Looking after our people

The success of our company is rooted in the dedication, skills and care of our people. Bupa is committed to ensuring that they have the best possible environment in which to work and develop.

Listening to our people

For our customers, Bupa employees are the face of the company and they have a valuable contribution to make to the way we do business. So we make sure we listen to them.

Every year we carry out a survey and ensure that all views expressed by employees are properly evaluated with follow-up actions taken.
Through our One Life scheme, we encourage our people to generate ideas and reward those who improve business performance, customer care and service, employee satisfaction, environmental focus and community relationships. In 2007, Bupa received 1,890 suggestions from employees. We implemented 29 percent of these ideas, delivering more than £3 million in financial benefit – six times greater than the cost of running the scheme, as well as hundreds of other non-financial improvements. In addition, nearly 2,500 employees were recognised for exceeding expectations in relation to our business values.
We also invite feedback from our people through our monthly magazine, Bupa World, our main internal communications method.

Developing potential

Everyone benefits from a workforce that reaches its full potential: if our people are stimulated and fulfilled, customers receive the highest possible skill and attention and Bupa continues to grow. With this in mind, we provide regular feedback, clear guidance on management best practice and core competencies, and generous access to training and development opportunities.

Equal opportunities

Bupa is committed to an environment which will attract, retain and motivate our people. The principles of equal opportunity are firmly integrated in our human resources policies and we welcome diversity as a competitive advantage in our business.

The aim of our equal opportunities policy is to ensure that every applicant to, or employee of, Bupa is assessed for employment, promotion and development solely on the basis of personal merit and qualifications regardless of sex, race, disability or age.

We monitor our performance and audit annually to ensure our policies and practices provide the framework essential to equality at work.

Encouraging diversity

A diverse and inclusive workforce attracts talent, reflects Bupa’s customer base and makes good business sense. Bupa measures its race, gender and disability ratio and uses the data to shape policy. At the end of 2007, of those UK employees surveyed, 27 percent were from ethnic minorities, compared with 20 percent in 2006, 81 percent of employees were female, the same ratio as in the previous year and 1.8 percent of the workforce had disabilities, up from 1.6 percent. Bupa is also a member of several leading diversity organisations.

In 2007, Bupa committed to focus on two diversity areas, disability and mental health. Our Spanish business, Sanitas, won a national award for its products and services for disabled people and sponsored a new Chair to foster R&D and innovation projects for disabled and long-term care patients at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.