Governance & regulatory information Board leadership and company purpose continued >>Payment of a one-off Conversely, the cost of this paymentfits in FY20 andreduced our pro ‘thank you’ bonus impacted profit-related incentivesfor some of our colleagues as well as diverting funds from other potential to all colleagues investments. At the time of agreeingthe bonus we had not yet made the decision to repay funds received in FY20 from the government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS), although we had already decided not to make any claims in respect of FY21. This posed a potential external reputational risk in terms of payments and timings. The Board decided that the benefits of rewarding the commitment of our colleagues as early as possible outweighed these other concerns. Proving that we were living up to our shared values benefits our reputation and is in the longer-term interests of our shareholders, customers, colleagues and communities. RISKS TO DUNELM Short-term impact on profit and shareholder returns; diversion from other investments. In July 2020, the Board Through our colleagues’ efforts we agreed to pay a ‘one-off’ were able to maintain a safe service OPPORTUNITIES FOR DUNELM for our customers, which benefited Enhanced engagement and thank you bonus to all other stakeholders: shareholders, commitment of colleagues; colleagues in recognition communities, suppliers and other reputation for adhering to shared of their exceptional people and communities further down values; potential longer-term cost- our supply chain. We knew that many savings due to increased colleague commitment, resilience colleagues had suffered financially as a engagement and retention; long- and adaptability during the result of Covid-19, and they told us thatterm benefit to shareholders, they valued pay above other benefits. customers, colleagues and first phase of the Covid-19 By demonstrating to our colleagues communities. crisis in 2020. that we had listened to them and appreciated their efforts during this extraordinary year we also aimed to KEY STAKEHOLDER boost morale and increase colleague TRADE-OFFS engagement and retention. We had Colleagues v Shareholders. very positive feedback from colleagues. 108 DUNELM GROUP PLC ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2021