First Rate News

3FT NEWS ISSUE 4 JULY 2010

In this issue:Social Committee Events

New Addition to Savings Family

Post Office® Awareness Day

Post Office®

Financial and Travel Servicesnews

Issue 4 | July 2010

Thorpe Park Family fun day

Travel Money from The People’s Post Offi ce®

100% to spend on fun.

Pop in branch or buy online at postoffi ce.co.uk

• Great rates on over 70 currencies

• Spend over £500 in branch for special rates on Euros and US Dollars

0% commission on travel money.

0% commission excludes sterling denominations. Post Offi ce and the Post Offi ce logo are registered trade marks of Post Offi ce Limited.

2 ISSUE 4 JULY 2010 FT NEWS

Introduction Patrick Waldron Chief Executive

Email: [email protected]

Editorial team:

Rebecca Reid Sam Turner Michele Walsh Catherine Hall

Issue 4 July 2010 The FT News is published quarterly by Post Office® Financial & Travel Services

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the latest edition of ft news. As we come to the end of July, our profit and sales results are a bit mixed. We ended Quarter 1 about £3.6m behind our profit target. On the FS side, sales were 87% of target but the profits were only about £0.2m behind at the end of the first Quarter. Credit Cards and Insurances have had a slow start. On-the-other hand, Fixed Rate Cash ISAs and Growth Bonds have been selling well and increasing the deposit book at a rate ahead of YTD target.

July started off slowly but we have seen a good pick up in travel sales in the last few days and hope to finish the month strongly.

You will all hopefully have seen the new advertising vehicle, which Doug presented in the Quarterly Business Reviews in May and June. This campaign has now been launched in-branch and on TV, so keep an eye out for this over the summer period.

We have had good feedback from the second round of Quarterly Business updates and we continue to welcome any feedback, good or bad, on these events.

Adam Crozier’s new successor as Managing Director of Royal Mail has been announced as Moya Greene, who has proved herself during her time as head of Canada Post. As yet, I have not had the opportunity to meet her, but no doubt she has a lot of work ahead of her as the new coalition government discusses partial privatisation of Royal Mail and there is also pressure for them to deliver requests coming out of the Banking Consultation.

Data Classification: Amber - Internal

Welcome




• Great rates on over 70 currencies• Spend over £500 in branch for special

rates on Euros and US Dollars




Bank of Ireland has shown resilience in a weak market and is emerging as one of the most stable Irish banks, and with many foreign banks withdrawing or reducing their presence in Ireland (such as Halifax). Their plans to strengthen their position and raise capital went well with approximately 95% uptake on its Rights Issue and they also passed the EU stress test last Friday.

Unfortunately, few people in the office were overjoyed with the World Cup final result. It was disappointing to see England affected by a bad technical error and South Africa going out a little unluckily as well. I have, naturally, no sympathies for the French and I think the Italians played very poorly as well. But well done to Spain on a deserved victory.

Well done also to everyone involved in social and charity initiatives over the last few months and in the upcoming months – an awful lot of money is raised by colleagues in the business for a variety of good causes – often very personal ones - and, in these tougher times, it is nice to be able to give something back to communities and charities alike.

Enjoy your summer holidays if you are lucky enough to be heading off at this time, and don’t forget to get your travel money from the number one foreign currency provider!!

Best regards, ̏ ̏

Patrick

Welcome


Commercial UpdateJohn O’Sullivan and Jason Swindon

The Commercial sector was restructured within Post Office® at the beginning of this

financial year and as a result they held a series of two day workshops in May covering Travel Money and the baseline products.

Beccy Rayner and Mary Lewis worked to a very tight deadline to put together the Travel Money session with help from Che Smyth on an innovative audio visual opening and a few other members of our team. It was extremely well received by both the delegates and our Post Office® colleagues.

The workshops were attended by over 200 branches and nearly 500 staff in Belfast, Glasgow, Bolton, Leeds, London, Southampton, Birmingham, Bristol and East Midlands Airport.

The topics covered in the Travel Money Session were;

•MarketReviewandOpportunities

•PrepaidProductKnowledge–thefeatures and benefits

•AverageTransactionalValue–howtoincrease the customers spend with us

•TheDiary–howtoobtainandmanageforward orders from customers. This also covered the new Credit Card Feature

•Conversations–howtointroduceadditional products to our customers

•SalesWeekandBingoChallenge

The test of learning from the workshop was to go back and hold a Travel Sales Week during which the branches had various challenges to complete from selling a Travel Money Card to an Annual Insurance Policy, obtaining five forward orders or selling a Post Office® Credit Card. At the end of the Sales Week they had to send in the bingo card and were entered into a prize draw!

This proved to be very successful and we had back bingo cards that told us the branches achieved;

•Totalno.ofsquarescompleted–2859

•TMReferralsx5–1220

•ATV£250–163

•ATV£280x2–300

•ATV£300–173

•TC–376

•TMC–310

•Creditcard–378

•TISingle–825

•TIAnnual–90

The diary session has proved to be the most popular session with a huge number of branches now proactively seeking to obtain a customer’s order well in advance of travel and provide a great service in taking away worry of forgetting to sort out your holiday spend and rushing around at the last minute!

Sales Support


Travel

Phase 1 of the TPOS programme went live on Monday 5th July.

SimonKingsley-Smith

This is a significant step forward for our Travel business and moves our FX capability into a more competitive position in the market. By adding improved functionality and increased automation to our rate setting and distribution processes, we are now able to send round specific Post Office® branch rates in time for branch opening. Rates can also be offset against competitor rates for certain branches. The new functionality will also allow rates to be changed several times a day, although it is not planned to use this capability initially.

This investment brings significant financial benefit to the business whilst providing a more market focused and dynamic pricing model to the customer. The project has also delivered operational efficiencies and enabled processes to be streamlined.

The successful delivery of this project would not have been possible without a real team effort. Thanks go out to the whole project team for their hard work in getting this project live and making it a huge success. The team was formed from members of the Operations, Travel & Cards, Finance and Strategic Programmes teams. We worked closely with our Post Office® colleagues in delivering the project.

We have had loads of great feedback following the workshop such as;

•Customercameinfor£200and from asking how they planned to take the rest of their holiday spending money the consultant managed to get the customer to leave with £900!

•Firstcustomerthismorningfor a first class stamp turned out to be going on holiday next week and left with £500 of Euros – this would never have happened before the workshop!

We are now planning one day versions of the workshop for the branches that could not attend to be run during July.


A Paid Unsettled item (PU) is when encashed Travellers Cheques are presented for payment to Amex, without Amex being aware that they had been sold by the Post Office®, and without Amex being paid for that sale. As we hold the contract with Amex, and not the Post Office®, it is our responsibility to investigate and resolve these items, or risk significant financial penalties being issued by Amex.

The Paid Unsettled Team sit within the Travellers Cheque Team, and receive updated lists of PU’s from Amex on a fortnightly basis. These items are then investigated with the relevant Post Office® branches to identify when the sale took place, or if not, how the T/Chq’s got into general circulation. This is often difficult because the T/Chqs could have been sold years ago, and because Amex have a “one size fits all” clearance process. Amex also expect all outstanding amounts cleared, so that they can close their books, 2 years in arrears i.e. 2006 outstanding must be cleared by 31st March 2008.

In December 2008, we had a total PU value outstanding of US$364,037 (equiv) made up of PU items identified in 2006, 2007, and 2008, an amount that clearly needed a special focus. So Phillip Hale (TC Team Leader) and Tracey Boundy (PU Team), supported by Alan Green and Jonathan Meakes, put together a series of meetings and focus groups with our Amex colleaguesfromtheUKandtheIndiaCustomerService Centre (CSC), to discuss the various causes of PU’s, and to identify what processes need to change, so that we could tackle this huge outstanding balance. This was followed up with twice weekly conference calls with the India CSC to discuss progress on individual items and general issues. As a result of this re-engineering initiative over the last year, the PU team have

not only cleared all the 2008 PU’s but have also cleared all the 2009 PU’s a year ahead of schedule and are now working

on 2010 PU’s as they come in! The total outstanding PU’s as at March 2010 were US$4,285. This was an outstanding performance from the PU team, which has lead our Amex relationship manager, Richard Woodhouse, to describe First Rate as “The second largest supplier globally, but the best managed account worldwide”, high praise indeed.

Operations

TC Dept – Paid Unsettled Team Smash all Clearance Records. Alan Green

The second largest supplier globally, but the best managed account worldwide

Richard Woodhouse Amex Relationship Manager


Insurance & Travel

Personal Lending Marco Hughes

The big news in Personal Lending since the last

issue has been the launch of the 90% mortgage. We now have a range of 2, 3 and 5 year fixed and a life tracker; all offered at 75%, 80%, 85% and 90% loan-to-value. There has been a huge amount of press interest not only from the money sections of newspapers but even at the BBC where our product featured on Working Lunch. Indeed all the mortgage coverage has helped secure the Post Office® as Number One in the latest Presswatch figures, not only for the first time but for two months in a row! (Presswatch is a monthly report thatanalysestheUKnationalpresscoveragegiventonamedcompanies and products.)

This has provided Personal Lending with a kick-start to the year and one which we really need as we have plans to double the size of our lending book within the year. This could put usoncoursetobeatop-tenlenderintheUK.Toputthisinto a football analogy, the biggest six lenders account for about 80% of the market and are the ‘premiership’. We will never really be able to take them on in terms of scale as they are a bit bigger than us: for example Lloyds Banking Group combines LloydsTSB, C&G, IF, Birmingham Midshires, Halifax and Bank of Scotland. However, we will become a significant player in the ‘championship’ against the likes of ING Direct or Britannia, which is still very ambitious for a new starter. Certainly we have arrived on the mortgage scene now!

New Conversation We’ve also introducing a new way to structure a mortgage conversation for the FSs. This involves using a new 5 Simple Steps leaflet as part of the initial engagement with the customer. This quickly helps assess whether they are a potential mortgage lead. It makes the conversation a lot shorter and easier for both the customer and the FS. We’ve already received positive feedback from the network and we’re all looking forward to lots of good quality leads coming in!

Award- Winning Insurance KateVandenberg

I am pleased to inform you that Post Office® has scooped Best Direct Home Insurance provider,

AND best Direct Life Insurance provider in the 2010 Your Money awards.

Well done to everyone who has contributed to our last 12 months of success for all their hard work and thank you!

Life Insurance from The People’s Post Office®

postoffice.co.uk

Jackpot!We’ve been voted the best Direct Life Insurance provider for three years in a row

Post Office Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 2154540. Registered Office is 148 Old Street, London EC1V 9HQ. Post Office and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Limited.

Call us on XXXX XXX XXXXor visit postoffice.co.uk


Post Office® savings needs your friends and family Ian Jackson

How to save and the type of savings accounts available are very popular topics in

the press at the moment and the Post Office® is often approached by national and local newspapers looking for real life people who have opened a Post Office® savings account and reaped the benefits.

If you have a friend or family member with a Post Office® savings account you may be able to help us. We are seeking customers who would be willing to talk to journalists about why they opened a Post Office® savings account and be photographed. Normally this involves speaking to a journalist over the phone for around 15 minutes who will ask a variety of questions about their experiences. The journalist will also arrange for a photographer to visit (at their convenience) to take a picture.

As a thank you, if your friend or family member is interviewed by a journalist and photographed, we will send them a £50 One4All gift card which can be spent at over 17,000 UKbrandsincludingDebenhams,B&Q and Comet (view the full list of retailers who accept the cards at www.postoffice.co.uk/giftcards).

So, if you have a friend or family member with a Post Office® savings account why not ask them if they would be willing to help us? To get involved all they need to do

Post Office® Awareness Day Matthew Fairfield

On Friday 2 July, Customer Services celebrated a Post Office® Awareness day in conjunction with Talk Magazine – a magazine dedicated to call centres across the Post Office® network. The purpose of the day was to raise awareness of the hardworking call centres across the network, and to have a bit of fun in the process.

For our day, we dressed down to create a theme of ‘Post Office® Red’. All of customer services were encouraged to wear red items of clothing to match the Post Office® colours. We also included various fun activities, where each agent won a disposable camera for completion. In acknowledgement of our hard work, we also included an Awards Ceremony, with awards for Call Quality and CRM Accuracy Call Log Assessments, and on the ‘lighter’ side, also included awards for Most Embarrassing Moment in Work, Weirdest Call Taken, and Funniest Work Moment.

During September, we will be on a fundraising drive for Barnardo’s charity. We kicked off this initiative during our Post Office® Awareness day with a raffle, raising £213.40. First Rate POFTS has agreed to match this, making it a total of £426.80 raised for charity. A big thank you for your support for this worthy cause so far!

Thank you to everyone who helped out before and during the day and all of the people who bought a raffle ticket. Your support was marvellous.

Customer Services


is email Hayley Fowell at [email protected] with their name and contact details, together with a couple of sentences on which savings accounts they took out and why. We will then be in touch with more information as and when opportunities become available.

Post Office® International Payments - Update

Michele Walsh

From August 9th, Overseas Property Money Transfers

will now be known as Post Office ® International Payments. The rebrand has occurred to reflect the decline in the purchase of homes overseas and the need to attract a new type of customer - those that have a requirement to make international payments for all kinds of reasons. The service has seen an upgrade to include extended trading hours, reduction in minimum trade amount to £250 and plans are afoot to roll out to a further 2800 branches in September.

Marketing

The Travel team have been supporting Post Office® with their main travel summer promotion, which will kick off on the 27th July until the 6th September across all Post Office® Travel Services. Anyone who purchases a travel product online, in branch or via the phone can use a unique reference number to enter weekly draws with hundreds of prizes (Ipods, digital cameras, beach towels) with a big draw at the end for a 5-star holiday to Antigua. A microsite is being developed for customers to enter their reference number to go into the draw to win the prizes (see image below). The promotion will be supported by:

•Inbranchposters

•OnlinedisplayadvertisinginForexandTravelInsurance media directing users to postoffice.co.uk to purchase

•Paidsearchcampaign

•Affiliatesupportusingdisplaybanners

•PostOffice®websitesupportincludinghomepage promos, promotion page and various banners around the site

April saw the launch of a new travel product feature for the Credit Card. Customers who use their Post Office® Credit Card to purchase travel money from a Post Office® branch or online will no longer be charged the 2.5% cash advance fee. This not only complements the 0% commission on overseas purchases feature but gives us a competitive edge over other credit cards when it comes to buying Post Office® travel money.

In other news, the Post Office® mobile site has now been live for over a month and initial stats are very encouraging. Branch Finder has been the most popular tool, followed by the Buy Currency conversion tool.



Fifty weeks to save it,two to spend it.


• Great rates on over 70 currencies• Spend over £500 in branch for special rates on Euros and US Dollars



Travel Money from The People’s Post Office® postoffice.co.uk

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New Creative launch with Travel Money David Carter

The Summer Travel Money campaign started on the 7th June both in branch and in press. This was the first campaign to launch inthenew‘style’sincethe‘Ken’campaignfinished.Thenewstylegives us creatively much more flexibility and provides us with the opportunity in Travel to produce creative that captures the holiday mood and excitement!

There are specific Travel Money posters in branch, including a World Cup version as well as joint Travel Money/Travel Insurance posters. There are two versions of the press ad which again nicely capture the holiday excitement whilst getting our key Travel Money messages across. These are featured in all the national press titles and will be running throughout the summer until the end of September.

Our new TV ad launched on the 4th July. This is filed in a ‘documentary’ style featuring real people, i.e. no models (!) conveying their excitement as they prepare to go on holiday and capturing their ‘anticipation’ in the holiday build up. This will be running throughout the Summer into September. It features primarily families, (our main target audience over the Summer) and it is being broadcast on both terrestrial and satellite channels during day time slots targeting the young family market. The ad will run Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays

and Sundays, the peak days when people are considering/buying their Travel Money.

There’s also a version of the TV ad via Video On Demand i.e. ITV Player from 19th July. This enables us to target peak time programmes very cost effectively that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to target through terrestrial channels. Another version of the ad has been adapted to play on the Post Office®

TV in branch.

The new campaign is also supported on the Post Office® website and online ads have been created that feature on multiple travel related and other sites.

Savings

Travel Money from The People’s Post Office®

postoffice.co.uk

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MAY10�

PL6005

Splash outwith great rates and 0% commission* on travel money




• Great rates on over 70 currencies

• Spend over £500 in branch for special rates on Euros and US Dollars





Fifty weeks to save it,two to spend it.


• Great rates on over 70 currencies• Spend over £500 in branch for special rates on Euros and US Dollars



Travel Money from The People’s Post Office® postoffice.co.uk

Post Office 1 Fees 0 0% commission* on travel money

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r:�2154540.�Registered�Office�is�148�Old�Street,�London�EC

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Post Office® Reward Saver Hanna Hjalm

The brand new addition to our savings portfolio - Reward Saver - launched on Monday 5th July 2010. With a target to deliver over £1 billion in deposits in this financial year,

the Reward Saver is one of the key deliverables for POTFS Savings.

Introducing Post Office® Reward Saver Reward Saver offers a competitive variable rate of 2.5% AER, including a 1% bonus that is guaranteed for the first 12 months, so our customers will have peace of mind that they are making the most of their investment.

To add to the good news, Reward Saver has been given a Best Buy and 4 Star Award by Moneyfacts!

The account is aimed at savers that don’t need frequent and instant access to their funds, but don’t want to lock their savings away for long periods of time in case their circumstances change. That’s why with Reward Saver, customers can make free withdrawals with 30 days notice or make withdrawals whenever they like, subject to the loss of just 30 days interest on the amount withdrawn.

Thanks to: Special thanks go to all the teams involved within POFTS, Post Office® and Bank of Ireland for the tremendous effort, hard work and determination in making this happen.

The successful launch is a great example of what can be achieved collaboratively at all levels within the tri-party.

A fantastic achievement!

Reward Saverfrom The People’sPost Office®

^A lower gross rate applies to this option however the headline AER remains at 2.50% due to the effect of interest compounding. *Gross is the annualised rate before

deduction of tax at standard rate. AER stands for annual equivalent rate and illustrates the interest rate if it was paid and compounded once each year. Rates correct as at

5th July 2010. Post Office Limited is an appointed representative of the Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland, which is authorised by the Irish Financial Regulator

and authorised and subject to limited regulation by the Financial Services Authority; details about the extent of its authorisation and regulation by the Financial Services

Authority are available from the Bank of Ireland on request. The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland is incorporated in the Republic of Ireland with limited liability

and registered in England and Wales with branch number BR000459. Post Office Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registered No 2154540. Registered office is

148 Old Street, London EC1V 9HQ. Post Office and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Limited. 4624100702

Pop in branch or call 0800 XXX XXXX

Leave your savings be, realise your dreams faster.With our new Reward Saver (annual interest option) you can make free withdrawals with 30 days notice or make withdrawals whenever you like, subject to the loss of 30 days interest on the amount withdrawn. The rate includes a 1% gross/AER* fixed interest bonus for the first twelve months to kick start your savings. You’ll need to save at least £500 to benefit from this rate (maximum balance £2 million). A monthly interest option is also available.̂ Provided by Bank of Ireland.

gross/AER* variable

2.5%

CLIENT POST OFFICESTUDIO JOB NUMBER: 002616 FILE NAME: 002616_PO_SavingPress_250x160_v2.inddSIZE: 250mm x 160mm (ARTWORK 1:1)FINISHED SIZE: 250mm x 160mm

BLEED: N/AFONTS: ChevinOPERATOR: Tony/ROb/LeighDATE: 07/07/10PROOF: 3PUBLICATION: N/AINSERTION DATE: N/ACOLOUR: CMYK

002616_PO_SavingPress_250x160_v2.indd 1

07/07/2010 15:54

Marketing

And did you know ...

In June Post Office® won the accolade of “Best Fixed Rate Account Provider” in the 2010 Moneyfacts awards. This is independent recognition of the consistently competitive fixed rate savings offers that Post Office® has offered throughout the last 12 months – something we’re really proud of.


Collaborative Change: Pofts New Change And Product Development Process! Clive Jones

It was with great anticipation and excitement that the new POFTS Change and Product Development Process was launched to an expectant POFTS on June 1st 2010.

The launch also marks the start of a new era of COLLABORATIVE CHANGE as we endeavour to work a lot more closely with our respective suppliers and distributors, particularly the Post Office®, to make sure we are all on the same page at the same time.

What are the key points? The main, most obvious elements of the new process are a standard Change Request Template for all parts of the POFTS business and a single route for Change within POFTS. We are also introducing the principle of ‘gates’ where changes are assessed and approved at a number of key checkpoints in the process before proceeding to the next step. We have identified the key Stakeholders inside and outside of POFTS and each Change will be a formal impact assessment by the relevant Stakeholders. This again is an example of collaboration and communication as we make interested parties aware at the earliest opportunity. New, or potential, product developments will in principle follow the same process but with more substantive documentation and challenge.

Benefits & Change

Fantastic Colleague Offers!Did you know that many of the POFTS products offer special discounts and benefits to all colleagues?

Read on to learn more about all the great savings you can make...

Take out a Post Office® Credit Card and get:

•0%onbalancetransfersforthefirst 15 months

•0%onpurchasesforthefirstsixmonths

•0%commissiononpurchasesoverseas

•16.9%APRTypical(variable)

•nocashadvancefeewhenpurchasing Post Office® travel money

There’s £50 cash back on offer when you take out a Post Office Life Cover or Over 50’s policy after the 3rd Premium is collected.

Post Office® Car Insurance comes with complimentary breakdown cover, motorcycle insurance offers 10% off the first year’s premium and every year thereafter, get 5% off Van insurance and Post Office® Home Insurance offers 10% off the policy price and a fabulous £25 Gift Voucher to treat yourself in a host of shops nationwide.

Terms and conditions apply on all offers so log on to http://intranet/employeezone/Pages/ColleagueOffers.aspx to get the full lowdown on all of these great deals!

£50CASHBACK

What do I need to do if I need to raise a Change Request? Details of the process and forms can be found on the POFTS Intranet in Departments, Strategic Programmes.


10 key updates from Learning & Development

Oliver Daly

1. PDP’s completed for all employees and detail entered into iPlan

2. Currently working with Finance to roll out a pilot programme Finance for non Finance Managers in Aug/Sept

3. iPlan to be updated with more key features following feedback from employees

4. Keypeopleidentifiedfromwithin business who might benefit from a Mentoring relationship. Mentoring programme to be rolled out Sept/Oct

5. A small group of people will be selected for a 6 month ‘Leading For High Performance’ programme from September.

6. Competancies to be reviewed to ensure that they are aligned with Business Objectives. This will include an objective for TCF

7. Profitable Product Management – currently being reviewed with view to rolling out Q3/4

8. 22 people undertaking courses leading to a professional qualification

9. POFTS workshop to be developed to help key managers understand the World of Finance

10. Calendar of Programmes to be rolled out from Sept – March 2010

POFTS IntranetSam Turner

Last month saw the launch of the new POFTS intranet, a new integrated site offering a range of new features and benefits:

•POFTScalendar,showingimportantmeetings and events across the business

•‘OurCommunity’,withdedicatedpagesforthe Social Committees

•‘EmployeeZone’,dedicatedtoyou,your development, benefits and wellbeing.

•Expanded‘Departments’and‘AboutUs’areas, covering information across the whole of POFTS

•Intelligentsearchfunction,enablingyoutofind the content you need quickly and easily.

•Waldron’sWitter,Patrick’sblogtosharehis thoughts and what he’s up to.

We’re delighted that the new site has been so well received - thanks to those of you who have sent through feedback. If you haven’t yet done so, we welcome your views and suggestions to [email protected].

Many thanks to the cross-functional team that have worked hard to create this new site: Pauline McLoughlin,CharleneJacobs,JeremyKnight,SamTurner,EmmaSmith,TamsinKilburn,CatherineHall,AlexWhiting,KateMarsdenandSatvinder Upil, in addition to the editors for each department.

Internal Communications & TLD


Personal Goals Caroline Johnstone

Everyone should now have personal objectives for this year. If you don’t, please arrange a meeting with your line manager to discuss and agree your objectives. Objectives should always align with the priorities of the business.

You can find tips on writing objectives within the Employee Zonesectionoftheintranet.

In response to feedback, a few minor changes are being made to the iPlan system this year. The aim is to keep the system as simple as possible and relevant to our business.

Do try to use the system to record your achievements throughout the year. You do not need to wait until mid or end of year review time – use it on an ongoing basis to track your own progress and the progress of your team. If you do this, when it comes to reviewing performance at the end of the year, you will have all of the relevant information that you need.

Wanted: Fire Wardens and First Aiders on First Floor in Eastcheap Anya Daved

We are looking for First Aiders and Fire Wardens for the first floor in Eastcheap. More information on what the roles entail are below. It would be great if we could have at least 3 or 4 volunteers from each category - there are plenty of volunteers on the Second floor, so we need to match the enthusiasm here on the First floor!

Contact Anya Daved if you are interested.

First Aiders This comprises of a three day course (it used to be 4 days but it has recently been condensed down) which is run in central London. An annual 1 day refresher course is also available to keep things fresh in the mind. Participants receive a fully recognised First Aid certificate - although the course is called First Aid at Work, it is very useful in everyday life too particularly for those staff who have a young family.

Fire WardensThis is only a half day course which is usually run in the Baker Street area, and is quite fun as you get to practice with real fire extinguishers. There are only 2 practice evacuations at Eastcheap each year which would take maybe half an hour from start to finish but that is all that is involved. This is again certificated and lasts for 3 years.

GCC gets POFTS moving! Sam Turner

Having signed up to the Global Corporate Challenge, the competitive nature

of employees across POFTS is clear to be seen. Teams have walked from Russia to Marseille, and at the time of going to print , topping the Leaderboard are Fast Track, followed closely by Sensational 7, the 2009 Champions and Sensational Steppers. Top Stepper is currently Maureen Gordon.

POFTS employees have already walked an incredible 76 MILLION steps and more than 20 employees have already hit the 1 million individual steps milestone. POFTS employees have walked off a whopping 6,607 burgers (8,809 large bars of chocolate or 25, 513 pints if you prefer!) – so the GCC really is making us all fitter and healthier!

Human Resources


TCF

Treating Customers Fairly Update Andrea Sadler

As colleagues within POFS are aware, Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) is an integral part of their business. We will be commencing a roll-out of this framework across FRES over the course of the next few months.

How we treat our customers will not only have a direct result on our overall business objectives together with meeting our FSA responsibilities. It can also provide key benefits to our continued success as a Financial Services provider, fully support and enhance the POL Brand and make us the partner of choice.

How Can TCF help our Customers?

•Customerswillbemorelikelytogetthebest deal for their circumstances at point of sale.

•Wewillbeofferingourcustomersafairand efficient service before, during and after they have purchased one (or more) of our products

•Intoday’scompetitivemarketthiscanbe the key enabler to attract new customers and retain existing and drive high levels of customer satisfaction.

Over the last couple of months we have introduced some new processes and procedures to assist the business in ensuring that the 6 TCF principles are considered in every aspect of our customer journey. The improvements are:

•IntroductionofanewChangeControlProcess

•NewTCFScoreCard(duetobeimplementedin August 2010)

•NewProductTemplateForms

•IntroductionofaCustomerBoardtosupport our TCF champions and you in our vision

The new TCF scorecard will further assist all areas in measuring the benefits of improvements to our services via customer satisfaction.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and look forward to continuing to work with you to make POFTS a TCF champion.

And if you haven’t already please make sure TCF is included in your 2010/2011 objectives.

Useful Links

if you would like to know more about TCF: S:\Treating Customer Fairly\TCF introduction & training\Training\2010.11\Introduction to TCF CBT

For Assistance in completing Templates: S:\Treating Customer Fairly\TCF introduction & training\Training\2010.11\TCF template training


Eastcheap Social Committee Update - Summer boat party Alex Whiting

On Wednesday 23rd June the high watermark of the Eastcheap POFTS Summer Social Calendar was reached on the River Thames. Buoyed by a world-beating display by England against Slovenia that afternoon, nearly ninety revellers made their way to Tower Pier where the luxury linerKingEdwardwaswaiting.Afteraglassofchampagnefor the partygoers on arrival, the skipper set sail for the west, passing HMS Belfast, the Palace of Westminster and on towards Putney. The first order of business was a toast for Patrick’s normally publicity-shy PA, Anya Daved, who is this year celebrating a significant birthday. Happy Birthday Anya!

Whilst a BBQ was sizzling away on the ship’s front deck, word came through that the Germans had won their group! What news!! A buzz swept through the decks as the English supporters excitedly amended their pocket world cup wall charts, discussing how nice it was going to be to win our trophy back while teaching the Germans, Argentineans and Spanish a football lesson on the way to humbling Brazil in the final. What a relief!

Other highlights of the evening included some world class queuing for food organised by Rocky (Dave) Marciano, a well stocked bar offering refreshment to anyone who felt the need, and some dignified dancing on the lower decks. During the final half hour the excellent DJ, sensing the mood of the crowd, offered a rousing medley of England’s greatest world cup songs and like all pros, sent the punters home happy and wanting more.

The trip was a great success and thanks in particular go to KateVandenbergfornegotiatingagreatdealwiththeeventscompany, as well as the whole Social Committee for their relentless drive to enforce fun on the staff of Eastcheap. More events will follow over the coming months and plans will no doubt soon leak about the 2010 Christmas Party.

Surprise Hen Party! Emma Smith

In order to celebrate the impending nuptials for Hanna Hjälm, Jean Noonan and Nicola Rudolph, a surprise hen party was organised in the guise of a surprise party for Anya. We managed to get them all there with a lot of bending of the truth. They were none-the-wiser that the party was actually for them until they saw the ‘hen party’ banners! Highlights of the night included designing wedding dresses and accessories completely out of toilet rolls. Congratulations to Jean who is now Mrs. Ransom, and good luck to Hanna and Nicola for their big days.

Social Committee


London Bikeathon Patrick Waldron

A huge well done to all the cyclists who participated in the London Bikeathon on the 27th June; Eric Brennan, Anthony Brennan, Melissa Louis, Jemma Stephenson, Michelle Eiber, Craig Nel,SheilaMcHale,MichaelJenkins,KarenBreslin,Bill Jones, Madeleine Groves, Sarah Howard, Alan Moore, Amanda Moore, Jackie Trussler, Chris Ryde and Simon Griffiths.

It was a scorching hot day and pretty tough cycling 13, 26 or 52 miles around London. Thanks to Simon Griffiths who helped nurse me round the Challenge course. As usual I managed to get us lost (which is quite hard to do in a field of 6,500) but we made up the lost miles by doing two extra laps of Richmond Park before the finish.

Finally, a big thanks to Eric Brennan for organising the event for a very good cause and please continue to support the charity (Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research) through the Justigiving page http://original.justgiving.com/firstriders2010

Hounslow Social CommitteeThanks to all those of you who joined us at the Thorpe Park Family Fun Day on 17th July! Photos of the event, along with details of our next event, will be posted on the intranet very soon.

Social Committee


60 seconds with…

Tell us something interesting about yourself which no one would really know about you.

I am a member of a running club called the “Wimbledon Windmilers”. Since joining 4 years ago, I have completed 3 marathons - Edinburgh, Nice to Cannes and Stockholm. Before that I had never run very far before, but the social side of the club really got me in to it. I even got persuaded by my running obsessed husband to do a 1/2 marathon in San Francisco on our honeymoon!

Tell us an embarrassing fact about yourself. After working at BOI for a month or so, I was asked to take a slot at the HR Management Team meeting. When I arrived, I sat on the one vacant chair and promptly fell right through it so that my legs were waving in the air - I was completely stuck! After a few seconds of complete bewilderment and disbelief someone came over to help me out. I was taken to the first aid room and then to A&E after blacking out – through shock! I’m not sure who was more mortified when I returned to work!

What makes you laugh? Jonathan Ross until recently and Toy Story 3 very recently.

When was the last time you cried? Toy Story 3 - the perfect, but very sad, ending!

What is your favourite memory from School? I really enjoyed school and have very fond memories of most of my time there. Art was my favourite subject and a proud moment was when my painting of Edinburgh castle in the snow was selected to be ‘December’ in the annual school calendar one year.

Who is your favourite band or singer? My Scottish roots mean that I love Runrig - a rock/folk bad who do a great version of Loch Lomond. I was also quite happy when I heard that Take That were reforming ...

What is your favourite TV show? Come Dine With Me - for dinner party do’s and do not’s!

Which is your favourite pub? The Last Drop, a student haunt in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. It does the best haggis in the city and became my second home for many years. In London, I love the Hand in Hand on Wimbledon Common on a sunny day.

What sports do you like and who do you support? I love F1 and was lucky that I was able to see it for real in Monaco this year. I also enjoy supporting Scotland in the Rugby 6 Nations, even though we normally only manage to win the wooden spoon.

How would you describe yourself in one word?“Happy” (although my husband would say “late”)

Caroline Johnstone

Your News

Adam Jacobs was awarded an Most Valuable Professional (MVP) by Microsoft. There are a total of 5,000 MVPs worldwide and it is considered within Microsoft (and the IT industry) to be quite an exceptional form of recognition.http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/aboutmvp

Adam Jacobs


Paul and Claire Asare-Archer - on the birth of baby Millie

Piers Newson-Smith - became the proud father of little Eily. She came into the world at 9.37am on 10th June weighing 7lbs.

Karen Osterfield - on the birth of baby Nancy Rose, born by c-section on 13th May weighing just 5lb 5oz

George Johnstone and Anita Patel – on the birth of baby George!

Sonia Matharoo and Sarbjit Singh on the birth of Vikram. He was born on 9th March at 31 weeks and weighed 1.140kg (2.5lb).

Angela and Alwyn Thomas - on the birth of Owen Luke Thomas . Owen was born at 01:19 on the 30th June at a weight of 9 pounds 9 ounces.

Jean Noonan married Ben Ransom on the 18th June at Lake Maggiore in Italy

Caroline Curley – was treated to a surprise hens evening to celebrate her impending nuptials. All the best for the big day Caroline!

Owen Luke Thomas

Baby Millie

Your News

Congratulations to:

Jean Noonan and

Ben Ransom

Gerry Barrett who completed his MBA with distinction from Cass Business School in 2009. On graduation, Gerry was awarded the Urwick Cup. This award, in memory of the late Colonel Lyndall Urwick, management writer, pioneer and founder of Urwick Orr and Partners, is presented on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants to the best MBA student from Cass Business School, City University.

Gerry’s Business Mastery Project has since been published in academic press and he now teaches this work as part of a Frontiers of Strategy course at Cass Business School to current MBA students. Gerry with the Urwick Cup

Baby Nancy

Baby Eily Baby George

Caroline Curley

Baby Vikram


Help for Heroes – Big Battlefield Bike Ride

Michael Jenkins

I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their

support in my Help for Heroes Big Battefield Bike Ride. For those I haven’t caught up with, It was an incredible week - from steep zigzagging hills to the rolling fields of French countryside, blazing sunshine to thunder storms, with moments of humour, deep emotion and lots of punctures! No hill felt impassable, talking to fellow riders who were made up of ex-military, family members of the fallen to current serving military wanting to do their bit for injured colleagues. For anyone that is considering undertaking a challenge, Help for Heroes is a very worthy cause and I’d recommend the experience (and a decent anti-chafe cream) to anyone. In total, the bike ride raised £1 million for Help for Heroes, of which POFTS helped me raise a total of £4,263!

Your News

An Indian Adventure Emma Horne

Travelling on my own to India was one of the best things I’ve ever done. When I landed at 4am, tired, slightly nervous and apprehensive I did wonder why on Earth I decided to do this. But after hopping in a taxi to my hotel and looking out the window to the buzzing life I felt excited to explore this wonderful country. I went to study Ayurveda, a holistic way of healing the body on an individual level. I learnt 13 treatments and loads about diet, food, and Ayurvedic medicine. For 6 weeks I ate a purely Ayurvedic, Vegetarian diet. Along with daily yoga sessions on the mountain top to the sunrise and an hour’s meditation a day - I felt amazing.

Taking 8 weeks out to do something different and to learn about another culture was refreshing and travelling on my own was a liberating experience. It was overwhelming seeing some families living in shacks next to dirty rivers, but what touched my heart was seeing their huge warm smiles. They appeared to appreciate the important things in life and seemed rich in happiness and gratitude for their jobs, water and the food on their plates. They have the basic human necessities, no material items and seem much happier than most of the people I see walking through London every day. I learnt a lot from these people and their culture. A smile goes a long way and I feel a happier

person spending 2 months in this rich and vibrant part of the world with these lovely, friendly people.

First Rate News

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