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Performance during the year

Talent

Motivation and performance

In July 2006, we conducted a company-wide employee opinion survey. Over 11,000 employees (58%) took part in the process - a 9% increase on the response rate compared to the 2004 survey. For over 90% of the questions asked, a more favourable response rate was received than in 2004. The survey demonstrated that the workforce better understood our strategy and the need for change. Our employees believe that the business is heading in the right direction and are willing to do their jobs differently to help National Grid improve. Respect and integrity, two of our three core values, are also becoming embedded in the culture of the organisation and safety continues to be recognised as one of National Grid's strengths.

Areas which the survey results highlighted as needing improvement included general management behaviours around communication with employees and performance management. Action plans have been developed by each of the businesses to address their key priorities for improvement.

Greater use is being made of electronic communication channels with the new Chief Executive outlining the new strategy for all employees via video and issuing a New Year video message to all employees, the latter receiving over 5,000 hits on our intranet site.

Development of talent

Our focus on developing the talent of our current and future business leaders has intensified, with participants in our leadership and management development programmes more than doubled over last year. In our US business review, a need was identified to increase investment in our employees and, in particular, develop front line management. Specific areas of focus included 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, recruiting 160 trainees on to our apprentice, foundation engineer, graduate and student programmes in the UK in the past year. Our 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, we have also designed an industry specific foundation degree.

Through our ‘e-futures’ strategy, we actively organise and sponsor 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 US we, together with three Massachusetts community colleges, received a $1.9 million (£1 million) grant from the US Department of Labor to support both a college certificate and an associate degree programme in energy utility technology. The three year grant will enable the launch of the programme in September 2007 and hire faculty, fund administrative development, establish laboratories, promote industry careers and an internship programme.

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 our 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 and 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 in the UK and the US 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 practice that can be replicated across our operational sites.

At 31 March 2007, 23.7% of our employees were female and 7.3% were from black and minority ethnic groups compared with 23.4% and 6.7% respectively at 31 March 2006 and with 21.0% and 6.0% respectively at 31 March 2005.

Bar chart showing increase in percentages of female employees and employees from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, between 2004/05 and 2006/07

Our progress has already received external recognition. We achieved The Times Top 50 UK ‘where women want to work’ status and won the 2007 working families award from the UK resource centre for women working in science, engineering and technology. We scored 75% in the US Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index - well above the average scored by peer companies.

In our 2006 employee opinion survey, 83% (2004: 81%) of respondents considered they are treated fairly by the Company 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.