Carphone Warehouse 2006 Annual Report Download - page 22

Corporate Responsibility continued
confidence in people who have been homeless by
offering two-week work placements. This is a critical
part of helping them back into the work place and, as
well as developing vocational skills, individuals are also
assisted with advice on CVs and interview techniques.
We have continued supporting Crisis Open Christmas,
offering employees a day’s leave to volunteer in one
of the many shelters set up to provide support for
those who are homeless and alone at Christmas.
We also provide Crisis with support by providing
mobile communications.
Employees
Our dedicated Human Resources departments
continue to review and improve processes to ensure
that the work environment, recruitment, training
processes and employee satisfaction are of the
highest standard. Each year we ask our employees
how they feel about CPW through BackChat, a
completely anonymous online questionnaire that
enables us to examine the attitudes of every employee
to all aspects of the business.
One of the areas highlighted in the 2004 report was
that although the majority of employees felt that they
could meet the requirements of their jobs without
working excessive hours, this was still an area that
could be improved upon. With this as a focus the
introduction of initiatives such as core working hours,
allowing more flexibility in the work place, have
resulted in an 8% increase in favourable scores.
Last year 83% of employees felt that the training
and development they received was valuable and
worthwhile, and increased training opportunities have
meant that the number of employees receiving training
has increased this year by 6%. In addition to internal
year-on-year comparisons we are able to compare our
results to those of the external benchmarking norms
which show very positive scores with particular
highlights being:
• 69% of employees are confident that on important
matters their feelings/thoughts are communicated
upwards by their manager, 14% higher than
the benchmark;
•83% are proud to work for The Carphone
Warehouse, 15% above the benchmark; and
•65% of employees feel that change is managed
effectively which is 32% above the benchmark and a
great achievement in an organisation with high growth.
Once again we will take the results of the survey to
focus our activities across the Group to address areas
that have not seen the improved results we would like.
A range of incentives helps boost pay and self-
esteem, from earning up to £2,000 for recommending
friends for a job to an annual awards ceremony hosted
by celebrities, monthly beer nights and other events
such as the company ball also strengthen working
relationships. The Sunday Times 100 Best Company
survey revealed that 81% of employees say their team
is fun to work with and that their colleagues care a lot
about each other.
Diversity and inclusion
The Group recognises the importance of diversity
and inclusion, and has systems in place to recruit
employees of different genders, ages, disabilities and
ethnic origins. We recruit using totaljobs.com and
jobability.com, the leading job site for disabled people,
as well as through a number of ethnic magazines.
The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC Annual Report 2006
18
HR POLICIES RESPOND TO
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
A KEY FOCUS
The success of this self analysis and
resulting activities are reflected in the
awards The Carphone Warehouse has
won in the last year.
Sunday Times 6th Best Large Company
to Work For
• No.1 for “Best Leadership” of all of the
Best Big Companies
• No.1 for “Staff getting a buzz from working
within their team”
• Shortlisted for “Giving Something Back”
• Shortlisted for “Well being”
Retail Week 2006
• Retailer of The Year
Mobile News 2006
• Customer Service
• Online Retailer
Uswitch
• TalkTalk: Home Phone Customer
Satisfaction Award