ELEXON Reviews

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback about your work experience and observations of ELEXON. You raised concerns that will, of course, be a worry to us especially as you have felt that working here was not an ideal experience for you, which we are disappointed to hear. It is tricky to cover everything you have mentioned so I am hoping that my response will address the overall issues you have raised. Our annual staff survey which is published on our website (https://www.elexon.co.uk/about/about-elexon/working-at-elexon/) did highlight some issues on the way we work, leadership and culture which is a concern for our senior managers. We hope to be moving in a positive direction but the staff survey has clearly highlighted that there are a number of areas that we must address to ensure that our staff continue to enjoy working here. After a number of years of improving employee engagement scores, we have to work hard as we certainly do not want to lose staff who can help us develop further as the demands on our services increase. We definitely want all staff to feel that they can be themselves and to promote ideas without any fear of criticism and this must be something that is led by example, particularly by senior staff. The staff survey is a particular opportunity for us to re-evaluate any assumptions we have and to work on addressing any issues our staff raise with us. As we do each year we have already started to address the comments raised in the latest survey. We are also keen to ensure that we take the opportunity to get feedback throughout the year rather than wait for an annual staff survey to tell us things that we should already be aware of and be addressing. Over the last quarter, we have been working with an external consultancy to review the way we operate and look at how teams and staff can work in a more fluid and flexible way. The review has now been completed and we are drawing up detailed plans of how to implement the recommendations. There are definitely opportunities to improve cross-department working and streamline our processes to give staff a greater chance to innovate and develop their skill-sets to meet our ever-changing working environment. Again, thank you for your feedback. We are concerned that your experience at ELEXON has not been a positive one for you and we will be working hard at taking your feedback on board as it is our strong intention and desire to continually evolve our culture so that it has a positive impact on our staff.

Wow, that is some interesting feedback for us to consider. However, before I do respond I need to look into some of the comments you have made to make sure I understand where the potential issues may lie and whether we are currently planning on addressing them already. However, I would still like to thank you for sending us your feedback because it is only by receiving such examples can we aim to improve on how we are as a company. ... Sorry about just publishing an initial reply above ... I wanted to check a few things before expanding on the initiatives we have across the business and hopefully addressing your concerns in more detail. I think we could describe 2019 as ELEXON’s year of change as we have established a new, progressive corporate strategy and are undertaking a significant review of our culture to ensure it supports both our customers and our staff. We have recently recruited a new Director of Strategy and Communications and she is leading this transformation. Our strategy aims to simplify processes, encourage more cross-functional team activity, enable innovation, reduce jargon by promoting “plain English”, and placing our customers and staff at the front of our culture and services. We recognise that we have skilled and talented people at ELEXON and we want to ensure that there are opportunities for them as the company evolves. We are also keen to retain staff so have introduced schemes such as staff mentoring and training and have undertaken a series of workshops to review our culture, increase collaboration and reduce silos where they could exist. I am pleased to say that our latest staff engagement survey is indicating that we are continuing to move in the right direction and the analysis from the independent survey company shows that we are now in the top tier of organisations who are delivering a positive working environment for their staff. In addition we recently achieved the silver standard within IiP, but that of course should not make us complacent and there is always room for improvement, particularly when reflecting on your feedback. There is a definite and obvious desire from the Directors to review the issues you highlight and I am confident that that desire will translate into positive change throughout the coming year and into the future. Once again, thank you for sending us your comments as it is through feedback that we learn and introduce change.

Hi, thank you for your advice. We love getting employee feedback about working for ELEXON, their day-to-day working environment, the Executive team and communications. Over the last year we have been working hard to improve cross team communication and the results of this year’s employee survey show an improved dialogue among teams. We understand that career progression in a small organisation with a flat structure is always going to be a challenge so we strive to mitigate this by providing our staff with interesting and challenging work and a good work life balance. We follow the wise words of American businessman Robert McNamara ‘Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.’