Experian 2014 Annual Report Download - page 18

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Our people
To achieve this outcome, our people
strategy focuses on two key areas:
culture and engagement, and talent.
We are now two years into our Heart
of Experian initiative, which aims to
transform Experian into one of the world’s
best places to work. Our talent strategy
drives the attraction, growth and retention
of a deep pool of talented employees,
who reflect our global reach and our
belief in the value of diversity.
Culture and engagement – building
a sense of pride and connection
In 2012, we launched the Heart of Experian
as a way to express the ties that bind our
organisation together, wherever we are and
whatever we do. Our Core DNA – Connect,
Protect, Create – reflects what we do and
the way we work:
• Connect – bringing our people
together to make a difference for
our clients and communities.
• Protect – how our people take
care of sensitive personal and
commercial information.
• Create – how everyone’s ideas matter,
in creating smart and insightful ways
to help consumers and organisations.
In the Heart of Experian’s second year,
we have focused on bringing it to life for
our people, every day. With that in mind,
we have shifted the initiative from being
globally led to regionally led, so we can
tailor activities to local needs. More than
450 Ambassadors around the world
support this shift, by working with local
management to try to make the Heart
of Experian real in every office.
We are convinced that the Heart of
Experian will deliver long-term benefits for
our business performance and for clients
and consumers. Our 2013 global people
survey showed a marked improvement
in 21 of the 23 items most closely related
to the Heart of Experian. In the same
survey, 86% responded positively when
asked: ‘What difference is the Heart of
Experian making for our business and our
people?’. We know there is still work to do
and we remain committed to the Heart of
Experian for the long term.
Employee engagement –
listening to our people
We carry out our global people survey
approximately every 18 months. It provides
valuable insights into employees’ views
and their engagement with the business.
We conducted our last survey in May 2013
and achieved our highest ever response,
with 89% participation. This considerably
exceeds the external ‘high-performing’
norm and ensures the results fully reflect
our employees’ views. One reason for the
high participation rate is that our people
know we will act on areas identified for
improvement. 66% agree, which outstrips
the global high-performing companies
norm1 of 57% by some margin.
The 2013 results continue the overall
positive trend established since our first
survey in 2007. 53% of items showed
significant improvement since November
2011 and our scores improved or stayed
the same in 14 out of 15 categories.
However, our engagement score declined
by 1% to 74%, compared to 2011. In part
we ascribe this to raised expectations,
resulting from the high profile of the
Heart of Experian. We have put robust
plans in place at global, regional and
local levels, to address this feedback.
We intend to run our sixth global people
survey in December 2014. Our focus will
continue to be on closing the gap between
Experian’s scores and those of global high-
performing organisations. On average, we
are currently 5 percentage points behind
those best-performing companies.
Our global people strategy aims to deliver premium growth
by creating a great place for our people to work.
More than 450 Ambassadors work
with local management worldwide
to make the Heart of Experian real
in every office.
86% of Experian employees believe that
the Heart of Experian makes a difference
to our business and our people.
Of our global employee base,
45% are female and 55% male.
1. This refers to the Towers Watson Global High Performing Companies norm. The norm is formed by approximately 30 top-performing companies who meet a range of
demanding measures, including financial performance and employee engagement scores. This norm is the aspirational benchmark against which we measure
our performance in the Experian global people survey.
Strategic report • Our People