BT 2008 Annual Report Download - page 29

auction in 2000. Blu, in which we held a minority interest,
participated in that auction process. On 20 July 2005, the
former BT employee was found not culpable of the fraud charge
brought by the Rome Public Prosecutor. All the other
defendants were also acquitted. The Public Prosecutor has
appealed the court’s decision. If the appeal is successful, we
could be held liable, with others, for any damages. The company
has concluded that it would not be appropriate to make a
provision in respect of any such claim.
Our resources
Our brand and reputation
BT has a strong reputation and a trusted brand that is widely
recognised in the UK and around the world. Our brand helps to
shape our relationships with customers, suppliers and employees.
As a vital asset, the BT brand needs to be developed,
protected and managed with the same rigour that we bring to
other assets, both tangible and intangible. And as the world and
the markets in which we operate change, so our brand needs to
reflect this, becoming more confident, dynamic and forward
looking.
Our brand values are implicit in our advertising strap line –
Bringing it all together – which captures both what we can do
for customers and our commitment to acting as a single BT
team.
During 2008 we made great progress with the task of
integrating the brands and identities of the various IT services
businesses that we have acquired in the UK and around the
world. As each of these companies adopts the BT brand and
identity, they enhance our reputation for expertise in delivering
services in local markets, while the acquired companies gain
from the global scale and trust that the BT brand brings with it.
Our people
Our aim is to create a team of high-performing, engaged and
motivated people who can make a difference for customers,
shareholders, the company and themselves.
Building a global team
Our people strategy continued to support the transformation of
BT in our drive to become ‘number one for customer service’. As
we increasingly operate globally, so our workforce outside the
UK continues to grow. At 31 March 2008, BT employed
111,858 people worldwide – 102,544 in the UK and the rest of
Europe, the Middle East and Africa; 4,714 in the Americas; and
4,600 in the Asia Pacific region. Significant acquisition activity
during the financial year meant that 8,455 new employees were
integrated within the BT family. The acquisition, for example, of
Frontline involved the transfer of 3,264 people to BT (see
Acquisitions and disposals on page 23).
Our success as a business depends on recruiting, retaining,
developing and rewarding skilled and talented people who live
by the BT values.
Nurturing leadership capabilities
The quality of leadership is also vital to the successful
transformation of BT. We are focused on ensuring that leaders
at all levels understand what is expected of them, have access to
appropriate development opportunities and are able to
benchmark their performance against that of their peers.
Encouraging learning and development
We offer employees a wide range of learning and re-skilling
opportunities. A variety of online and instructor-led courses are
available through Route2Learn, our group-wide web-based
learning portal.
We have created and operate a learning governance model to
ensure that learning and development within BT really do align
with our key strategic objectives. Our successful company-wide
re-accreditation to Investors in People (first achieved in 1998) is
a vital measure of our success in achieving this alignment.
Key to being ‘number one for customer service’ is developing
a passionately customer-centric culture in BT and ensuring that
our people have the skills and the tools necessary to ensure that
every customer experience is an excellent one. A number of
development initiatives designed to improve our ‘right first time’
performance were launched in 2008. For example, by the end of
May 2008, BT Design and BT Operate will have taken about
21,000 people from around the world through a one-day event
focused on a number of practical ways to improve the customer
experience and to drive innovation and cross-organisation
problem solving.
Rewarding and recognising achievement
Around 40,000 managers are eligible for variable, performance-
related bonuses and the remuneration of our most senior
managers is linked to BT’s total shareholder return performance
measured over a period of three years or, in the case of
Openreach senior managers, Openreach’s performance over a
three-year period.
From 2009, remuneration will also be linked to the manner in
which objectives are met as well as to the fact that they are
met. This ‘how’ factor will take into account the behaviours
managers exemplify – customer-centric leadership abilities – in
meeting their objectives.
We are also developing ways of recognising and rewarding
not just individual performance but also teamwork between
individuals and between different parts of the business, in order
to promote new ways of serving our customers’ best interests.
We operate a flexible benefits programme in many parts of
BT, which gives employees the freedom to choose between
Report of the Directors Business review
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28 BT Group plc Annual Report & Form 20-F