Balfour Beatty Vinci is a long-established joint venture between two global leaders in the delivery of critical infrastructure. Together we are responsible for designing and building part of the most exciting railway project to better connect people across Britain: HS2.
We have employed approximately 2500 employees to deliver the West Midlands section of HS2’s Phase One Route safely, sustainability and on time and budget.
Working on the largest infrastructure project in Europe, together we’ll leave a history-making legacy for our country, our industry, and future mega-projects.
How is your organisation puptting the principles of employee engagement at the heart of its people strategy?
At Balfour Beatty Vinci we are committed to achieving HS2’s mission: ‘to deliver the best railway in the best way.’ We know that when employees are engaged, they are more likely to perform at their best. That is why employee engagement is one of our key performance indicators and is at the heart of our people strategy.
Our engagement strategy focuses on the following areas:
• Measuring employee engagement through our annual engagement survey which covers topics such as growth, reward and recognition, wellbeing and diversity and inclusion.
• Utilising our external survey provider to analyse results and holding focus groups with employees to further identify areas of improvement.
• Implementing employee feedback through a ‘You said we did initiative.’
• Promoting and raising awareness of EDI through our Steering Committee and Champions network to ensure employees understand their part to play in the project and are made to feel welcome, free from judgement or pressure to conform. We are proud to have achieved Clear Assured Gold accreditation and are working towards Platinum.
• Investing in developing the skills and knowledge of our employees, not only to ensure we have capabilities to deliver but also to leave a great skills legacy through our people.
• Recognising and rewarding exceptional performance underpinned by our values.
Strategic Narrative
We recognise the importance of our employees understanding our goals, mission, and values from the day one. To kickstart the BBV journey, new starters are invited to a project induction where they will learn about the past, present, and future journey of the project, and how they can contribute to its success.
Once on board with us, employees are required to complete IPT Visa training for their license to operate on HS2. The visa is a learning pathway which reinforces the core knowledge employees need to contribute effectively to the project. It consists of several learning modules: Our Deal, Community Stakeholder Engagement, EDI, Modern Day Slavery, Safe at Heart, Working in an Integrated Project Team and the IPTAN Way.
Employees can also readily access our blueprint handbook, route map, incentive milestones, and information on our values. Regular updates on progress, milestones and project news are also communicated to employees via the BBV intranet, monthly all hands calls and weekly newsletters.
Performance of the project can be tracked through our IPTAN performance hub where delivery reports, weekly progress dashboards and reporting calendars are available for employees to view.
Twice a year, we run an IPT day across our sites to promote our strategy and progress. We provide insight on delivery milestones and what we have achieved in line with ‘Our Approach’, also known as ‘Line of Site’ which aligns to HS2’s principles: Love our Stakeholders, Deliver Value and Be Safe and Well.
Our line managers receive monthly updates on the project via the BBV ‘On Track’ Newsletter. The aim is for them to cascade business updates to their teams to ensure they are always updated and informed.
Engaging Managers
We recognise that line managers and supervisors play a crucial role in making our organisation a great place to work. We therefore strive to recruit the right people to fill these positions and provide them with training and support to coach and develop their people.
Our recruitment process aligns to HS2’s values and behaviour framework. We carefully analyse candidate’s CVs and assess their skills, experience, and background at interview stage to ensure they have the right capabilities to perform at management/supervisory level. We also provide training on unconscious bias to eliminate unintentional discrimination within the recruitment process and to ensure we have a diverse pool of candidates.
Once on board with us, we run three main programmes for employees in supervisory, management and leadership positions: the Line Manager Development Pathway, Supervisor Development Pathway and finally our Aspiring Leaders Programme.
The Line Manager Development Pathway supports line managers to be the best managers they can be. It provides a simple to use Pathway where managers can find all development activity in one place, including building trusted relationships with their teams, managing performance, hiring inclusively, and using BBV processes and policies. To date, 488 of our line managers have completed the pathway.
We also currently have 825 supervisors from BBV and our supply chain engaged in our Supervisor Development Pathway. The pathway sets the standard of skills, knowledge and behaviour required on site and provides training on completing their roles safely and managing their teams effectively. It is split into three stages: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. To date, 447 supervisors have completed bronze, 203 have completed silver and 135 have completed all pathway modules.
Finally, our Aspiring Leaders Programme invests in our future leaders by providing leadership development training coupled with business tasks for those in leadership positions. The programme is made up of 6 key modules designed to create focused and resilient leaders across the project, develop leadership capability and emotional intelligence and to encourage networking, collaboration, and cross-fertilisation of ideas. At present, we have 24 employees engaged on the programme with 24 due to be enrolled this year.
As with all employees, managers have access to a wide range of Management and Leadership Development courses on our Digital Skills Academy. Courses include how to build, lead and mentor high performing teams, how to manage our people and organisational effectiveness.
We have a dedicated Line Manager Hub which provides tools and guidance on how to manage direct reports within our HR System. Our HR System also houses an array of line manager guides covering topics such as managing capability, disciplinaries, reasonable adjustments and adoption leave.
Employee Voice
We understand the importance of employees feeling involved, listened to and able to contribute. Our employees are invited to share their ideas and experiences in our annual BBV engagement survey which covers topics such as growth, reward and recognition, wellbeing and diversity and inclusion.
Although we achieved an impressive engagement index score of 74% in our survey, we recognise that there are always areas of improvement and the value of employee voice in finding the right solutions.
To show our commitment to employee voice, survey feedback is analysed by our external survey provider and presented back to the business. Focus groups are held to give employees the opportunity to expand on their responses and provide more detail on areas of improvement. To demonstrate that employee’s ideas are taken on board, we operate a ‘You said we did’ initiative which highlights the feedback implemented off the back of the survey.
We have also launched a confidential Speak Up platform. This encourages employees to ‘speak up’ where they witness behaviour contrary to the organisational values and principles contained in the BBV Code of Conduct. Employees can raise concerns via telephone, email or online. All concerns reported are treated with confidence and fully investigated.
Our EDI Steering Group and 6 EDI Champions work to create a culture of inclusivity where everyone’s voices are heard. Our EDI Champions actively promote, celebrate, and raise awareness of EDI across the project and share tools and techniques to empower colleagues to challenge negative behaviour. Employees also have access to their parent company affinity groups who come together to have a collective voice for diverse characteristics and provide a safe space for employees to share their experiences.
Organisational Integrity
BBV’s vision, values, and guiding principles mirror those of HS2. Our core values and guiding principles shape the environment we all work in and how we behave whilst we’re doing it. Our recent engagement survey results tell us that 96% of employees understand our core values, and 88% live the values every day.
Our core values and principles are readily accessible on the BBV Intranet to articulate and promote the standard of behaviour expected from all employees.
We run a Balfour Beatty Vinci Behavioural Programme to encourage and inform employees of our golden behaviours and embed a health and safety culture in all aspects of the project, ensuring we keep positive behaviour at the heart of everything we do.
Each year managers set SMART objectives for employees as part of their PDR which are linked to Line of Site. Objectives are reviewed throughout the year to ensure our employees are on track and that objectives remain in line with business priorities.
We recognise and celebrate the right behaviours with our IPT Exceptional Performer monthly awards, and I Factor Stars quarterly and yearly awards. Employees are able to nominate colleagues who showcase exemplary performance underpinned by our values. The winners receive a monetary award along with a certificate. Annual I Factor Awards are open to all IPT partners (BBV, HS2, DJV and SB3) and are presented as part of our IPT days.
Olivia Mitchell
HR Graduate
