Employees

Employee Engagement

Having a strong foundation of engaged, aligned and safe employees is key to creating long-term value for our customers, shareholders and employees. There is strong evidence of a link between engaged employees and organizational performance.

We are proud to have built a solid foundation of employee engagement. NiSource has been recognized repeatedly as a national high performer in employee engagement and company performance, and we are working hard to continue to improve.

Our employee engagement survey asks employees to rate key factors driving both employee engagement and organizational success, such as communication and coaching; involvement and commitment; recognition and rewards; personal development and growth; and execution and business results.

The overall engagement level for NiSource in 2011–the percentage of employees with positive responses on key employee engagement factors–was 74 percent, up three percentage points from 2010. Our participation rate in the survey was a record 96 percent. Six survey items improved meaningfully from 2010, including:

• I would recommend NiSource to a friend as a good place to work
• My work group values differences among employees, such as age, race, gender, family status, veteran status, national origin, disability or sexual orientation
• I am satisfied with the recognition I receive for doing a good job
• I am proud to work at this company
• I have the opportunity for personal development and growth at NiSource
• I feel valued as an employee of NiSource

Zero items declined in favorability with any significance. The highest-rated item was “People in my work group take personal responsibility for safe work practices.” For 2012, our goal is to maintain best-in-class overall engagement levels and survey participation rates, while making sure that every surveyed work group completes post-survey action plans.