RBS 2006 Annual Report Download - page 106
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RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2006
Governance
Employee learning and development
The Group maintains a strong commitment to creating and
providing learning opportunities for all its employees through a
variety of personal development and training programmes and
learning networks. The Group’s employees are encouraged to
volunteer to work with its community partners. The Group
continues to invest in leadership and management development
which is consistent with its objective of being the employer of
choice: attracting, rewarding and retaining the very best talent.
Many of the Group’s development programmes are delivered
at the RBS Business School, based on the Gogarburn Campus.
Employee communication
Employee engagement is encouraged through a variety of
means including the corporate intranet, Group and divisional
magazines, team meetings led by line managers, briefings
held by senior managers and regular dialogue with employees
and employee representatives. The Group Chief Executive and
other senior Group executives regularly communicate with
employees through ‘Question Time’ style programmes,
broadcast on the Group’s internal television network.
Employee consultation
The Group’s confidential global employee opinion survey is
externally designed, undertaken and analysed annually on
behalf of the Group by International Survey Research (ISR).
The survey enables employees to maximise their contribution
to the Group by expressing their views and opinions on a
range of key issues.
A record-breaking 87% of Group employees in over 30 countries
completed the 2006 survey. For the second year in a row, the
Group scored significantly above the ISR Global Financial
Services Norm in all categories. The survey results are
presented to the Board and at divisional and team levels.
Action plans are developed to address any issues identified.
The Group recognises trade unions in the UK and Ireland.
These formal relationships are complemented by works council
arrangements in many of the Group’s mainland Europe-based
operations. The Group has a European Employee Communication
Council that provides elected employee representatives with
an opportunity to better understand the impact on its
European operations.
Diversity
The Group’s Managing Diversity policy sets a framework for
broadening the Group’s talent base, achieving the highest levels
of performance, and enabling all employees to reach their full
potential irrespective of age, disability, gender, marital status,
political opinion, race, religious belief or sexual orientation.
The Group is also committed to ensuring that all prospective
applicants for employment are treated fairly and equitably
throughout the recruitment process. Its comprehensive
resourcing standards cover the attraction and retention of
individuals with disabilities. Reasonable adjustments are
provided to support applicants in the recruitment process where
these are required. The Group provides reasonable workplace
adjustments for new entrants into the Group and for existing
employees who become disabled during their employment.
Health, safety, wellbeing and security
The health, safety, wellbeing and security of employees and
customers continues to be a priority for the Group. Regular
reviews are undertaken of both policies and processes to
ensure compliance with current legislation and best practice.
The Group focus is on ensuring that these policies are closely
linked to the operational needs of the business.
In the first quarter of 2006 the Group launched a Wellbeing
website which includes a health and wellbeing calendar. The
site is designed to raise awareness of international health
issues and events, and to provide lifestyle education,
information and support to employees.
Services were extended under HelpDirect, the Group’s
Employee Assistance Programme, to provide support to all
employees in the event of a critical incident. The service
provides telephone access to qualified clinicians and a global
network of counselling affiliates to enable the Group to provide
a consistent level of support to individuals and the business
wherever they are located.
Code of ethics
The Group has adopted a code of ethics that is applicable to all
of the Group’s employees and a copy is available upon request.
Corporate responsibility
Business excellence requires that the Group meets changing
customer, shareholder, investor, employee and supplier
expectations. The Group believes that meeting high standards
of environmental, social and ethical responsibility is key to the
way it does business.
For the financial services sector, consumer banking issues are
the primary focus, followed by financial inclusion and capability,
financial crime and corruption, employee practices, the
challenge of climate change, support for small businesses and
community giving. The Group takes all these responsibilities
seriously, continually monitoring and managing them through
policies and practices across the Group. The Board regularly
considers corporate responsibility issues and receives a formal
report on these twice each year.
Further details of the Group’s corporate responsibility policies
will be contained in the 2006 Corporate Responsibility Report.
Going concern
The directors are satisfied that the Group has adequate
resources to continue in business for the foreseeable future.
For this reason, they continue to adopt the ‘going concern’
basis for preparing the accounts.
Corporate governance
The company is committed to high standards of corporate
governance. Details are given on pages 108 to 113.