Workplace
For a Group that is about helping people look and feel better, it is natural to make the health and wellbeing of our own employees a very high priority. It is one of the main reasons why so many are proud to work for Alliance Boots and are eager to play their part in building a sustainable business. We continue to train and develop our people at all levels so they are equipped to meet the challenges of our industry.
Alliance Boots is a major international employer. At 31 March 2009 the Group, including our associates and joint ventures, employed over 115,000 people in more than 20 countries, of which around 95,000 worked in our owned businesses.
We communicate with our people through a wide variety of channels, reflecting the diversity and geographical spread of our businesses. Our aim is to ensure that all our people are informed about, and engaged in, their part of the business locally, augmented with deeper understanding of the Group overall and its future direction.
We have a variety of approaches to fulfill these aims including regular face-to-face team briefings, conference calls, magazines, newsletters and a number of intranet sites. Feedback is sought on the effectiveness of our communications and surveys have been instituted in a number of our businesses to gauge the morale of our people and what is important to them. In the most recent Great Place To Work survey covering the Boots branded activities in the UK, we are pleased that the overall satisfaction score has continued to rise significantly since Alliance Boots came under private ownership.
Award-winning
In March 2009, Boots Opticians won two awards in the 2009 Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For competition. This competition is recognised as the UK’s biggest survey of workplace engagement, taking into account the views of more than 200,000 employees from small, medium and large organisations across the country. Approximately 1,500 people from Boots Opticians stores and its support centre received a questionnaire and, based on the responses, Boots Opticians made it into the Top 100 on its first application, receiving a top 100 award and an accreditation as a best employer.
Around 1,000 companies took part in this competition, which is now in its ninth year. Businesses are assessed by their employees across eight areas covering company leadership, employee wellbeing, relationships with managers, relationships with colleagues, feelings towards the company, personal growth, fair dealing over pay and benefits, and the organisation’s record for giving something back to society.
In February 2009, for the second year running, Boots Ireland received an award from the Irish Independent newspaper for being one of the best companies to work for in the Republic of Ireland. The award was made following an extensive review of the employee offer and company work culture.
Employee retention
| Headcount | As at 31 March 2009 |
As at 31 March 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| '000s | '000s | |
| Working for us for >1 year | 78 | 73 |
| Working for us for >5 years | 42 | 41 |
The loyalty of our experienced, knowledgeable and well trained workforce is evidenced by the fact that over 40% of our employees have worked for the Group or its predecessor companies for more than five years.
Employee absence rate due to illness
The employee absence rate due to illness for the Group for the year ended 31 March 2009 was 3.9% of the total number of contractual hours, compared with 4.0%* the previous year.
- *Data has been restated for the year ended 31 March 2008.
