Highways Agency

Respect for People

What is Respect for People about?

Respect for people relates to two issues:

• Recruiting and retaining people by treating them with respect and providing the right conditions to support them in their work and personal development. This includes taking action on improving workplace diversity, the working environment, health & safety, career development and behaviour.
• Two-way communications with stakeholders, incorporating their opinions in decision making and managing all impacts upon them.

Why is this an issue for the Highways Agency?

The Agency employs approximately 1600 staff and many thousands of contractors to build, maintain and operate its 6065 miles of motorway and trunk road. It is important to both the individuals and the business that people are trained, safe, happy and motivated in their work.

The people affected, adjacent to the network whilst it is constructed and maintained are also important. The Agency consults local communities and takes their opinions into consideration to minimise the impacts upon them.

What is the Highways Agency's goal?

The Agency is committed to retaining and motivating staff and those that work as contractors. It also has a responsibility to the people that work for it directly and can influence its contractors to:

• Provide a safe and healthy place of work;
• Improve the skills and knowledge of its employees and contractors;
• Employ a fully registered and skilled workforce;
• Improve the satisfaction of employees through non-discrimination, fair wages and the provision of appropriate training that benefits both the business and the employees' personal development.

The Agency also has responsibilities to the local communities that live in proximity to the highways. This includes considering them from the planning of new road schemes, through their construction and operation. One of the objectives from 'Towards a balance with nature: Highways Agency Environmental Plan' is:

• To seek the involvement of all groups within local communities so we can understand wider transport issues and how our activities affect the environment in these communities.

How is the Highways Agency achieving its goal?

The Agency is undertaking the following actions to improve performance with respect to people: As part of our 2003-4 Business Plan the Agency is:

• Revising the performance management system to better incorporate leadership competencies.
• Embedding the new organisational values of integrity, customer service, teamwork, diversity, improvement and best value into the performance management, development, recruitment and selection systems.
• Focusing development and training on the skills necessary to support our current and future roles
• Taking forward work arising from the 2001-02 staff survey and continuing to build upon Investors in People (IiP) activity to maintain our IiP status.
• Implementing better recruitment and selection measures to secure progression and appointment of the right people with the right skills from diverse backgrounds.
• The provision of satisfying and rewarding jobs, which maximise the potential of the workforce.
• Flexible working practices to provide better work/life balance that our people increasingly demand.

As part of 'Towards a balance with nature: Highways Agency Environmental Plan' the Agency intend to:

• Increase environmental awareness among our staff and contractors.
• Seek to facilitate partnerships to bring about environmental improvement and community ownership.
• Continue to develop better relationships with other transport operators, government and non-governmental organisations and above all with the general public.

As part of the new procurement strategy when selecting and working with suppliers, there will be an emphasis placed on the suppliers' people policies and health and safety. Some key tools for managing the Agency's operations in relation to respect for people are:

• Considerate Constructors Scheme
• Construction Skills Certification Scheme
• Environmental Management Systems
• Health and Safety
• National Highways Sector Schemes
• People Policies
• Road Users Charter
• Road Users Survey

Monitoring Progress

The Key Performance Indicators relating to respect for people are set out in the Agency's 2003-4 Business Plan as:

Progress against these KPIs will be reported in the Highways Agency Annual Report.

In Strategic Roads 2010 the Highways Agency 10 Year National Road Strategy (Stakeholder Document) we have set 2 targets:

• By 2010, complete a programme of local noise reduction measures to benefit those people living alongside noisy roads that are not subject to the latest noise mitigation standards.
• By 2010, have installed quieter surfaces on over 60% of the network, including all concrete stretches, to benefit an estimated 3 million people living within around 1/3 mile of trunk roads.

The Agency is adopting Construction Best Practice Programme Indicators as part of its supplier selection and supplier performance measurement processes relating to this theme. Further sub indicators to support the CBPP indicators may include:

• Average weekly working hours of directly employed staff
• Number of reportable accidents per 100,000 hours worked
• Average daily distance travelled to site by directly employed staff
• Time spent on site training as a percentage of total hours worked

The Agency has registered with the Construction Clients Charter and has been awarded Chartered Client status. The Agency's goal is to achieve year on year continual improvement in its policies and culture against four cultural criteria: Leadership and focus on the client; Quality; Product team integration; and People. The Agency's performance is benchmarked annually against other best practice clients. The people criteria address health and safety and training of the directly employed workforce and that of its suppliers.

Future Development

The Agency is supporting industry in the development of NVQ's for all significant highway activities. A fully qualified workforce has a better status and lower turnover. Workforce demographics show a bias to the upper age bracket with fewer in the lower age brackets. The Agency is working to increase the number of new starters.

Age structure of the construction industry - manual workers
(Source: CITB 2002 Skills Foresight: The skills for the future of construction)