Sustainability Report 2009/10

Our Approach

Manchester Airports Group creates a range of jobs in our locations around the country, from unskilled roles to highly qualified engineers and chaplains. The chart below shows the spread of staff across divisions. The mix varies between our airports, with some services outsourced at the larger airports and, for example, a greater proportion of the workforce involved in cargo at East Midlands. The value of the unskilled jobs we provide should not be underestimated, as they are in shortage since the decline of many manufacturing industries. Our investment in education and training in our communities (see the Community Investment section) is vital to our employment strategy: by encouraging local residents to gain the skills we require and promoting the airport as a rewarding place to work, we help to create our future workforce.

Proportion of Employees by Division

Overall responsibility for our approach to employee issues is held by Mark Johnson, our Group Human Resources Director. The standards and behaviour expected of MAG and everyone who works for us are set out in our Code of Conduct and various policies:

• Code of Conduct
• Dignity at Work Procedure
• Disciplinary Policy and Procedure
• Grievance Policy and Procedure
• Recruitment Policy
• Whistleblowing Procedure
• Workplace Stress Management
• Diversity Policy.

Our employees are fundamental to our meeting our objective "To Be The World's Airports of Choice". We have developed MAG Behaviours to translate our Group values into guidelines for how we expect all employees to conduct themselves. They sit alongside the technical competencies that are required for many roles in our airports, and have been tested extensively by staff across different business areas and levels. All employees are expected to adopt the MAG Behaviours, with particular behaviours specified for leaders and senior leaders.

It is our goal to become one of the best companies to work for in the UK. To support this objective and create a high performing, customer-centric workforce, we have set up a project focused on our people. It has four aims:

• ensuring the structure, roles and skills of our organisation meet the needs of our forward-looking strategy
• supporting staff development with clear performance standards
• enabling communication and engagement throughout the business
• senior management leading by example, giving people the opportunity to share ideas and to shine.

We take any incidents of discrimination in our workforce very seriously and respond accordingly. In 2009/10, we dealt with 20 cases of discrimination at work. Most of these related to bullying or the use of inappropriate language; also included were cases of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, as well as discrimination on the basis of gender, disability and race. All were investigated and where the allegations were founded, actions taken included mediation, employment tribunals and dismissal of the offending employees, as appropriate.

Investors in People

Investors in People (IIP) is a standard for businesses that are committed to enhancing their business performance through the development and support of their employees. MAG has now received Group-wide accreditation. The IIP framework covers all four areas of our People project.

Reward and Recognition

We pay competitive salaries supplemented by a pension scheme, a bonus shared by all employees, a benefits programme and comprehensive learning and development opportunities. In 2009, we consulted with our employees to find out which benefits they most wanted. A key message from that consultation was that people wanted a flexible benefits programme so that they could tailor their own packages to meet their needs. As an initial step towards this, we have introduced MAG Rewards, which offers employees and their families savings on everyday purchases. A wide range of retailers are involved in the scheme, enabling our people to choose the discounts that are most valuable to them.

Exceptional employee performance is recognised at the MAG Stars awards. These quarterly/six-monthly local awards culminate in a Group-wide annual event recognising employees for going the extra mile and demonstrating our values. The awards are attended by senior management, those employees who have been nominated for individual and team awards and also their guests.

One of the findings from our 2008/09 Employee Opinion Survey was that some people did not feel sufficiently valued. Our new instant recognition scheme was introduced to address the issue by rewarding outstanding service. Complementing MAG Stars, it involves employees being given cards and retail vouchers soon after their positive behaviours are displayed rather than waiting for the next Stars awards. From the scheme's launch in June 2009 to the end of March 2009, 540 colleagues (22%) were recognised.

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