Annual Report 2016 | Page 31

Annual Report 2016 Analysis of Group employees by gender Directors The majority of our businesses have external accreditation for their health, safety and environmental management systems. Many Group companies also hold ISO 9001 quality management and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety management accreditations, and are part of the Safe Contractor schemes. Employees have access to specialist occupational health advisors, who can provide proactive health surveillance and advice in order to keep our employees fit and healthy. Employee assistance programmes are also made available to employees across the Group, where employees can get free advice and counselling on any issues, whether work related or personal. - Training and development During the year the Group introduced an Executive Development Programme. Selection days were held for candidates and a number of Managers across the Group commenced the Programme that delivers modules of training, supported by Executive coaching, over a period of two years. In addition, the South Staffs Water Executive has spent time reviewing talent in the business and developing plans to manage future senior management succession. Latterly in the year the business has engaged with local colleges in Cambridge and Staffordshire to enable a structured programme of training and qualifications for Apprenticeships. In addition to the development and roll out of an SSI Services Supervisors’ Development Programme in 2015/16, which is continuing in the current year, SSI Services also delivered its Non Stop Training developmental managerial and supervisory training programme to 160 employees during the year. Emphasis continues to be placed on Apprenticeships, with Apprentices in most of the SSI Services division’s businesses. Echo continues to support development opportunities for employees by offering secondments across departments, on projects and in different sites, including seconding colleagues in India to the Walsall site to learn more about the Rapid software and then share that learning with the wider team in India. During the year, Echo also continued with the development of their internal online learning platform, with over 50 additional courses being added. This enables team members to select courses that they feel will benefit them both professionally and personally. Male 13 Female 3 Senior Management Male 37 Female 10 Other employees Male 1903 Female 572 29