Carphone Warehouse 2007 Annual Report Download - page 23

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 Best Large Company
to Work For 2007
• 13th Best Big Company To Work For
Mobile News 2007
• Large Retailer Of The Year
• Highly Commended Customer Service
What Mobile 2006 (reader voted)
• Best High Street Retailer
• Best Online Retailer
Mobile Choice 2006
• Best High Street Retailer
Employees
Our Human Resources teams continue to review
and improve processes to ensure that the work
environment, recruitment, training processes and
employee satisfaction are of the highest standard.
Historically, one of the key tools we have used to
assess these important areas is BackChat, a
completely anonymous online questionnaire that
enables us to examine the attitudes of every employee
to all aspects of the business.
The 2006 survey continued to produce encouraging
results, but also highlighted some areas for further
development. The overall response rate across the
entire Group was 82%. On the positive side, the most
favourable scores were recorded in the sections on
management style and the day-to-day job, with 87%
of employees understanding how their work contributes
towards the success of the company. 75% of employees
said they had received training in the last 12 months, up
three percentage points on the previous year.
Disappointing scores were recorded in areas such
as quality of work life (49%) and communication and
support (51%). Partly in response to this feedback, we
have launched a range of new policies this year. New
fathers will now have much greater flexibility over when
they take their paternity leave. Employees on maternity
leave can now come in for “keeping in touch” days,
enabling them to come into work on occasional days
without breaking their maternity leave, and when they
do return they can do so in a staged process, building
up their hours over time. The goal is to keep
employees engaged and involved, and to aid the
process of returning to work.
For 2007 we will be evolving the BackChat process
and moving the focus from employee satisfaction
towards employee engagement. We are also changing
the timing of the survey so that it is more aligned with
the business planning process and actions can be
incorporated into overall business plans.
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. The Group is implementing an online
recruitment system and is also committed to putting
in systems to measure diversity across the Group.
Gender and race are, as last year, voluntarily recorded
via BackChat to enable us to monitor inclusion and
to recruit from specific groups that we feel are
under-represented.
Regulatory and social responsibilities
We continue to operate in a relatively low impact
industry and our meetings and discussions with
Group businesses on social, environmental and ethical
matters give us confidence that both the risks to our
business in these areas are relatively low, and also that
controls are in place to ensure compliance with new
laws and regulations where necessary.
Below we have identified the key regulatory and social
risks currently affecting the Group. We have aimed to
focus our update on areas where there has been a
change in regulation or our approach during the year,
or where new regulation is on its way.
Mobile phones and driving
During the year we commissioned some market
research into attitudes on mobile phone usage while
driving. The results indicated that legislation had had little
impact on drivers’ habits, with 43% of men and 26% of
women still holding a mobile phone while driving.
In February 2007, an update to the Road Safety Bill
in the UK came into force, increasing the penalty for
using a mobile phone while driving. Offenders now
face three penalty points on their licence and a fine
of £60. We raised awareness of the changes with
our customers, reiterating our “hang up or go
hands-free” message and running promotions on
hands-free equipment.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive &
Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(“WEEE”) Regulations came into force on 2 January
2007. These regulations transpose the EU WEEE
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Governance Financial Statements
www.cpwplc.com
BackChat, our annual
employee survey, enables
us to measure the impact
of actions taken to improve
the working environment