About Retail Marketing Group

Communication has been a big focus this year for Retail Marketing. They listened to their employees and noted that they need to be more connected whilst working remotely. Their most innovative step-forward in communication has been the creation of RMG Loop, the company’s app based tool to engage their colleagues globally. Loop has taken two years to develop and an investment of over £250,000, and is available on iOS, Android and web. Two key communication favourites of Loop are the 'What's On' and the social feed. Both allow everyone to see and share what's happening in their world. This has proved to be a simple and highly interactive way to see what’s going on in real-time, and it also enables employees to work collaboratively together. Also, every Tuesday, anyone in the head office meets in a 'Huddle' to communicate what’s happening that week. This is live streamed to the whole business for those who can’t physically attend. After each Huddle they share the highlights via Loop. They also listened to their employees about Leadership communication and what more they wanted to see and hear from the leaders. It was clear that Directors could be more visible within the business. As a result of this the CEO now hosts a Q&A session on a quarterly basis. This allows everyone a chance to ask him or any of the Directors any questions about the business, and again this is live streamed to everyone and shared on Loop.

All full-time employees can volunteer for 30 hours a year during working hours. This is usually taken as four days throughout the year during which RMG still pays the employee. Everyone is encouraged to be as personal as possible with their volunteering days, and spend the time with charities or initiatives that matter to them. Ultimately employees can volunteer for any charity they would like to support. Some examples of charities our employees have supported this year include: Alzheimer's UK, Dogs Trust, Mind, Daisy's Dream, Sport Relief, The National Trust, West Berkshire Food Bank and Young Enterprise Scheme. Within their head office they also run a variety of fundraising initiatives throughout the year including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, sweepstakes, bingo, Fantasy Football, Movember, Three Peaks, Sport Relief run, marathons, triathlons, donations for completing surveys, bake sales, tuck shop (20% of proceeds go to charity), car boot sales, raffles and games. They have also donated books and clothes collected from employee, friends and families for the Mind charity store in Reading and food donations for Wokingham Foodbank. In September 2016 RMG employees were in the top 3% of fundraisers on JustGiving.

Every six months RMG hold a company meeting where the Director team will inspire and inform the business of the company’s global strategy and how they are doing. It’s always a themed event with a party for all, it focuses on key measures and recognition of great work. Alongside this, the CEO Warren will hold a live Q&A session quarterly, this gives employees an opportunity to ask questions they may have regarding purpose, core principles, ambition and anything personal about him! As this is broadcast live they have a camera crew, studio audience and questions coming via the app from all parts of the company. The Australian team even get pizzas and make a night of it, and then it is shared on their YouTube channel. Every month the Directors visit field teams either one on one or at team meetings, and through internal engagement surveys they are very clear on what areas employees want to be addressed or revisited. Each survey focuses on living the values and achieving the mission. They also run the Be Awesome recognition scheme which rewards employees who have been recognised for living the values during that month. Last Christmas the 8 company values, along with the vision and mission, were printed onto a large canvas, and then employees were invited to come up and individually sign the canvas, a physical representation of signing up to the strategy. The canvas now hangs in the 'hub' breakout area in the head office.