Social Responsibility
It is recognised that part of Homeserve's future success will depend on taking into account the interests of all the stakeholders in our business including employees, customers, shareholders and the wider community. Homeserve is committed to developing its activities in engaging with its stakeholders and will continue to report on its progress in implementing its key initiatives.
Employees
Our employees are key to our success. Our aim is to become a recognised employer of choice and thereby attract, develop, retain and motivate the best people, which will ensure we achieve our business objectives
As Homeserve continues to grow, we have placed even greater emphasis during the year on improving our channels of communication. We now hold regular employee forum meetings which ensures we keep our teams apprised of business developments, allows us to gain feedback from them, and act on that feedback quickly.
'Homelife' our in-house magazine, is produced quarterly and is sent to all employees across the Group. It contains news from all of our businesses, allowing our employees to learn more about the company they work for, and also features updates and personal interest articles about our people. During the year, two Group-wide employee surveys were undertaken. We are now working to make sure that the results assist us in making Homeserve an even better place to work. The survey will be repeated to measure progress.
We recognise how important it is to offer a career path for our employees. We have implemented a performance management review process which covers employees' personal development plans, so training needs can be identified and then supported through our training teams in each subsidiary. A key focus is to support the training of our service engineers to ensure they not only have the skills requires to perform the task but also understand how to deliver exceptional customer service. In addition to the programmes already in place, work is ongoing to develop apprenticeship schemes.
For our management population, our development plans are personalised to each individual's needs. By nurturing and developing our talent pool we now have succession plans in place and are able to fill senior management roles in line with our growth plans. A Leadership Excellence Framework was launched during the year to encourage senior managers to foster ways of working that will help improve the overall performance of the business.
We believe in sharing the success of our business with our people. A Savings Related Share Option Scheme is operated across the Group which is a great mechanism for involving our employees in Homeserve's performance.
All employees are offered membership of a pension scheme, and staff presentations providing information about the scheme aer given where operationally possible to encourage full discussion of this important issue. Childcare vouchers are also offered across the Group.
Health & Safety
Homeserve remains committed to high standards of health and safety, and the business continues to develop safety management systems and autonomy in local competence and expertise. A consistently good safety record is achieved through strong leadership at Board level, robust health and safety management systems, the active involvement of employees, and the routine monitoring and audit of safety performance.
Instances of significant non compliance are few, and are addressed promptly when highlighted through the ongoing programme of health and safety audits. The financial and other positive business benefits from fewer lost time injuries and reduced risks and liabilities are self-evident.
Corporate objectives and standards
Homeserve's strategy for health and safety promotes compliance with minimum standards to achieve corporate objectives. The Group Health an d Safety Adviser supports each of the Group's businesses in formulating policy and in developing health and ssafety management systems to meet statutory obligations and to protect employees and others affected by our activities.
Homeserve businesses operate autonomously in accordance with local health and safety policies and procedures. Each business has appointed a director to act as champion for health and safety at local board level, overseeing arrangements for the effective implementation of working practices which meet or exceed statutory requirements.
Compliance is monitored against minimum corporate standards through routine internal health and safety audits at Group level. Jonathan Simpson-Dent is the nominated board director responsible for reporting on health and safety.
Homeserve's overall exposure to risk has been reduced as a result of greater attention at senior management level to health and safety systems and procedures. A programme of training all directors through the IOSH 'Safety for Senior Executives' course is currently underway, and this is proving to be effective in raising the profile of health and safetyat Board level. Excellent progress has been made in training operational managers in safety management principles and techniques through the IOSH 'Managing Safely' course, which actively promotes the commitment and competence of managers in health and safety. Local haelth and safety committees facilitate the engagement and involvement of employees, helping promote their ownership of health and safety systems and procedures.
Representatives from each business contribute actively to the Group Health and Safety Forum, which meets quarterly and is chaired by the Group Health and Safety Adviser. This forum was established in 2005 to promote common standards and practises, to exchange ideas and expertise, and to share practical health and safety solutions across all Homeserve's businesses. The benefits from this initiative are now in evidence.
Overview of Performance
Homeserve has continued to maintain a good standard of health and safety performance throughout the year. There were 93 recorded incidents requiring hospital treatment or substantial time lost from work, most involving cuts, bruises or muscular strains. Of these 45 were sufficiently serious to require fomal statutory reporting to HSE, although none resulted in life-threatening injuries. Most of the serious incidents involded cuts (predominantly in the Glazing business), and muscular strains from manual handling injuries. These areas aer being targeted through local campaigns and 'toolbox talks' to help reduce such injuries in future.
These incidents resulted in 521 working days lost through abscence, slightly up on the previous year (501) but down as a rate per employee (now 0.11 days per employee per year). Unsurprisingly, 80% of the incidents and 84% of the total lost working time occurred in the Emergency Services Division.
Overall, the Reportable Incident Rate remains consistent with the commendable trend of recent years, comparing favourably with an aggregated statistical average from the relevant industry sectors (see chart below).
Several Homeserve workplaces and sites were visited during the year by HSE and Local Authority Inspectors, who were generally complimentary as to the health and safety standards found and the procedures in place to ensure safe working. Recommendations were mostly of a minor nature, and these were all addressed within the timescale given. Particular commendation was given in areas where there was documented evidence of regular internal monitoring and audit.
Reportable Incident Rate for Homeserve over the past 5 years together with comparable industry sector statistics*
* Aggregated Industry Sector Average based on statistical data from the service and construction sectors aggregated in proportions similar to those represented within Homeserve.
Progress and developments
Health and safety is placed firmly on the Board agenda across all Homeserve's businesses; regular reporting on health and safety performance is now the norm.
Investors and clients now quite properly expect high standards of performance in areas of corporate and social responsibility, including health and safety, and this continues to be a significant business driver.
Many of the Emergency Services Division's major Household Insurer clients carry out routine health and safety audits of Homeserve's businesses, and we work with our clients to ensure that any issues identified during these audits are resolved as quickly as possible.
Health and safety is fundamental to Homeserve's continuing success. The promotion of good working practices consistent with cost-effective measures to ensure compliance with statutory requirements and good industry practice remains a key focus for future activity.
Customers
Excellent customer service is at the heart of Homeserve's values. We aim to ensure that all customers enjoy a high quality service. 48 hour call backs are used as a key indicator of customer satisfaction and are undertaken consistently across our businesses. Management information on customer service is collated and circulated monthly at Group level and more frequently in each business. A noteworthy measure of satisfaction is that customer retention, already high in Homeserve Membership, is higher amongst those customers who have recently made a claim than those who have not.
We recognise that our customers have diverse needs and are committed to developing procedures to meet those needs. Customer focus groups have been established and we regularly use these to test out new products, services and initiatives. We are committed to maintaining and improving customer service levels across Homeserve, and our procedures are constantly reviewed and refined.
We use a variety of channels to sell our products and services and seek to apply the same high standard of care to all of them. Particular care is taken in our outbound sales functions to ensure that customers gain a full understanding of the product offered for sale. All outbound calls are recorded and the recordings retained.
Homeserve's website was relaunched in the year to provide comprehensive information about Homeserve's products and services. Development of the site to provide a fully-interactive service is continuing.
Environment and Climate Change
We take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously. As a service company our direct impact on the environment is low, however, like any business, we use resources. We believe that it is important that environmental responsibility is recognised as being part of how we manage our activities.
Our most visible impact is through the resources we use and we identified recycling as an opportunity to engage our employees. We believe that creating a culture that is environmentally aware will help us meet our responsibilities in this area. Our businesses have established a range of recycling initiatives appropriate to thier different operations. Our offices recycle material such as paper, glass and cans whereas depots focus on recycling material such as glass and PVC. This strategy has been successful and in the latest Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for survey 71% of our staff agreed that our company protects the environment, placing us in the top quartile for this measure.
However, we recognise that there is more to do, particularly in relation to growing concern over changes to the Earth's climate. It is widely accepted that climate change has the potential to be the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. Last year, the influential Stern Report concluded that the benefits of strong, early action to contain climate change considerably outweigh the costs. It is also widely understood that the changes have occurred mainly as a result of human behaviour rather than natural causes.
It is clear that all businesses, whatever their industry sector, have a role to play in containing climate change. The most pressing area for action is on the release of greenhouse gases and in particular carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is a major greenhouse gas and is contributing to the warming of the atmosphere. To this end, we have decided to bring together the different practices of our operating businesses into a comprehensive environmental management system.
As part of the process, we plan to measure our "carbon footprint" - that is the amount of carbon we emit through energy use (electricity, gas and fuel oil); refrigerants used in systems such as air conditioning, business travel (air, rail and company cars) and employee commuting. We intend to report on our progress during this year in 2008.
Community & Charitable Giving
Homeserve is committed to assisting charities that have a direct impact on the communities in which its businesses operate. We are a member of 'Business in the Community' and have participated in a number of projects during the year.
Through its Employee Volunteering Programme, Homeserve Membership put forward a team for ITV's Big Clean Up, a day of urban renewal in community areas in need of an environmental makeover. A day was spent at Goscote Valley in Walsall clearing, tidying and planting in this green space. Old Hall Special School and Christ Church Special Needs School have also benefited from the volunteer programme. Chem-Dry sponsored employees to be football coaches in the local community, culminating in a tournament for 600 children which was also sponsored by the business.
Employee support for high profile charity campaigns is encouraged and during the year, Homeserve opened one of its contact centres for Sport Relief to help take some of the thousands of donation pledges generated. The team answered 2,000 calls and collected over £50,000 in donations.
Being a responsible corporate citizen within our communities is valued by our staff and by potential recruits to the company. Homeserve operate a generous local sponsorship programme offering financial support to school, sports or charity projects that benefits the community in areas of education, health or issues of well being. In addition, funds were made available to a number of community sports teams nominated by our employees.
Individual charitable support is encouraged and employees can contribute to their chosen charities in a tax efficient manner through the Give As You Earn Scheme. As a large employer, Homeserve can also offer a great contribution to the efforts of the Blood Donor campaigns and this is regularly promoted to staff.