NRG Energy 2020 Sustainability Report: Employee Engagement
Originally published in NRG Energy's 2020 Sustainability Report
NRG invests in the well-being of employees. We provide programs that holistically support physical, emotional, and financial wellness, allowing our colleagues the opportunity to take control of their well-being and focus on what matters most to them for a healthy, secure future. In 2020, this took on added urgency as we worked to provide resources, support, and reassurance for a workplace suddenly confronted with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Building a culture of transparency by continuously engaging in dialogue between leaders and employees is important to us. In 2020, management regularly asked our employees for feedback on how they were feeling throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the feedback received, we instituted work-life initiatives like waiving all fees for tele-health services, partnering with a childcare organization to enhance childcare availability for employees, arranging curb-side pickup of mail and essential technology items from offices to allow employees to work more effectively at home, additional mental health wellness programs — including training to be a Mental Health First Aid responder — and enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols at plants and offices where essential workers continued to work. We continued our annual survey of employees on their physical, emotional, and financial well-being and are addressing issues that surfaced. Finally, we established an ongoing cross-functional learning series called NRG IQ. These are short, virtual sessions hosted by different departments to showcase how each team contributes to our company’s purpose. The series is building our collective knowledge and enabling us to work together more effectively as one NRG.
Talent development
We deploy various talent development strategies and programs with the goal of ensuring a pipeline of leadership who can execute on our strategy and drive value for all stakeholders. Management regularly updates its leadership development and succession plans, including engaging with the Board on development plans and bench strength for key senior leadership positions. We also have
a structured program that allows Board directors to interact directly with individuals deeper in the organization whom management, through a robust talent assessment program as well as mentoring relationships, has identified as high potential future leaders. Our performance management tool emphasizes a continuous feedback loop among all our employees, and a robust online training curriculum covers topics such as leadership, communication, and productivity.
Valuing employees
We seek to provide compensation and benefits aligned with the median of a peer benchmark.
To ensure incentives are properly aligned with business needs and enable us to attract and retain qualified employees, the Board’s Compensation Committee actively reviews our total rewards programs, including benchmarking programs against peer groups, assessing the risks of the compensation program, and evaluating the design of the annual and long-term incentive plans. We offer full-time employees incentives designed to motivate and reward success. We continue to evaluate our offerings, taking into consideration the needs of our employees, to ensure they are competitive, and best serve our employees. Every two years, we engage an independent, third-party to benchmark our compensation and benefits programs against our peers and report the results to the Compensation Committee.
