Workplace Practices

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

Every year, employees have the opportunity to anonymously voice their opinions on key company issues through our annual company-wide employee survey, People to People.

Questions pertain to employee attitudes on communications, teamwork, management practices, leadership and their level of satisfaction within the company. The results are reviewed with all employees by local management and shared with the unions. We act on results at departmental, divisional and company levels.

In 2005, the People to People survey program was postponed by three months - to January 2006 - so that Bell could focus all resources on competitive priorities. Results from this survey showed that our Employee Value Index, a key measure of employee satisfaction, rose to 65% from 63% in the previous survey. Employees gave improved ratings to questions about job challenge, autonomy to do their work and leadership from their supervisors. Key areas for improvement on which senior Bell leadership will act include improving our focus on the customer and better explaining the company's direction to employees.

PRIDE

Employees who feel good about their jobs and take pride in their work will usually perform at higher levels and deliver more valuable business results than those who do not. We believe that instilling pride is an underutilized but "learnable" leadership capability that can help Bell to succeed. We launched the PRIDE initiative in 2005 to identify Bell leaders who, through their behaviour, have the ability to motivate people day in and day out. Our Pride Community of Practice membership has grown to over 1,500 members and we regularly communicate their success stories within the company.

"Work-Out!"T sessions are an integral part of Pride. They are accelerated decision-making sessions empowering employees who are closest to an issue to develop solutions for it. Participants are directly involved in the implementation of recommendations. In 2005, we conducted 50 Work OutT sessions engaging over 800 front-line employees in the development of solutions and plans.

CODE OF BUSINESS CONDUCT

Our Code of Business Conduct defines Bell's fundamental principles of ethical and legal conduct that apply to all employees, officers and persons who are members of the Boards of Directors of Bell and BCE. Employees must read and sign the Code as part of their annual performance review. An online training course on the Code is available at all times for refresher training or for new hires. As part of Bell's ongoing corporate governance initiatives, the online training course has been updated to reflect revised policies and new content and will be redeployed to all employees in 2006.

EMPLOYEE PRIVACY

Bell is governed by the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act and has put in place safeguards for the collection, use and disclosure of personal employee information including the appointment of a Privacy Coordinator to oversee privacy management at Bell. Our efforts with regard to the protection of the personal information of both employees and customers were recognized in 2005 as first among the Top Privacy Policies in Canada.

TELEWORK ARRANGEMENTS

We had 22.2% more teleworkers in 2005 than in 2004. Of the 18,000 Bell employees who were equipped to telework, all of the approved or permanent teleworkers as well as the majority of occasional teleworkers had high speed service. Having high speed at home allowed employees to be much more productive while working away from the office.

COMMUNICATION

We are a company that believes in keeping employees very well informed and we have a number of internal vehicles to ensure timely, effective communications.

More info on Communication