Employees
Objective: To attract and retain the best people by committing to excellent employment standards.
In 2008, we carried out a corporate restructuring in which a number of activities and services that were previously managed at the centre were devolved to our UK and Continental Europe teams. This will help to ensure that we operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. The UK business is headed by Ian Sutcliffe, Managing Director, and the Continental Europe business is headed by Inès Reinmann, Managing Director.
We aim to enable employees to enhance their experience and capabilities, and reach their full potential. We provided employees with more than 3,000 training hours in 2008, equivalent to more than one day for each employee. We also completed the implementation of our Personal Development Review (PDR) employee appraisal scheme across Continental Europe following successful UK implementation from 2006.
We continue to ensure that employees are kept informed through a combination of face-to-face meetings, printed materials and electronic communications. In January 2008, the senior management team visited our Head Offices in the UK and Continental Europe to deliver employee briefings to every member of our local teams. Three further briefings were carried out at our UK Head Office in 2008, with employees from Continental Europe participating via video link.
Employees at our UK Head Office took part in our new 'Be Seen to be Green Day' in July 2008 to raise awareness of sustainability issues. Slough Borough Council and suppliers, Arcadis and Skanska, ran a series of environmental workshops. Green posters were put up around the offices and a new green section was launched on the intranet. 35 employees measured their carbon footprint online and committed to reducing it over the next 12 months.
| Group-wide Workforce Gender Profile* | Group-wide Management Gender Profile* |
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| UK Workforce Ethnic Profile* | Group-wide Workforce Age Profile* |
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Staff Turnover Chart
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| 2006 (UK) 2007 (UK) 2008 (UK & Continental Europe) |
*All facts and figures stated on this page are as at 31 December 2008.
Sustainability = value
Employee engagement and training = better recruitment, retention and skills
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
We now have two strong, well-balanced businesses, with high quality management in place. We believe that these businesses, with their intimate knowledge of their markets and their customer relationships, are well placed to drive the business forward.