2008/2009 Objectives & Targets

Encourage staff to contribute to, and share in, the success of the company through their own ideas and ongoing professional development, whilst supporting them to maintain a healthy balance between home and work commitments.

The average number of training days per employee has decreased this year, largely due to the change towards longer-term career development through initiatives such as 'Unleashing Your Potential'. The drop in days also reflects more use of e-learning for compliance training (such as Data Protection, Fraud Awareness etc.) which is shorter in duration than the classroom sessions that have been used in previous years.

Investment in training per employee has also decreased, partly due to a change in training delivery methods (as outlined above). The implementation of longer-term investment programmes, in particular, 'Unleashing Your Potential', has also meant that there was a pause in training as the new approach was implemented. As such we are expecting to see an uplift in spend next year.

KPI

Employees	2006	2007	2008
Number of employees undertaking professional education	34	38	44
Average number of training days per employee	3	4	1
Investment in training per employee	£674	£628	£303
% staff turnover	25%	10%	11%
% of employees with five or more years' service	39%	34%	37%
Proportion of all staff that are female	56%	56%	57%
% of women in senior management positions	4%	5%	8%
% of women in technical or professional positions	13%	28%	7%*
% of part-time employees	10%	6%	7%
% of eligible employees participating in the sharesave scheme	50%	53%	56%
% of eligible employees participating in share incentive plan	83	85%	97%
*These roles have been re-categorised which explains the change in proportion.

Targets for 2008/09

• improve the clarity and consistency of our internal communications and regularly survey staff throughout the year to monitor the success of the improvements

Ensure that we treat our tenants and customers fairly, and that we are responsive to their needs.

Our customers are our business and it is therefore essential to Grainger’s business success that we engage with them effectively and that we achieve high standards of customer satisfaction. It was with this is mind that Grainger became involved this year in establishing the REAL Service Residential Group and has now been benchmarked against a selection of residential landlords. This group was developed to allow landlords to measure progress in adopting best practice. The exercise has provided us with valuable advice about the ways in which we can develop our customer service programmes and we will be using the REAL Service recommendations to develop our approach to customer engagement in the years ahead.

In the past year, we have been carrying out exercises to gain a better understanding of our customers’ satisfaction with our services, particularly with regard to contractors and supply work. We are pleased to report positive results so far and we will be doing more to establish satisfaction levels in the year ahead.

KPI

Customers	2006	2007	2008
Proportion of exiting market rented tenants rating Grainger's management service as good or excellent	60	65	63
Number of properties surveyed this year under the Warm Front/Miller Paterson initiative	445	2501	3996
% of above properties which have had insulation work done	28%	42%	19%*
Proportion of rent due that has been collected	99%	98%	99%
Rent loss due to voids as a percentage of open market rental value	6%	2%	3%
*Although fewer of our surveyed properties received work this year, the total spend was higher than in 2006/07.

Targets for 2008/09

• set up a system to monitor levels of market rented customer satisfaction against a range of indicators and set improvement targets for 2009/10; and
• 25% of relevant employees to receive customer service training.

* REAL SERVICE is a benchmarking group dedicated to helping the real estate industry improve customer service and generate improved property performance (www.real-service.co.uk)

Reduce our direct adverse environmental impacts, and help and encourage our tenants and customers to do the same in respect of the properties they occupy.

"In 2008 our Development division implemented a structure for monitoring use of recycled materials, energy consumption and waste. In addition we developed our new schemes to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes level 3. We also introduced energy meters into all new units. With this platform in place, 2009 will enable us to focus on improving metrics already achieved." Simon Ruck, Development Manager at Grainger

"Your donations in kind helped us to raise £970.00 in sales of furniture through our charity shop. This is the sort of cooperation that social enterprises like Emmaus and corporate companies like Grainger need to develop in order to support the destitute people in our society, particularly the homeless, and take responsibility for our environment for the future generations." Giorgio Salmistraro, Community Leader, Emmaus Greenwich

Key Highlights

• We have started to monitor the carbon emissions from energy use in our offices and business travel.
• All Grainger offices have some form of recycling with 90% of staff able to recycle paper, cardboard and plastic. 20% of staff have personal recycling bins rather than waste bins.
• 99% of construction waste from our Newlands Common development was reused on site.
• 66% of construction waste from our Hornsey Road development was diverted from landfill.
• 100% of timber purchased for developments was from Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sources.
• All newly developed homes are fitted with real time display energy monitors. These will be rolled out across our newly refurbished properties in our managed portfolio in 2009.
• In 2009, Grainger worked with the charity Emmaus to recycle and reuse 8,000kg of furniture and electrical items which would have otherwise been skipped and destined for landfill.
• 225 members of staff saw our environmental road show presentation.

Targets for 2008/09

• further develop last year’s employee awareness programme by identifying a network of sustainability champions throughout the offices and working with them to develop environmental initiatives.
• achieve 75% waste diverted from landfill at the Newlands Common development in the target year.
• develop minimum environmental standards for commonly used refurbishment and development materials. and
• train 25% of Grainger’s property managers to deliver energy efficiency advice to tenants in 2008/09.

Seek to understand the needs of the communities within which we operate, and positively contribute to their well-being

At Grainger, we have always had a commitment to working in a responsible and positive way. We have found that we can deliver on this commitment by forming links with charities such as Shelter and Business in the Community. We have been honoured to welcome those affected by homelessness into our organisation on work placements and we have combined this with sustained donations to Shelter by designating them as our charity partner in previous years. We have worked with Shelter to contribute to seminars and papers on housing policy and policy discussions, particularly in respect of the private rented sector.

We have also been mindful of our responsibility to engage with those communities in which we carry out development work and have aimed to go beyond the statutory requirement in these situations. Our focus for the year ahead will be on encouraging our employees to become involved in volunteering activities. Our people have much to offer the wider community and can help us to foster closer relationships with our neighbours across the country.

KPI

Community	2006	2007	2008
Money raised for charity of the year (Shelter)	£47,138	£82,859	£72,998

Targets for 2008/09

• achieve a minimum of 20% of employees dedicating at least one working day per year to a volunteering activity.

Safeguard the health, safety and welfare of our employees, and where possible that of our tenants, contractors, visitors, clients and the general public.

KPI

Health and Safety	2006	2007	2008
RIDDOR reportable accidents and incidents (employees)	0	0	0
RIDDOR reportable accidents and incidents (contractors)			0
RIDDOR reportable accidents and incidents (subcontractors)			2
Non-reportable accidents (employees)			10
Pollution Incidents	0	0	0
Number/value of Health and Safety fines			0
Whilst we publicise subcontractor RIDDOR reportable accidents and incidents, it is very difficult for us to actively manage Health and Safety at this level. We ask that all of our contractors are CHAS* approved and that they manage their own contractors in a way that will minimise Health and Safety incidents. However, the indirect nature of our control means that it is challenge to manage and monitor at this level. * Contractor’s Health and Safety Assessment Scheme

Targets for 2008/09

• develop and implement a Health and Safety performance management reporting and benchmarking framework referencing industry benchmarks and best practice; and
• deliver an average of four person hours of Health and Safety related training to employees across the business in 2008/09. We will publicise our reportable accidents and our non-reportable accidents for employees and contractors on an annual basis. We aim to achieve zero reportable accidents for Grainger staff and Grainger contractors (this does not include subcontractors).

Engage proactively with prioritised suppliers.

We have made good progress with our procurement analysis project and we look forward to incorporating environmental assessments of our more significant contractors next.

KPI

Supplier	2006	2007	2008
Average payment term from invoice date	30 days	18 days	19 days

Targets for 2008/09

• develop and launch a clause to be inserted into contracts for developers/contractors to require the reduction of waste, energy and water use at development and refurbishment sites and the use of sustainably sourced materials; and
• develop a programme of contractor and supplier engagement to reduce waste and increase recycling at developments and refurbishments.

Maintain high standards of business conduct, and secure long-term sustainable returns for our investors.

"We regularly meet with our major investors in order to keep them up to date with our results and recent announcements whilst also providing them with an opportunity to ask questions. We are pleased that several of our main shareholders have held their investments for a number of years." Andrew Cunningham, Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director

Targets for 2008/09

• following the success of our engagement exercise with F&C Asset Management, proactively engage with another major investor and develop a system for monitoring how this exercise has contributed to the development of our CR strategy.