National Grid 2007 Annual Report Download - page 17

National Grid Electricity Transmission Annual Report and Accounts 2006/07 15
leadership, communication, end user computing, project
management and problem solving.
We continue to invest in the recruitment and development of
skilled employees for the future and, in the past year, National
Grid recruited 160 trainees onto the apprentice, foundation
engineer, graduate and student programmes in which we
participate. National Grid’s UK Foundation Engineering
Programme, launched in early 2006, is designed to facilitate the
entrance, training and progression of talented people into key
engineering roles. In conjunction with Aston University and
Energy Utility Skills, our industry sector skills council in the UK,
National Grid has also designed an industry specific foundation
degree.
Through its ‘e-futures’ strategy, National Grid actively organises
and sponsors a number of educational initiatives in the UK.
These initiatives are designed to increase the number and
diversity of young people interested in engineering careers and,
ultimately, to create and sustain a greater pool of skilled talent
from which we can recruit. Over the last four years, well over
15,000 young people have participated in these initiatives. Key
to this success has been the dedicated involvement of our
employees.
In the UK, National Grid was externally recognised as Graduate
Employer of the Year at the Target National Graduate
Recruitment awards and was highly commended by the
National Council for Work Experience. The quality of National
Grid’s apprentice programmes has also been recognised by the
Adult Learning Inspectorate, placing us in the top 10% of
training providers in the UK.
Inclusion and diversity
Several employee interest networks have been established
focusing on gender, ethnicity & faith and disability. The
networks provide a mutually beneficial relationship for our
employees by providing opportunities for employees to network
with each other and senior management, to attain career
building skills and to provide a better understanding of National
Grid.
Working groups have been established with senior executive
sponsors focusing on recruitment and employee development,
employee engagement, communications and measuring the
impact of our inclusion and diversity policies. We have also
initiated a field force pilot programme in the UK to explore the
development of inclusion and diversity best practices examples
that can be replicated across our operational sites.
At 31 March 2007 13.7% of our employees were female and
5.7% were from black and ethnic minority groups compared
with 14.3% and 4.7% respectively at 31 March 2006.
Our progress has already received external recognition.
National Grid achieved The Times Top 50 UK ‘where women
want to work’ status.
In the 2006 employee opinion survey, 83% (2004: 81%) of
respondents considered they are treated fairly by National Grid
without regard for race, age, ethnic background, gender,
religion, disabilities or sexual orientation, while 66% (2004: not
measured) considered that National Grid does a good job of
treating them with fairness and respect.
Relationships
Customer service
We continue to aim for improvements in the service we provide
to our customers and customer service is high on the agenda
for the management teams in each of our businesses. In
addition, we are supporting our businesses through the
establishment of a shared services function in the UK.
Regulatory relationships
We continue to work very closely with Ofgem on the renewal of
our electricity transmission networks and in expanding those
networks to meet new and changing demand. In addition, we
seek to maintain a professional approach with Ofgem in areas
where we disagree.
Suppliers
We continue to make progress in improving the quality of our
relationships with suppliers. A particular focus has been on the
investment programmes in our electricity transmission
operations, where we have worked with a number of suppliers
to create alliances where we work in combined teams to deliver
construction projects, and where we and suppliers share in the
financial risk associated with these projects.
Community investment
Our policy on community investment provides a framework for
ensuring that investment delivers benefits for our business and
the communities we serve. During the year we reviewed our
social policy to ensure our approach to community investment
remains relevant to, and supports, society’s wider social and
environmental priorities. This review has included analysis of
existing activities and best practice, both across National Grid
Electricity Transmission and externally. We continue to use the
model developed by the London Benchmarking Group to
provide a framework for measuring and reporting our
community investment contributions, by capturing, in
accordance with the model, spend against our key themes. On
this basis we invested some £0.3 million in support of
community initiatives and relationships across our operations in
2006/07.
In the 2006 employee opinion survey, 68% (2004: 63%) of
respondents considered National Grid makes a positive
contribution to the communities in which we operate.
Responsibility
We continue to enjoy external endorsement of our responsible
business approach. National Grid is ‘sector leader ‘of the multi-
utilities sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and
one of only two companies listed. National Grid also continues
to feature in the FTSE4Good Index and is one of 29 companies
regarded as a ‘Platinum’ company in the Business in the
Community 2006 Corporate Responsibility Index, confirming
that our approach to responsible business is indeed world
class.