Shanks is a diverse and wide-spread company with around 4,000 employees located at in excess of 100 sites. We rely heavily on the competence, motivation and abilities of our people to ensure compliance with our environmental permissions and maintain the effective and safe running of our operations.

At its most basic level, employee well-being is a health and safety issue and we have always been aware that we operate in a potentially high risk sector. The company has reported publicly on accident performance for more than 18 years and understands that such statistics require a long term approach to establish trends. Since 2001, while there may be year-to-year variations, pleasingly, this trend is firmly one of the improvements.

At a more complex level, issues such as employee communication, dignity, diversity, business ethics and culture are all part of employee well-being.

All issues cannot always be demonstrated by data. However all of our employment and training policies are compliant with relevant national employment legislation and regulatory obligations. The Group is an equal opportunities employer and full and fair consideration is given to applications from, and the continuing employment, career development and training of disabled people. A culture of two way communications is actively promoted and trade unions, works councils and other employee groups are involved wherever appropriate. At a Group level the approach taken is clearly outlined in our CR Policy.