Diversity & Inclusion

At the root of this is developing a culture that hardwires inclusivity into everything the company does.

“As an organisation, you should reflect the society in which you operate,” says Raj Roy, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Centrica, who leads many of our Diversity & Inclusion initiatives as the co-sponsor of VOICE, Centrica’s ethnicity network.

“In the past, we probably haven’t always challenged the status quo. But we’ve naturally evolved as a company and now there’s a real appetite to say, ‘No, as a business, we have to change to succeed and grow’.”

In terms of diversity and inclusion, this must go beyond just recruiting a more diverse workforce. Creating a genuinely inclusive environment in which employees operate is equally critical. Raj adds, “It’s no good if you don’t unlock the benefit of having that diversity across your company.”

Here are three ways we’re working to make Centrica a more diverse and inclusive place to work:

1. We will listen and act

“Speaking to our employee networks has confirmed the need to do more,” says Centrica Group CEO Chris O’Shea.

“Asking for their help to change our culture has been both sobering and inspiring: sobering in the sense that the pace of change has been so slow, and inspiring because we have such vibrant networks of wonderful colleagues desperate to make a difference.”

Initiatives include setting up a ‘shadow board’ of colleagues who will be empowered to positively disrupt executive thinking and decision making, which includes finding solutions to inclusion issues. Quarterly listening sessions and reverse mentoring are also key enablers to empower colleagues to help shape our culture and inclusion efforts.

The reverse mentoring programme, trialled in Raj’’s team and then rolled out company-wide, has already led to a “significant uplift” in employee engagement – and is showing leaders how they can learn to be better, provided that they are willing to be open, vulnerable and have a mindset of enquiry, says Raj.

He adds: “It works by pairing a member of our leadership team with someone who is simply willing to say, ‘What could I share with you that might help you, as a leader, to create the right kind of environment in which people from all sorts of backgrounds can be themselves and flourish?’”

2. We will set clear and ambitious targets and measure our progress

We’re committed to creating a workforce that truly represents the communities we serve, which is why we’ve set targets to drive greater representation for female, ethnic minority, disability, LGBTQ+ and ex-service personnel via our People & Planet Plan.

In particular, we’re acutely aware we must improve our gender diversity and want to achieve gender parity by 2030. This will be challenging for us, especially in engineering, where women currently make up just 9% of the team.

But we feel that aiming high is the right approach to deliver the change we all want and need, and towards this we’ve just announced that we’ll recruit 1,000 apprentices by 2022 with the ambition for 50% to be women.

Of the apprenticeship offers we have made so far in 2021, 50% were to women.

To help boost interest from women applicants, we have launched a targeted recruitment campaign that includes virtual careers events and engaging with women seeking a career change due to COVID-19.  We’ve already seen a significant increase in the number of applications from women.

We have also signed up to the Tech She Can Charter, a commitment by organisations to increase women working in technology roles.