People Culture and Engagement team at United Utilities
Amanda Phillips – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Manager
07703 395678
Warrington, Cheshire
Tell us about yourself (bio), what you’ve been through and what you have achieved (5000)
I have worked within the water industry and United Utilities (UU) for the past 16 years. My career at UU started in 2008 as a HR secretary and since then I have worked my way around the organisation gaining knowledge and experience via roles in HR, employee engagement and employee communications. I have had responsibilities for such projects as the creation of an online HR self-service online portal, plus organisation of leadership events and the running of the company’s annual colleague engagement survey. This has ensured my stakeholder reach has included, colleagues, business area managers, senior leaders, executive and external partners.
In May 2017, my career took a further change when I made the move into customer services, with a particular interest in customers living in vulnerable circumstances.
Having been a carer myself for members of my immediate family, I’ve always been passionate about how people in possible vulnerable circumstances are treated by companies and their employers, having experienced myself the highs and lows of different types of customer service and support, plus, how a little help can go a long way for people and their families living with daily difficulties.
Until last year, I worked to promote the benefits of signing up to UU’s Priority Services Register, working and creating partnerships with many charities and organisations from around the region, using their expert knowledge and advice in helping UU to endorse the scheme to customers in the North West. My interest and curiosity also extended to new ideas and how those ideas (no matter how small) can help people that need that bit of extra support. In doing this, I also took the company through accreditation for BS18477 (ultimately becoming ISO22458) for inclusive service, an accreditation we have achieved for the past four years. Now the company is regarded as leading the industry for their care of its customers with additional needs.
After seven years, in July 2023, I applied and was successful in becoming the company’s first dedicated Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Manager. Using my experience and passion, my role is to now drive the company’s diversity strategy towards our ED&I goals for 2030, from employee training and supporting colleague networks, to recruitment and executive ED&I action plans. Previous to the creation if this role, the People Culture and Engagement team had achieved so much in the few years UU had focused on equity, diversity and inclusion. With the introduction of a new People Director, brought the vision of a dedicated role and has really driven me to help take their hard work forward in supporting our 6,200 employees (most of which are also our customers), so they can always bring their whole selves to work every day and be the best they can be, no matter their background, beliefs, gender or sexual orientation.
I really am extremely proud of working for a North West company, employing North West people that serve over seven million customers in three million homes, plus 200,000 businesses every single day.
Names & Job titles of team members (500)
Julie Newton – Head of People Engagement and Culture
Amanda Phillips – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Manager
Leila Thomason – Engagement and ED&I Project Support
Erin Thompson – Office Administrator
Please provide an overview of the work your team delivers (500):
We need fantastic people to help us provide great water for a stronger, greener and healthier North West. We want our team here at United Utilities to reflect the local communities we serve, with all colleagues feeling welcomed, valued and included, regardless of their gender, age, race, religion and belief, disability, sexuality or social background.
Traditionally, the utilities sector is male dominated. Therefore, we recognise the need to attract diverse and talented people with an interest in science, technology, engineering and maths. Having a focused approach to improving the diversity of our workforce will play a key role in ensuring we have the skills required to drive our business forward.
ED&I is becoming increasingly important, and we understand the huge business benefits it brings. We want our people to bring fresh ideas and really drive innovation forward during our next 5 year period… We are extremely proud and want to be an organisation that reflects the diverse areas it serves in the North West.
Our ED&I team are proud of how far we’ve come, and in our 2023 internal engagement survey 89% of colleagues said that United Utilities supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace – scoring higher than both the UK norm and Utilities norm benchmarks and recognising our drive to be an inclusive workplace of choice. As people director I take great pride in sponsoring the overall equity, diversity and inclusion plan, which sets out our bold, long-term targets to be achieved by 2030, and tracks its progress with the executive team.
We’ve been recognised as one of the top 15 FTSE company performers when it comes to women in leadership. At 44%, we’ve exceeded the 40% target for Women on Boards in 2023, set by the FTSE 100 Women Leaders Review.
For 2023, we were included once again in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, which tracks the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. We are one of 484 companies across 45 countries and regions committed to more equal and inclusive workplaces.
We’re pleased to have seen a positive improvement in our pay and bonus gap since we started reporting. Our mean gender pay gap is 4.7% and our median gender pay gap is 14.3%, showing the steady progress we’re making in improving the gender balance within our organisation
Please list any significant achievements made by your team since its inception (500):
The equality, diversity and inclusion team here at United Utilities strives for improvements within achieving equity, diversity and inclusion within the company, this is prevalent as since the inception of this key focus within the company we have made numerous key achievements. Please see listed below a select few of the significant achievements made:
- Within the 2024 internal engagement survey, it was presented that 89% of colleague’s stated that UU supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace, of which scores higher than both the UK norm and utilities norm benchmarks.
- We have been recognised as one of the top 15 FTSE company performers in regard to women in leadership, exceeding that of the 40% target to which we achieved a percentage of 44% for the women on boards in 2023.
- We have seen positive improvements in our gender pay and bonus gap, with the gender pay gap concluding a mean of 4.7%, and our median gender pay gap at 14.3%. All of which is a clear signifier of the steady progress towards greater equality of the gender balance within our company.
- 91% of female colleagues would recommend UU as a great workplace, alongside 94% of females suggesting inclusivity is present in the workplace.
- We have made numerous improvements in leadership with the recruitment of a pastoral support lead for our increasingly diverse apprentice programme, the appointment of our first ED&I manager, and the appointment of our first female CEO from within the company.
- We have made huge progress in building a pipeline of diverse talent through the access of recruiting our most diverse intake of graduates with 48% females recruited and 48% of recruitments being from an ethnic minority. Also, alongside this 33% of our apprentice intake in 2023 was female, highlights a huge achievement with a improved gender balance.
- We have introduced pivotal training opportunities with the inclusive leadership training programmes which have improved people managers understanding of the impacts and inference they have on inclusion, following this 98% of those who attended the training sessions suggested they would recommend it to others.
- Our team has made strive progress in evolving our workforce profiles, with the introduction of our ‘All About Me’ questionnaires which have captured relevant data under gender, ethnicity, religion and belief, disability, LGBT+ and social mobility. All of which has enabled us to develop our support for all workers at UU.
- We have collaborated with numerous partners and organisations such as multicultural apprenticeship alliance and Warrington disability partnership, these allows us to discover differing perspectives and ways of looking at our business and the staff, whilst also allowing extra access to specialist knowledge and skills.
- We have made commitments to support the 10,000 black intern programme with the aim of offering 125 placement over the next 5 years. 14 people so far have secured graduate placements with a further seven new interns starting in July 2024.
What impact has your team had on the organisation? (500):
The equity, diversity and inclusion team has made strive progress in increasing the equality within the organisation as seen above with the numerous achievements accomplished within the company. However, it is further important to recognise the impacts the ED&I team has had on the organisation, these ranging from increased career opportunities, increased worker support, colleague solidarity and improved education and understanding of key social inequalities within the company, thus with better understanding comes improved equality.
Career opportunities
Throughout the improvements made by the ED&I team, there has been much career opportunities produced, this is through the increased attraction of a diverse range of graduates and individuals to the wide range of graduate schemes and apprenticeships, thus increasing and building the organisation of key workers, whilst instilling a wider range of diverse individuals to the UU community. This is apparent through the formation of the first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion manager and collaborations with partners which encourages career opportunities such as the 10,000 black intern programme.
Colleague solidarity
There has been an increase in solidarity between colleagues within the company due to the heightened number of workers comfortable to share personal information with a 9% increase in colleagues sharing their struggles with disability or long-term health conditions, of which has increased by 7% since 2020 (previous to ‘All About Me’ survey). This shows a heightened comfort to share any personal impairments which in turn can impact colleague relations, flexibility and ableness, which as a whole with this understanding and work from the ED&I team has impacted the organisation by improving inclusivity.
Improved education and training
Essentially, within a diverse and inclusive workspace, morale, culture and employee engagement are increasingly likely to thrive, therefore likely impacting organisational performance.
Our ‘Inclusive Leadership Training’ designed for people managers, is hosted by leaders in diversity and inclusion legal training. With over 300 managers now attended, training dates taking us into 2025 are also full. This delivers training around:
- Inclusive language; conversations around diversity and inclusion
- Personal standards vs United Utilities’ standards
- ‘Effect’ on ‘working environment’
- Issues arising from social media
- Calling out inappropriate behaviour
- Your role as a manager
- Finding out about you with our ‘All About Me’ survey
Our ‘Disability Confident – Making Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace’ training is also delivered by an external provider (Warrington Disability Partnership’ and is aimed at people managers. This covers:
- Providing a better understanding of the legal term ‘disability’
- Exploring the barriers faced by disabled people in work and life
- Considering solutions to making reasonable adjustments in retention and recruitment
- Increasing manager’s disability confidence
