Supporting every colleague to be themselves to better serve our customers and communities
By 2030, we want to:
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Create an engaged team that reflects the full diversity of the communities we serve* |
Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide career development opportunities for under-represented groups |
Inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities |
*All company and senior leaders to be 48% women, 18% ethnically diverse, 20% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 4% ex-service by 2030. Goal updated to align with 2021 Census data for working populations released at the start of 2023 which replaces our previous goal based on 2011 Census data.
2022 Highlights
Create an engaged team that reflects the full diversity of the communities we serve by 2030
To build a more sustainable future, we need the best team – a diverse mix of people and skills, where everyone feels welcome and able to succeed.
That’s why we want all company and senior leaders to reflect 48% women, 18% ethnically diverse, 20% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 4% ex-service by 2030 (in line with 2021 Census data for working populations). In 2022, we made good progress with the proportion of women on our team improving for the first time in a long time and we’re now on track. Although some representational gains were achieved across ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ and ex-service, opportunities for improvement remain, including through driving self-declaration to help us better understand where to focus action.
In 2023, we’ll continue to embed our diversity and inclusion action plan to attract, promote and retain more diverse talent.
Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide career development opportunities for under-represented groups by 2030
We’ve a huge opportunity to tap into the talent of under-represented groups to deliver a greener and more inclusive future.
So we’re hiring the equivalent of an apprentice every day over the next decade while removing roadblocks for under-represented groups. And in 2022, we were on track having recruited 1,033 apprentices since 2021.
Our Ex-Forces programme got off to a particularly strong start, recruiting 143 former service personnel as we strive to onboard 500 people via the programme by the end of 2023. Meanwhile, 20% of our Smart Energy Apprentices were women against our ambition for 50% by the end of 2030. While this is better than the gas engineer average of 0.2% women, we must continue to break down gender stereotypes and inspire more diversity in engineering.
Inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities by 2030
Further reading:
We’re harnessing the passion of our people to build inclusive communities because strong communities are central to a more sustainable future.
We’ve significantly ramped up volunteering, delivering 2,098 days in 2022 which was a massive 600% increase from 2021 and brings our total tally to 12,987 days since 2019. This was achieved with the launch of ‘The Big Difference’ which is mobilising colleagues to get involved in local causes they care passionately about.
With COVID-19 limiting volunteering opportunities in previous years and our need to provide urgent help to customers during the energy crisis, we haven’t achieved the volunteering days we thought we would. But we’ll get back on track with our plan to deliver 4,000 volunteering days in 2023 and build to 1 in 3 colleagues volunteering by 2030.
