Employment and skills
The number of people employed at January 1, 2018 was 3,595, an increase of 60 on the prior year. The main rises again came in the asphalt and contracting division, where we have targeted and won a number of new contracts. The age profile of our workforce fell slightly over the year and the number of women employed rose from 495 to 540.
This year we became corporate members of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), a national campaign which aims to increase the participation, inclusion and success of women in science, technology and engineering. We will be working closely with WISE including participating in its ‘10 steps’ workshop, which aims to ensure women in industries like ours where they are in the minority have the same opportunities to progress their careers as their male colleagues.
We provide indirect employment to a large number of contractors, principally engineers, fitters and drivers. Our sites are predominantly in rural areas and we endeavour to use local companies to provide these specialist services.
We continued to develop our talent pool and bring younger people into the business through our higher, craft and task-related apprentice programmes. We also run a two-year graduate training programme.
Our talent management and succession planning programmes continued along with a leadership development programme for senior managers. We also invested in workplace training and competency, mainly focused on health, safety and environment.
Our managers have also been participating in a training programme developed in partnership with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) covering environmental and resource management and sustainability.
Employee benefits
We have a range of benefits to support employees and their families. EmployeeCare is a round-the-clock telephone counselling service (see health, safety and wellbeing). Mysafeworkplace is a confidential service to report anything from workplace harassment to fraud.
TeamBenefits gives employees and their families access to a range of exclusive discounts from High Street stores and eating out, to mobile phones, insurance and travel. Staff made savings amounting to £16,000 during the year.
We are also participating in the government’s cycle to work scheme which allows employees to benefit from savings on a new bike used mainly for commuting.
