A sustainability review of the UK motor industry has identified an
industry-wide problem with staff retention and led to action to improve
it.
In a move that demonstrates how sustainability reporting can be of
direct commercial value, UK automobile manufacturers have begun to
consider schemes to improve staff retention after the latest annual
sustainability review released by the London-based Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders showed a 2.6 per cent increase in employee
turnover in 2004 compared with the previous year.
Strategies will include an improvement in flexible working
arrangements, better childcare and counselling facilities, and support
for carers. One of the first to act has been Volkswagen, which says a
new work-life balance programme at its plants has increased take-up of
flexible working options by a third.
The SMMT report, now in its seventh year, is based on questionnaires
sent to 22 automobile companies which collectively cover 95 per cent of
the UK’s total car and van production. In the past it has concentrated
almost entirely on reporting environmental performance, but this year,
for the first time, it has included social indicators, prompted by
feedback from a stakeholder forum organized by the trade body.
At 8.7 per cent, the industry’s employee turnover is still considerably
less than that in other sectors, said Simon Barnes, the SMMT’s
technical manager. However, he added: ‘The workforce tends to be highly
skilled these days and companies want to know that they’re not going to
have to retrain staff.’
Other concerns highlighted in the review include a reduction in
training days, which dropped from 3.8 to 2.9 per employee for the year,
although the industry expects the figure to rise again. There were
brighter notes, however. SMMT reports a drop in lost-time incidents
from 710 to 491, and the emission of carbon dioxide from manufacturing
has fallen by a third in three years, to 1.45 million tonnes in 2004.
SMMT will include data on car safety and pedestrian injury rates in
future reports. UK car production is currently at its highest level for
five years, with eight out of ten units exported.
