Employees

We’re not just about pipes, we’re also about people. Our employees are the face of the company and we could not deliver our services without them. Whether they work directly for us, our contractors or are in our supply chain.

It takes more than 5,000 of us to keep our network flowing – from engineers to leak detectors; scientists to financial experts, we are one of the largest employers in the North West. In addition, 10,000 people are engaged through our supply chain, meaning that we generate – either directly or indirectly – one in every 150 jobs in the region.

While we all do an important job, nothing we do is worth getting hurt for. Health, safety and wellbeing take precedence because our people deserve to go home safely every day.

We know that the more engaged, skilled and motivated our people are, the better service they provide to our customers. That’s why we’re committed to training, reward and recognition, and positive employee relations. We annually source feedback from colleagues on all aspects of working life to see how we’re doing, with consistently strong employee engagement scores tracking UK High Performance benchmarks.

We run our recruitment programme in a way that supports the region’s jobs and training agenda, and are committed to providing apprenticeships and graduate scheme places, with 51 apprentices and 14 graduates joining in our 2021 intake.

We rely on skilled and engaged employees to deliver our services, and must ensure skills are maintained across the generations through training and development. In 2021/22 we provided an average 22.15 hours per employee (FTE) of training and development at an average investment of £478.29 per employee (FTE).

Finally, each and every one of our colleagues is unique, and increasing the diversity of our workforce ensures we have access to a broader set of views. We want colleagues to enjoy coming to work, and feel valued, supported and respected when they’re here. Find out more about working for United Utilities.