Sustainability Report 2009 - The Co-operative

Delivering value
Total employees by business 2
2006 2007 3
(former Trading
Group in brackets)
2008 2009 4
(former Trading Group/
CFS in brackets)
The Co-operative Food 5 44,476 56,561 (44,603) 56,619 83,830 (55,307)
Specialist Commercial Businesses 6 n/a 962 (83) 1,118 2,518 (2,518)
Specialist Retail Businesses 7 1,859 3,344 (1,931) 3,315 3,162 (3,162)
The Co-operative Funeralcare 2,753 3,633 (2,735) 3,608 3,700 (3,700)
The Co-operative Pharmacy 3,064 6,252 (3,881) 6,606 6,712 (6,712)
Public policy Customers Employees Economic impact Membership and co-operation
Accounting
Employee engagement is a broad measure of how committed
and motivated people are to do their best at work and generate
strong business performance for the benefit of The Co-operative.
Employee engagement is measured via an employee attitude
survey, which determines an ‘engagement index’ (EI) score.
Engagement scores are calculated differently for the Trading Group
and CFS and are, therefore, not directly comparable.
In the Trading Group, engagement is measured as an average
score across 17 questions, which focus on: rational understanding
about the aims of The Co-operative and people’s role in its
success; emotional attachment, such as the extent to which
employees are proud to work for The Co-operative; and a
behavioural element, which measures people’s willingness to
deliver discretionary effort, advocate The Co-operative (both as an
employer and its products and services) and remain employed by
The Co-operative. In 2010, all former Somerfield colleagues
will be invited to complete the Talkback employee attitude survey.
For CFS, the employee engagement score is based on seven
survey questions that measure: emotional attachment to the
organisation; willingness to stay with the organisation; and
discretionary effort – how much colleagues are motivated to go
beyond their normal duties to help the organisation achieve its
aims. Since the approach measures outcomes such as pride and
100
Estates and Services Division 8 231 1,034 (1,011) 732 397 (397)
Corporate Functions 9 1,968 1,233 (903) 1,637 1,380 (1,380)
Other Businesses 868 603 (123) 659 n/a
CFS 9,778 7,989 (7,989) 7,738 11,692 (7,249)
Total 64,997 81,611 (63,259) 82,032 113,391 (80,425)
Within CFS, roll-out of a new Oracle human resources (HR) system
was largely completed in 2009. The new system provides more
accurate and in-depth information to managers in areas such as
absence management, and enables more detailed data analysis
at divisional level.
Total employees by contract type 10
Contract
types
Permanent 69,783
(96.2%)
Temporary 2,762
(3.8%)
r
Trading Group
The Co-operative Group Sustainability Report 2009
CFS
2007 2008 2009 11 2007 2008 2009 12
70,955
(95.5%)
3,339
(4.5%)
r
96,177
(94.6%)
5,522
(5.4%)
7,950
(99.5%)
39
(0.5%)
7,668
(99%)
11,526
(99%)
70 (1%) 166 (1%)
advocacy, the score is very difficult to influence by specific or
short-term activities. A new employee measurement approach
for the enlarged CFS business is under development, bringing
together elements of both the former CFS and former Britannia
approaches, and also incorporating current best practice in
employee engagement measurement. Roll-out across the business
is planned for 2010, at which point baseline data will be collected,
enabling targets to be set for the following year.
Reporting periods for employee data vary slightly between different
parts of the business, in line with data monitoring systems. Full
details are presented in the online Report .
Employee engagement
Engagement index 13
Trading Group
(mean average;
scale 0–100)
2006 2007
(former Trading
Group in brackets)
2008 2009
74 74 (74) 77 79
CFS 53% 53% 64% July: 75%
Dec: 87%
The Trading Group carries out a full annual employee survey 14 in
October each year, and, in May 2009, an interim survey 15 was
also conducted. The full annual survey received responses from
64,514 (85%) employees in 2009 (2008: 82%). Response rates
have improved year-on-year since employees were first consulted
in 2003, when only 19% of staff participated 16 , demonstrating
the growing value that employees place on the opportunity to
express their views. Participation levels are considered to constitute
a creditable achievement, particularly given that the majority of
employees are distributed in teams across over 5,000 UK locations,
and, consequently, a paper-based survey is the main method used.
However, online completion was offered in 2009 to employees of The
Co-operative Travel, IT Services and almost all head office teams.
For the Trading Group, of the 68 questions in the survey that
can be directly compared with 2008, all but seven scores
increased or stayed the same. The highest scoring questions 17