Utility Week

22 | 22ND - 28TH MARCH 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Utility Week Awards winner case study S SE says it is focused on building inclusion into the way it does things as a business at every point in the employee life cycle – from attracting new talent, through to people exiting the company. It takes this approach in place of a "series of one-off interven- tions" because it believes that building stronger foundations will bring "sustainable cultural change". SSE was recognised for championing diversity at every level of the organisation. The Diversity Award was one of four new categories for 2018, which were introduced to recognise a wider breadth of achievement within utilities. A diverse workforce is criti- cal to the future success and sustainability of utilities busi- nesses. The category aims to shine a light on businesses that have gone above and beyond the call of duty in fostering diversity at all levels, whether through support networks, mentoring, HR and recruitment policies or other measures. In its award submission, SSE gave a list of examples of some of the actions it had taken to promote inclusivity, such as: • Inclusive hiring manager training as mandatory; • Weaving inclusive leader- ship through all management development training; • Embedding a "working dif- ferently" ethos – advocating home working, compressed hours and different start and leave times; • Enhanced parental leave; • Sponsorship of the Women's FA Cup; • Mentor training and mentor- ing programme; • Career site review with gen- der bias language review; • The introduction of shadow boards to bring different thinking to business issues; • Personal belief coaching for its senior team to help them articulate their personal want for more diversity; • Researching the accessibility of back office and functional roles in its network business with a view to attract more candidates with disabilities; • Publicly set gender targets in response to the Hampton Alexander request for 33 per cent female representation at executive level. Key drivers SSE says there are three key driv- ers which encourage the busi- ness to achieve greater diversity. First, the company recog- nises it needs different ways of thinking to innovate enough to meet changing customer demands, from smart meters to electric vehicle charging. It says it cannot "simply apply the same routine thinking" to address these new challenges. The second key driver is the realisation that 47 per cent of Inclusion pays a big dividend SSE won the 2018 Utility Week Diversity Award for its work with Equal Approach to measure the business benefits of diversity and inclusion. Here's why the judges thought they deserved the accolade. Winner's comments "The return on inclusion research with Equal Approach has focused our minds on the activity that will have the biggest impact on growing a more diverse workforce at SSE. It's taught us that reviewing the inclusivity of every process, from how people join to how they exit, will pay back much more than spending time on one-off interventions that may simply feel like the right thing to do." ROSIE MACRAE, INCLUSION, ENGAGEMENT AND HR COMPLIANCE LEAD, SSE "The return on inclusion research identified a clear and tangible measure of SSE's progress on its inclusion journey. Following this, SSE has started embedding the principles of inclusion and diversity holistically throughout its business in order to create a truly inclusive culture and environment. "Since winning this award, SSE has completed a follow up return on inclusion review to assess the impact that moving from a diversity focused strategy to an inclusion strategy has had over the last 12 months, and it has been fascinating to measure the development and progress that SSE has made in a short period of time." DAWN HURST, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, EQUAL APPROACH "A diverse workforce is critical to the future success and sustainability of utilities businesses."

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