Training and development
The Group invested over £15 million in training during 2006 - representing an average of 3.7 days of training per employee.
Opportunities for employee development are provided 'off the job', for example through:
- Internal training programmes, workshops and seminars covering a variety of management and technical skills, such as a series of core courses for graduates in People Skills, Productivity and Commercial Awareness and a modular Management Development Programme for potential senior managers from our UK and overseas operations;
- Support for continuing education and continuing professional development activities;
- External business school programmes at centres such as Cranfield, London Business School and INSEAD;
- Involvement in community projects.
Such 'off the job' development provides an important supplement to learning and development opportunities provided through the job, for example by:
- Enhancing the employee's job content;
- Attachments/ secondments/ moves to give experience of new activities/ functions;
- Learning from other managers, which may be formalised in a coaching or mentoring arrangement.
Formal performance and development reviews, increasingly common throughout the Group, provide regular opportunities for employees to identify and agree development objectives with their managers, linked to either improved performance in their current role or to their next career step.
Workers Registration Centre Safety Training Programme
A significant amount of our training concentrates on safety issues. In 2004, Gammon Construction established a Workers' Registration Centre, the first of its kind in the construction industry in Hong Kong. This aimed to raise safety awareness among construction workers. All participants, including subcontractor employees, are required to participate in a half-day programme before being permitted to work on any Gammon sites. Read the full case study
The Group has a comprehensive organisation and people review process which links the aspirations, talents and development plans of individual managers to the anticipated future needs of the business by identifying and developing successors for key roles in both the short and long term.
30,467 full-time Balfour Beatty employees at the end of 2006
£15 million invested in training in 2006
11% reduction in voluntary employee turnover