supporting team members

TELUS is dedicated to creating a high-performing and engaged TELUS team. This is being accomplished by providing the right tools, processes and support to our team members who play a vital role in our success. We seek to provide workplace programs that meet the professional and personal needs of team members. Fair, dignified and respectful treatment of team members, their skills, career goals and viewpoints are among our priorities. We are strongly committed to high ethical standards and to working and growing together in an inclusive way.

Listening to our team

Through our Pulsecheck survey, team members can share their opinions and feedback about TELUS. Survey results are shared with team members and provide an essential tool for shaping improvements in our workplace.

In 2006, TELUS engagement, which we measure through our Pulsecheck survey, was 65 per cent, an increase of two percentage points over our last survey conducted in 2004. This represents a statistically significant change for an organization of our size and acknowledges the effort and effective actions taken as a result of team member feedback. Through 2007, we will continue with focused initiatives to improve engagement, such as a comprehensive leadership training program, new career management tools and ongoing improvements to our work processes, tools and information. We are also striving to embed recognition of achievements and honest feedback about performance as an integral part of our daily work at TELUS. Additionally, we plan to conduct compensation alignment to ensure that our team members are being rewarded appropriately.

One further initiative we are undertaking to understand and improve team member engagement is moving to a more appropriate industry benchmarking of engagement. In 2007, our Pulsecheck survey will undergo several changes as we adopt a new approach to measuring engagement. Our new survey will use the same methodology as Hewitt Associates' Best Employers in Canada study, which will enable us to more easily benchmark against other employers. With our current survey, we can only compare our progress against internal benchmarks, which has limitations in a competitive employment market. The new method will use Hewitt Associates' standardized engagement questions and will replace our current five-point survey scale with a more challenging six-point scale. As a result, we must adopt a new concept of engagement and set new benchmarks and targets. Hewitt has estimated a starting point of 55 per cent for our new engagement metric. Based on this, we have set a 2007 aspirational engagement target of 60 per cent.

TELUS' Human Resources Internal Stakeholder Survey tracks the effectiveness and team member satisfaction of many workplace programs, services and tools. Survey results are used to help gauge the effectiveness of programs and identify areas for improvement in order to fulfill on our promise of enabling an engaged and high-performing TELUS team. TELUS Human Resources Stakeholder Survey result further supported the Pulsecheck results by indicating there is a need to focus on our ability to attract and retain talent.

Labour

In 2006, TELUS successfully concluded collective bargaining with the Syndicat Québécois des employés de TELUS (SQET), which represents approximately 1,000 unionized team members in Quebec. Changes benefiting these team members include variable pay based on company performance, lump-sum payments in 2006 and 2007 and a new defined contribution pension plan. A new job evaluation program has also been implemented as part of the collective agreement. The terms of the agreement are in effect until December 31, 2009.

The current collective agreement, covering approximately 13,500 unionized team members in TELUS wireline and wireless operations outside of TELUS Québec operating region, is in effect until November 19, 2010.

The two collective agreements with Syndicat des agents de maîtrise de TELUS (SAMT), the union representing some levels of management in Quebec, expire in 2007. Our goal in 2007 is to finish collective bargaining with the SAMT.

Workforce demographics

TELUS employs almost 32,000 people. The majority work in Canada; 4,962 team members are part of TELUS International, a TELUS subsidiary primarily operating in the Philippines.

Union representation

TELUS team members are represented by three unions - the Telecommunications Workers Union, the Syndicat Québécois des employés de TELUS and the Syndicat des agents de maîtrise de TELUS. The number of unionized team members increased slightly in 2006 due to expanding employment opportunities in emerging telecommunications markets.

Grievances

The increase in cases filed in 2006 is as a result of a higher number of individual grievances rather than policy/group grievances being filed by the union. This has occurred exclusively in B.C. Policy grievances are grievances related to a general issue that can be resolved/settled with a general remedy (i.e., issues surrounding job evaluation resolved by implementing a new job evaluation system). Group grievances are those submitted by two or more individuals who are affected by a single issue at the same time. The top three grievance issues in B.C. influencing this trend are vacation, time-off and job posting.

Feedback from spirited teamwork sessions

Spirited teamwork – stronger together

In 2006, TELUS focused on building a stronger community of teamwork, through the spirited teamwork - stronger together campaign. This collection of activities and resources was designed to help the TELUS team move into an era full of promise and opportunity - one that is demanding, but also offers exciting growth experiences both individually and collectively. Spirited teamwork - stronger together consisted of four main components: spirited teamwork sessions; support programs and resources; business unit activities; and individual responsibilities. Nineteen sessions were conducted across Canada - in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. More than 6,600 TELUS team members attended these sessions with 95 per cent saying it helped them contribute to spirited teamwork. The program also helped the TELUS team move past the challenges of the previous year, the labour disruption, and fostered a mindset of engagement and focus.