47153 AG Barr Annual Report 2025 AW4 SQ WEB - Flipbook - Page 75
Strategic Report
Corporate Governance
Accounts
Key Stakeholder
Form of Engagement
How This Stakeholder Group Influenced Board/Committee Discussions and Decisions
Employees
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The Group’s intranet site provides up to date information
regarding the Group’s activities. In addition, an employee
engagement survey “Everyone Barr None” is carried out on
an annual basis, which seeks feedback from all employees
on a range of areas; action plans are created in response
to the results of each survey. Employees’ opinions are also
sought on various specific topics throughout the year by
means of frequent pulse surveys.
During the year, the Board evaluated the Company’s approach to
workforce engagement in light of industry best practice and agreed to have
an additional independent non-executive member of the Board participate
in the workforce engagement programme. The Board is also briefed and
considers the output of the routine employee feedback pulse surveys, on
and, from this year, the CEO-employee engagement forums, which were
introduced across all UK sites and hosted by the Chief Executive Officer
himself following his appointment in May 2024.
In addition to the Company’s existing employee
engagement mechanisms, and as required by the Code,
during the year the ESG Committee reviewed and
approved the Board’s current mechanism for workforce
engagement, being a designated non-executive director,
as an appropriate mechanism for workforce engagement.
Zoe Howorth was the designated workforce engagement
director during the year.
Updates on progress regarding workforce engagement are provided
at Board meetings throughout the year. It was reported that, overall, the
good level of workforce engagement had continued during the year and
feedback from the employee engagement sessions was generally positive,
with a high level of employee engagement and commitment to the
business. Discussion areas during these sessions included employees’
health and safety and mental wellbeing, flexible and hybrid working
arrangements, employee communications, employee pay and benefits,
IT systems and data, how executive remuneration aligns with wider
Company pay policy, Company purpose and values, and career
opportunities and leadership development.
A structured plan for workforce engagement is
developed for each year. During the year, this included
face-to-face engagement sessions held by Zoe Howorth
and Louise Smalley, supported by the Chair and certain
other non-executive directors, for employees of different
roles and levels across different Company sites, the aim
of which was to encourage participation across the
workforce in order to understand their views on matters
which affect them.
The Company has a Speaking Up policy in place, which
complies with the Code, together with associated
procedures, including employee awareness and training,
to ensure that employees are encouraged to raise any
matters of concern in a timely manner. The Speaking Up
policy is communicated to all employees through a variety
of channels. A designated email address is available to
employees to enable them to raise any matters of concern.
A communications campaign continued during the year to
help raise employee awareness of the Speaking Up policy
and to encourage employees to come forward if they want
to raise any matters of concern.
The results of the “Everyone Barr None” employee engagement survey
carried out during the year were presented to and discussed by the Board.
The results of the survey were generally positive, with a high employee
response rate and overall employee engagement score and improvements
in both scores year-on-year. The continued strong results in the area of
health and safety and the year-on-year improvement in the score related
to employees having a clear understanding of the overall goal and priorities
of the organisation were particularly pleasing. The Board were supportive
of local action planning activities, which would take place in response to
the results of the survey.
Members of the Board completed site tours during the year, including
tours of both factories in Cumbernauld and Milton Keynes. The Board,
accompanied by members of the commercial teams, completed customer
site visits, and the commercial teams also attended Board Strategy Days in
September 2024, both of which gave the Board excellent exposure to senior
and mid management across the Group. Additionally, this year Board
meetings took place at each of the Company’s UK sites, giving the Board
further exposure to employees across the Group.
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