Company rhetoric about valuing staff amounts to little unless management practises what it preaches.
Ruth James, group training and recruitment manager at delivery firm TNT Post Group, said, “Chief executives need to lead by example. If your top people don’t do it, it is very likely that managers further down won’t. They need to walk the talk”.
Staff who do well at TNT, she said, often receive hand written notes from senior management team members congratulating them. Time is also dedicated to meeting and taking an interest in recent graduate recruits.
She said, “It is things like that people remember. It is no good saying you have these values but not behaving that way or rewarding the behaviour you want”.
James said that TNT’s current strategy – adopted about six years ago – “has led to profits doubling over the past five years”.
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She added that an induction programme over 13 weeks is considered essential to retention. Staff review their progress with a line manager at the end of weeks one, five, nine and 13.
