Shared Responsibility - Npower

Corporate Responsibility Report 2003Equal Opportunities and DiversityWe updated our Equal Opportunities andDiversity (EOD) policy in 2003. We are committedto achieving equal opportunity and diversity inour business practices. Fairness in the way wetreat our staff is essential, not only for us toattract and retain employees but also toenable us to develop and sustain good workingrelationships whilst increasing productivityand efficiency. We are convinced that a diverseworkforce is better placed to meet the needs ofour diverse customer base. We have reported onage, gender and ethnicity this year, but have beenunable to include data on disability. The data ondisability are less reliable because their capturerelies on self-classification and disclosure.Whilst we have made progress in developingand implementing family friendly policies andworking practices, the introduction of new equalopportunity legislation, particularly relating todiscrimination on the grounds of religion, beliefor sexual orientation will provide us with newchallenges and opportunities during 2004. In thelight of this, we will be seeking ways to improveour EOD strategy, placing emphasis on awarenesstraining and education of staff at all levels.Occupational HealthThe Promotion of WellbeingOur voluntary health screening enables employeesto undergo a comprehensive and confidential‘check-up’. The aim is to detect diseases at an earlystage and to offer appropriate lifestyle advice inorder to reduce the risk of preventable conditions.The anonymous data collected provides a pictureof the current health status of the workforce andalso demonstrates trends over time. We havea Group Stress Policy and we have launched amanagement training programme which includesguidance in the use of a web-based riskassessment tool.Health ProtectionWe are committed to helping achieve theGovernment’s targets, set out in their OccupationalHealth Strategy ‘Securing Health Together’, fora reduction in work-related ill-health and havedeveloped systems that put us in a strong positionto quantify progress. We believe the comprehensivenature of our measuring systems ensures thatwe identify most cases of work-related ill-health.Our overall sickness absence rate remained lowerthan the CBI average this year, falling from 2.6%to 2.3% (CBI average 2.9%).Health surveillance of employees exposed tocertain specific health risks has continued.We have continued to demonstrate goodcontrol of hazardous noise-induced deafness,for example.RWE npower Staff Male/Female Ratio(Data as at December 2003)RWE npower Staff by Ethnicity(Data as at December 2003)RWE npower Staff by Age(Data as at December 2003)Male (59.96%)Female (40.04%)White British Employees (81%)Employees from Ethnic Minorities(includes Asian, Black, Chinese,Mixed Race and White Irish) (5%)Not Disclosed (14%)16–25 (24%)26–35 (30%)36–45 (24.5%)46–55 (17%)56–65 (4%)65+ (0.5%)26