Bloomsbury's Culture & Colleagues

Our Colleagues - Transforming our People strategy

There has been a transformation of Bloomsbury’s people agenda over the past four years. We are determined to nurture and develop our employees to their highest potential and to promote a working environment that is inclusive, supportive and ethical.

We want our employees to be ambassadors for Bloomsbury. We want to attract the highest-calibre employees. Fostering a positive culture and transforming the employee experience continues to be a top priority for the Company and has informed many of the initiatives taken during 2023/2024 to help our colleagues feel supported, curious and engaged.

In June 2023, Bloomsbury created the role of Group Director of People and Engagement to drive forward Bloomsbury’s employee engagement, communications, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Sustainability strategies and ensure that Bloomsbury continues to innovate in these important areas.

The Group Director of People and Engagement is also a member of the Executive Committee.

Employee Engagement

Bloomsbury has evolved from a London-based company into an international organisation with offices from Santa Barbara to Sydney. Bloomsbury has a hybrid working model of two days in the office, three days working remotely. A priority for 2023/2024 was to create a virtual culture that colleagues feel part of, no matter where they are working.

In 2024 we launched Diana Base, an intranet and communications platform that works for the Company we are now. We designed Diana Base around Bloomsbury’s values, mission and purpose. The new platform allows everyone to create personal profiles, join relevant ‘spaces’ such as an internal network (see pages 54 to 55 of the 2024 Annual Report for our employee networks) or group (for example Bloomsbury Leadership Group), give shouts and post updates. Diana Base is colleague-led, allows everyone to contribute and empowers everyone to help grow the platform into an active virtual communications space, where ideas and successes are easily shared.

We continue with monthly global Town Halls which are hosted alternatively by the Chief Executive and Executive Committee Members, presenting Company strategy, business news and issues across the industry and reporting on Group-wide initiatives. These meetings had an average attendance of 46% in 2023/2024 (2023: 59%) with some focused on one geographic area such as India and Australia and a wider range of more specific topics covered including sustainability, social media and a recent Town Hall on the impact of AI.

Our twice-annual global Bloomsbury Publishing Highlights event brings colleagues together from all areas of the business to present and celebrate upcoming publishing plans and the most exciting titles in the pipeline. Finally, our weekly global employee- generated newsletter, the ‘Illustrated Bloomsbury News’, focuses on Company news, initiatives and updates, as well as celebrating achievements for colleagues, authors and books. The introduction is written by the Chief Executive in which he shares highlights of his working week.

We recognise the importance of a culture built on open engagement and information sharing, and Bloomsbury has in place a wide range of channels to engage with employees and keep them informed about business performance, HR policies, training and development opportunities and other matters which concern them.

A key element of our engagement strategy is our Employee Voice programme, which promotes an open dialogue between those that work for Bloomsbury and the Executive Committee and Board. Employee Voice Meetings (“EVMs”) are held routinely throughout the year, with a selection of employees from different levels across the Group being invited to attend scheduled meetings by rotation. Colleagues are encouraged to share their views on Bloomsbury as a publisher and employer. These meetings provide every employee of Bloomsbury with the opportunity to share their views on anything from Bloomsbury’s strategy, communications, training, compensation and benefits, to ideas on how to make Bloomsbury a better place to work. The Group Director of Engagement, who is a member of the Executive Committee, chairs the Employee Voice Meetings;

Non-Executive Directors are also invited to attend. Employees share their views on the understanding that matters discussed will not be attributed to particular individuals in reports on meeting outcomes, which are provided to the rest of the Executive Committee and the Board. The Executive Committee and the Board receive the minutes of EVMs on an anonymous basis, together with a list of the key themes arising out of EVMs.

This form of engagement with employees across the Group enables senior management and the Directors of Bloomsbury to keep a finger on the pulse of the organisation and to gain unfiltered feedback from employees. The Board and the Executive Committee discuss and approve new policies and actions based on the views expressed at these meetings.

EVMs also provide an effective means for the Board and senior management to monitor the Company’s culture in order to ensure that it aligns with the Company’s values and purpose, and continues to support the delivery of the Company’s strategy.

Employee empowerment - providing a framework to progress

A lunchtime author talk in Bloomsbury's London office

A key programme for 2023/2024 was the establishment of a Senior Leadership Team, 50 individuals, across every area of the business. These senior leaders are helping to shape the future of Bloomsbury and are an essential part of helping to transform our people strategy.

A transparent and fair pay and grading structure underpins every successful reward scheme and career progression programme, and in 2023/2024 Bloomsbury rolled out its Career Framework initiative to all employees in the US and UK.

The Bloomsbury Career Framework provides a clear and visible structure that shows individual levels of work and hierarchy of roles. It ensures fair and transparent pay decisions, helps to monitor diversity, and provides the foundations for everyone to build their career pathway. It provides the foundation for employees to have a fulfilling career, with opportunities to develop and gain experience in their role, while also supporting those who want to progress and find their way into new positions within the Company.

The rollout comprised four stages:

• Stage one: Job Evaluation – our roles were put through a rigorous process of job evaluation, independently reviewed and calibrated across the Company.
• Stage two: Job Families – within the Career Framework, Bloomsbury established four different Job Families representing all areas of the business.
• Stage three: Job Level – each role was assigned a Career Level and a pay range within its relevant Job Family.
• Stage four: Pay Ranges – internal salaries were benchmarked alongside external data across the publishing industry and the broader media industry. Salary ranges were then developed and roles were adjusted where they fell below the entry point of the salary range. All roles are now advertised with a published salary for better transparency.

A great place to work

• Like many other organisations, the way we work has evolved following the pandemic. Our hybrid working arrangements, introduced after the end of lock-downs, support work-life balance for Bloomsbury colleagues. Colleagues work a full day, with

  core hours to allow for flexible start and finish times, enabling colleagues to balance wider personal and family responsibilities with their work. Our hybrid working policy is based on two days in the office and three days at home per week.

• Our annual leave policy grants all employees paid holiday between Christmas and New Year to allow for a restorative year end break.
• We actively promote a culture that places importance on mental health. All employees are entitled to take two paid Personal Wellness Days per annum in support of mental health and wellbeing, an initiative introduced during the pandemic which we have made a permanent benefit. Our employees have used over 75% of the available Personal days and we plan to extend the definition so as to encourage even higher take up.
• Our global Employee Assistance Programme supports employee wellbeing and mental health. Provided by Workplace Options, the programme gives all employees free access to counselling and support for work and personal issues. We have trained members of staff across our London and Oxford offices to be Mental Health First Aiders. These members of staff are equipped to provide confidential peer-to-peer support and guidance to those in need and help us build a mentally healthy workplace.
• In the UK, we rolled out private medical insurance and automatically enrolled all employees into the AXA Health Scheme with Bloomsbury covering the full cost of the Healthcare Plan. This benefit was introduced in response to engagement with colleagues and was well-received by UK employees.
• Globally, we offer free access to appointments with two Company doctors, general practitioners, providing no-barrier access to medical advice for all staff.
• Our parental leave policies promote gender equality and recognise the need to balance career progression with personal and family life. They include enhanced shared parental leave and an increased period of discretionary Company maternity and adoption leave pay.

Creating a culture for curious minds - Learning and Development

We want to model brilliant leaders and unleash their potential, setting the foundations for a culture that fuels and inspires curious minds. This means a laser focus on learning and development, ensuring that the working day is not separate and is part of a culture of continuous learning.

• Our learning and development programme is now focused into three key areas:
• Brilliant leaders: Greater emphasis on management development and first-time manager courses;
• Long-term careers: Bespoke ‘Career Pathway’ development routes; internal recruitment and mobility focus;
• Culture of Continuous Learning: Foundation training; annual development programme for cohort of early career employees;
• A focus on learning including talent builder courses for managers, career focus and progression and The Publishing Training Centre courses.