Growing our workforce

Investing in our people and culture remains an enabler of our business strategy and 2030 ambitions.

Our workforce of 2701 across our Business Units within 4 geographic locations is supported by outstanding leadership who create the right environment for our employees to perform, delivering for our customers and communities. It's been an exciting year where we have balanced both the short-term operational needs with planning for the longer-term workforce goals.

In a year of maturing our programmes and processes, we have improved our working practices across all aspects of our agenda. We have evolved our approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into a wider focus on nurturing a culture we can all be proud of. We have listened to our workforce in more ways than ever before and worked hard to make the changes that they feel are most important.

We have used our talent processes to identify who, how and where we can develop our organisation, creating ever stronger talent pipelines which develop the skills we need and offer attractive careers for our employees. And we never forget the customers and communities we serve through our focus creating a positive impact on them. This social value includes key partnerships that have impact in the charity and Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) education sectors.

We hold true to our five commitments of:

A fair and equitable workplace
Enhancing our culture
Having an engaged workforce who inform our decision makingCreating compelling careers
Supporting our communities

These commitments plant the seeds today for tomorrow's growth.

We are committed to a fair and equitable workplace

We are proud of the improvements over the past five years to develop an inclusive culture, achieving 32% female representation in early FY25. Our prior corporate target of 33% females in Senior Management Positions by 2027 was retired this year having served its original purpose. Our evolution of the DE&I agenda into a focus on culture & employee experience allows us to focus on 'doing the right thing' for all employees. We defined two aims for our work in FY25 and beyond.

We will always be an organisation where merit is recognised and rewarded
All our people decisions will be fair and unbiased, fostering an environment where everyone can succeed

Our leadership now use this as the bedrock for our decision making to drive a fair and equitable experience for all our employees.

We are committed to enhancing our culture

Our ambition is to become a £1B revenue business in 2030. To achieve this our culture must align all employees to the challenges and opportunities ahead. Specifically on maturing our journey to zero harm, enabling our business units move from calculative to proactive over time. Partnering with an external culture consultancy, we started a process to analyse our values-based culture, and we will develop our enhancement actions in FY26, regularly evaluating our progress as we head towards 2030.

We are committed to having an engaged workforce who inform our decision making

Engaging with our employees remains a critical approach for us. Our local engagement tools and board engagement sessions provide us with actionable insights to make the changes that are important to our employees. By empowering line leadership in this approach, we are building trust and strong working relationships in all teams across the group. At board level, Laurie Bowen, Chair of the Remuneration Committee, visited Roke (UK), Kilgore (USA), Ardeer (UK) and CSES (USA). Meeting with over 100 employees, she received consistent feedback on the efforts leadership are making to deliver transparent communications to the workforce and the pride that employees feel about how our products and services are making a difference to our customers and end users. Feedback on growth and modernisation highlights that we can still do more to communicate our journey with employees and that they have insights on how we can continuously improve. We monitor all engagement priorities at the local and board level and use this to inform our decision making.

We are committed to creating compelling careers

Our approach to Talent Management is aligned to our growing organisational needs. We have seen an 83% increase in the number of key roles we reviewed, to develop the capabilities and leadership bench strength needed to grow. Our development processes continue to match needs to solutions though both our corporate development programmes and individual niche skills and experience needs. FY25 saw several high potentials progress their career into more senior positions, as well as welcoming new external talent into key leadership positions.

Our Early Careers programmes are delivering the next generation of our leadership. 56 active apprenticeships are developing critical skills across the group, whilst 39 graduates move through our two-year development programme. These academy programmes will continue to evolve as we scale and grow our workforce over the coming years.

We are committed to supporting our communities

Our partnerships with STEM and charitable organisations allow us to have social value impact in our communities. Our support to the Institute of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Future Talent Awards enables those from socially economic deprived backgrounds to access financial support to gain a university education. And our numerous charitable events such as Ride to Ypres allow our employees to make a direct contribution to organisations supporting our veteran communities.