“We want to be recognised as a learning business and a great place to work for our employees so that they are proud of their company.”

Employee satisfaction

We measure satisfaction through an annual employee satisfaction survey. This survey is closely aligned to the company ambition to make EDF Energy a learning business and a great place to work for our employees so they are proud of their company. The results are used to determine how employees feel about a wide range of issues, identify priorities for improvement and to develop action plans.

Our target is to increase satisfaction levels from 55% in November 2003 to 82% by the end of 2007. This is recognised as a very ambitious target but over the last two years there has been a steady improvement rising from 51% to 69.4% across the organisation and we are in a good position to achieve the 2007 target.

Work/Life balance

EDF Energy aims actively to encourage all employees to achieve a balance that is right for the individual between work and life outside of work. We seek to enhance the wellbeing of our employees and, in doing so, strengthen our business by improving recruitment and retention and increasing productivity.

Employees can request a Work Life Solution which can include part time working, working a non-standard week, career breaks or working from home. This innovative policy iswell used by our employees across the UK. This is supported by the outcome of the 2005 Employee Opinion survey where 73% of respondents indicated they were happy with their working hours and 79% stated they felt able to manage the pressures of work.

Currently we have over 1100 employees (10% of our workforce) working part-time and 120 working from home.

Skills, training & development

The 2005 Employee Satisfaction Survey showed significant improvementsmade in training and development and we are continuing to drive further improvements. For example, we have introduced two new online training tools (staff induction and finance), and are aiming to increase our Investors in People accreditation from the current 81% to 100% by 2007.

Over recent years we have identified a skills shortage in technology and engineering expertise. We are addressing this future need: 45 new recruits entered our Advanced Modern Apprenticeship programme this year and within Networks Branch 32 trainees are scheduled to join our adult training programme in 2006.

We are also working with schools to encourage them to focus on technology and engineering. We have, with the Institution of Electrical Engineers and other networks companies, formed the Power Academy, which offers sponsorships in engineering-related degree courses, and currently sponsor 13 students.

For managers, we offer our well-established Integrated Management Development Programmes and also our new Leadership Development Programme, which promotes leadership behaviour and attitudes through 360-degree leadership skills assessments. Over 600 managers attended leadership workshops in 2005.

Raising Employee Awareness

Improving employee training and awareness on a range of CR issues was a key priority during 2005 since it is only through our employees that we can put our values into action. We launched an online induction tool, called the Discovery Centre with a section on CR. This introduces all new employees to concepts such as climate change and environmental management, and explains some of our key areas of activity. Employee understanding about CR is tracked via our employee satisfaction survey. The number of employees who feel confident to describe our CR approach increased by 6% during 2005 to 43% and we are seeking ways to push this higher. Targeted communication on climate change related issues will receive greater focus during 2006 to accompany discussions around the government’s Energy Review. The creation of internal environmental and community champions ('Ambassadors') will also be a key tool to increase awareness of energy and resource efficiency and engagement with local community issues.

Volunteering

Last year 2,710 employees took part in our Helping Hands volunteering programme. Their activities ranged from one-to-one reading in schools, to mentoring of headteachers, and from painting murals in community centres to becoming directors of local charities. In 2005, we raised a record £250k for our community partner, Mencap, of which £150k was raised by our employees and £100k was matched by EDF Energy. This is the largest amount of money our employees have ever raised for a charity partner.

Rewarding employees

Having launched a new final salary pension scheme in 2004 we have continued to promote this to all employees especially those employees who have no current pension with the Company.

Approximately 90% of all new employees are choosing to be in the new scheme increasing the total membership by the end of 2005 to 5,431. 9,928 (86%) employees are now covered by one of the company’s final salary pension schemes.

EDF SA Initial Public Offering (IPO) – Employee reserved offering

On 21 November 2005, our parent company EDF, was partially floated by the French government. 15% of EDF share capital was made available to the market as part of the IPO, with 15% of this reserved for employees.

The IPO generated a huge amount of interest and excitement amongst our employees. EDF Energy is delighted that almost 50% of our employees have chosen to become shareholders, a clear demonstration of their confidence in EDF Energy and our parent company EDF.