Dunelm
Colleague Engagement Manager
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Overview
People love Dunelm. That statement is true for the millions of Customers, the ‘savvy home lovers’ who love the broad range of quality, value for money homewares products, the unique in-store and online experience, and Dunelm’s distinctive local feel. It is also true for the 12,000 Colleagues who benefit from an ambitious, entrepreneurial, family-oriented culture and challenger-brand mentality which combine to create an environment that is conducive to making things happen fast. And it’s also true for Investors who have seen strong and consistent returns to date and are excited by the leadership team’s calibre and vision, and the strength of Dunelm’s multi-channel offering.
Department Overview
At Dunelm, our People & Communications function is a high‑impact, commercially focused strategic engine, turning organisational goals into people and communication plans that unlock performance, engagement and long‑term success, with colleagues and customers at the heart.
We work collaboratively to shape the conditions for Dunelm to thrive — attracting and developing exceptional talent, strengthening leadership capability, building future skills and fostering a culture where every colleague can do their best work.
Our work is varied and meaningful: partnering with business teams to enable organisational performance through people, and anticipating future workforce needs. Developing modern people policies and practices, championing wellbeing and inclusion, and aligning colleagues around our shared values.
What you'll be doing
Role Overview
This role is responsible for developing and delivering Dunelm's colleague listening and engagement strategy, ensuring colleague insight is used to drive meaningful action, improve organisational effectiveness and strengthen the overall colleague experience.
Acting as the organisation's expert on colleague engagement, and working as part of the Communications team, the role will lead the design, delivery and evolution of our listening framework, bringing together insights from engagement surveys, colleague forums, listening activities and business data to identify opportunities and inform decision making.
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Working across the business, the role will partner with leaders to translate insight into action, embedding engagement as a shared accountability and helping teams create environments where colleagues can thrive and perform at their best. The role will monitor engagement trends, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and continuously improve how we listen and respond to colleagues.
Key Responsibilities
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Own Dunelm’s colleague listening strategy
- Develop and evolve a comprehensive colleague listening strategy that provides meaningful insight into the colleague experience.
- Own and continuously improve Dunelm's listening framework, ensuring a balance of enterprise-wide and local listening activities.
- Manage key colleague listening initiatives, including the ‘Connect with Clo’, CEO listening programme.
- Identify emerging themes, risks and opportunities through colleague feedback and broader People data.
- Benchmark engagement performance and identify opportunities to strengthen organisational effectiveness.
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Enhance engagement to drive improvement
- Design and deliver initiatives that strengthen connection to Dunelm's purpose, values and strategy.
- Lead organisation-wide engagement moments and campaigns that build understanding, alignment and belonging i.e. Strategy updates, Huddle programmes, Community updates etc.
- Partner with Internal Communications to ensure engagement objectives are driven through effective communication plans and activity, whilst also assessing and improving internal channel effectiveness.
- Translate colleague insight into actionable engagement plans that deliver measurable improvements.
- Partner with leaders and People teams to identify root causes and support effective interventions.
- Build organisational capability in understanding and improving engagement.
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Lead engagement measurement and insight
- Own the colleague engagement survey, including design, delivery, analysis, reporting and action planning.
- Develop reporting dashboards and engagement metrics that provide clear insight into organisational health.
- Combine survey results with retention, performance, absence and other people metrics to identify trends.
- Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of engagement initiatives, and hold teams accountable for delivering meaningful actions.
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Harness Colleague Voice programme
- Use the Voice and National Voice forums to ensure colleague perspectives influence decisions and organisational priorities.
- Create opportunities for meaningful two-way dialogue between colleagues and leaders.
- Ensure colleagues can see how feedback leads to action.
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Partner with stakeholders across the business
- Act as the subject matter expert for colleague engagement across the organisation.
- Build strong relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders to influence engagement outcomes.
- Provide expert advice and challenge on engagement best practice and organisational health.
- Ensure engagement considerations are embedded into business and people decisions.
What we'll look for in you
- Significant experience in colleague engagement and colleague experience
- Experience designing and managing listening programmes
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and convert insight into action
- Ability to influence and challenge stakeholders at all levels
- Experience leading engagement improvement initiatives and measuring impact
- Excellent facilitation and communication skills
- Strong commercial awareness and understanding of the drivers of engagement and performance
Desirable Skills
- Experience delivering engagement surveys or listening programmes
- Experience coordinating company-wide or leadership events
- Familiarity with internal communications platforms or intranets
- Understanding of employee engagement best practice
- Retail or customer-focused environment experience
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