Competitive pay and benefits, career development opportunities, equal opportunities and a safe and secure workplace are fundamental to a positive work environment. Encouraging greater diversity means that BAA will benefit from a broader cultural resource and will better understand the needs of our diverse customers.

Our approach

BAA employs around 5239 people at Heathrow, over half of whom work in security. To deliver the services that our passengers and business partners require, we need a talented and reliable work force. We aim to attract and retain the best people by:

• Encouraging people to make personal progress through training and career development opportunities
• Rewarding people for the work they do through the provision of benefits and competitive pay packages
• Fostering an efficient and communicative team environment
• Nurturing a community of diverse ethnic, age and gender groups, where equal opportunities are available in a workplace free from bullying and harassment.

Diversity
We launched a new diversity policy in 2006 which commits us to treating employees and potential recruits equally, whatever their race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religious belief, disability, age or community background. We also have a comprehensive
policy on bullying and harassment, which we publicise to all employees.

We have updated our employment policies and procedures to comply with the UK’s new age discrimination laws. Full consultation took place with our trade unions and agreed changes were made to negotiated agreements. We informed our airport human resources departments and line managers, and published
the updated policies on our intranet.

Pay and benefits
We aim to offer pay and financial benefits that help us recruit, retain and motivate employees to meet the needs of the business. We are currently in the third year of a three-year pay deal negotiated with our employees. Negotiations for the next pay review are expected to start at the beginning of 2009.

Each year we also offer all our staff the chance to qualify for a bonus based on company performance. Managers’ bonuses reflect a combination of the company’s performance and the achievement of their personal objectives.

Following the acquisition of BAA by Ferrovial in 2006, we introduced new long-term incentive plans for all staff including:

• A Bonus Saver Plan for all employees – where savings are enhanced at the end of the savings period by a bonus, which depends on the company’s performance
• An Executive Share Option Plan (ESOP) for senior management.

We value employee loyalty highly and run schemes to reward long-serving employees after ten years’ and 25 years’ service.

Learning and development
We aim to provide our employees with the knowledge, skills and support required to run our airport as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

We prioritise the following areas to deliver a consistently high standard of service:

• Fulfilling our legal requirements for learning and development
• Equipping people to deliver to the standards defined in their job profiles
• Addressing shortfalls in performance with additional training and support
• Helping the organisation to deliver our business goals through our people
• Supporting people in their career development to develop talent for the future.

The BAA virtual university ‘Uni’ provides people with access to learning and information about the courses they can take. Over the next year this will be reorganised to ensure consistent standards and practices across the organisation. We also run courses to assist individuals with the transition from employment to retirement.

Health, safety and well-being
We are committed to ensuring that the health and safety of our people at work is protected at all times. We adhere strictly to all health and safety legislation, and encourage our employees to give us feedback and suggestions as to how our policies can be improved.

We understand that employees who maintain a balance between work-life and home-life are happier, healthier and more productive.

We offer flexible working options, where appropriate, including:

• Part-time working
• Job sharing
• Home working
• Reduced hours
• Special leave for domestic emergencies and for volunteering
• Maternity, paternity, adoption and carer leave.

Employee engagement and communication
We aim to keep our employees informed about the business and to understand their views.  Last year, the BAA executive committee identified communications as a key area in need of improvement. Our employee engagement strategies are fundamental for successful communication and change management at all levels of the organisation.

We engage with our employees informally through team meetings and formally through our annual survey, Make Your Mark.

In 2007 we stepped up our communications, putting emphasis on two-way communication between management teams and employees. At Terminal 5 we introduced new work rosters, which are designed to allow team meetings with managers, creating a more inclusive, two-way communications culture. This represents a big breakthrough for us, as it is often difficult making this time available in busy 24/7 airport operations. If this is successful, then we will look at how the same approach could work across all our airports.

Other communications channels include

• Airwaves magazine – a monthly magazine targeted at the entire company 
• SMS updates – new in 2007, staff can now receive notification of big issues affecting them via SMS
• The Week – a weekly round up of news across Heathrow
• ConnectLive – real-time information screens in restrooms and communal areas.
• Emails sent to staff
• Letters to home addresses

Managing change
BAA faces increased pressure brought about by global terrorism and the UK legislation implemented to deal with the threat. Our staff have to cope with the impact of this by dealing with the demands of airlines and the frustrations of passengers faced with extended queuing times. In addition BAA is under scrutiny from the Competition Commission, the Civil Aviation Authority, politicians, passengers and the media, all of whom are pushing for greater efficiency in our airports.

To address these concerns, we have employed around 1050 additional security staff at Heathrow. In addition, we are restructuring our organisation to bring more people into customer-facing roles, and to put decision-making as close as possible to the front line.

These changes are an extension of the ‘Simplification’ programme begun in 2007. The Simplification programme aims to streamline BAA’s organisation by reducing the amount of bureaucracy, and ensuring a clear and accountable management structure. This will reduce costs and improve efficiency.

We are taking care to ensure that the changes brought about by the Simplification programme are being managed in a responsible and fair manner. A formal employee consultation process has ensured a consistent approach to employee engagement. This process involves two committees, one for senior managers and one for other employees. Each committee has functional  representations from the 12 workstreams across BAA and the trade unions. Each workstream also has a local consultation group, to act as a communication channel between the national committees and employees. The consultation process will last a minimum of three months, in accordance with BAA and legal requirements.  A central database has been created to give details and updates on the change process and to communicate with employees about their questions and concerns.

We have established a redeployment process, New Connections, through which we help people find alternative roles in BAA where possible, or outside the company if no suitable internal roles are available.

In 2007:

• We recruited 1225 new employees,  including 1046 new security staff
• There were around 230 internal promotions. The employee turnover rate for the year was 12.08% compared to 14.2% in 2006/07.

Trade unions
We are committed to working cooperatively with the unions that represent our
employees. We meet formally with our trade unions to negotiate national pay
and employment policies.

Our airport employees are represented by three unions:

• Unite
• Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
• Prospect.

2007 was a difficult year for our relationships with our trade unions. There was a ballot for strike action over the introduction of a new pension scheme that took place in October/November. The threat of strike action was later withdrawn as a result of our continued negotiations.

A structured consultation plan has been agreed with the trade unions to reach a resolution on the pensions issue. It is of crucial importance for us to create a more constructive future relationship with the unions. This will involve re-working our formal consultation and negotiation structures, as well as agreeing the principles and values that will characterise the way in which we work together.

Our performance
Our plans