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Our people – Values in action
our values
Our Values help bring us together to achieve
our vision of becoming the ‘food specialist
for everyone’. The Values set out what we
expect of each other in the business and
what our customers can expect from us.
Can do
Getting things done
Fresh thinking
Our aim is to attract, motivate and develop
people to ensure that Morrisons becomes
the ‘food specialist for everyone’.
Our building blocks
1 Values
2 Leadership
Values are incorporated in everything we do and
are at the core of what we expect our leaders and
colleagues to be about.
We will develop effective leaders working to our
Values because they create the right workplace
conditions in which customers receive a great service.
4 Performance
3 Talent
Sustainable performance relies on having people in
place to: grow the business; strengthen our unique
Morrisons culture and deliver our vision of being the
‘food specialist for everyone’.
At Morrisons we believe that everyone has talent
and we are committed to selecting, developing
and growing the best people for our business.
Always looking for new and
better ways of doing things
One team
Working well together
Great selling and service
We love to sell and serve
Bringing the best out
of our people
We’re constantly learning and looking
to improve on where we are
Great shopkeeping
Setting high standards in all areas
of the business
At Morrisons we thrive on having highly
committed people who know how the business
works and take pride in doing a great job.
We continually invest in our people to ensure
that we deliver great business performance
and outstanding customer service.
In order to achieve this our People Agenda
focuses on four key areas: Values, Leadership.
Talent and Performance.
Talent
Growing our own people has been part of
the Morrisons success story for many years.
We believe in giving everyone the opportunity
to progress from the shop floor to the top floor
in our business. With 80% of our employees
promoted from within, we believe this approach
creates a very strong culture and supports our
commitment to the CSR social mobility agenda.
Morrisons
Fresh Food Academy
747 Level 2 NVQs have been awarded
across the business in 2009.
Engagement
We have engaged and consulted with
thousands of employees at over
1,700 Joint Consultation Committee
meetings during 2009.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC
To support this objective we launched the
Morrisons Academy in 2009. It delivers a range
of training and development that we use to bring
the best out of our people at all stages in their
career covering everything from basic skills
training to leadership coaching. Structured
training builds confidence and a sense of pride,
ownership and an ability to provide customers
with the best service possible.
The Academy also encompasses professional and
vocational qualifications. Our Market Street
retail training has been accredited to level two
QCF standards meaning we can offer employees
a nationally recognised qualification. By April
2010 all our Market Street colleagues will be
accredited and qualified to Royal Society for
Public Health standards of food safety. We will
be the only food retailer to operate to this
standard – a major step towards realising our
vision of being the ‘food specialist for everyone’.
There are 20,000 colleagues already working
towards their qualification, making this the
largest programme of its kind currently in the
UK. The Academy also incorporates our Craft
Skills Apprenticeship Programme. Morrisons
trains more fishmongers, bakers and butchers
than any other retailer. In the past year, 325
people have successfully completed Traditional
Craft apprenticeships. Our focus on developing
people is grounded in the belief that better
trained people provide better service to
customers. A great example of this can be seen
in our wine department where we train our
department managers to the highest standards
so they can provide the best advice to customers.
In 2009, our approach was recognised by the
Wine & Spirit Education Trust with an award
of Educator of the Year.
We are committed to ensuring that all employees,
new and existing, are engaged in the future of
our business. Success in this area is evidenced by:
• company labour turnover dropped from 34.5%
to 20.07% during 2009;
• 236 people celebrated 25 years’ service in 2009
and approximately 260 more to follow in 2010;
• over 57% of our Senior Management Group
have over 10 years’ experience in Morrisons;
• more than 30% of our Senior Management
Group started on the shop floor; and
• 95% of our store General Managers are
promoted internally.
Annual report and financial statements 2010
All of this demonstrates that our way of working
and our approach to developing future talent sit
hand in glove with our strong heritage.
performance in action...
Today
Performance
Morrisons has always had a unique view of
service and performance. Our philosophy is
to drive high standards by coaching our people
to perform at their best. Working with the UK
Centre for Coaching Excellence we are ensuring
that the best examples of world beating sport are
translated into the front line of our business to
give us a sharper edge. In the past year, over 500
managers have been trained in coaching skills so
that they can focus both on developing our people,
as well as driving performance and results.
Recognition of our talent
In 2009, Oracle Retail Week awarded
one of our managers ‘Retail Manager
of the Year’. Similarly the General
Manager of Kidderminster store, also
became the third Morrisons manager
to be awarded the ‘Store Manager of
the Year’ title at the Retail Industry
Awards, following in the footsteps
of the Newquay store manager in
2008, and Anniesland store manager
in 2007. Our Retail HR Director was
also recognised at the Everywoman
in Retail Awards as ‘Hidden Talent
of the Year’.
We set clear expectations and equip managers
to build pride in performance. In this respect,
every manager across the business has been
provided with a performance toolkit to enable
them to drive great results every day. This has
been underpinned by the introduction of a clear
accountability framework that sets the standard
for performance across all areas of the business.
Employee stability*
(Percentage %)
2010
84
2009
2008
78
76
*Employee stability is measured as the percentage of
employees who have been with us for over one year.
“Morrisons is a company that is
moving forward in a way that
gives every employee better
prospects for the future. What
Morrisons is doing is changing
the whole culture of this industry
so that everybody who starts at
the company will have the chance
of promotion and a qualification…
Morrisons is therefore leading
the way in the whole of the
retail trade.”
The Prime Minister
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
22 October 2009
Retail Industry Award
Store Manager of the Year
3 years running – 2007, 2008 and 2009.
www.morrisons.co.uk/annualreport10
trained and operational prior to opening their
doors as Morrisons stores. The result is that
the entire re-brand, retraining and opening
programme took less than six months.
Additionally, all team managers at our newly
opened state of the art distribution centre in
Sittingbourne were recruited against our new
Values-centric role profiles. They then took
part in a series of workshops and leadership
programmes to establish their own ways of
working in line with our corporate values and
coaching culture. Engaging the team in this
process has resulted in a high performance,
motivated culture that provides a blueprint
for the rest of the business to follow.
2009 has seen a step-up in how we engage
our colleagues. We have adopted an approach
that gives each division clear ownership for the
communications agenda within their business
area built around a well-supported framework
for engagement. We have continued to invest
in our relationships with trade unions whilst also
developing non-unionised forums designed to
drive continuous improvement and personal
involvement in the business. After a qualifying
period, all employees participate in either the
Profit Share Scheme or Management Bonus
Plan, ensuring that everyone feels a part of the
challenges and successes of the organisation.
The performance of our people not only drives
our business forward, it also consistently attracts
external recognition for being best in class. 2009
saw Morrisons collect the Store Manager of the
Year award at the Retail Industry Awards for the
third year running. We also collected the Oracle
Retail Week award for Retail Manager of the Year. Leadership
Strong leadership is key to bringing the best
Values & engagement
out of our people and delivering business results.
As we expand from a National to Nationwide
Our continued investment in this area has seen
business, it is essential that everyone entering
a further 500 managers take part in the Leading
into the organisation understands and feels
the Morrisons Way programme, designed to
committed to our values.
equip our managers and leaders of the future
with the skills and support necessary to drive
Our recruitment processes have been completely our business forward.
revised to focus on selecting people who reflect
the values. Getting the right people in the right
We have continued to integrate the Values-led
roles, demonstrating the right behaviours,
leadership profiles into our development
is key, and we ensure that our selection process
programmes and, working in conjunction with
is supported by our values-led induction
Bradford Business School, we have introduced
programmes. Our values are a key part of our
a mini MBA programme for our senior leaders,
winning performance and we recognise the
specifically tailored to the needs of our
importance they play in developing future
growing business.
talent. This year has seen the launch of our
Morrisons Essentials people development
programmes designed to ensure values-led
behaviour is embedded from the start.
Over 20,000 managers will complete the
programme during 2010.
We carried out our second engagement survey
in January 2009 and the results have informed
our people strategy in 2009. This year we will
continue to build on the feedback building a
strong foundation for the future of our business.
Taking the time to engage and involve our
employees pays off. In 2009, we acquired
38 Co-operative and Somerfield stores.
This resulted in thousands of new employment
opportunities and the training of 7,000
employees nationwide. This has been supported
by 350 existing colleagues travelling between
stores to ensure that our new employees were
welcomed into the business and were fully
80
%
of our employees are promoted from within.
We believe in giving everyone the opportunity
to progress from shop floor to top floor.
10,000
new jobs created in the year.
Annual report and financial statements 2010
Strategic review 4 —— 17
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