A culture of openness
Our employees are vital to the success of AEP and we have made candid, respectful communication a hallmark of our employee relations. This openness is becoming ingrained in company culture, and CEO Nick Akins has emphasized that it will continue during his tenure.

We use the web and the company intranet site, AEP Now, to stay in constant communication with our employees, who can comment on internal blogs, including one written by the CEO called “Nick’s Notes.” Akins also meets at regular intervals with small groups of employees across the company; this initiative is called “Nick’s Network.”

The benefits of diversity
We value and celebrate the diversity of our work force and of the communities in which we operate. To us, diversity is about ethnicity, gender and age as well as the differences that our employees or community members bring in terms of experiences, ideas and opinions, all of which help to make the work environment, or  community, a richer and better place.

We track the advancement of females and minorities from craft-level positions to executive posts. Because of a slowdown in hiring and a comparatively low turnover rate in 2011, we did not meet our diversity staffing goals. We will continue to be deliberate in our efforts to fill positions, being mindful that demographics vary greatly across our service territory. Beyond that, we need to change the ways in which prospective employees view AEP. We want to be seen as a career path, not simply as a utility company.

In order to maintain diversity in our employee candidate pool, we have established strong relationships at universities with large minority and female populations, including Texas A&M University, Missouri University of Science & Technology, Howard University, Tuskegee University and University of Puerto Rico. We also have a partnership with Hard-Hatted Women (HHW), a nonprofit organization that is developing a pipeline of qualified female candidates for a variety of energy industry positions. We sponsored an information session with HHW in January 2012 about energy careers for women.

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are another valuable asset to help strengthen our work force diversity efforts. They support AEP’s values and goals, strengthen communication between AEP and its employees, provide a forum for exchanging new ideas and enhance the company’s desirability as a prospective employer. AEP’s ERGs are the Asian-American Employee Partnership, Hispanic Heritage Employee Resource Group, African-American Employee Resource Group and the AEP Pride Partnership. The last group, the newest to be formed, is a forum for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and their allies.

Our commitment to provide more business opportunities to small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses through our Supplier Diversity initiative remains strong. Adoption of a new supplier registration tool in 2010 and more educational outreach to the buying community will help us further strengthen our commitment.