Diversity
Nuon’s diversity policy is aimed first of all at raising awareness of diversity in all its different aspects. To promote this new ethos within Nuon, we appointed a dedicated Diversity Manager in 2007. Activities are being developed to ensure that the diversity of the society in which we operate is reflected in our organisation and that the existing diversity is utilised to the full.
In 2007 Nuon employees were invited to provide suggestions and input for the diversity policy by taking part in workshops. The workshops were attended by employees from many diverse backgrounds, thus allowing all participants to experience the power of diversity at first hand.
A diverse group of colleagues
2007 saw the launch of the Nuon Global Talent Program. In this programme, young higher-education and university graduates of diverse population groups from outside Nuon receive career planning support from experienced Nuon managers. We stimulate the formation of networks within Nuon for specific target groups. One example of this is WINergy, a platform that was set up to promote the personal and professional development of women with the ambition to pursue a career within Nuon. Talented women are given the opportunity to take part in a development process via cross mentoring. In 2007 10 of the 24 trainees were female, thus amply meeting the target of 25% women in the new trainee pool. One target for applications for senior management posts is that at least one of the short-listed candidates is a woman or of ethnic origin. Ethnicity, incidentally, is not an explicit diversity criterion at Nuon. This is mainly due to the arbitrary nature of differentiating between people on the basis of ethnic origin. For this reason, the origin of our employees is not recorded.
Using the diverse nature of our workforce to best advantage
Within Nuon we have an enormous diversity of people, talent, skills and knowledge. Knowledge about team dynamics helps managers to select the correct team composition. To ensure that our rich diversity is recognised and used to the full within the organisation, we developed a workshop on categorisation and implicit association in cooperation with Radboud University of Nijmegen. The workshop is intended to make employees at Nuon aware of the prejudices that can impede good cooperation. The workshop was offered to management and employees in 2007. A standardised version will be developed in 2008 so that it can be given by more people and thus reach a wider circle of employees.
