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Number of employees
in the group: |
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| UK |
117.9 |
126.0 |
118.9 |
| Non-UK |
19.1 |
10.8 |
5.8 |
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| Total employees |
137.0 |
136.8 |
124.7 |
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At 31 March 2001, BT employed around 137,000 people throughout the
world, with 117,900 in the UK, making us one of the UK’s largest
employers. Additionally, we employed, on average, around 13,000
temporary people during the 2001 financial year. A total of 7,500
people joined the group from Telfort and Viag Interkom. These additions
were offset by people leaving the company through voluntary means,
including redundancy, moving to Concert, and joining e-peopleserve,
our human resources (HR) joint venture, and other outsourced activities.
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As part of the continuing programme of reshaping the group, during
the 2001 financial year, we ran a voluntary redundancy programme
under which some 3,500 managers and professionals left the company.
In February 2001, we launched NewStart, a new approach to managing
our people resource, based around retraining and reskilling, rather
than company-wide voluntary redundancy programmes.
In a move designed to bring significant value to BT, we have formed
a joint venture with Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) to
deliver outsourced human resources services to large organisations.
The venture, e-peopleserve, came into being on 1 August 2000 and
offers end-to-end, e-enabled, integrated global HR solutions to
large companies.
Following the setting up of the venture, e-peopleserve has a five-year
contract to deliver transactional HR services to BT. This is one
of the largest HR outsourcing contracts agreed to date anywhere
in the world. e-peopleserve is a natural product extension for both
BT and Accenture and should enable BT to create value from an existing
cost base. Enshrined in the agreement is a commitment by e-peopleserve
to reduce transactional HR costs to BT year on year. There is also
an incentive programme linked to their overall service performance,
which places a heavy emphasis on the customer experience. The joint
venture should deliver to BT new services of a high quality, as
well as customer-friendly e-solutions to existing services, at reduced
cost.
Our people are critical to our success and we believe that a reputation
as a good employer helps us win and retain customers. As part of
this responsibility, we take the wellbeing of our people seriously.
The 2001 financial year saw the launch of an innovative `top down’
health and safety strategy, which maintains our commitment to set
and achieve high standards in this area.
To help our people balance work and home responsibilities, we have
a range of flexible working arrangements, including alternative
attendance patterns, homeworking, part-time working and job sharing.
During the year, BT further developed its eBT portfolio. We have
an award-winning e-HR programme, which provides BT people with an
online, self-service approach to a broad range of HR products and
services.
We encourage our people to acquire shares in their company to enable
them to share in its success. The BT Employee Share Ownership Scheme
is operated annually and a percentage of the pre-tax profits is
set aside to purchase shares for employees, which are held in trust
for three years. £32 million has been set aside this year for the
allocation of shares to employees under the Scheme. Participants
in the Scheme will be able to benefit from the rights issue announced
on 10 May 2001. Employees also have the opportunity, from time to
time, to buy shares at a discount under the popular BT Employee
Sharesave Scheme, a savings-related share option scheme. Share options
are normally exercisable on completion of a three or five-year save-as-you-earn
contract. There is a similar savings-related scheme for employees
based outside the UK, and an employee stock purchase plan for employees
in the USA. Appropriate adjustments will be made to the allocation
of shares under these plans to take account of the rights issue.
The BT New Ideas scheme, under which BT people are encouraged to
put forward suggestions for improvements in the company’s
activities, generated more than 8,000 suggestions in the year, contributing
to savings of around £85 million.
We run CARE, an annual employee attitude survey, and encourage managers
and their teams to put in place action plans to address the issues
that it highlights.
Most BT employees are members of the BT Pension Scheme, which is
controlled by trustees who are company or union nominees. On 1 April
2001, we introduced a defined contribution scheme for new employees
after closing the BT Pension Scheme to new entrants. The defined
contribution scheme has been established under a separate trust
from the existing BT Pension Scheme, but also has company and union-nominated
trustees.
An estimated 75% of the company’s UK employees belong to one
of two main trade unions recognised by the company. We have a good
record of industrial relations and continue to have constructive
relations with both unions, built on partnership and mutual respect.
BT is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to developing
a working culture that enables all employees to make their own distinctive
contribution. BT seeks to realise the potential of disabled people
to contribute to our business performance. During the year, BT supported
the launch of AbilityNet’s London Centre. AbilityNet is a
charity that brings the benefits of computer technology to adults
and children with disabilities, both in BT and in the communities
in which it operates. New BT people should benefit from pre-recruitment
assessments designed to ensure that they have the most productive
and comfortable equipment available as soon as they join the company.
Existing BT people should also benefit from easier access to expert
assessment and advice, and earlier provision of appropriate reasonable
adjustments to their working environment.
BT prides itself on being a learning organisation. We spend around
£200 million a year on the training and development of our people.
They have access to a comprehensive portfolio of development and
training options, including technical and commercial training, personal
skills and management development. Increasingly, we are using the
internet to deliver training and development programmes. The BT
Academy is a web-based corporate learning portal that delivers world-class
e-learning to BT people via the company’s intranet.
During the year, BT became the largest company to achieve re-accreditation
as a Corporate Investor in People; a further demonstration of BT’s
commitment to the development and growth of all our people.
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