When I joined Opus Energy as head of HR in 2011, the company growth rate was phenomenal; new employees were being brought in to give a growing customer base the best service possible. However, a rushed recruitment process and lack of additional benefits meant staff turnover was high, with 30% of new employees in customer service leaving within a year.
The challenge of overcoming the often negative perception of the energy sector, which contributes to the low retention figures, is a matter facing the entire industry. We need a new approach to meet the challenge head-on and ultimately ensure that our employees know we are as dedicated to them as we are to our customers. So began a three-year programme to improve our approach to recruitment and employee engagement.
As HR professionals it is our job to discover, understand and support how employees will fit in to the organisation’s culture. With this in mind, we focused on attracting candidates that share our values. Psychometric testing was introduced to match behaviours and attitudes to teams, as well as fun teamwork challenges. This showed us how candidates would fit into teams and helped to identify those who would emerge as natural leaders.
We identified that there were large numbers of young people within the local community who had little work experience but lots of talent and potential. To provide opportunities for this group, we launched an apprenticeship programme with the support of First4skills and Northampton College.
But it isn’t just about recruitment. With the ultimate aim of getting employees to stay within the business, we needed to engage them from the word ‘go’. To appeal to talented employees we had to provide an alternative to a rigid 9-5 job. We needed to offer employees more than just their month’s pay in return for their hard work, as many other industries do. So, at Opus Energy, in addition to offering benefits such as a generous holiday allowance and a bonus scheme, we launched a wellbeing scheme and later extended our standard benefits package to include private medical insurance, retail benefits and tailored development programmes.
Another challenge we set ourselves was to improve our community involvement. An important part of our efforts is encouraging teams to get creative in how they raise money for charity, including an annual 'Charity Challenge week' where teams can do whatever they like to try to raise the most money for our chosen charity. We also give each employee a paid day off work every year for volunteering. As a result we raised over £30,000 for Mencap and Rainbows Hospice in the last financial year. However, by far one of the most important requirements of this was getting the directors (including me) to take part in the activities. Everyone in the organisation must believe in what we are doing, and it is essential we demonstrate this from the top down.
Within six months we noticed the strategy starting to take effect, and in three years we’ve seen our employee turnover rate improve dramatically, as well as over 60% of our management roles go to internal candidates.
Energy is a growing industry, and with the fairly recent addition of renewables to the energy generation mix, there are many opportunities for employees to become specialists in the sector. If we, as an industry, are to attract and retain the best talent then we must offer a great place to work, not just brilliant opportunities. We must be bold enough to create the best possible workplace, which benefits employees and ultimately customers. We must also get the message across that energy is an exciting, expanding industry where a career can grow and progress.
Annamarie Petsis Jones is HR director at business energy supplier Opus Energy
