Making the right connections

Last summer National Grid was named Responsible Business of the Year by business led charity Business in the Community (BITC). Taking over the mantle from Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid was recognised in particular for its ‘appetite to inspire others ’.

Indeed, the judging panel commended National Grid on its long term vision based on trust and connectivity saying: “a key part of that vision is the investment they make in developing talent in the next generation to ensure they and the whole manufacturing and engineering sector prospers in the UK. They demonstrate real foresight in using technology and innovation to develop solutions that protect their employees, their customers and wider society.”

This vision is delivered through the new Corporate Responsibility Strategy, launched last year. Built on three pillars - Preserving for the future, Inspiring for the future and Designing for the future – National Grid is intent on achieving its strategic ambition of integrating sustainability into its decision making “to create value, preserve natural resources and respect the interests of its communities”.

As National Grid’s head of UK Community Action, Kate Van der Plank heads up the company’s Citizenship Programme which focuses on three key areas: skills-based volunteering, employee engagement and leadership.

“Skills-based volunteering is a fantastic example of shared value. By sharing our business skills with the voluntary sector, we are able to develop our people, grow our business and also support the voluntary sector. We’re not apologetic about the business benefit we get from it, because our community partners are benefitting too.”

“Volunteering is a development tool; it’s become a key part of our HR strategy and staff who take part in our skills-based volunteering programmes can be given unlimited time off for activities that are clearly linked to their development plans.”

There are a range of volunteering programmes available that are profiled on the interactive Community Action and Skills Hub. Employees can see what’s on offer and judge where their core competencies are best suited: education, community, higher education or the environment.

National Grid’s strategy is to work with a relatively small number of carefully chosen partners; this ensures quality volunteering opportunities and targeted support for partners National Grid has worked with TeachFirst since 2013. TeachFirst is a charity dedicated to ending inequality in education, working alongside schools, local authorities and businesses to help close the attainment gap experienced by pupils in disadvantaged areas. It trains and supports people with leadership potential to become inspirational teachers in around 600 schools in low income communities across the UK.

A total of 38 National Grid employees are volunteering as coaches on the TeachFirst mentoring programme. These coaches are paired up with graduates in their second year of teaching, to help them develop their skills and handle the challenges they are facing as new teachers. For the National Grid employees, the programme offers the opportunity to build their performance management skills as well as broader external awareness and empathy.

“We’re also currently piloting a new Good Leaders programme with 34 high potential managers – potential future board directors – who have all taken on a commercial or community challenge outside of the company,” Van der Plank highlighted.
So far 1,000 employees across the business are involved in skills-based volunteering. There are different levels of opportunities so that all employees can take part, not just first line managers and above. Activities around team building, the environment and inspiring pupils for STEM subjects are particularly popular with employees in the construction part of the business with events such as School Power workshops.

National Grid currently has a two year fundraising partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, a partnership “which goes beyond just being our charity of the year” maintains Van der Plank. “Around 2000 employees have been involved in fund raising and we’re on target to raise £500,000 by the end of year two, with employee fundraising supported by our matched giving scheme. The partnership links to our broader citizenship platform as well our employee engagement agenda. In addition, we are using the Macmillan partnership as an opportunity to deliver a cancer education and awareness campaign across the business, supporting our wellbeing priorities.”

Employee engagement is also a key goal of the programme. “High levels of employee engagement generate significant benefits to the business,” says Van der Plank. “Put simply, if we’re a fun place to work we become an employer of choice.”

The third element of the Citizenship Programme is to use National Grid’s leadership position to encourage young people to get involved in their community. This boosts their employability, helps to provide more rounded recruits for the business and adds social value by creating better citizens. “We have partnerships with the Scouts and City Year and we were a founding partner of the Step Up To Serve campaign,” Van der Plank highlights.

National Grid has been a partner with City Year in the US since 2002, and a founding partner of the UK programme from 2010. City Year addresses educational attainment in disadvantaged areas by recruiting 18 to 25 year olds to be full-time volunteers. These young people, known as corps members, act as role models, mentors and tutors in the individual schools - and National Grid supports them through mentoring.

The company’s initial group of 16 mentors, known as ‘Bridge Builders’, were all in London. However, over the last year it has more than doubled the number of mentors to 39 and extended its support to the Midlands. “Mentors give a few hours of their time each month, guiding the corps members through any particularly challenging situations and helping them to deliver advice on CV writing and interview preparation to the pupils,” says Van der Plank.

“Companies can get the most out of their volunteering initiatives by working strategically with HR, says Van der Plank. “This is critical, if there is to be true business impact.”

She also advises that companies need to think carefully about their partners. “Running a volunteering programme can be very time consuming – it’s not just a question of getting employees to sign up and giving them a phone number. There has to be support and management. Community Service Volunteers (CSV) is our overall delivery partner. They deliver our skills based volunteering programs and also evaluate our work and its impact.”

One of the big shifts for National Grid has been the move towards focusing on the outputs and impact rather than the resources they put into the Citizenship Programme.

That in itself represents a big mindset change, says Van der Plank. “It’s increasingly about developing skills and stakeholder value. It’s a great platform and a very powerful way to engage. We ask employees what existing skills they’ve developed, what new skills they’ve acquired and how they have used those newfound skills in their day to day jobs rather than focusing on how much time they’ve spent.”

At the Responsible Business Awards, the BITC judging panel noted that National Grid “has the potential to be a great ambassador for action.” Its Citizenship Programme is clearly demonstrating that its employees are up for being great ambassadors for action too.