To maintain working conditions for employees and visitors, each business has established procedures appropriate to their particular activities to monitor and improve health and safety standards and the working environment generally.
To combat stress in the work place staff need support in maintaining a positive work life balance. Measures to deliver this include ill health protection, four times salary life insurance cover, time away from work (including a minimum two week single leave period for all staff as part of holiday entitlement), access to medical service during working hours, and health screening, including on-site cholesterol and blood pressure screening. Some group companies offer enhanced maternity and paternity benefits as well as nursery voucher schemes and flexible working arrangements.
All group companies give appropriate consideration to applications for employment from all sources. As an example, for the purposes of training, career development and promotion, disabled staff, including any who become disabled in the course of their employment, are treated on equal terms with other staff.
Operating divisions are also encouraged to develop their own consultation policies. For example, many businesses hold regular meetings between local management and employees to allow a free flow of information and ideas and to discuss decisions likely to affect employees' interests.
In accordance with our commitment to develop systems to measure SR performance, the group has started to collate statistical data on all employees throughout the group, which highlights that over 34% of Close Brothers staff have been employed by the group for five years or more. Many staff participate directly in the success of the group through its savings related share options scheme.
During the year the group commissioned a third party to carry out, for the first time, a group wide employee survey. Benchmark comparisons with other companies were made and a number of initiatives are now being developed as a result. A follow up survey is planned in 2009.
