Working Together
As we work together to meet the growing clean energy needs and opportunities within our province, we recognize the importance of continuing to both diversify and unify our teams, strengthen our partner and community relationships, and nurture a safe work environment.
WE ARE SAFE
The safety and health of our employees, contractors and communities has always been our top priority in everything we do. We work daily to keep safety top of mind – to learn from each other, support one another, and keep each other safe.
Nurturing Our Safety Culture
In January, Hydro launched an internal “Pause Prevents Injury” awareness campaign featuring our own employees, and focusing on some of our most common workplace injuries.
As part of this initiative, in September we hosted our first Safety Pause event. Hundreds of employees in 13 sites around the province gathered with members of our senior leadership team to share safety-related concerns and successes in their region, reflect on our safety culture, and inform our future safety planning. This was a particularly important event as it followed the loss of our colleague and friend, Bill Walsh – a loss we continue to feel every day within our Hydro family.
Recognizing that mental well-being is vital to overall health and safety, our Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) continues to support where needed. In 2023, we launched an updated EFAP, with new resources for employees and additional supports for managers and supervisors.
Our commitment to safety doesn’t end at the workplace, and in 2023 we continued to communicate with our customers – and to work with community organizations including Threads of Life, Newfoundland and Labrador Occupational Health and Safety Association and the NL Snowmobile Federation, to support the work they do to educate the public about safety around electricity.
WE ARE INCLUSIVE AND COLLABORATIVE
In 2023, we collaborated towards our organizational goals for the first full year under our new strategic plan and new unified Hydro brand.
Welcoming and Enabling Diversity
At Hydro we are inclusive and collaborative – we seek diversity and understand its value. Our employees’ experiences, beliefs, and expectations are at the heart of who we are and why we’re here.
In 2023, Hydro created and published its first Accessibility Plan to improve accessibility by identifying, preventing and removing barriers for persons with disabilities. Developed through best practice reviews, creation of an Accessibility Committee, and consultation with external partners who support persons with disabilities, our plan extends from 2024 to 2026 and covers employment, customer service, communications, information technology and our physical/built environment. This plan supplements our broader Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, under which we consistently deliver informative communications and educational sessions on diversity and inclusion related topics, which included learning disabilities, truth and reconciliation, and building a diverse workforce, to name a few.
We are proud to say our employees and leadership have truly embraced EDI as evidenced not only by session attendance but by true engagement, collaboration and willingness to learn at every level.
Implementing our plan with dedication, we take pride in surpassing our Executive and Leadership Gender Equity Targets, as well as the Canadian average (31.4%*1), with females representing:
- 44% of our Executive Team (Target 30%)
- 36% of our Management Team (Target 35%), including 53% of our Senior Management Team (Directors/Senior Managers)
GET TO KNOW KELSEY
Kelsey Hayley is the Team Lead for Workplace Planning. She works hard to support employees across our company and is passionate about making employee experiences as great as possible.
Everyone is welcome at Hydro and each year we remain committed to doing the work necessary to cultivate an environment that values diversity and encourages collaboration.
Engaging Our People
In late 2023, we launched an Employee Engagement Survey (EES). This survey provided an opportunity for employees to share their feedback related to their perceptions of Hydro and their satisfaction with a number of factors including safety and health, working conditions, recognition, relationships and diversity. Two-thirds of employees took the opportunity to share their feedback. The feedback received will allow us to celebrate and reinforce things that are going well and identify opportunities for improvement. We look forward to understanding and communicating our results in 2024.
WE ARE COMMUNITY FOCUSED
Energizing Our Communities
Hydro employees have a proud history of giving back to the communities where they live and work throughout the province. In 2023, we were honored to be recognized as Corporate Philanthropist of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Newfoundland and Labrador, following a nomination by our valued community partners at Ronald McDonald House Charities Newfoundland and Labrador.
Over this past year we have continued to build on that legacy – expanding upon our Energy from the Heart Community Program while continuing our commitment to long-standing community partners through in-kind support and financial donations, employee volunteering, and scholarship programs. In 2023 we proudly:
- Supported 93 charities and community groups in the province through our Energy from the Heart Community Program.
- Launched Hydro Helps in partnership with United Way Newfoundland and Labrador – a new charitable payroll giving program that allows employees to regularly give to the charities that matter most to them.
- Helped provide children with the energy they need to start their day right, as employees generously supported school breakfast clubs around the province through our third annual Energy Breakfast with Kids Eat Smart Newfoundland and Labrador – donating more than $52,000 through employee and corporate contributions in 2023.
- Through support for Women in Resource Development Corporation’s STEM for Girls program, engaged students in the Bay d’Espoir region to build awareness about STEM career opportunities for local youth.
- Supported the educational and academic achievements of students in our province by providing more than 50 scholarships and awards.
Together we truly are making a difference.
- Representation of women in executive positions, Statistics Canada, 2020. Source: Representation of women in executive positions, 2016 to 2020 (statcan.gc.ca) ↩︎