JENNY HALL

Case for change

Allied to restoring Royal Mail’s reputation is how quickly the business can make the transformative changes it needs to grow. It’s a critical part of the union dispute and Jenny is resolute about the need to change to deliver for our customers, while admitting there’s work to do to bring our people on the journey.

“We see it every day,” she says. “It’s really clear with the decline in letters and the growth in parcels. But it’s not just about the volumes, it’s about what customers expect. They want items the next day and they want to know exactly where they are in the system and when they’ve arrived. And they want it seven days a week. Our changes are also about delivering that in a more environmentally friendly way.

“The customer case for change is really clear; what we’ve got to do is work with everyone in the business to make sure the changes work for our people too.”

Government and five-day letters

Jenny’s career began after completing a degree in politics, before embarking on a career advising companies on Government policies. Before joining Royal Mail, Jenny had branched out into public relations and working with the media. At Royal Mail, an integral part of her role has always involved influencing policymakers and putting our case to Government. That’s more critical than ever, given our request to Government to move from a six- to a five-day-a-week letter service.

“A lot of people understand the rationale for doing it when letters have declined from 20 billion in 2004/05 to eight billion now,” she explains. “It doesn’t make sense for the company to be legally required to be delivering on those days when customers are no longer asking for the same level of service.

“The Universal Service is absolutely unique and brilliant – for just one price you can send an item from one end of the UK to another. We remain committed to the one-price-goes-anywhere service, but the way to protect it is to make sure it’s sustainable in the long term and relevant to what customers need now.”

Ofcom’s research has shown that five days would meet the needs of 97% of consumers and SMEs.

“It’s the best thing for the Universal Service to keep it going long into the future,” adds Jenny.

“I’ve run many of these campaigns in the past, including

Supporting our frontline females

As executive sponsor of Royal Mail’s Women and Allies network, Jenny will spend much of March contributing to its International Women’s Day activities. For Jenny, this is important work all year round.

“It’s a group of women and men that have so much energy and spark and I love going to their meetings and giving what advice and support I can to really further what they’re trying to do,” she says.

“I certainly believe you can’t progress women’s issues in the workplace without having absolutely brilliant male allies supporting you all the way. That’s one thing we have within Royal Mail and it’s something I’ve benefited from.”

Jenny is particularly keen to hear from women in frontline roles to help them progress and achieve their ambitions.

“As a group, we need to make sure we’re representing the voice of frontline women a lot more, to make changes that help them progress and really make the most out of their career at Royal Mail.

“I’m always keen to hear from women about their experiences and ideas.”

GET INVOLVED working really closely with the CWU for more than three years to secure the Collective Defined Contributions pension scheme legislation change. It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a lot of persuasion, but if you’ve got a strong case and you think it’s the right thing to do, you have to hope the politicians see that too and take the opportunity to act.”

Scan the QR code and leave your thoughts in the RM Women and Allies Workplace group.

Environmental mission

Acting is something the company is certainly doing with its Steps to Zero strategy, which Jenny spearheads. It’s our target to reach Net Zero by 2040, and to reach 50gCO2e per parcel. In the eight months since the strategy’s launch, we’ve taken great strides. But there’s plenty more to do.

“Making sure we’re reducing the environmental impact of the company is crucial, not only for our strategy for the future but as a good corporate citizen. We’re making good progress in lots of areas. We’ve more than 4,000 electric vehicles having a really big impact and have moved all our electricity to renewables – that’s significantly reduced our emissions overnight.

“So far this year, we’ve reduced gas consumption by over 17%, around half of which is due to better controls over heating and by driving energysaving behaviours in our workforce.

“We need more ideas. These are tough targets we’ve set ourselves, so we need to make more difficult decisions to reduce our environmental impact.”

Of course, we’ve faced many other challenges during our long history – from world wars to a global health emergency – and our business has always stepped up to serve the nation.

“One of my proudest moments at Royal Mail was during the Covid-19 pandemic,” recalls Jenny. “We ran an award-winning campaign called ‘Thumbs Up For Your Postie’, demonstrating the pride we had in keeping businesses going and families connected.

“If there’s one thing I wish for this year, it’s that we bottle some of that pride in Royal Mail again and all start working together to build this company for the future.

“We’ve got the best network, the best brand and far and away the best people in the business. With those ingredients, we’ve got everything we need to make sure Royal Mail has a bright and brilliant future.”