Representation
Employee Consultation Forum
The elected delegates of the Cable&Wireless Worldwide Employee Consultation Forum (ECF) have been representing their colleagues in the UK and Ireland for more than 15 years. In 2009, Cable&Wireless Worldwide voluntarily revised its legally binding constitution to embrace colleagues across all geographies, including UK, continental Europe and US, ensuring that the same high standards are enjoyed throughout. 2010 saw the election of the delegate for Asia Pacific. Worldwide elections in 2011 will complete our map by securing representatives in India too.
The ECF meets at least once a month, and provides a platform for colleagues from all areas of the business to debate proposals with members of the Executive Team and the appropriate managers. These may be tabled by the business, or by the representatives themselves. Typical items include:
- Reward principles
- Internal re-organisations
- Proposed changes to people-related processes
- New products and services
ECF delegates also act as Representatives of Employee Health and Safety for Cable&Wireless Worldwide. Functional and local consultations which complement the main meetings take place through a variety of working groups.
We bring together this global team through our own Managed Video Conferencing capability, ensuring better engagement and saving on carbon emissions too.
Coverage of this breadth and depth has allowed the representatives to engage on all significant colleague issues, ranging from debating corporate strategy with our Chief Executive Officer, to discussing changes at local level with the relevant managers, which can mean just as much to the individual colleagues concerned.
Encouraging Diversity
In order to plan for the future and develop a sustainable workforce, we run a number of initiatives to recruit young people into the business which include our Graduate and Apprenticeship schemes.
The Apprenticeship scheme is a 30 month programme which teaches apprentices a variety of skills and leads to a BTEC qualification.
Our Graduate scheme is a two year structured programme involving international work experience and on the job training.
Both programmes underpin our support for the Government’s ‘Backing Young Britain’ campaign. For more details go to: http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/backingyoungbritain/
Extended retirement policy
We recognise that colleagues have individual needs as to when the time is right to retire. Therefore colleagues can apply to retire early (from 55) and also to delay their retirement beyond the Normal Retirement Age of 65 years.
When colleagues are due to leave the business – whether through early retirement or redundancy – those with relevant skills are supported in exploring an alternative career in teaching. Transition to Teaching is an initiative aimed at encouraging people with relevant degrees to consider a career in teaching, to help address the long-standing shortage of teachers in Maths, Science and Information and Communications Technology.
In support of this initiative, which has been developed by IBM and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), colleagues who are facing redundancy will be entitled to two days additional paid leave in order to investigate teaching as a career. Further information is available at: www.teach.gov.uk/transition
