About Boots Opticians

They have a passionate belief in supporting their colleagues and have faced numerous challenges since the merger of the two heritage businesses, each with their own training methods and practices. To further develop their customer service training, they knew they needed to radically change the way they developed the capability of their practice colleagues adopting not just a ‘Best of Both’ but a ‘Better than Both’ approach to the challenge. Historically D&A had operated a compulsory NVQ programme for all of its practice colleagues whilst Boots had adopted a less structured but customer-led approach. To best support their colleagues the decision was taken to retain the formal NVQ approach. They also decided to make the programmes increasingly flexible and fit for purpose in a fast moving sector. So last year they made the Level 2 NVQ apprenticeship programme compulsory for all new joins - 400 new apprentices each year with capacity to flex up to over 600, and to ensure a consistent training experience for all learners whether full time or part time, government funded or non funded. In the last year, with the mission to ensure successful take up of the NVQ programme, they have opened five new satellite or regional training centres across the country. These have been carefully sited to ensure that all colleagues are within reasonable travelling distance of a centre, and that their Optical Consultant population do not have to stay overnight. This is particularly important given the number of part-time colleagues and colleagues with families, for whom residential training is extremely difficult. The company have invested large amounts in facilities, equipment and staff for these centres and they have all been created with colleagues’ personal needs in mind. They want to ensure all of their colleagues have the knowledge they need to succeed in their role and the opportunity to develop themselves personally while at work, and the apprenticeship programme is just one example of that.

Within the organisation, most areas have small teams, therefore social events can be organised on a local or regional level. Within the Support Office, they regularly hold full team, over 150 colleagues social occasions and events. One of their particularly memorable occasions was a week-long Office Olympics competition in the Support Office, to raise money for their partner charity Action for Blind People. Ten teams, with representation from most functions, took part in events each day themed around games taking place in an office – for example speed typing, a treasure hunt and a putting tournament. This brought colleagues from many functions together each day in a competitive yet friendly spirit, and raised awareness of , and money for their partner charity. Despite strong workload pressures, people still took the time to take part, realising the importance of the social event in building better relationships with colleagues. On the back of the success of the event, They have recently established a dedicated Charity and Social group of volunteers within the Support Office, who will further this agenda and create a programme of social events that can bring everybody together.

The company have a constitutional Employee Forum, made up of directly elected representatives from all levels of the business. This meets quarterly, and allows colleagues to directly give feedback to members of the Operating Committee. The Forum is consulted on all major business initiatives and change programmes, and the Operating Committee ensure that Forum representatives are fully engaged in these before any work commences. It’s a way of giving a direct voice for our 5000+ practice colleagues right to the top of the organisation. Following each meeting, the Forum produces cascade documents that are directly distributed to practices, and Forum reps take responsibility for ensuring colleagues in their area receive a full briefing on what has been discussed at the Forum. The Forum recently marked two years since its inaugural set up, which meant that new elections were due. Many of the Forum decided to stand again for a further two year term, showing that they are genuinely happy with the ways of working in the Forum and the role they could play in shaping the future of our business. The new elections were also contested by many new candidates, eager to get involved and represent their colleagues’ feedback. In addition to the Forum, they run two feedback surveys annually. This allows colleagues to give anonymous feedback on a wide range of questions, some concerning local issues and their line manager, and some concerning the wider business. The company then use the results of the survey at each level to create action plan with the view of improving working life for all of their colleagues.