Leading international security solutions group G4S has just appointed ETS, one of the UK’s top providers of bespoke HR software and consultancy, to develop a global employee engagement survey.
G4S is the second-largest global private sector employer, with over 625,000 staff and operations across 150 businesses in over 120 countries.
The sheer size and scale of the company’s operation realises some unique challenges in developing such an employee survey and engaging its members of staff.
This is due in part to the fact that many of G4S’ frontline employees are remotely based at customers’ premises such as airports, prisons or sporting events, or in volatile and high risk areas like Iraq and Pakistan.
In turn, this means personnel are often very hard to reach, and may have no access to e-mail or the Internet.
The survey – which will offer the option of paper-based or online completion – will be conducted between now and April, and will be available in a number of languages.
Committed to creating a collaborative culture
Jenni Myles, the director of employee engagement and Human Resources at G4S, commented: “As an organisation, we’re firmly committed to creating a collaborative culture and maximising employee engagement. However, with many of our employees remotely based and working in high risk areas, engaging with them can present a unique challenge.”
Myles added: “For our survey, we therefore need to adopt a very simple methodology, allowing us to focus on the areas that really matter to our employees and business, but with the addition of sophisticated reporting and benchmarking tools.”
Myles also told SMT Online: “We believe that this will best equip us to identify and act upon engagement levels and trends both locally and globally, and encourage meaningful dialogue with our employees.”
G4S has provided all of its countries and businesses with a compete toolkit of information and marketing communication materials.
The bespoke system – which enables each country to administer the survey independently of other territories – includes a real-time reporting tool for administrators, meaning they can check on response rates, report on results and examine trends before surveys have closed.
The automated system also generates a PDF country report showing how the results map against G4S’ own employee engagement model.
Myles continued: “We’re really pleased to have appointed ETS for this project. It quickly became clear that ETS understood exactly what we wanted to achieve and, crucially, the company was able to take our brief and provide us with insightful questionnaire advice and a superior survey and analysis tool which really matched up to our requirements.”
Developing an ‘ideal world’ solution
Hannah Stratford, head of business psychology at ETS, explained: “We’re excited to be working with G4S to develop its global employee survey. G4S already had a great starting point with a strong set of questions they’d used once before. We’ve applied our knowledge to meet the brief and develop an entirely bespoke ‘ideal world’ solution for them.”
The survey tool created offers in-depth reporting of data, allowing identification of trends and the capacity to compare results with historical data.
ETS plc is the only major provider of bespoke HR technology and consultancy. The organisation offers blue chip companies employee surveys, performance management and talent management services.
ETS clients “get exactly what they need” by working with the company to create brand new processes and technology, or by automating and improving what’s already working.
Client Case Studies are available on the website (access the web link provided on the right hand panel of this page)
*ETS plc has no links with ETS Europe, the national curriculum test marker, and the similarity of names is a coincidence
G4S repatriates over 1,000 from Egypt
G4S has worked to help repatriate over 1,000 clients from Egypt over the last week via the country’s key international transport hubs including airports, ports and country borders.
G4S Egypt, which has over 5,200 employees spread across the country, has been working closely with G4S Risk Management to provide a rapid response service using its expert knowledge of the country and current issues.
To date, G4S has provided assistance to the employees of numerous major multinational companies.
Services provided by the repatriation team since the Egyptian crisis begun have included:
Jim Batty, director of risk Solutions at G4S Risk Management, commented: “With the travel situation worsening in Egypt, our rapid response team members have been able to help secure a significant number of evacuations out of the country for both expatriate company staff and UK Government officials.”
Batty also stated: “Working in partnership with our G4S Egypt colleagues, we expect to continue to support many organisations while the political situation in the country remains fluid.”
G4S warns of increased delays to UK rail and tube network
G4S Secure Solutions is warning that travellers face more delays on the country’s rail network unless urgent action is taken to put effective security measures in place that prevent the theft of essential metal and cables.
As has been widely reported on Info4Security, the theft of copper cable is a particular issue. Only this week, international copper prices have reached an all-time high.
Last year alone there were 5,000 incidents of metal theft on railway lines across the UK, and the problem is expected to cost around GB pound 20 million by 2014.
G4S believes that the rail operators and owners need to work more effectively together to ensure that there are comprehensive security measures put in place that will prevent the theft of these metals.
John Whitwam, managing director at G4S Gurkha Services, said: “Over the last 12 months, more companies have come to us for help in addressing the growing problem of metal theft. We’re already working with a number of energy and rail companies across the country to identify high risk areas for their business, using a range of resources which reflect the true level of crime and metal theft within a particular area.”
Whitwam continued: “We have a range of services we’re able to offer rail and utility companies, including our highly-trained Gurkha Services officers who are able to provide enhanced security for organisations with higher risk requirements in order to enable the protection of key assets.”
He concluded: “Our teams have already successfully deterred a number of attempted thefts on the UK’s rail network.”
