Friday November 27 2015

Northern Powergrid Recognized for Supporting Customers and Communities

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News Release

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the network that delivers electricity to 3.9 million home and businesses across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, has scooped two prestigious awards.

The electricity distribution company has won CIPR PRide internal communications and community relations campaign awards for its work to support customers and reach out to young people by bringing the world of work into education.

Its ‘Team Powergrid: Hidden Heroes every day’ campaign engaged non-operational colleagues to step in to different roles during an emergency situation to support recovery efforts and customers. The campaign showed the power of its people to help the business to help customers in extraordinary circumstance such as severe weather damaging its network and causing power cuts.

With events and heroic imagery, designed by Scarlettabbott, displayed across the business, the campaign illustrated how Northern Powergrid staff come together to support customers when they need them most and engaged hundreds of staff into supporting roles.

Northern Powergrid won the community relations campaign award for its work with the Ahead Partnership, which aims to reach out to young people from primary school to graduate level to encourage more careers within the utilities sector and provide employees with volunteering opportunities.

As part of the ‘Make the Grade’ programme 70 Northern Powergrid employees participated in events to support young people in its operating area. Activities have included World of Work Days, interview and employability workshops and STEM* activities to pupils across Yorkshire and the North East.

The programme also included Northern Powergrid’s first Enterprise Challenge which taught children about fuel poverty, energy consumption and staying safe. Primary school pupils in Leeds were invited to come up with concepts for a Leeds Christmas Light that showed the importance of staying safe around electricity.

With six weeks to develop their designs, students pitched their final idea to Northern Powergrid at a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event. The winners from Hawskworth Wood Primary School were treated to a VIP event earlier this month to see their ‘Elf and Safety’ design officially illuminated as part of the Leeds Christmas lights switch on.

More than 1,600 youngsters have benefited from the partnership between Northern Powergrid and Ahead Partnership and further initiatives are planned for 2016.

Siobhan Barton, Northern Powergrid’s head of stakeholder and customer engagement, said: “Being shortlisted, then going on to win both awards, is fantastic recognition of the hard work by our employees and the local partnerships we’ve nurtured.

“The campaigns show how our ‘Team Powergrid’ ethos is being embedded into our business so we can continue to be there for our customers and support the communities we serve.”

Commenting on Northern Powergrid’s Community Relations campaign, CIPR said: “The judges were impressed that the communications activity has helped to give young people heightened awareness of the world of work and equipped them with valuable life skills, such as knowing how to apply for jobs and succeed in interviews. A worthy winner.”

It also described Team Powergrid: Hidden Heroes every day’ as “a well thought out and creative campaign with a clear objective to tackle a sensitive issue”. CIPR said: “Putting colleagues at the heart of the campaign was key to achieving buy-in across the workforce and promoting active engagement across all levels of the company.”

The winners were revealed at the CIPR Yorkshire and Lincolnshire PRide Awards on 26 November at Aspire, Leeds.

Media contact: Joanne Kerrigan, External Communications Manager or Dawn Parlett External Communications Advisor on 0800 402 0692