The Post Office is making a “cultural shift” towards more open communication and collaboration with postmasters in response to demands from postmasters for greater inclusion in the running of the organisation.

The new push for improved involvement and communication between PO management and postmasters comes as part of an ongoing push from postmasters to ‘overhaul’ the organisation, which was laid out by the Voice of the Postmaster group in January this year in the wake of the Horizon scandal. Among the group’s demands was for subpostmasters to be “involved in all levels of Post Office management, including senior figures being accountable to PO retailers.”

According to Mark Eldridge, the PO’s postmaster experience director and a current serving postmaster, recent and planned changes have created “a real appetite for collaboration”, which he said marks “a significant cultural shift that I believe has landed well with postmasters”.

Eldridge, who described his job as to “act as an intermediary between postmasters and the organisation”, now wants to “create stronger connections, open communication channels, and ensure that postmasters have a voice within Post Office.”

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Eldridge, who chairs weekly internal meetings known as 10@10, says the sessions have “helped Post Office colleagues understand postmasters in a more personal way”. 10@10 sessions are not intended specifically for postmasters to share their views, but Eldridge said: “there’s already appetite to create a postmaster version of 10@10, where we can roll out team briefings to postmasters across the UK on a weekly basis.”

“These sessions have allowed postmasters to share their experiences directly with Post Office colleagues, which has been incredibly impactful. My role is about creating space for postmasters’ voices to be heard and turning their input into tangible changes within Post Office,” he said.

There are further plans to expand initiatives like the postmaster experience forum, issue new nationwide weekly briefings, and introduce PO head office ‘open days’ to allow postmasters to “better understand the work that goes on behind the scenes,” Eldridge said.

Eldridge believes these changes indicate a wider cultural shift in the Post Office, which has put postmasters and their experiences at its heart.

“The biggest change has been the shift in internal dialogue. We have always considered postmasters to be a core part of the business, but now I’m seeing that sentiment lived and breathed more in a more genuine way. In the past, it was not always the case that postmasters were brought into discussions or decision-making, but that’s starting to change,” he said, adding, “if I can continue to amplify the voices of postmasters and bring them into the heart of decision-making at Post Office, then I believe we can achieve great things together.”

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