Building trust and transparency and an inclusive and engaged workforce
In order to maximise the potential of our workforce and achieve our objectives it is important to develop their belief and engagement in National Grid’s vision.
Engagement and performance
To be successful, we will continue to engage our employees to strive for continued improvement. For that purpose our aim is to implement a world-class performance management process.
Our key performance indicator is the employee engagement index based on our independent annual employee survey.
Our approach involves adopting National Grid wide integrated common performance processes and a single set of performance criteria, with pay linked to leadership qualities (how we deliver) as well as operational and financial performance (what we deliver), providing for clearer differentiation between levels of performance.
Employee engagement
In February 2009, we conducted our second annual employee survey. A total of 24,727 employees took part, representing 91.8% of our workforce. During 2008, we undertook intensive action planning at the Company, line of business and individual employee level, to address the key themes of improving communications, providing greater clarity on vision and direction and providing stronger links between performance and reward. The 2009 survey reported a 10% increase in the employee engagement index, up to 70%. Improvements were reported across all survey dimensions, with significant improvements in the areas of vision, direction and communications which were key action items from the 2008 survey. Employees continue to believe National Grid’s safety culture and supportive management are significant strengths but would like to see improvements on how the Company creates the context for change, raises accountability and takes further steps to create links between performance and reward. Action plans are being developed and will form part of the management annual objective process for 2009/10 to ensure we further build upon this survey success.
Performance management
We are continuing the task of building a high performance culture and, further to our work with senior managers, we have now completed training for the majority of middle and first line managers in the UK and US on ‘performance for growth’, our global performance management system. The process continues to focus on raising the performance bar and supporting high quality conversations. We have established support and challenge groups which continue to review best practice, share knowledge and enable managers to have a peer support network. Our performance programmes are driving stronger personal accountability and the leadership within National Grid is now actively involved in creating a culture where everyone across the business understands that business results are of primary importance and that they can directly influence these.