CEO Today Global Awards 2025 - UNITED KINGDOM - - 12 - conflict resolution, or sales skills, but it also includes dozens of courses on hobbies and other recreational activities. In this way, the platform not only helps our people in their professional development but also serves as an employee benefit, as they can learn new things in their personal time. We want to support our people in growing in the way that matters to them, both in DPD and out, and at the end of any one of the courses the user gets a certificate and valuable CPD points, helping them develop in whichever way they feel is best. What role does leadership play in fostering the inclusive and empowering culture you envision for DPD? It’s really important that people see a company’s leaders live the values that we promote. It’s not enough that we simply say the words; we need to show that we take them seriously and that they influence our decision-making. One of the great initiatives that influences the leadership at DPD is the ‘Allyship Programme’. This initiative pairs each member of the SLT with one of our D&I Ambassadors from the D&I Forum I mentioned earlier. Each pair is assigned a specific strand of D&I to focus on, such as gender, gender identity, disability, or race and ethnicity. The Allyship Programme operates as a reverse mentorship system, where SLT members gain direct insights from D&I ambassadors and staff, allowing us to better understand the lived experiences of employees from underrepresented groups. In this way, we in the leadership team are held accountable in keeping DPD open and inclusive. How do you measure the success of DPD’s efforts to provide a workplace where employees feel they can shape their futures and fulfil their potential? I think the most definitive metric on how happy people are at DPD is our retention levels. Obviously, we want our people to want to stay here for a long time – each year, we host long servers events where we celebrate those who have been here for decades, in some cases over 35 years. Our retention levels, I’m pleased to say, have increased each year for the past three years alone, and we attribute that directly to the opportunities we offer and the environment we foster. I truly believe that an employer has an obligation to its people to not just do the bare minimum, but go above and beyond in ensuring they’re happy and healthy.
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