Investing in Our People is Core to Our Success
Our people are at the center of our mission to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy. How we do our work is just as important as what we do. To maintain a sustainable workforce, Southern Company relies on a strong sense of values, encompassing a wide range of considerations, including our commitment to human capital, Code of Ethics and safety. Our uncompromising values and ethics are key to our sustained success, and we remain cognizant of what they mean to our workforce’s culture and well-being. They guide our behavior and ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of all we do.
Our Human Capital Pillars
- We believe in, and invest in, the well-being of our employees through a total rewards strategy that includes competitive salary, annual incentive awards for eligible employees and health, welfare and retirement benefits designed to encourage physical, financial and emotional/social well-being.
- Development and retention of our talent is a priority. New hires augment our existing workforce as we seek to meet changing business needs, address any critical skill gaps and supplement and diversify our talent pipelines.
- We are proud of our positive relationships with labor unions and support the rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association.
- We support human rights and are opposed to all forms of forced labor, child labor and other human rights abuses.
- Our employees, suppliers and partners are expected to act in a manner consistent with Our Values, Our Human Capital Beliefs, Our Code of Ethics and U.S. and international law.
Through these human capital beliefs, we demonstrate Southern Company’s dedication to our employees’ well-being and the rights of all people.
Moving to Equity
Southern Company’s Moving to Equity framework builds on years of work around diversity and inclusion. Focus areas include talent, work environment, supplier inclusion, civic engagement and community investment and social justice.
Safety
We value the health, safety, well-being and security of our employees, customers, contractors and communities, and we will not compromise an individual's well-being for any reason.
2023 Workforce Highlights
To demonstrate our commitment to human capital and all it encompasses, it is essential to transparently share information about our workforce demographics and data.
Coordination with Labor Unions
Constructive coordination with union leaders is critical to our business.
- Approximately one-third of Southern Company employees are International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (IBEW) members, and many of our contractors employ labor union members from nearly every craft within the North Americas Building Trades Unions (NABTU).
- As of March 1, 2024, Georgia Power and the IBEW Local 84 Union reached a milestone of having a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place for 100 years. This partnership has allowed us to work together to provide safe working conditions for our teammates to install, maintain and restore service to 2.7 million Georgia Power customers.
- Across the Southern Company system, we utilize an average of 61 million work-hours annually of craft labor (both internal and external resources), and 71% of those hours are completed by members of organized unions.
- Our coordination with organized labor allow us to work toward common goals on topics such as employee and public safety, reliability of our electric and gas systems, training and development, recruitment efforts, Just Transition and best practice sharing. These efforts benefit the communities we serve and provide sustainable jobs.
We recognize the right of our employees to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and recognize unions as the exclusive representatives of our unionized employees in discussions involving rates of pay, wages, hours of employment and working conditions.
Investing in Workforce Training
Southern Company’s operating companies are actively involved in workforce training and development to help ensure a skilled and motivated workforce for the energy industry and in the states where we operate. We actively collaborate with educational institutions, provide training opportunities and foster awareness about energy careers. We have initiatives designed to teach students as early as elementary and middle school about energy safety and others to reach high school and college students who are preparing to enter the workforce. We partner with trade schools, historically black colleges and universities, technical colleges and universities to offer programs that combine classroom instruction with hands-on practice in outdoor learning labs.
Examples of our workforce training commitment include:
- The Alabama Energy Infrastructure Training Network Alabama Energy Infrastructure Training Center and Network Announces Plans for Program Development
- Mississippi Power’s Workforce Development and Training Facility Mississippi Power Foundation invests $50,000 in Pearl River Community College’s Energy Academy
- Nicor Gas Career Academy
Workforce Accolades
We are proud to be recognized for our commitment to Intentional Inclusion by organizations such as DiversityInc and Forbes Magazine. DiversityInc has ranked Southern Company as a Top 50 Company for Diversity for eight consecutive years, for our efforts to hire, retain and develop women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ and veterans. Forbes has ranked us among America’s Best Large Employers and as a Best Employer for Women.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Alignment
Southern Company has mapped our corporate sustainability priorities to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework, indicating our alignment with a sustainable future.
