National Grid 2014 Annual Report Download - page 43

Strategic Report Corporate Governance Financial Statements Additional Information
Volunteering
Our employees continue to support our local
communities, sharing their time and expertise on
arange of skills-based volunteering and fundraising
activities. This year in the UK we continued
supporting Special Olympics GB by sponsoring the
National Summer Games, launched our first-ever
employee chosen charity partnership with Macmillan
Cancer Support and joined forces with two initiatives
– Step up to Serve and TeachFirst.
In the US, our Power to Serve programme is
evolving as we focus on volunteering efforts that
make National Grid a great place to work, and our
communities great places to live. Power to Serve
supports our Elevate 2015 Stewardship principle
and seeks to acknowledge existing community
service, as well as to create new volunteer
opportunities for employees.
Health and wellbeing
Our health and wellbeing programmes for 2013/14
have included encouraging employees to improve
their levels of activity and quality of nutrition, as well
as supporting employees’ mental wellbeing and
musculoskeletal conditions. With our major cancer
charities (Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK
andThe American Cancer Society in the US) we
have raised money and awareness. Our employee
opinion survey results continue to show that
employees have a growing awareness of our
wellbeing programmes.
Promoting an inclusive and
diverseworkforce
We aim to develop and operate our business with an
inclusive and diverse culture, with equal opportunity
to all in recruitment, career development, training
and reward. This applies to all employees regardless
of race, gender, nationality, age, disability, sexual
orientation, gender identity, religion and background.
Where existing employees become disabled, our
policy is to provide continued employment and
training wherever practical. Our policies support the
attraction and retention of the best people, improve
effectiveness, deliver superior performance and
enhance our success.
During 2013/14, Race for Opportunity and
Opportunity Now each awarded us with their Gold
standard and recognised us as one of the top 10
private sector employers in terms of their benchmark
criteria. We were also once again selected as one of
the Times Top 50 Employers for Women.
In the US, we have focused on boosting membership
and awareness of our Employee Resource Groups,
which have measurable goals that are in line with our
vision and Elevate 2015 ambitions.
These groups aim to build awareness and
understanding of inclusion and diversity throughout
the organisation. Their activities include programmes
designed to build skills that help manage differences.
The table below shows the breakdown by gender at
different levels of the organisation. We have included
information relating to subsidiary directors, as this
isrequired by the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic
Report and Directors’ Reports) Regulations 2013.
We define ‘senior management’ as those managers
who are at levels Executive −1 and Executive −2,
aswell as those who are directors of subsidiaries
orwho have responsibility for planning, directing
orcontrolling the activities of the Company, or a
strategically significant part of the Company, and
areemployees of the Company.
Financial year ended 31 March 2014
Male Female Total
%
male
%
female
Our Board 9 4 13 69.2 30.8
Senior management 182 56 238 76.5 23.5
Whole company 18,387 5,522 23,909 76.9 23.1
Human rights
National Grid does not have a specific policy relating
to human rights, but respect for human rights is
incorporated into our employment practices and
ourvalues, which include respecting others and
valuing diversity.
‘Doing the Right Thing’ is our guide to ethical
business conduct. The way in which we conduct
ourselves allows us to build trust with the people
wework with. We earn this trust by doing things in
the right way, building our reputation as an ethical
company that our stakeholders want to do business
with, and that our employees want to work for.
Our procurement policies integrate sustainability
intothe way we do business throughout our supply
chain, so that we create value, preserve natural
resources and respect the interests of the
communities we serve and from which we procure
goods and services. Additionally, through our
supplier code of conduct, we expect our suppliers
to keep to all laws relating to their business, as well
as the principles of the United Nations Global
Compact, the United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Non-financial KPIs
pages 10 – 11
Board diversity
page 56
The Strategic Report was approved by the Board of Directors on 18 May 2014 and signed on its behalf by:
Alison Kay
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary
18 May 2014
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