The Human Resources Management Council, comprised of the most senior members of the RE HR community, meets bimonthly to discern and address our key workplace issues. HR colleagues throughout the group, led by the global Director of Human Resources, undertake an annual Organisation Talent Review to identify staff advancement opportunities and those people who can help drive our business forward.
To understand staff views, we conduct pulse surveys across the group. Among the highest scoring questions in 2008 was: The company employs strong, ethical principles in its business practices. At Elsevier, for example, only 7.3% of employees disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. At LexisNexis this question scored 73% favourable, compared with 68% favourable two years earlier.
In 2009, we will undertake a full Employee Opinion Survey. The last global survey in 2006 had a favourable composite of 60%. Areas for improvement included increasing information sharing and doing more to make employees feel valued. To continue bringing about change, last year we launched the Making RE a Great Place to Work site on our new group-wide intranet. It includes comprehensive information on the six leadership attributes we found when conducting a listening tour of high scoring locations, like challenging and fair, credible, clear, and supportive. There are tests for managers and employees to see how they score, with help on learning and applying the attributes, celebrating success, and resolving conflict.