With millions of satisfied customers every week, you’d struggle to find a more people-focused business than Home Retail Group . Not just in terms of meeting the needs of the customer, but also in our commitment to developing our own people. After all, there’s no doubt in our minds that they’re the secret of our success.

The sheer diversity and pace of change of our business means HR faces a huge range of challenges and their efforts play a critical role in our growth and development. In addition to driving engagement and supporting our values, their main focus is on the recruitment, management and development of talented individuals. The ability to retain skills and to enhance capability is key in underpinning our strategic plans and adding real value to the business.

Succession planning, one-on-one coaching and focused development activities are just some aspects of the work carried out to ensure we are positioned for success. HR teams also deal with the day-to-day operational requirements such as working closely with Trade Unions to bring about change, keeping up to date with legislation and ensuring our policies and practices are best in class. We are proud that our labour turnover reflects this and is amongst the lowest in our industry.

Having said all that, it may not surprise you to learn that our HR teams are also award winners. In the 2006 HR Excellence Awards, we picked up top honours in the ‘Most Effective Use of Internal Communications’ category for our relocation programme which successfully moved 500 staff from Wallington to Milton Keynes. We were also highly commended for ‘Excellence in Change Management’ and shortlisted in the ‘Overall HR Excellence’ award. Earlier in the year the group we were also was runner up for ‘Most Effective Use of the Voluntary Benefits Plan’ at the Employee Benefits Awards.

In 2005 the group was shortlisted for three categories in the HR Excellence awards as well as being highly commended for ‘Most Effective Use of Plan’ and runner up for ‘Most Successful Launch’ at the Employee Benefits Awards.