BT 2005 Annual Report Download - page 15

Our vision is of high-performing, engaged and motivated
people who can make a difference for customers,
shareholders, the company and themselves. Only by living
our values – trustworthy, helpful, straightforward,
inspiring and heart – will we deliver our strategy, keep our
promises to our customers, seize new opportunities in
new markets and re-invent our traditional business.
Developing leaders
The quality of leadership in the company is key to the
successful delivery of our strategy for transformation and
growth and we have updated and refined our approach to
using selection agencies for key posts, while the core
leadership development programme, introduced in 2003,
continues to drive our management development
initiatives.
Engaging and motivating our people
Our annual employee attitude survey was conducted most
recently in February 2005.
Among the key results were that 89% of our people
have a clear understanding of how their work contributes
to BT’s success, and seven out of ten employees are
willing to try new ways of doing things.
The survey generates around 5,000 feedback reports
for managers and their teams across the business, helping
to promote effective team working.
Employees are kept informed about our business
through a wide range of communications channels,
including our online news service, monthly newspaper,
regular email bulletins and senior management web chats
and web cast briefings.
In the UK, two main trade unions are recognised by
the company. In continental Europe, we work closely with
the works councils, both on an operational basis and as
strategic stakeholders.
Rewarding and recognising achievement
In the 2005 financial year, we introduced a new reward
framework for our managers. Salary ranges are now
aligned with the going rate for equivalent jobs across a
range of comparable organisations, geographies and skill
sets. This ensures we remain competitive, and are able to
recruit and retain the people we need.
We also continued to provide our employees with
opportunities to acquire a stake in the company. Under
the BT Employee Share Investment Plan (ESIP), BT can
provide free shares to employees and, in addition,
employees can purchase shares in the company from their
pre-tax salaries. In the 2005 financial year, £11 million
was allocated to provide free shares to employees under
the ESIP. Employees outside the UK receive a cash
payment equivalent to the value of the shares. This
allocation of profits was linked to the achievement of
corporate performance measures determined by the
Board. In addition, employees can buy shares at a
discount under our savings-related share option plans.
Over 98% of eligible employees participate in one or
more of these plans.
Pensions
Most of our employees are members of the BT Pension
Scheme or the BT Retirement Plan, both of which are
controlled by independent trustees. The BT Pension
Scheme was closed to new members on 31 March 2001.
The majority of new employees are eligible to join the BT
Retirement Plan.
Health and safety
The health and safety of our people is of paramount
importance. We have a zero tolerance of workplace
accidents, and have reduced the number of reportable
employee accidents from 146 cases per 10,000
employees in the 2001 financial year to 61 cases per
10,000 employees in the 2005 financial year.
In the 2005 financial year, we launched the Health and
Wellbeing Forum to promote ways of working that help
people balance the demands of their work and personal
lives, as well as focusing on specific healthcare issues. We
also developed an in-house process to help BT people
manage stress.
Learning now and for the future
Our successful company-wide re-accreditation to Investors
in People in February 2005, first achieved in 1998,
demonstrates our continuing commitment to the effective
alignment of our communications, training and
development with our business strategy.
To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our
training delivery, we conducted a strategic review of our
training suppliers in the 2005 financial year, reducing
them to a core group of 36. This will contribute to year-
on-year savings of at least £3.4 million.
The development opportunities available to our people
range from one-to-one coaching, using a combination of
internal and external professional coaches, to the BT-
sponsored MBA programme, which has produced 54
graduates in the past three years.
Embedding flexibility and diversity
The changing nature of the markets in which we operate,
our focus on cost leadership and our investment in new
services have impacted the shape of our permanent
workforce.
During the 2005 financial year, 3,903 (2004 – 2,287)
people joined BT, natural attrition was running at 2.6%
(2004 – 2.4%) and, in the UK, 2,685 (2004 – 4,814)
people left BT under our voluntary paid leaver package.
We are committed to helping our people optimise their
work/life balance. At the end of March 2005, for example,
more than 8,900 people were working mainly from home.
We continue to create a working environment that
actively supports all our employees – regardless of gender,
race, sexual orientation, disability or age.
Research and development and IT support
Through our IT division, BT Exact, we offer the services of
thousands of IT professionals with knowledge of leading-
edge network design and IT systems and application
development, together with skills in innovation, change
management and IT operations.
Over the last year, we have transformed our approach
to internal and external systems development through the
establishment of 90-day design, development and delivery
cycles, accelerating our ability to deliver systems which
support product development and all our customers to
much tighter timescales and much higher levels of ‘right
first time’ delivery. We are also developing new high-
quality online ways for customers to deal with us, in an
intuitive and comprehensive manner.
14 BT Group plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2005 Operating and financial review