Engaging our Employees

Employee engagement is a valuable indicator of how our employees feel about the way our company values and supports them. In our 2009 employee survey, our employees indicated that key drivers of their engagement are our corporate commitment to integrity, social responsibility and well-being, and their being empowered to make decisions and perform worthwhile work. We are formulating plans to address the key drivers and will measure our progress through our biennial employee survey.

We are committed to ongoing open and honest engagement with our employees. We place a priority on face-to-face communication, supplemented by video and Web technology to reach the widest range of employees throughout the organization. From quarterly town halls rotated at sites throughout our businesses to leadership sessions with content cascaded through the organization, we continually connect in ways that enable us to actively listen and engage. As one example, our Leadership/Visibility Safety Tours brought senior leaders to nearly 30 locations in 2009 to emphasize our commitment to safety.

With a geographically scattered employee base, we also use current technology in our communication vehicles. We work to give it a person-to-person feel with programs such as “Straight Talk,” a monthly video featuring CEO Greg Ebel; ”Inside Spectra Energy,” a monthly video about key topics around the company; and “AnswerU,” an intranet-based system providing senior leaders’ responses to employee-submitted questions.

Other vehicles we use include the Source, our intranet home for current news and company information; Houston Happenings, a weekly communication emailed to selected distribution areas; Matter of Fact, which is distributed to managers throughout the company on a monthly basis; and targeted email distribution lists.

Our 2009 employee survey results placed us 32 points higher than benchmarked North American Energy companies for senior management communications.