Employment and skills
The number of jobs provided at January 1, 2017 was 3,535, an increase of 54 on the prior year. This figure includes our subsidiary Hanson Ship Management and current vacancies. The main rises in employment came in the asphalt and contracting division, where we have introduced double-shift working, and on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station project in Somerset, which is rapidly gathering pace. The age profile of our workforce was largely unchanged over the year despite a rise in recruitment of people under the age of 30. You can find a full breakdown of our employees by gender and age below. We provide indirect employment to a large number of contractors, principally engineers, fitters and drivers. Our sites are predominantly in rural areas and we endeavour to use local companies to provide these specialist services.
We continued to develop our talent pool and bring younger people into the business through our LEAD apprentice and craft apprentice programmes. We also introduced a graduate training programme for the first time for more than 10 years. Eleven graduates have been taken on and will spend two years working in all business lines and corporate functions as part of a comprehensive training programme.
Our talent management and succession planning programmes continued along with a leadership development programme for senior managers. We also invested in workplace training and competency, mainly focused on health, safety and environment.
Our managers are also going through a training programme developed in partnership with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) covering environmental and resource management and sustainability.
Employee benefits
We have a range of benefits to support employees and their families. EmployeeCare is a round-the-clock telephone counselling service (see health, safety and well being). Mysafeworkplace is a confidential service to report anything from workplace harassment to fraud.
TeamBenefits, which was launched in 2015, gives employees and their families access to a range of exclusive discounts from High Street stores and eating out, to mobile phones, insurance and travel. Staff made savings amounting to £16,000 during the year.
We are also participating in the government’s cycle to work scheme which allows employees to benefit from savings on a new bike used mainly for commuting.