How we work
A balanced approach
Everyone has an interest in the energy industry. It’s an industry under intense media spotlight. It’s also an industry in which many companies are competing to win customers – often aggressively so. In such an environment, it would be easy to take a short-term approach. We prefer not to: energy is too crucial a commodity to be impulsive with. What’s more, we always keep an eye on the bigger picture, while always wanting to provide our customers with the very best value.
Yes, we are a business, and we need to make profits. However, we use these profits to invest in the future energy infrastructure. We need to make sure that those who can’t afford electricity can still benefit from it. We need to take a calm, measured, long-term approach. This is true in virtually everything we do.
Our ambitions for the future
Every business needs strong aims. Ours are unashamedly ambitious.
We want to be seen as a source of expertise for the energy industry in the future. We want to champion issues for our customers and for our people. And we want to be, above all, a learning business: somewhere people are encouraged and supported in looking for new ways to tackle issues, and new ways of working.
We’re also aiming to become even more environmentally friendly – and encourage our customers to, as well. We’ll be continuing to tackle fuel poverty and climate change. We’re changing the communities we live in for the better. We’ll also be putting our energies into creating an even better place to work: every year, we conduct a satisfaction survey, and use the results to help us hone our working environment still further.
Our attitude to diversity
Everybody, but everybody deserves to be treated with the same amount of respect and fairness. This, for us, is absolutely non-negotiable. We don’t just operate a policy of fair and equal treatment – respective of age, colour, disability, ethnic origin, gender, gender reassignment, marital status, nationality, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or working needs. We positively champion it – and work in close partnership with a diverse range of agencies such as Race for Opportunity, Employers Forum on Disability and Opportunity now to make sure we are a leading light in the drive towards a truly diverse workforce.
We also recognise that everyone has different needs – and we promise to take these into account and, where appropriate, make the right provisions to help you in your career. Everyone here, as part of their benefits, has the chance to request a change to their working arrangement as part of our Work Life Solutions Policy. This could involve reduced hours, home working or a compressed working week. We try to be as flexible as we reasonably can. After all, while work is a major part of your life, it certainly isn’t the only part or even the most important.
