Board composition and division of responsibilities continued
Director induction, training and development New Directors are provided with an induction on appointment, which would include visits to the Group’s operations and meetings with operational and executive management. Each Director’s induction is tailored to their experience and background with the aim of enhancing their understanding of the Group’s strategy, business, operating divisions, colleagues, customers, suppliers and advisers and the role of the Board in setting the tone of our culture and governance standards. The Company acknowledges the importance of developing the skills of the Directors to run an effective Board. To assist in this, Directors are given the opportunity to attend relevant courses and seminars to acquire additional skills and experience to enhance their contribution to the ongoing progress of the Group. All of the Directors attend sessions which are aimed at updating the Board on trends and developments in corporate governance. During the coming year we will ensure that our new CEO (Mike Maddison) and our new independent Non-Executive Director (Lynn Fordham) are provided with formal, comprehensive and tailored induction programmes and we will report back on this more fully in next year’s Annual Report. Board and Committee effectiveness review The performance of the Board and its Committees is appraised annually and an internal effectiveness review was completed for 31 May 2022. The overall rating was very positive meaning that the Board and its Committees continue to function well. The results were presented to the May 2022 Board meeting and the Chair also held one-to-one calls with Board colleagues for “deeper dives” into any areas they wished to discuss in more detail and with the CEO to discuss areas highlighted by the evaluation process. We have also scheduled in a progress check in September 2022 to ascertain how we are doing against our proposed improvements and whether we need to do anything different in the second half of the financial year. The evaluation identified changes which would improve the working of the Board, including:
• An increased focus on diversity • Assessing and monitoring culture • A continued focus on strategy and strategic discussion • An increased focus on succession planning and ensuring that these plans are reviewed on a regular basis
• An increased focus on CSR/ESG How will we improve in these areas? To focus on these actions, we have agreed the following:
Action
Progress and our plan
An increased focus on diversity
• Firm commitment to have at least 33% female representation and at least one person of colour on the Board by 2024 • Presenters to the Board encouraged to highlight diversity statistics within their business area as happened during the strategy day, when each presenter did this • Appointment of Michelle Porteus as Chief People Officer • Unconscious bias training has now been completed by the Board with the ExCom having already completed it • Significant work continuing internally on creating an inclusive culture throughout the organisation, further helped by Michelle Porteus and Yvonne Harley (Global Director of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs) being co-sponsors of all inclusion and diversity initiatives • More Board discussion on ensuring our culture aligns with our values • Presenters to the Board encouraged to highlight culture initiatives within their business area • Board to have more exposure to senior executives across the business outside Manchester (Board meetings during the year held in Cheltenham and the Netherlands with dinners held the night before on both occasions allowing the Board to meet local senior leaders) • Having a designated NED for workforce engagement reporting back to every Board meeting has helped with this (please see page 86 on colleague engagement for further details) • NEDs to spend more time in the business and at different offices (increasingly being done in person as we emerge from lockdowns) • Reporting on the “mood” of the business within the monthly CEO reports and areas of concern or where there are higher than expected colleague attrition levels • Discussing the results of both the annual colleague engagement survey and the more regular “pulse” surveys
Assessing and monitoring culture
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NCC Group plc — Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2022
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