Our success as a business depends on maintaining a high level of engagement of our people in every market in which we operate. We recognise that it is our people who bring our Core Purpose of Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience for our Brand Partners to life. Over the past year we have defined and agreed the global People strategy which is designed to support and achieve this goal.
The strategy aims to ensure that we have engaged employees in winning teams throughout the organisation. We are committed to:
- becoming a magnet for talented people who live our values and enjoy working in winning teams delivering outstanding results;
- equipping our people to excel today and provide exciting development opportunities for the future, aligned to our business ambition;
- recognising, celebrating and rewarding the contribution our people and teams make to deliver our challenging business ambition;
- creating a great place to work where people choose to make a real difference and deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience.
Our employee base is diverse and reflects the different cultures and markets within which we operate. This diversity creates a range of perspectives that allows us to constantly challenge and improve the way we do things as we work towards our goal of putting the Customer at the centre of our business.
Employee communications
This year, much effort has been applied in engaging
our people with our Customer-centric agenda.
Employees around the globe have attended events to discuss our strategy, Core Purpose and company Values, and to understand their personal roles in delivering our Vision.
The Vision and strategy for the Group is regularly communicated through market visits, employee events and informal meetings with Inchcape employees globally. Objectives in support of the strategy are supported through the performance management process. Additionally, feedback is sought from a representative group of employees on specific issues. During 2007,we measured performance against the objectives set at the 2006 Management Conference to ensure that the Group’s goals and objectives remained clear and well understood.
During 2008 we intend to pursue our engagement efforts through a global programme for all employees. Customer 1st is an innovative employee experience designed to reinforce understanding and alignment to Inchcape’s differentiating Customer-centric agenda.
Employee survey
An annual survey is carried out to identify issues that need to be addressed and to identify areas where we can improve.The results of the survey are communicated to employees and actions are taken to follow up on agreed areas. In the UK we had an 84% response rate to the survey.We intend to develop our current method of feedback into a global survey in 2008.
Talent and performance management
Talent and performance management is at the heart of
our People strategy. In 2007 we updated our talent management
process. During the year, we ran several development and assessment
centres and programmes for our managers - focusing on our
leadership skills.We have also conducted a thorough review of our
leadership population with a view to continuously upgrading the
quality and depth of our talent pool.Our analysis clearly shows us
that talented people yield much higher levels of Customer
satisfaction and profit.
We have also focused on our ability to attract and retain talented individuals through attractive performance based rewards and interesting and diverse career opportunities. As a global business,we are also able to provide international secondments and promotions,enabling us to give our best people constantly stimulating career paths and growth.We will seek to build on this in 2008.
Employee safety
The safety of our employees is of paramount importance.Many of our employees handle hazardous substances and work with heavy machinery.We regularly review our policies and procedures for our employees and have appropriate training programmes in place.
