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BP: our business | |
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| The way we work is guided by values – integrity, honest dealing, treating everyone with respect and dignity, striving for mutual advantage and
contributing to human progress. These values are developed into policies that govern areas including health, safety, security, environment,
ethical conduct and business relationships. We use a system of risk management to assess the impact of activities on the environment, local economies and communities. Where appropriate, accountability for managing environmental and social impact is part of managers' performance contracts, with specific objectives and milestones. People's safety is of the highest priority. Managers are accountable for ensuring that safety risks are properly addressed, staff are fully trained and facilities are well maintained. We closely monitor our safety performance. The number of serious injury cases (resulting in our employees or contractors being away from work for a day or more) has dropped from almost 38 per month in 1999 to 21 per month in 2003. In 2003, we achieved the target of maintaining our 2002 performance while introducing many new workforce members through our acquisition of Veba, whose injury rate was historically higher than that of BP. Despite meeting this important target and reducing overall injury rates, we deeply regret to report 20 fatalities among our employees and contractors in 2003, compared with 13 in 2002 and 16 in 2001. The increased number is a serious cause for concern. Most involved transport-related incidents. We are therefore introducing a much tougher group-wide standard on driving safety, which we shall also recommend to our contractors. As a global organization, we believe our workforce, leadership and recruitment should reflect the communities and diversity within which we operate. We are continuing to focus on employing and developing local staff and leaders in our operations worldwide. 
Various programmes developed and successfully implemented in countries such as China, Angola and Azerbaijan have ensured that we continue to build the number of locally based employees. Our policy is to ensure equal opportunity in recruitment, career development, promotion, training and reward for all employees, including those with disabilities. All applicants and employees are assessed against clear criteria related to job requirements. Where existing employees become disabled, our policy is to provide continuing employment and training wherever practicable. BP's leadership is becoming more diverse. Now 15% of this group are female and 18% are of nationalities other than the UK or US (see chart). We strive to build an environment in which everyone can feel part of a meritocratic organization. In our most recent survey of employee satisfaction, six in 10 employees considered BP a place where people accepted a variety of ideas, perspectives and working styles. Seven out of 10 felt BP protected against discrimination and harassment and encouraged people with diverse backgrounds to succeed. We have a solid base to build on, but much remains to be done. During 2003, we made further progress in learning and development opportunities for employees. We continued to develop our internal leaders with the ongoing First Level Leaders programme, while piloting a Senior Level Leaders programme. We also created specialist academies to focus on two important sets of skills – project management, and sales and marketing. We continue to support employee share ownership with share plans in almost 80 countries. Our award-winning ShareMatch plan, in which we match BP shares purchased by employees, is running in over 70 countries. Communications with employees cover site events and group-produced media. These include global and local magazines, intranet sites, targeted e-mails and, most important, face-to-face communication. Team meetings are the core of our employee consultation, complemented by formal processes through works councils in parts of Europe. This communication, along with training programmes, enhances awareness of the financial and economic factors affecting BP's performance and contributes to employee development and motivation. We continue to emphasize the importance of doing business with high standards of ethical conduct. To enhance our focus on compliance with laws, regulations and internal policies and standards, we appointed a senior-level group compliance and ethics officer to establish a new centralized compliance and ethics function. In April 2003, we introduced a global employee concerns programme – OpenTalk – to give everyone in BP the opportunity to report possible breaches of company policy without fear of retaliation. Employees can raise issues, confidentially and anonymously, through an independent multilingual call centre, available 24 hours a day and by e-mail. During 2003, 258 reports were received and, where appropriate, action was taken. Staff in positions of responsibility annually review ethical issues arising during the year with their teams. They certify to their manager that their personal actions and those of their teams have complied with policy, and disclose any areas of possible non-compliance. On completion of the process, the group chief executive prepares his personal certificate on behalf of the company. We encourage open discussion, reporting and sharing of ethical issues. More than 500 ethics workshops were conducted worldwide during 2003 to provide awareness and training. 
We continue to apply our strong anti-corruption policy, including prohibiting facilitation payments and identifying and correcting any areas of non-compliance. We take disciplinary measures where appropriate. In 2003, this included the dismissal of 165 people for unethical behaviour, including fraud, theft and dishonesty. BP does not make corporate political contributions anywhere in the world and specifically made no donations to UK or other EU political parties or organizations in 2003. Promoting health awareness among our employees, contractors and local communities provides long-term benefits to our people and our business. During 2003, in many locations we increased our capability to assess health risks and implemented local initiatives. We responded immediately to the SARS crisis, providing health support and minimizing travel risks. No BP employees contracted the illness. |
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