Our People
Stagecoach is a people business and it is the quality of our employees that ensure we can deliver a first-class quality of service day in, day out. They are crucial to our objective of attracting more people to public transport. None of this happens by chance. We invest significant time and resources to ensure we have the right people on board to deliver what our customers need.
We respect and value our staff, and we have a strong commitment to equal opportunities and partnership working with trade unions.
As a major employer, we also recognise the need for ongoing training and development, not just so our people can do their job, but so they can develop individually. In our UK Bus division, we have one of the best vocational training programmes of any UK Bus operator, designed to raise standards among and recognise the key contribution of our drivers. To date, some 60.9% of our UK Bus drivers have either achieved or are working towards the S/NVQ qualification. Our close focus on recruitment and retention has resulted in achieving a full complement of drivers. This has been assisted by improved pay, better training and mentoring schemes.
South West Trains achieved Investors in People status in September 2005 as a result of its huge investment in its employees to ensure they have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour to provide a first-class service to passengers. South West Trains’ centralised Recruitment Centre and the state of the art Operations Training Centre are continuing to deliver benefits to our employees and better service to our customers. South West Trains also has in place vocational training, support for managers, employee recognition programmes and round-the-clock open learning access for its staff.
In North America, we have set up a centralised driver training school, which has improved our recruitment and training processes. Our Canadian business has focused closely on improved screening of job applicants prior to training and this has resulted in improvements in the quality of employees recruited.
We are also looking to develop the managers of the future through our graduate recruitment initiative at Stagecoach UK Bus and South West Trains. Our engineering apprenticeship programme in the UK promotes careers through local schools and career development agencies. We have also worked closely with government-funded enterprise agencies to get the long-term unemployed back into work, because many have vital skills that are being overlooked.
Stagecoach wants to be there to help our people when they need it most. For example, at South West Trains we have a partnership with Care First, which offers an employee assistance programme that includes a 24-hour confidential counselling service and legal helpline.
We are one of a number of employers across the UK involved in a pilot scheme to research and test various ways to improve financial capability in the workplace. The multi-agency project - co-ordinated by the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”), the independent financial watchdog - involves offering our staff one to one surgeries and hard copy material. The workplace is seen as an ideal way to get information and education on finance to adults and active participation by employers is vital.The pilot is part of a nationalstrategy to improve access to information, advice and personal finance education, so that consumers are better equipped to make sound choices when looking after their money and their future financial security.
