For UK Power Networks Services, supporting diversity and promoting inclusion within workplaces is about valuing the individual and what they bring to their role. Fostering an environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential enables organisations to effectively increase their employee engagement and realise an increase in productivity and cohesion.

The company is an employer of choice and create an environment where differences are valued and integrated into every part of our organisation.

Benefits have included an enhanced capacity for innovation and creativity, better meeting the diverse needs of our clients, increased productivity across the business, the creation of an inclusive environment where everyone can perform, and improved ability to compete to attract high performers.

Achievements in diversity

Employee feedback helped UK Power Networks rank second on the Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work For in Q1 of 2022. We are a Platinum level Investors in People, since first achieving accreditation in 2014 – two per cent of companies achieve Platinum from 66 countries globally.

In December 2021 UK Power Networks was ranked 10th in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers 2022 list. In July 2021 UK Power Networks was voted the number one energy company in the Top Companies for Graduates and Apprentices to Work For list by the Jobs Crowd – and second placed overall.

Commitment to diversity

The company’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusiveness is demonstrated by achieving the National Equality Standard – a benchmark standard for creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.

They support Urban Synergy, an award-winning mentoring charity that helps young people from under-represented groups improve their futures. The partnership with Urban Synergy includes sponsorship, hosting virtual careers events, providing mentors and offering paid work experience placements.

UK Power Networks also supports programmes that tackle the underrepresentation of young black men in large organisations, and employ Armed Forces service leavers and undertake workshops for neurodiverse teenagers.

A new application process has been created for apprentices and graduates, aimed at ensuring fairness of assessment. Recruitment teams and managers have also been trained to recognise and reduce unconscious bias throughout the recruitment process.

Leaders across the organisation participate in Inclusive Leadership Workshops with a focus on unconscious bias. Courses to improve inclusive behaviour are now being embedded into individual employees’ development programmes.

UK Power Networks continues the formal collection of data about staff equality and diversity, and inclusivity is now regularly discussed by Board Directors with accountability for diversity and inclusion resting with the Executive Management Team.

The commitment to diversity and inclusion has grown from strength to strength, and an environment where differences are valued is being realised. This is evident through the awards and accreditations achieved, and the talent and expertise that the organisation has attracted who deliver for our clients in complex environments. Moreover, a workplace has been created that employees enjoy on a daily basis and can thrive in.