Royal Mail & CWU Joint Communication Weekly Resourcing Meetings (WRMs) And Supporting New Starters in Deliveries
Branches and Representatives will recall LTB 017/24 (Letter To Branches) issued on 15th January, concerning the Royal Mail/CWU Joint Communication Covering Section 2.5 Improving Quality of Service, Seasonal Variation and the Review of the 30-Minutes Flexibility Agreement.
In line with the commitments set out in ‘Section 2.5 – Working together to improve Quality of Service – Joint Statement’, regular Quality of Service review meetings have been held with Royal Mail involving Delivery units to work together to improve customer performance and USO Compliance. Consequently, two clear and consistent themes have come out of these initial meetings: the value of WRMs (Weekly Resourcing Meetings) and the need to provide support for new starters.
Given this and the simple fact that these are viewed as fundamental standards that should be in place, the Postal Executive has endorsed the attached Joint Communication, which is self-explanatory and seeks to draw out the following key areas for local Reps and COMs to cover in terms of WRMs and support for new starters from day one and beyond.
Weekly Resourcing Meetings
The foremost and most critical output from these joint meetings is the recognition of the importance of Weekly Resourcing Meetings. Effective resourcing meetings offer a multitude of benefits to all units, including: –
- Ensuring there is a clear resourcing plan in the office that has been jointly agreed, which all in the unit understand, and which has been communicated in good time.
- Maximising available resource each day, and across the week.
- Balancing resources against workload.
- Allowing increased flexibility during periods of lower traffic (also accounting for Seasonal Variation).
- Facilitating a fair distribution of overtime where it is justified by workload.
- Ensuring a fair and equal balance of workload.
- Ensuring strong customer performance.
- Manage lower periods of workload by accounting for employee needs and supporting annual leave allocation, including short term annual leave and other time off requests.
- As part of the Weekly Resource Meeting process, should the unit be at risk of any USO failure it is critical that a walk rotation plan is in place; Where a delivery route or part of a route is not covered on any given day it must be covered the next working day to ensure any delay in delivery is for the maximum of 1 day.
- To enact this process both parties need a plan as part of the weekly resourcing meeting to ensure walks never fail x 2 days in a row. Both parties should first ensure all resourcing options have been explored, including and not limited to possibly moving someone from one duty to another, using rest day cover, reserve and overtime coverage.
It is imperative that Weekly Resourcing Meetings are conducted regularly in all Delivery units (Where there is no CWU Unit Rep in place, the ADR will confirm with the OPL a nominated CWU Rep to attend the WRMs). The outputs of these meetings should be jointly shared and every person in every unit should have absolute clarity on the resourcing plan every week, and in good time.
New Starters and Induction Process
One of the most frequent reasons given when people do choose to leave the business, is that the role was not what they expected at the outset. With unit managers taking a more active role in the recruitment process this year, it is crucial that Royal Mail is transparent and upfront regarding working hour expectations, including afternoon and Sunday requirements. Alongside this, it is also necessary to ensure that new starters have the best possible experience when they begin their new role.
These are initial best practices that can be jointly enacted in order to provide a positive introduction to Royal Mail:
- New starters should be supported in line with the relevant National Agreement covering the Workplace Coach Programme for Delivery & Collections.
- Ensuring the workplace coach is afforded sufficient release time via the weekly resourcing meeting to train the new entrant.
- Ensuring the workplace coach uses the new entrant guide to train the new starter (accessed via the Digital Academy), and that the new starter receives the virtual Welcome to Royal Mail session in their first week.
- New starters can be further supported by the Managers and Unit Rep (and Safety Rep), and should be introduced to the Local CWU Rep (and Safety Rep) on day one.
- We should look to keep our new joiners on the same duty for a minimum period of 6 weeks, and ideally for 12 weeks where possible as this is recognised as best practice.
- All employees are encouraged to work Sundays to support the growth of this important revenue stream and source of growth for Royal Mail that will protect jobs in the long term. Sundays should be resourced fairly across our Sunday working people.
- Where a Sunday attendance is required, the individual should still only be scheduled to attend no more than 5-days in that week (unless they have agreed to cover via overtime or the office uses a 6-day week duty pattern). Both the COM and Unit Rep should keep this under review at WRMs, also looking to adopt innovative duty arrangements to cover required Sunday attendances.
- The COM and CWU Rep should check in with new joiners regularly, and at least weekly, to ensure they are comfortable in the role and to answer any questions or queries they may have.
To further assist in terms of supporting new starters, also attached is LTB 496/19, which sets out the Royal Mail/CWU National Joint Statement – A Refocus on New Entrant Standards and the Role of the Delivery Workplace Coach (WPC).
We believe this is a positive move, one which we hope is broadly welcomed by Branches and Representatives and is equally acted upon and taken forward at local level. If despite the terms of this Joint Communication, there remain issues in this regard then these should in the first instance be raised via Area Delivery Reps at Divisional level.
Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 230.03, email address: JRODRIGUES@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary
LTB 100/24 – RM CWU Joint Communication WRMs and Supporting New Starters in Deliveries
Att: Royal Mail CWU Joint Communication WRM And Supporting New Starters in Deliveries
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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