We employ more than 386,000 people in over 50 countries. As a service organisation, our success is linked to having an engaged workforce and giving people the opportunity to voice their opinion on the business, our processes and practices.
Over the last five years, we have conducted a number of employee surveys to help us better understand how we can maximise employee commitment, retention and discretionary effort, in other words ‘engagement’. In May 2009, we conducted our ‘Your Voice’ survey, which gave over 120,000 employees from 39 of our largest businesses (representing over 95% of total Group revenue) the opportunity to participate. As part of our 2008-2009 CR commitments, we set specific improvement targets regarding employee participation and engagement rates in our ‘Your Voice’ survey. The results of this year’s survey were very encouraging and we achieved a participation rate of 71% (published target 63%) and an engagement rate of 69% (published target 65%), both significantly ahead of our performance since the last survey which was conducted in 2007. Employees reported a substantial increase in confidence regarding our corporate reputation, and an improved view of the learning and development opportunities offered by the organisation. Managers feel the Group is making the right changes to be successful, has a clear sense of direction and is successfully focusing on both long-term strategies and short-term results.
Our positive ‘can-do’ attitude means our people are motivated to go the extra mile and the results show that our Guiding Principles feature as a part of everyday life at Compass.
Our next global ‘Your Voice’ survey is planned for 2011 and we will set specific improvement targets as part of our CR metrics, which will be communicated to stakeholders.
Through our global employment brand, talent management and various learning and development programmes, helping our people develop their skills and further their careers within the business has been an area of focus during 2009.
Training and development programmes for all employees are important both for our employees to fulfil their potential and to the ability of our business to achieve its goals. The development of leadership skills of senior managers is also a key objective and, during 2009, we fully implemented a global learning and development programme called ‘Mapping for Value’, designed to embed our MAP operating framework deeper into the organisation. This highly interactive programme enables our business leaders to equip themselves with the knowledge and tools to help them accelerate the development and delivery of their MAP plans. About 2,000 senior employees have now attended the ‘Mapping for Value’ programme. Following on from the success of this programme, we have developed an additional initiative called ‘Mapping for Action’, to be rolled out to around 4,000 site level employees across the Compass globe.
We value the diversity of our people and strongly believe that a more diverse workforce is a more creative workforce, and one better able to adapt to change. We expect all of our employees to be treated with respect and dignity. Our equal opportunity policy is designed to ensure that both current and potential employees are offered the same opportunity to do a job regardless of sex, race, colour, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status or disability. The more our employees reflect the diversity of our clients and consumers, the better equipped we are to service their needs. We believe we have the right policies in place to meet or exceed legal requirements in this area and, as an example of our ongoing commitment, we have seen a 3.5% increase in the number of women appointed to leadership team positions in the last 12 months and women now hold 18.5% of global leadership team roles.
Our remuneration policy seeks to deliver improved performance throughout the business, balancing short-term success with the attainment of our longer-term business goals and shareholder return. We work hard to attract and retain people of proven ability, experience and skills. Under our pay and reward programme, in the year to 30 September 2009, the Group paid gross salary costs of £5,968 million for the continuing business. Within this figure, social security contributions, pensions and other employee costs amounted to £925 million, £50 million and £4 million respectively.
