Code of Ethical ConductDiversity, Equity and Inclusion | Succession Planning | Employee Development and Training  | Employee Health and Wellness | Total Rewards Strategy | Employee Engagement | Employee Concerns | Union Connections


Updated: April 2023

Our more than 5,800 dedicated employees strengthen our company with their skills, experience and diverse perspectives.  Several factors will impact the APS employee of the future. Many are approaching retirement, making transfer of their knowledge and experience a top priority. As our industry adopts new technologies and our customers’ needs evolve, employees will need to be technically and technologically fluent. Changing demographics are reshaping how employees think about and structure their careers—placing a growing emphasis on continuous training, targeted experiences and networking opportunities that broaden their experience.

We recognize that the next generation of employees has unique career expectations, and our business is evolving to accommodate the changing workforce. We are taking steps to support the changing needs, skills and priorities of our employees. We also continue to develop strategies to attract and retain highly-skilled employees, and ensure they remain engaged during this time of change. For these and other reasons, our employees have an average tenure of about 12.5 years. 

 

Code of Ethical Conduct

Our Code of Ethical Conduct (Code) serves as a guide for how we live the APS Promise. It demonstrates the actions and behaviors that will enhance ethical decision-making and strengthen our culture. The Code covers a variety of topics including company assets, business courtesies, ethical conduct, conflicts of interest, reporting and retaliation. The Code applies to all employees and Board of Directors. We expect contractors, business partners, suppliers and other third-party agents to follow similar principles when working with or on behalf of our company.

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Ethics Training. We require our employees to complete annual online training on our Code of Ethical Conduct. Upon completion of the training, employees are asked to acknowledge having read, understood, and agreed to comply with the Code of Ethical Conduct.

Governance. We use a strong system of governance to establish our policies and standards for ethical conduct and ensure compliance. Our Code supports our principles, policies and goals for paving the way to a more reliable, affordable and clean energy future. The Corporate Governance and Public Responsibility Committee of the board is responsible for reviewing and assessing the Code.

Link to Code of Ethical Conduct.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a key force driving the APS Promise and Principles. Inclusivity is integrated within each of our cultural principles and behaviors. By taking actions to include every employee, we create a culture of trust that allows us to embrace diverse perspectives, create psychological safety for challenging respectfully, and uniting as a team.

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At APS, we believe that belonging matters. When we feel seen, heard and valued, we can more effectively unite behind our APS Promise.We create this sense of belonging through our commitment to inclusion, which involves embracing the unique perspectives of each employee. True inclusion brings greater appreciation for our diversity. This allows us to equitably leverage our powerful workforce so we can successfully bring our APS Promise to life.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is demonstrated in numerous ways, internally and externally, including: Multi-Year DEI Strategy and Roadmap. In 2021, we launched a comprehensive DEI strategic roadmap to provide clarity around our DEI efforts. The strategy was created with input from key stakeholders throughout the Company and incorporated the extensive, candid feedback received from the Listening Sessions with executives held annually. The DEI Strategy focuses on eleven key areas, which are organized into three primary focuses: Alignment and Accountability, Workforce Evolution, and Leveraging Connections. The eleven focus areas are internally facing within APS, and externally facing in the communities we serve.

DEI Governance and Advisory Groups. Our Inclusion Council includes a Steering Committee and Executive Advocate group. We also launched a DEI Employee Advisory Council. This group of more than fifty employees from diverse business functions and organizational levels provides feedback on DEI plans, initiatives, and projects and helps brainstorm about effective ways to incorporate DEI at APS. Input from this group is shared by the DEI Team with the Inclusion Steering Committee and Executive Advocate group.

DEI Education and Learning. The goal of our education efforts is to bring inclusive leadership education to the business unit leadership teams covering topics such as cultural competence and unconscious bias. We launched a DEI self-paced module for all employees explaining how cultural competence drives inclusion of diverse groups and conducted cultural competence assessments with our inclusion council groups. In addition, held listening sessions with employees to learn about what matters most to them.

Robust, Long-Standing Employee Network Groups. Our self-organized Employee Network Groups (ENGs) were formed to encourage employees to challenge themselves, develop additional skills and advance within their chosen fields. The Company supports 10 employee networks that enable employees to connect with one another and promote career development: These groups are open to all APS employees and promote engagement, inclusion, and leadership opportunities.

Ongoing Community Partners for Recruiting Diverse Talent. APS partners with the following organizations to recruit diverse talent into the company’s internship and emerging talent pipelines: American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Hispanic Business Student Association, National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Student Veterans, Women's Business Leaders Association at Arizona State University.

Support for Individuals with Disabilities. APS has initiated a pilot program with the Precisionists, Inc. to bring more neurodiverse talent into APS roles and projects. The Precisionists, Inc. is a national company focused on creating 10,000 jobs for people with disabilities over the next decade, by providing industry best practices for delivering administrative and technology services performed through teams which include individuals with disabilities.

Recognition. Recently, the company’s efforts to build a diverse, inclusive environment have received recognition such as the 2021 Inclusive Workplace Award a joint accolade from the Diversity Leadership Alliance and Arizona Society of Human Resource Management. In addition, we remain committed to recruiting, hiring and developing top talent with a focus on increasing diversity and creating opportunities for historically underrepresented populations. We continue to focus on hiring diverse employees as well as hiring employees from our veteran community.

Overall Employee Diversity 2022

  • 35% of employees are ethnically or racially diverse
  • 26% are female 
  • 15% are veterans

New Hires in 2022

  • 44% were ethnically or racially diverse 
  • 40% were female 
  • 7% were veterans

Read our Consolidated EEO-1 Data Report covering diversity statistics.

Succession Planning

We are committed to identifying APS’s long-range organizational needs and cultivating internal talent to meet those future needs. Succession planning helps ensure we can meet the future needs of the organization by assessing and developing employees identified as successors.

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Through a strong focus on succession planning, we ensure that our company is prepared to fill executive and other key leadership roles with capable, experienced employees.

We conduct annual and ongoing succession planning conversations, and support successor talent identification, development, and transition. We also regularly review and update our succession plans to ensure that qualified internal individuals are in place to move into critical positions and, when necessary, augment plans with strategic external hires. We have strategically selected successors for our management team, whom we are confident will lead our company successfully.

In addition, we ensure that each business unit has talent management strategies and development plans to meet its future leadership needs. Effective succession planning helps us identify employees with leadership potential and allows us to evaluate gaps in knowledge, skills, or experience that need to be addressed before those employees can move into leadership roles.

Learn about Pinnacle West Board Succession Planning Practices.

Employee Development and Training

We focus on attracting and developing a skilled workforce. To attract and retain top talent, we provide formal professional development programs through blended learning education and leadership training.

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Professional Development. Our employees have access to various training and development opportunities, including leadership academies, rotational programs, mentoring programs, industry certifications and loaned executive programs. Key activities in 2022 include:

Leadership Academy. Graduated 138 individuals from our three academies (Leadership Academy, Impact and Influence Academy, and Strategic Leadership Academy).

Learning and Development. Supported our modern learning culture by continuing to offer on-demand learning to our leaders and program participants, who collectively completed over 9,700 development modules.

  • Our Learning and Development organization was recognized as a top 100 training organization globally, receiving our third-annual APEX Training award from Training Magazine.
  • Empowered 30 director-level leaders through the Advancing Strategic Foresight program to develop future scenarios leveraged by the Officer team in strategic future planning.
  • Equipped 153 leaders to access the greater capacity of their teams through the 6-week Multipliers Leadership Learning Journey.

Talent Pipelines. Talent pipelines help sustain our skilled workforce. Pipeline programs include our pre- apprentice and rotational programs. Additionally, our recruiters target specific colleges and programs of study that we have identified as talent pipelines. Key activities in 2022 include:

Internship Program. 54 summer interns across the company.

  • 63% of interns were diverse.

Apprentice Programs. 131 Pre Apprentices and Apprentices in the programs 27 of whom were hired for the programs in 2022.

  • 43% of apprentices were diverse.

Incoming Engineer Programs. New Engineers in Operations Program (Generation); Legacy Engineer Program (Palo Verde); Rotational Engineer Program (Transmission and Distribution).

Enhanced Talent Analytics and Insights. Launched Microsoft business intelligence platform to better understand applicant demographics, inform recruitment marketing, and improve the customer experience for both leaders and applicants.

Strong Commitment to our Communities. Implemented talent programs that support Arizona communities and aim to increase racial and ethnic diversity with our workforce: U.S. Department of Defense Skill Bridge veteran hiring program, ElevateEdAZ Job Shadow Program for high school students, and the Arizona Latino Student Mentorship.




Employee Health and Wellness

At APS, we care about the wellbeing of our employees. We know happy, healthy employees are more engaged, more productive and more satisfied. That is why we encourage employees to participate in the Total Wellbeing program.

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Total Wellbeing inspires employees to take charge of their physical, financial, emotional and social wellbeing by providing tools to invest in their wellness and have fun while doing it. Employees can learn more about their wellbeing and how they can improve it when they participate in challenges and coaching. Challenges are tailored to employees based on their activity interests and interactions with the Total Wellbeing platform. Employees can also interact through the social channel and give encouragement and support to other participants through the Cheers channel.

Total Rewards Strategy

We offer a flexible, inclusive and evolving total rewards program that delivers on the APS Promise by providing current and future employees the support they need at various stages of their life and career.

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As part of our rewards strategy, we complete annual market analyses that ensures we are offering a competitive pay structure. We consider several factors including internal equity and external market factors. Our robust Total Rewards package includes the following:

  • Competitive base pay
  • Short-term incentives
  • Pay-for-performance
  • Flexible work schedules and remote work for certain eligible positions
  • Career development opportunities
  • Medical and prescription drug plans
  • Health savings account with company contribution
  • Company paid short-term and long-term disability coverage
  • Company paid life and AD&D coverage
  • Vision and dental plans
  • Wellness program
  • Comprehensive behavioral health programs including an EAP with 10 visits per year
  • Generous paid time-off plan starting at 160 hours per year
  • Eleven paid holidays a year
  • 401(k) plan with company match
  • Pension plan and retiree medical/life plans
  • Paid parental leave
  • Caregiving support program and paid caregiver leave
  • Mother's rooms
  • Tuition reimbursement program

Employee Engagement

An annual employee experience survey and focused quarterly pulse surveys, administered by a third party, enable us to gather employee feedback, identify opportunities for improvement and compare our performance to other companies. 

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Through the quarterly pulse and annual employee experience surveys, we track our Employee Experience Index (Index), a set of seven questions that encompasses some of the more essential elements of a positive employee experience, including recognition, career development possibilities and pride in the organization. In 2022, we received responses from over approximately 72% of our employees for our employee experience and pulse surveys. 83% of those responded positively to the underlying items in the Index, which compares favorably to 81% for our energy/utility benchmark.

Based on survey results, business units and individual managers are encouraged to take actions to improve the employee experience. In response to past surveys, we have launched enterprise-wide initiatives focused on improving communication between employees and management as well as removing obstacles that prevent job success. Other initiatives driven by the survey have given employees more access to leadership and improved meeting efficiency. Our cross-functional Employee Engagement Council focuses on improving employee recognition across the organization. 

Employee Concerns

Multiple avenues for resolving concerns are available to employees, including pursuing resolution through the chain of leadership, Human Resources or the Ethics Office.

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In addition, Palo Verde Generating Station employees may also contact the Palo Verde Employee Concerns Program, programs under Palo Verde’s integrated issues-resolution process or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. All employees receive annual ethics training on processes and channels available for filing concerns. In addition, the Ethics Office provides a third-party administered website, helpline and phone app for anonymous reporting of concerns.

Union employees have a four-step process to file and resolve grievances as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement. Employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement also have a process to file and resolve grievances as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement.

Union Connections

Maintaining strong, long-term relationships with our union members is important to our success. APS has nearly 1,200 employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 387.

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In March 2020, members of the IBEW Local 387 voted to ratify a three-year extension of a collective bargaining agreement through April 1, 2023. As that agreement becomes amendable on April 1, 2023, APS and the IBEW Local 387 have been actively engaged in negotiations since November of 2022 with the intention of having a new collective bargaining agreement in place on April 1, 2023. We expect a continued positive, collaborative, working relationship with the IBEW Leadership and our represented union employees in pursuit of our common goal of delivering safe, efficient and reliable energy to our customers.

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