Hyder Consulting plc Corporate Responsibility Report 2010

Our commitment to our
employees
Richness in diversity
Our policy is to recruit the right people for the right job,
regardless of gender, age and origin. Our employees represent
a diverse range of ethnic and geographical backgrounds and
we view this as fundamental to the success of our business:
through having a diversity-rich culture, we are better able to
understand our clients and the communities they serve and
ensure our solutions meet their needs.
Disabled persons
Management monitors the group’s Equal Opportunity Policy,
which offers equality of opportunity and support for disabled
employees. Management maintains good links with external
organisations to encourage involvement in the workplace of
disabled members of the wider community. Where possible,
arrangements are made for retraining employees who become
disabled, enabling them to perform work identified as
appropriate to their aptitudes and abilities, in line with the
group’s operational requirements.
Supporting the professional development of our people
We are committed to investing in our employees’ careers and to
this end we have introduced the following in 2009-10:
Better defined career paths
Responding to our employees’ desire to better understand their
prospects for career development and promotion, we have
provided guidance and tools to support our people’s progress
through our four career paths - technical; project management;
general management and key account management.
We developed employee awareness about these career options
through ongoing communication via line managers supported
by practical online information and training. This is aimed
at helping our people map out their future prospects and
understand the necessary skills and behaviours they need to
develop to realise their aspirations.
Performance management re-energised
Recognising the importance of annual employee reviews to the
individual’s development and our overall company success, we
have simplified this process in 2009-10 and provided practical
guidance on effective performance management for line
managers and individual employees.
Professional excellence portal to enhance our people’s
development
The technical excellence of our people is central to our
value proposition – we strive to continuously improve as
an organisation and upgrade the skills and expertise of our
people. One component of this is through Hyder’s internal
Professional Excellence Groups (PEGs) which are disciplinerelated
communities. This year we created a new PEG intranet
portal providing forums and tools to support collaboration and
knowledge sharing across the global organisation.
Line manager resource centre launched on our intranet
As part of our strategy to empower our line managers, we have
created their own dedicated site on our intranet. This site
contains tools and information to help them lead and support
their teams. It also provides links to other related sections
of our intranet such as the career path and performance
management sites.
Flexible working
We are keen to assist our people achieve work-life balance. This
is promoted through flexible working hours and arrangements
such as working from home, and a variety of leave options
including parental, dependants’, adoption and sabbatical leave.
The benefits that we offer our people vary by region, according
to differences not only in legislation but also local customs
and values - we strive to offer our people benefits that are over
and above those required by local laws – examples from our
various regions include childcare voucher schemes, dental care,
pension scheme and share options as well as birthday vouchers,
employee recognition schemes, long service awards, retirement
awards and honorarium payments.
We incorporate sustainability into our benefit schemes by
encouraging the use of public transport. Our offices are located
close to public transport links, where possible, to provide our
people and clients with easy travel connections and reduced
reliance on driving to work.
Employee engagement survey
In 2009-10 we again carried out an employee engagement
survey aimed at better understanding our employee’s
motivation and views about Hyder. Research shows a clear link
between employee engagement, high performance, retention
and client satisfaction.
We achieved an improved response rate of 78.5% (74% in 2009)
and good overall results, comparable to those achieved the
previous year and which reflect our people’s strong loyalty and
commitment to Hyder including:
• 98% agree that their work helps Hyder achieve its objectives
• 93% feel respected by their colleagues
Hyder Consulting CR Report 2010 9