Sustainability report 2009

We not only have to attract the best people in the industry, but it is equally as important that we are able to retain this talent. We work with long-term customers who expect to work with talented people, and with much of our business carried out in partnership we need people who feel confident to work in a variety of different alliances.

With a substantially larger Group, we need people who are able to share their knowledge and expertise internationally across the traditional boundaries of our businesses, and to work collaboratively to exceed our customers’ expectations.

We recognise that there is no single action that allows us to remain at the forefront of being able to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Rather it is a collection of actions all of which are focused on our people.

What we’re doing

Career opportunities

What sets Balfour Beatty apart from the competition is the geographic spread and broad scope of our opportunities.

We build rail infrastructure in Malaysia and electrify lines in China; we carry our professional services and utilities work in Australia; we build hospitals and schools in the UK; we build and manage housing and fit-out buildings in the US; we own airport assets and build and maintain roads in the UK.

The breadth of opportunity is enormous.

Making our current employees aware of the scope of career opportunities within the Group was a priority in 2009, and will remain so during 2010. We know that our business success depends on the technical and leadership capabilities of our people, and by moving people within the Group we can not only retain talented people, but we benefit from the varied skill sets they gain from working in different businesses.

During 2009 we rolled-out our e-recruit system that allows our employees to view vacancies across the UK, and in 2010 we aim to be able to look at how we can advertise our vacancies across the world to all Balfour Beatty employees.

Wherever possible we try to give those people seeking career enhancement, or those working on projects coming to an end, the opportunity to move within the Group. Mobility has been improved by our businesses being actively encouraged to circulate the details of these people across the Group. Being a large and diverse business, we are able to provide people with a wide range of opportunities to allow them to maximise their contribution and experience and to enjoy a long-term career within the Group.

Organisation and people review and high potentials

All our businesses undertake an organisation and people review with members of the Executive team. The review focuses on the performance and potential of the senior leaders and technical experts within the business. It looks at the succession and development plans to ensure that we have a talent pipeline in place.

We identify potential leaders at all stages of their career through personal development reviews, conducted by line managers within each business. Recognising that we need our top management to be seen as the best in our sector to achieve our sustainability vision in 2020, senior managers review a list of those people classed as high potential which is monitored to ensure that we integrate their development into succession planning.

We firmly believe that graduates can add exceptional value to our business. Many graduates join Balfour Beatty and have long-term careers with us. Some have progressed to senior management and become managing directors. Recruiting new talent brings energy, enthusiasm and fresh ideas inside our business.

In 2009 we maintained our graduate recruitment programme in the overall difficult economic climate and recruited 454 graduates across the Group (2008 total: 311).

Through our graduate development schemes, our graduates have access to a wide range of development and career opportunities, including professional qualifications, courses and mentors.

Feedback has shown us that graduates value contact with senior managers across the Group, networking opportunities with other graduates across the business, and the chance to provide feedback on their experiences with Balfour Beatty.

In response to this, in recent years we have given graduates greater access to, and support from, senior management. This demonstrates our willingness to invest time, and interest, in their development and helps them to feel part of the wider Balfour Beatty Group.

• Each business conducts an induction specific to that business, but containing elements of Group content such as our focus on Zero Harm and Sustainability
• A two-day conference held annually brings graduates together from across the UK and European businesses. This provides the opportunity for networking, meeting directors and learning more about the wider Group and our strategic priorities
• Further networking opportunities are aided by the production of a graduate yearbook
• At the end of their first year with the Group, graduates are invited in small groups to our Head Office. In meetings with directors they are asked to provide feedback on their experience to date. Conversations are captured and any issues reported back to the relevant business

“I just wanted to say thank you for the meeting. As I think I said at the time, it was a really good opportunity to meet with a member of the Board, with whom I would not normally come into contact, and discuss matters which directly affect myself and my peers.”

In terms of retention, 90% of graduates are still with us after one year and 67% after three years (as of 1 December 2009). (For 2008 84% (1 year) and 60% (3 years)).

We want to be able to continue this level of retention across the Group and believe that the opportunities presented to our graduates through the acquisition of PB, and vice versa, will help us to achieve this. In so doing, we will continue to embed best practice in graduate recruitment and development across our businesses.

In the Target Jobs Graduate National recruitment awards 2009 we were voted most popular graduate recruiter in the quantity surveying and building surveying sector and a finalist in the construction and civil engineering sector.

We offer employment, training and real prospects in a range of apprenticeships and traineeships, which can provide progression through to degree qualifications by part-time study.

One example of us delivering long-term skills to local communities is the Balfour Beatty Apprenticeships programme. Through our work within the Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project and delivered in partnership with the North West Apprenticeship Company, the scheme aims to be a flexible and sustainable apprenticeship model for Balfour Beatty and its supply chain which will deliver a long-term skills legacy to local communities. Our aim to create first-class, learning environments as well as facilities available to the whole community including leisure, learning, sports and ICT provision, not only offers infrastructure regeneration, but through this we want to provide social regeneration.

We have made a number of other commitments to the local community in Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton including mentoring and work placements; a target of between 40% and 60% of employment on the schools' sites to local people; and engagement of local businesses as part of the supply chain.

In 2009 we spent over £30m on employee training, with an £869,000 on soft skills/leadership training and £170,000 on competency-based training. (Total £20m in 2008).

We provided a total of 81,333 days of training across the Group during 2009.

Each of our business has its own leadership programmes. In addition, we run the Balfour Beatty Management Development Programme for managers aspiring to senior roles, which involves delegates from all over the world. Responses to the course from both delegates and invited guests are highly favourable.

“This programme has been a catalyst for my future personal development,” Richard Gould, Operations Manager, Mansell

2010 will see our top 350 leaders attend a programme entitled ‘Leading Change: Driving the Safety Agenda’ designed to support our business leaders in the challenge of achieving and maintaining Zero Harm.

2010 will also see the expansion of a Balfour Beatty e-learning platform, including building on PB University, a well-used platform for training within Parsons Brinckerhoff. This will provide online training courses in areas from personal growth to functional skills.

Great companies are built upon the capability of their leaders. With our ambitious plans for further growth, it is now more critical than ever that we attract, recruit, develop and retain the best people to lead our business into the future. So during 2009 we are developing a leadership framework mapping out what it takes to be a successful leader in Balfour Beatty.

We have identified four key areas we expect leaders in Balfour Beatty to focus their attention on. These are:

• Leading into the future – how do we maintain our success for the next 100 years?
• Leading our wider communities which highlights the importance of relationships with customers, partners, suppliers, shareholders and the communities in which we work, and relationships within the Group
• In a fast-changing world, leading change becomes ever more important
• Leading by example is about the vital importance of our leaders being role models for our values and behaviour.

We use these as the organising framework to ensure the relevance of the more detailed components of the model. The model is built upon our core values of integrity, teamwork, excellence and respect.

Sustainability is included in our leadership framework to equip our leaders with the appropriate knowledge and skills. Looking forward to 2020, we believe that a successful leader in Balfour Beatty will be one with a passion for sustainability.