Introduction

"Our people are critical drivers of business success, and ultimately
determine the company’s approach to sustainability. It is paramount
therefore that we maintain high standards in terms of training, diversity,
remuneration, recruitment practices and overall business conduct
– inspiring them to remain committed to our collective vision and values."
Sanjeev Sharma, HR Director

2006 was a year of change. The ‘New Focus’ initiative resulted in our new structure refocusing around core business activities. The key aims were to:

• Refocus the decision making bodies within PRUPIM, creating an Executive Board to focus on business strategy, supported by a Business Operations Committee, a Fund Management Committee and an Asset Management Committee.
• Drive new business by focusing on developing new products and services, creating new opportunities and capitalising on our growing international presence.

To support the ‘New Focus’, we created separate Fund and Asset Management Teams and a new Marketing team.

PRUPIM has also formally launched a core set of brand/organisational 'qualities', which highlight the key strengths of PRUPIM and to an extent reflect our desired culture. Promotion of these brand qualities has started internally, with inclusion in a brochure distributed to all staff - 'What We Are and Where We are Going', within management development programmes, and also externally in our new marketing/external publicity material. A working party is currently examining ways to embed the brand qualities into every aspect of our normal business practice so they become an instinctive part of 'how' we do things within PRUPIM.

One new skills training and development initiative was launched in 2006. This aimed to provide recruitment interview training for all managers who are involved with recruitment. We continued to measure our performance in relation to training and development.

As in previous years, the HR agenda continues to evolve rapidly through tightening legislation. Throughout the year, regular employment law briefings were held with members of the PRUPIM Board to ensure that they were updated on changes in legislation, including that relating to equality and diversity.

For instance, in keeping with the Age Discrimination legislation which was introduced on 1 October 2006, we increased our normal retirement age from 60 to 65 thereby enhancing the references to age in our equal opportunities policy. To see further details of performance in relation to diversity, visit the diversity section of  'Our People' KPIs for 2006.