Company Ethos

McCarthy & Stone employees are central to the delivery of our business objectives. We employ in excess of 1,100 people and recognise that attracting and retaining employees is only possible if we create the right working environment and provide attractive reward mechanisms and opportunities for personal development.

Our approach to training and development is encapsulated within our Group Training and Development Policy, which sets out the key objectives of our training programme. We also have a corporate 'Career Development Matrix' which sets out the Company training, management skills training, professional development and advanced management training appropriate to different grades of employee within the Company.

We continue to encourage the use of Personal Development Plans and we aim to undertake performance appraisals for all employees annually. This includes career development plans and we provide training to all managers and employees involved to ensure the process is as effective as possible.

In recognition of our commitment to employees, we now have four Regions accredited to the Investors in People standard with Scotland recently joining the Midlands, Eastern and South East.

We aim to keep improving our dialogue with employees through various media including, regular corporate announcements, notice boards, public folders, team briefings, departmental meetings, the employee handbook and our staff magazine 'Signpost'.

It is clear that our investment in employees pays off. Every two years we carry out a comprehensive Employee Survey and this year's highlights include:

• Over 95% of respondents said they are happy in their jobs
• 74% of respondents felt that overall opportunities to progress within the Company were good or very good

We are continually seeking to improve employee satisfaction and we will be continuing to address those issues raised in the survey by employees as areas where we could improve.