The workplace

One of the Board’s objectives is to ensure that Wolseley provides a workplace environment that encourages and supports all employees to achieve their best personal performance. Wolseley continues to operate, through its ‘International Leadership Development Programme’, a global training programme designed to develop and improve the management and leadership skills of its senior and high potential managers. To date, over 700 employees have attended Wolseley management training programmes and 30 senior executives have attended leadership development programmes at Harvard and other universities. Training programmes for all levels of employee continue to be a high priority for the Company with over £14 million spent on employee training during the year.

Wolseley UK undertook its second annual company-wide employee survey during the year, inviting employees to suggest areas for improvement and voice any concerns. Its 2006 survey highlighted improvements needed in internal communications and, in response, the company has continued the roll-out of a series of employee engagement initiatives. Employees are now kept informed and involved through a wide range of communication channels, ranging from a regular newsletter to programmes with a strong platform for two-way dialogue. These include face-to-face meeting forums for all levels of management and employees, as well as the expansion of a monthly online chat session, which generated over 2,300 questions during the year. Each session is hosted by a senior manager from Wolseley UK. Themes and topics that do not receive sufficient coverage during the online sessions gain a response in the weeks following the live event and all questions and answers are posted on the company’s intranet to allow employees who were not able to join the live event an opportunity to participate.

A ‘Back to the Floor’ programme involving office-based employees spending time in the branch network has helped to improve understanding of business operations and the evaluation and feedback from this has been very encouraging. This initiative, as part of a suite of programmes, received external recognition including a ‘Best in Class’ in the 2006 CiB National Communications Excellence Strategy Awards.