Duke Energy CORP

Governance

Our employees are critical to the success of our company. Our Human Resources organization is responsible for our human capital management strategy, which includes recruiting and hiring, onboarding and training, inclusion, workforce planning, talent and succession planning, performance management and employee development. Key areas of focus include fostering a high-performance and inclusive culture built on strong leadership and highly engaged employees, building a pipeline of skilled workers and ensuring knowledge transfer as employees retire.

Our Board of Directors provides oversight on certain human capital management matters, primarily through the Compensation and People Development Committee, which is responsible for reviewing strategies and policies related to human capital management, including employee engagement and talent development.

BUSINESS

Employees

On December 31, 2024, Duke Energy had a total of 26,413 full-time, part-time and temporary employees, the majority of which were full-time employees. The total includes 5,109 employees who are represented by labor unions under various collective bargaining agreements that generally cover wages, benefits, working practices, and other terms and conditions of employment. Our workforce consisted of approximately 23.0% women and 20.6% people of color as of December 31, 2024.

The Company seeks to attract and retain an appropriately qualified workforce and leverages Duke Energy’s leadership imperatives to foster a culture focused on customers, innovation, and highly engaged employees. Our compensation program is market driven and designed to link pay to performance with the goal of attracting and retaining talented employees, rewarding individual performance, and encouraging long-term commitment to our business. Our market competitive pay program includes short-term and long-term variable pay components that help to align the interests of Duke Energy to our customers and shareholders. In addition to competitive base pay, we provide eligible employees with compensation and benefits under a variety of plans and programs, including health care benefits, retirement savings, pension, health savings and flexible spending accounts, wellness, family leaves, employee assistance, as well as other benefits including a charitable matching donation program. The Company is committed to providing market competitive and fair compensation and regularly conducts internal pay reviews, and benchmarking against peer companies to ensure our pay is competitive.

Duke Energy is committed to continuing to build a workforce that reflects the communities we serve while strengthening a culture of inclusion where all employees and customers feel respected and valued. Our goals include attracting and retaining the talent needed and rewarding performance to enable us to reach our strategic objectives. In all events all employees are hired or promoted based on merit. Employee-led councils open to all employees are also embedded in departments across the Company and focus on driving engagement, inclusion and belonging deeper into the employee experience. Leaders and individual contributors also have the opportunity to participate in voluntary training and facilitated conversations on insightful topics offered to further our commitment to building and enabling an inclusive work environment.

The Company also has 10 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) open to all employees, with 38 chapters and more than 6,800 employees participating. These groups focus on employee professional development and networking, community outreach, cultural awareness, recruiting and retention. They also serve as a business resource to the Company for advocacy and community outreach and improving customer service through innovation. ERG-sponsored forums include networking events, mentoring and workshops on topics such as time management, personal financial management, stress reduction, career planning and work-life balance.

Among other efforts, the Company has developed partnerships with community organizations, community colleges and universities to support our strategy of building a highly skilled talent pipeline reflective of the communities we serve.

Operational Excellence

The foundation for our growth and success is our continued focus on operational excellence, the leading indicator of which is safety. As such, the safety of our workforce remains our top priority. The Company closely monitors the total incident case rate (TICR), which is a metric based on strict OSHA definitions that measures the number of occupational injuries and illnesses per 100 employees. This objective emphasizes our focus on achieving an event-free and injury-free workplace. As an indication of our commitment to safety, we include safety metrics in both the short-term and long-term incentive plans based on the TICR for employees. Our employees delivered strong safety results in 2024, consistent with our industry-leading performance levels since 2018.