The story
RWE npower is the UK’s largest electricity supplier, with around 12,000 employees at 60 sites. The company serves 6.8 million customers and has an annual turnover of £6,000 million. The Operational Customer Services is based in the North East of England and employs around 2,200 staff.
Given it is based in one of the most deprived wards in the country, and employs a diverse workforce with wide-ranging needs, npower realises that a long-term commitment to its employee’s basic skill development is paramount. Many employees are non-traditional learners, struggling to make the transition from a heavily-industrial workplace to one dominated by service-based roles and organisations. For the business to grow, maintain its competitive advantage in providing top-quality customer service and increase staff retention by persuading employees to commit to the company, it needed to invest heavily in employee training.
Responding to this, a cornerstone of npower’s Skills for Life programme has been establishing on-site Learning Resource Centres, where employees draw up Personal Development Plans, forming the basis for a highly consultative and tailor-made programme of basic skills training. The company works with providers and partners to further tailor the resources employees use to help reflect on their work, the needs of the business, and their customers.
npower’s 20:20 vision, which aims for the company to become the UK’s leading overall energy company by 2020, relies on their Skills for Life strategy enabling improved learning and development, retention, succession planning and personal enrichment – all securing buy-in from customers and employees.
To date, 240 learners have completed the Skills for Life programme, with 281 qualifications in literacy and numeracy achieved. Vocational courses are also now being offered. The secondary benefits of the programme are numerous, and it is helping the company play a crucially important and positive role in community cohesion.
