later this year or reviewing your recruitment processes to ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally. If you’re a manager it’s checking in with your team, upskilling yourself about how you can lead by example on being Inclusive, to local teams creating events that support our Diversity calendar.

We’ll be regularly reporting on what we’re getting up to and our progress through Get Connected and The Angle. The Forum members are below, so please get in touch with any of your ideas and thoughts. Or email communications@connectgroupplc.com

Everyone In forum members

Want to plan some fun this year? Don’t forget our Merlin discounts!We’ve teamed up with Merlin Group to offer Connect Group colleagues up to a massive 46% discount on some of the best theme parks and activities in the land!

Pick from Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Madame Tussauds, Sealife, Chessington World of Adventures and LEGOLAND. If a theme park isn’t your thing, you can visit other Merlin Attractions including, the London Eye, a River cruise along the Thames, waltzing through the ballroom at the Blackpool Tower, exploring Warwick Castle and many more.

Sam Deane

David Kumar

Simon Allan-Brooks

Kelly Leech

Jane Storm

Sian Byrne

Denise Dymond

Mike Makinson

Anya Ahmad

Tim Oglesby

Jos Opdeweegh

Emily McMinn

Want to know more? Visit the below URL or scan the QR code.

www.beargryllsadventure.com/birmingham/activities/bears-adventure-basecamp

For information about all discounts available though Merlin, visit The Angle here:

theangle.connectgroupplc.com/content/merlin-discounts

Fancy something new in 2019?Are you ready to discover your limits? See yourself as an adventurer – why not visit Bear Grylls Adventure.

Based at the NEC in Birmingham, you can test your survival skills, navigate unknown terrain, sprint over obstacles and hit your target. There are four activities to prepare you for any adventure - are you ready for Basecamp?

As well as Basecamp, you can dive, snorkel, use highropes, climb and indoor skydive.

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Matt Owens

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Apprenticeships are open to everyone

We’ve recently celebrated National Apprenticeship Week to raise awareness of professional qualifications and apprenticeships that are available to our colleagues.

Matt Owens, who is one of our driver warehouse to wheels success stories helped out in one of or apprenticeship week drop in sessions. Alongside Andy Stone and Vicky Grant who talked through the support that would be provided for learners who sign up to do an apprenticeship. Matt talked with pride about what he had achieved on the programme and answered questions that the team had.

Hear what Matt had to say about his apprenticeship.

Colleague Forum update Colleague Forum meetings in Tuffnells have been taking place at all locations since our Forums launched in January.

We’ve had great feedback that these meetings have been gaining momentum and are really beginning to take shape. But we also know that the richness and success of our Forums come from the conversations that take place between colleagues and Forum members.

At the end of March, Allan Blakeley, Rachel Potarzycka and Tom Martin hosted the National Tuffnells Colleague Forum – where regional Forum Ambassadors came together to discuss hot topics from across all our regions. Below we give you a flavour of the main areas of discussion.

What’s working well:

� Our new values Awards called ‘Extra Mile’ was very well received

� Celebrating successes – there was a request that we celebrate individual achievements more now we are seeing colleagues complete apprenticeships. The Extra Mile Awards will allow this to happen locally

� Feedback on Colleague Forum – very positive and seen as a real benefit for colleagues. Views shared that this is what differentiates us from competitors who only look at KPIs and business results rather than have open discussions and genuinely listening to people

What our Forums will be working on to make improvements:

� Improving working practices and across teams within depots can impact on customer service. There was a discussion on ways we can improve this. Allan reinforced the message that scanning can really help this

� Introduce more standard meeting schedules, agenda items and attendees at depot meetings. Allan agreed to take this away and agree some consistent agenda items, who and how often

� Cascade of communication seems to stop with managers and not be consistently passed on to colleagues

Ambassadors who attended this meeting will now go back and discuss these topics with their local Forums to see how the team together can work on improvements. Have you got any ideas or suggestions for improvement? Speak to your Colleague Forum Ambassador.

#FIRE IT UP

Jenny Porter

Lidia Eniko Popa

Ida Saine

Colleague Assistance programmeFinding the right life balance is often really hard with the demands of work, family and relationships. These pressures can result in stress, and looking for ways to cope.

At Connect Group we provide a Colleague Assistance Programme (CAP) from Care first, where you can speak to a trained counsellor on any issues including, money troubles, alcohol and drug addiction, illness, relationship difficulties or bereavement which may be affecting you at home or work.

This service is here to support you and is available free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0800 015 5630. You can visit www.eap-carefirst.com

Or to download the CAP ‘In your pocket app’ – search ‘EAP in your pocket app’ in your app store.

The log in details are: Username: lifestyle1234 Password: carefirst

All calls are treated with the strictest of confidence and Connect Group is not provided with any information relating to your call.

Cooking up a storm

Food is a common theme when it comes to raising money and fun!

Flipping impressive!

The customer service team in Newcastle ran a pancake flipping contest – Michelle Burke won with 56 flips – that’s impressive.

On pancake day the Colleague Forum Ambassadors in Hemel organised a cake sale with the proceeds going to a local charity

They held the cake sale on department tea and lunch breaks and to include everybody they did the same during twilight and night shifts. They raised a fantastic £250.

The great Langley bake off!

The team at DMD, Langley held a charity bake sale to help one of their colleagues Yogisha Banawalikar to raise much needed funds for her son Javin to have a new standing wheelchair and give him a much better quality of life.

Javin is a 11-year-old boy who has a rare genetic neuro-muscular condition, which is also life limiting. He is completely immobile and fully dependent on his family and nurses for all his daily social and health care needs.

Javin has grown out of his existing powered wheelchair and needs a new one so the family are now tasked with raising £10,000 – as that’s how much they cost. Everyone really rallied round to help contribute towards this amazing cause. Well done to everyone who baked, bought and donated!

Raising money and helping others is a common theme of activity and focus for our teams – whilst having a bit of fun! Here we showcase some great examples

Taking care of the communities we serve

Team fun for Comic Relief!

Some of our teams have been having fun and raising money for Comic Relief.

Comic Relief week started with a bang in Tuffnells office in Sheffield! The team kicked off with Mario Kart, progressed to Table Tennis and Fifa competitions and then culminated with a Comic Relief quiz and cycling challenge on Red Nose Day!

Mark McConnell was guest compere to issue awards and

prizes, magnificently dressed for the part! Everyone was given a Red Nose and gorgeous home-made cakes were sold to raise money. The team in total raised £330! Looks like loads of fun and an amazing amount of money raised to boot! Great work team.

The team in Wednesbury wanted to have some fun and raise money for Comic Relief! So the team decide to do fancy dress or dress casually for the day - they organised other fun activities too including guess the cupcake !

All the team start between 5:30am and 6:30am, but the lovely Fiona (from Shrek fame!) was up at 3:30am applying make-up. It was worth the early start - you look amazing!

Scan each one of the QR codes to watch a video of six of our apprentices who tell their stories about personal development and career goals.

Magda Korzeb

Kaine Collins

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PAGE 4Get Connected April 2019

What will Connect People do for me?

� Wherever you work, whatever your job, Connect People is for you.

� It’s the name that we’ve given to our new People & Payroll system.

� You will be able to use Connect Me to:

Access your payslip online

You can use your phone, any computer or tablet. That’s each Friday if you are paid weekly. The paper payslips will stop but don’t worry, Connect Me will store your payslips. Our monthly paid colleagues will receive their first e-payslip this month. Weekly paid colleagues will continue to receive paper payslips until the switch to e-payslips is complete. Your manager will confirm the date that this will happen.

Don’t forget

Your first e-payslip will include pension changes, any uplift to National Living or Minimum Wage, as well as any Tax and National Insurance changes that apply to you. So your take-home pay may look different to what you have received previously.

Manage your holidays

From 11 April you’ll use Connect Me to request your holiday, find out if it has been approved and to see how much holiday you have left to book. Connect Me already knows how many days holiday you receive. We need an email address so we can let you know if holiday has been approved. If you have a work email – you don’t need to do anything. If you haven’t yet given us your email address please speak to your Connect People Change Champion.

Manage personal information

You will also be able to check and update important details such as home address, bank details and your emergency contact details.

So, what happens next?

Your Connect People login

You will be given a letter with your Connect People login and a temporary password. This will be in a sealed envelope for security. If you have a work email

Connect People is almost here!

Connect People will be ready for colleagues to use on the 11 April

address you’ll receive this by email.

Please note you can access Connect People from your phone, a computer or a tablet, open the internet browser and type this into the address bar: www.connectpeople.co/connectme please type this address carefully (and note that it is .co not .com)

Accessing Connect People for the first time

Once you have received your letter you can login. You’ll then be prompted to change your password. Make sure to check your personal information and bank details via the Personal tab.

Keeping your login secure

Security of your data is really important, so please always keep your login details and password safe.

How will I find out more about Connect People?

If you have any questions about Connect People – please speak to your manager or your Connect People change champion. Once you access the site – it’s really easy to use. But there are helpful user guides to help you – so please don’t worry. You can scan the QR below for a quick overview of the system.

Why are we making this change?

We need to modernise our business and implement helpful technology. Connect People will help us to meet our six strategic priorities, in particular a standard way of doing things for everyone, wherever you work.

With ‘live’ information in one place we can make decisions quickly, such as considering and responding to holiday requests.

Scan the QR code to watch an video introducing Connect People

Access via your phone, PC or tablet

www.connectpeople.co/connectme

PAGE 4Get Connected April 2019