New Possible’s British HR Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about delivering a world-class people experience.
In our new Sharing Success series, we interview British HR Awards Winners to shine a light on the inspiring initiatives that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we talk to Lee Kirton at E.ON, Winners of the 2024 ‘L&D Initiative of the Year’ category.
Introducing Lee Kirton
Lee is Leadership Development Lead for E.ON in the UK and sits within the wider People Development Hub. His main focus is on developing E.ON’s UK Leadership Team to equip them with the skills they need to deliver their strategy but also ensuring they have a capable and representative talent pipeline ready to step in to opportunities as and when they appear.
About E.ON
E.ON is one of the largest energy companies in the UK. Their core focus is to provide decentralised, green, and interconnected solutions that address customers needs and those of the environment as they work towards their net zero goals. They aim to lead the global shift towards new technology by working with customers to be more sustainable at home, helping companies to reduce their business carbon footprint and across communities to build smart and sustainable cities.
E.ON’s inclusive talent revolution
E.ON underwent a significant transformation in its talent management approach. Recognising the limitations of exclusive talent pools that attracted low gender and ethnic diversity, they shifted to open development and inclusion networks that put employees in the ‘driving seat’ of their own development. The success of this approach was far reaching and included greater female representation and ethnic minority representation (a 44% and 13% uplift respectively), and a 54% reduction in sickness absence across network members.
E.ON launched a number of L&D initiatives through their networks, including the Women in Leadership programme. This programme aimed to accelerate women into senior roles. It encompassed six modules covering topics from leadership identity to commercial credibility.
They also initiated the embRace Your Talent programme via their embRace Network to support the development of ethnic minority colleagues. This programme aims to break down barriers to career progression, including cultural bias and self-limiting beliefs, with the goal of improving promotion rates and increasing representation of ethnic minority colleagues at all levels of the talent pipeline.
Lee commented “We want our UK Leadership Team to be a reflection of E.ON as a whole, both in terms of gender and ethnicity. We have clear goals on where we want to be in the future and there’s a lot of hard work taking place to make sure we get there.”
When asked how these networks were introduced, Lee said “The networks were introduced to replace our 3 talent pools (rising stars, professional development and senior leader development) that were in place previously. We made sure the networks were up and running before we wound down the existing talent pools so there was always development offers available. The networks were chosen with key topics in mind that were strategically important to us as a company”.
A ’clear before and after effect’
140 women self-nominated onto the Women in Leadership programme, which ultimately resulted in 30% being promoted and 24% making lateral career moves. Overall, an impressive 90% of delegates successfully achieved the goals they had set for the programme.
E.ON has also observed the following impacts when comparing delegate survey responses before and after the programmes:
- Delegate confidence increase by 148%
- Understanding of their leadership purpose increased by 9%
- Clarity of personal brand increased by 11%
- Financial acumen increased by 13%
Overall, Judges commended a 'clear before and after effect' and were impressed by how E.ON effectively leveraged L&D to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What advice would Lee give to organisations that may be planning a similar transformation?
- Use data – we had real evidence that talent pools weren’t as optimal as we thought – promotions, representation, etc.
- Get some real advocates in influential positions - maybe those who have progressed outside of a talent pool process?
- Get solutions in place – we have a 24/7 digital offer available for each network, we’ve also introduced a talent market place to connect mentors and jobs/projects.
- Involve the Business – each network has a steerco which has Senior LT sponsorship, L&D representation and colleagues who are passionate on the subject.
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