Simon Langley - UK Lead Manager for Inclusion & Diversity
I work on a broad range of activities related to inclusion and diversity, so constantly trying to encourage and develop recruitment strategies with HR but also trying to develop ways to ensure we retain the best talent in the organisation as well.
I see my job as being very important within National Grid. We take inclusion and diversity very seriously and in fact one of our company objectives is to build transparency, trust and an inclusive and engaged workforce and what I do is absolutely key to that.
I guess the best bits about my job are the people I work with, and getting to meet people from all different areas of the business, at all levels as well.
There are lots of good things about the National Grid working environment. Among the best things are the variety of work you get the opportunity to undertake, the variety of people you get to work with, a great range of opportunities and knowing that you're working for a company that has a really good reputation externally.
National Grid does a lot to ensure it's diverse and inclusive. We are constantly benchmarking ourselves against other companies and organisations, we enter a number of awards nationally which all help to get recognition, and that in turn helps us to recruit people from diverse backgrounds.
Also we have for our employees currently a number of employee resource groups which help to support people from under represented groups such as those with disabilities, women, people from ethnic minorities, LGBT people, families, people with caring responsibilities and people of faith.
If a friend of mine applied to join National Grid I'd do everything to encourage them. I think it really is a good place to work, we're serious about trying to get a good mix in our workforce and we're serious about developing our people so I think it would be a great place for them to work.
What we're looking for when we recruit into National Grid is people from a range of diverse backgrounds, with a range of broad experiences, someone who is a good team worker and dedicated to the job, somebody who is prepared to look at their own career development and try and build on it, and somebody who's prepared to make a serious contribution to our success as a company.