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Engagement

Communicate openly and honestly with respect for our colleagues.

At United Utilities, we really value the thoughts, feelings and opinions of our workforce that's why we provide opportunities for colleagues to have their say in a number of different ways.

Every year, we run our annual Your Opinion Survey, which is measured through an colleague engagement survey provider called Willis Towers Watson. Willis Towers Watson are a leading provider in colleague engagement surveys throughout the UK.

In 2024, our engagement score was 81%, which is +2 higher than the UK Norm benchmark and equal to the Utilities Norm benchmark and the UK High Performance Norm benchmark. This year the survey response rate was a fantastic 88% which is our highest response rate since 2021.

Strong engagement also lends itself to low colleague attrition levels and that is reflected in our 6.8% colleague turnover for 2023/24.

Wellbeing is our highest scoring category at 93%, closely followed by Health and Safety category scoring 90%, reflecting the ongoing focus in those areas. We continue to achieve strong scores in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (87%) Your Line Manager (82%), Engagement (81%) and My Voice is Heard (80%).

The top scoring categories against the UK High Performance Norm, UK Norm and Utilities Norm benchmarks are Reward, Working Differently and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Companywide and localised action plans have been created and implemented following this year's survey, which are owned and driven by our managers and Engagement Champions.

We have over 400 Engagement Champions across the business who are individuals within our business areas who help managers to drive engagement across their teams. They help create action plans following the survey and regularly update their managers and teams on progress. Our Engagement Champions meet quarterly, where they hear business updates from senior leaders and the CEO. They play a critical role in supporting our overall engagement strategy.

We also have a Colleague Voice Panel which has been designed to provide an update to the ESG Committee on the progress made to establish how United Utilities brings the “colleague voice" into the boardroom, enabling us to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code which was revised in 2018, with the new provisions taking effect from 1 April 2019 in our case.