CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
WORKPLACE AND COMMUNITY
Our aim is to be recognised by existing and potential future employees as a responsible employer that values its people and provides an environment in which they can develop their skills and make a contribution to the success of the business. We also wish to make a contribution to the communities in which we operate, building goodwill and a reputation as a good neighbour and employer.
We communicate widely with employees to build a common set of business values that we believe will result in behaviours that will deliver a better customer experience and grow sales.
Ahead of the start of the current financial year, senior Human Resources leaders met with many people across the business globally to determine the business priorities and challenges. From these meetings, the People Plan for FY08 was designed, to attract, retain, engage and develop our people to meet the business agenda.
Below is a summary of the key areas of focus for the current financial year both as part of the People Stream and Organizational Effectiveness programme – all underpinning our Business Agenda. This represents a significant investment in the value proposition for people and is the beginning of a journey to put people at the heart of this business.
Engagement- Design and launch a global employee engagement survey, defining actions based on key results.
- Mid-year performance review process introduced, supporting more regular reviews of performance, development plans and progress against objectives.
- A number of key strategic roles identified for recruitment during FY08 to support the Business Agenda.
- Premier Farnell Leadership Profile further developed and embedded.
- New HR structure designed and implemented to enable closer business partnering.
- Introduction of new HR Information Software in the UK.
- Definition of high performance attributes agreed within Premier Farnell and support systems put in place.
- Roll out of high performance workshops across whole organisation.
- Enhancements made to performance review system.
- Created improved framework for talent management and succession planning, with key KPIs set for all people managers.
- Implementation of performance management system to support objectives, performance reviews and development planning.
- Cascade of development planning tools.
- Identify priority job families and solutions to development planning.
- Introduction of 1-hour of development activity per employee per week.
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT AND CHARITABLE GIVING
In the UK, the Company is a member of Business in the Community and has initiated a number of employee volunteering programmes with Leeds Cares. In the US, all of our businesses participate in the United Way, an umbrella organization for a number of charities.
Community Investment and Charitable Giving Policy & StrategyThe Group joined Business in the Community in 2005, a movement of 700 of the UK’s top companies committed to improving their impact on society, and we have now participated in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index for two years. The feedback from our 2005 submission assisted us in identifying those areas where we should focus our efforts. The majority of these were addressed this year and we improved our Index rating from 61.5% to 78.0%, putting us in the bronze category. The Group has also achieved the Per Cent Standard (which recognises that it has made contributions to good causes with a value equal to 1.0% of the Group’s pre-tax profits) for the second year running.
Our Group Charitable Giving Policy encourages employees to volunteer their time to good causes, their own or those identified by the business they work in, and allows this time to be taken within working hours. All our businesses undertake activities in their local communities. This policy has encouraged employees to seek the Group’s support for their good causes and the budget of £20,000 has been fully utilised.
In Leeds, where we employ 900 people, we have established partnerships with two local community groups who work with the elderly and disengaged young people. Regular activities such as escorted shopping trips and team challenges have been undertaken.
In the US, all of the Group’s businesses participate in United Way, a community-based umbrella organization supporting various human services organisations. Group employees have taken leadership roles in United Way’s fundraising activities. They have also participated in the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil days fundraising event and several employees volunteered with the American Red Cross and were trained as part of the “Ready When the Time Comes” programme. Other volunteer programmes include the Junior Achievement campaign through which students at local schools are instructed on business basics.
The Group recognises that these types of activity not only benefit the community groups involved but also deliver business benefits in the training and development of those employees who participate. This year we will assess how we can fully integrate volunteering activity into our training and development programme and performance review process.
Performance against 2006 workplace and community targets
Target: Maintain our inclusion in the Per Cent Standard.
Result: The Group has achieved the Per Cent Standard for the second year running.
| Performance against 2007 workplace and community targets and actions planned in 2008 | ||
| Target 2007 | Progress | Target 2008 |
Achieve a further improvement in our score in the BiTC CR Index | The Group participated in the BiTC CR Index for the third time this year. The Group achieved a rating at the top end of the silver ranking, with a score of 88%, an increase of 10%on the previous year. | Achieve a further improvement in our score in the BiTC CR Index as part of our progress towards our target of achieving Platinum status by 2010. |
Continue to monitor the rates and causes of employee absenteeism and take actions to achieve reductions | The Group monitors the rates of absenteeism and also the causes. The average rate of employee absenteeism across all the US businesses of 1.63%was lower than the US national rates of 1.87%for same size organisations. Since absenteeism rates keep parity with US national rates, reduction targets are not set in the US. In Europe targets were set for each of the distribution centres and call centres. The absence rates represent hours lost divided by hours available and targets were achieved with the exception of the Maybrook Distribution Centre. Whilst short-term absence has been controlled at Maybrook, there has been a higher than expected long-term absence rate. The management team continue to monitor this and the appropriate actions are taken to reduce this wherever possible for example phased return to work and lighter duties. | Continue to monitor the rates and causes of employee absenteeism and take actions to achieve reductions |
Community Investment Case Study - Farnley Park Maths and Computing College
Premier Farnell Charitable Donations 2008 Premier Farnell Community Investment Log 2008 Premier Farnell Charitable Donations 2007 Premier Farnell Community Investment Log 2007 Corporate Responsibility Index 2006 Feedback Report Corporate Responsibility Index 2007 Feedback Report Environment Index Feedback Report
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