Sustainability Report People. Nurturing talent from top to bottom

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1 People Nurturing talent from top to bottom From their very first day in the organisation, people working at GNM can access training that helps them to capitalise on their skills and develop their career, while contributing to the success of the organisation theguardian.com Tuesday 22 September 2015 The role of The Scott Trust is to secure and preserve the financial position and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity. But no organisation can flourish in perpetuity without the right people. Over the last year, Guardian News & Media (GNM) ran three initiatives designed to attract and nurture talented people from a wide range of backgrounds, some of whom may play an important part in the future of the Guardian: The Apprentice Programme, Digital Journalism Scheme and Graduate Programme. The Apprentice Programme saw 10 apprentices, aged between 17 and 19, allocated to a variety of areas in our Marketing, Commercial and Human Resources departments. They spent 12 months, from March 2014 to March 2015, gaining workplace experience, acquiring new skills and working towards a vocational qualification at the end of the year. All 10 graduated at a ceremony attended by the editor-in-chief and chief executive. A group of 10 Digital Journalism trainees joined the Editorial team and worked across a number of areas including social media, digital production and data and graphics. After the year was up, four of the trainees were invited to stay on for another year. Our Graduate Programme runs for 18 months and, at the moment, 12 graduates are working in roles across several departments. Leadership Organisations need strong and effective leadership if they are to be successful. One of our priorities in 2014/2015 was the development of leadership capabilities across GNM. With consultants Wavelength Connect, we set up a programme that brought leaders together from different parts of the business. In the normal course of events, these people wouldn t meet but the programme and its workshops gave them the chance to share ideas and bring different perspectives to each other s roles and responsibilities. The aim was to challenge, inspire and provoke leaders into fresh ways of thinking. Topics covered included how to inspire and motivate high performing teams, innovation and personal resilience. Page 1 of 6

2 People Management Our management development programme, which was set up last year, continues to go from strength to strength. Almost 250 people in management roles in editorial, commercial and operational areas of the business completed the programme in 2014/2015, and the feedback continues to be excellent. This programme combines a series of workshops with one-to-one coaching and helps managers to hone the skills and behaviours they need to be great people managers. Learning Last year 750 people, a significant percentage of our workforce, took advantage of our core skills training programme. The programme included workshops that ranged from presentation skills and project management to personal impact and time management. Another 100 people received digital skills training and this programme will continue running during 2015/2016. Diversity and inclusion As part of our ambition to make our reporting and coverage as wide-ranging and representative as possible, we ran three citizen reporting projects insouth Africa, India and Brazil. They helped to unearth stories from marginalised communities, which were shared with the rest of the world. We also ran diverse voices seminars in the UK and USA. In the UK, we organised a number of unconscious bias workshops where we trained 40 recruitment managers. The aim was to make sure that our recruitment processes remain open, fair, and value diversity. Since then, we ve seen an improvement in our BME representation, which is now at 13.7%, and our gender representation, which stands at 46.81%. Through our diversity ambassador programme, we work with charities and organisations that reach out to diverse communities. We send them regular updates about the job opportunities at GNM. The organisations include the Race Equality Foundation, Leonard Cheshire Disability, and Live Magazine. Remuneration Following the 2013 pay audit in 2013, we set up the GMG Remuneration Committee Information and Consultation Forum (RCICF). This Forum includes representatives from right across the workforce, who will now have a chance to join in discussions and have their say about changes to executive pay. Through this Forum, and formal meeting with unions, Page 2 of 6

3 we continue to seek the views of a diverse range of colleagues on our approach to remuneration. Engagement Every year, we ask our staff how they feel about working for Guardian News & Media (GNM). ORC International, independent employee engagement specialists, run the survey for us. More than 1400 staff took part in the latest one in April 2015, which represents a response rate of 78%. This has increased year on year, for the past four years. This year, we introduced some new questions to explore in more detail the topics of line management, collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability initiatives. At GNM, we define an engaged employee as someone who says, stays and strives, something we measure by including three specific questions in our annual survey. In the year to 31 March 2015, we achieved an employee engagement score of 60%, up from 56% in 2014, 53% in 2013 and 51% in Our top scoring areas for staff related to understanding how their work contributes to the success of their team and the organisation (90% and 86% respectively). Staff are clear about what they are expected to achieve in their jobs (83%) and positive about how their team collaborates to deliver our goals effectively (79%). There is still a very strong culture of fairness and respect at GNM and staff feel more informed about matters affecting them at a team level. They also feel they have more opportunities to increase their skills. Collaboration between departments is still a frustration for many and scores around understanding of the strategy, confidence in the senior management team and their vision Page 3 of 6

4 for the future have remained the same. As in previous years, each department s survey results are shared with its directors who use the information to draw up action plans. GNM s senior team review these plans regularly, to check that we are making progress. The view from the NUJ Living our Values 2015: The view from the NUJ Unions play a crucial, and in some ways unusual, role at the Guardian and Observer. That s especially true of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), which represents around 95% of the journalists. Here, Seumas Milne, chair of the Guardian and Observer NUJ chapel, looks at how the relationship with GNM management has fared over the last 12 months theguardian.com Tuesday 22 September 2015 The NUJ chapel, or workplace branch, at Guardian News & Media (GNM) not only negotiates the pay, terms and conditions of all those working on the editorial floors. It is also the collective democratic voice of the journalists on everything from threats to media freedom to how the company is run. In an organization without shareholders, the journalists and wider workforce are along with our readers its most important stakeholders. As their representative, the chapel seeks to hold the company s management to account, along with the trust that owns the Guardian and Observer. We have also tried to democratise these structures and make them more transparent. That s still definitely work in progress. But it s also what lies behind the success of the ballot for the Guardian s new editor-in-chief, which was held in March 2015 and delivered a landslide vote for Kath Viner. That editorial staff endorsement was then backed a fortnight later by the trust, which appointed her as editor to replace Alan Rusbridger. Ballots The indicative ballot was organized by the NUJ, as were the hustings with four candidates, held in February at the Guardian and Observer headquarters in King s Cross and attended by around 500 people. Each candidate produced a written statement and answered exhaustive questions, both from the floor and submitted in advance. Page 4 of 6

5 But voting wasn t restricted to union members. And all those who earn more than half their income from editorial work for the Guardian or Observer were able to take part. In the event, Kath Viner won an outright majority of first preference votes - 53% of those voting (438 out of 830 on an 87% turnout). An indicative ballot for the editor (the legal power of appointment remains with the trust) was first held in 1995 at the initiative of the Guardian NUJ chapel. It was resisted by the trust at the time. But when journalists voted strongly for Rusbridger - who was then appointed - it set a powerful precedent and laid the basis for longer-term reform. As Rusbridger said at the time, having the democratically expressed backing of the journalists gave him a unique springboard as editor and he could not imagine a future Guardian editor being chosen without the support of a staff ballot. Shortlist This year, the trust accepted that whoever won the ballot would at least be guaranteed a place on the final shortlist. In practice, a decisive majority for any candidate from the people who produce the Guardian and Observer creates a compelling momentum for appointment. The only exception might be if an outstanding external candidate was unable to take part in what is a semi-public ballot - but the election of staff representatives to the trust s appointment committee (as in 1995) might help square that circle in future. What is clear is that the staff ballot is now firmly cemented at the heart of the process. A similar story of the NUJ creating democratic facts on the ground led to the election of the journalists member of the trust (other members are chosen by the trust itself). That first happened in 2001, when the trust reluctantly accepted the journalists choice of Larry Elliott - and then in 2011 when the editorial staff elected Heather Stewart with trust support. We need to go further with democratisation of the trust and reform of the governance of the organisation. There s a strong case for non-editorial staff to elect a trust member and for a mechanism of accountability to our readers (as well as to perpetuity, to which the trust says it holds itself responsible). Decisions There have also been questionable trust decisions in recent years which demanded greater independent scrutiny from those whose livelihoods depends on the organisation s success. Among others, the company has continued to agree lavish boardroom pay and bonus packages while employees pay has been cut in real terms. The NUJ is pressing for elected Page 5 of 6

6 staff representation on the company s remuneration committee which signs off this excess, as well as a reduction in the gap between the lowest and highest salaries. But what has already been achieved in terms of a direct staff say in the choice of editor and the ownership structure unquestionably sets Guardian News & Media apart - not only from other media organisations, but the vast majority of other employers. In an organisation which isn t run for profit in particular, direct employee participation clearly works. Every one of these advances has been secured by NUJ members - and we ll be working to expand them in the years to come. Seumas Milne is chair, Guardian and Observer NUJ chapel. Page 6 of 6