british american tobacco p.l.c. annual report 2008 - Recruitment and work environment

Recruitment and induction

New globally aligned standards for recruitment and induction were developed in 2009, addressing a number of areas, from process improvements to helping us to match people’s expectations with their actual job experiences. A new standard 90-day induction plan for new employees and line managers will be rolled out throughout the Group during 2010.

Work environment

We are committed to a work environment free from harassment, bullying and discrimination. We do not discriminate against people with disabilities who apply for jobs and they get the same opportunities for promotion, training and career development as other staff.

We measure how well we create a safe place to work by using the Lost Workday Case Incident Rate (LWCIR). This is derived by multiplying the number of lost workday cases by 200,000 and dividing by the total number of hours worked to provide a ‘normalised’ figure that can be tracked consistently.

In 2009, the LWCIR was 0.37, a decrease from 0.40 in 2008, largely due to increased efforts to reduce injuries across both European regions.

The highest proportions of injuries were vehicle related at 25 per cent (17.3 per cent in 2008), slips and trips at 22 per cent (26.6 per cent in 2008) and manual activity at 20 per cent (21 per cent in 2008). Entrapment accidents increased to 12 per cent compared with 9.8 per cent in 2008.

Regrettably, there were three fatalities in 2009 (compared to three in 2008). One was the result of an attack during a robbery and two others resulted from vehicle accidents.