2. FirstGroup plc
Leading Transport Operator in the UK and US:
Transport some 2.5 billion passengers a year
Revenues of over £6.7bn a year Approx 124,000 employees
US No. 1
57,000 yellow school buses
Greyhound intercity coach
services Transit management
& contracting
Vehicle maintenance &
support services
Carrying approximately 6
million students daily
89,000 employees
UK No. 1
23% market share
8,000 buses
Bus, coach, yellow
school bus and
rail replacement
2.5 million
passengers a day
23,000 employees
UK No. 1
Operating one quarter of the
UK passenger rail network
5 passenger rail operations
(4 franchises, 1 open
access)
Over 290 million passengers
a year
13,000 employees
3. UK Rail
• High sickness absence
• Low staff turnover
• Room for improvement engagement levels
UK Bus
• Low sickness
• High staff turnover
• Very poor engagement levels
The UK Picture
4. What are the challenges?
• Male dominated workforce
• Demographically middle aged men and their associated health
problems
• Very wide geographically spread workforce
• Fragmented Occupational Health Provision
• Business unfamiliar with the concept of wellbeing
• Dealing with wellbeing not seen as “the day job”
• Communication
• Monitoring what’s going on in the wide world of First
5. Tackling the challenge
Choose Rail as our pilot.
They have higher engagement levels and lower staff turnover.
Examine if focussing on wellbeing can have an impact on
sickness absence.
6. First Steps
• Health Needs Assessment
• Run Wellbeing weeks based on what needs assessment has
shown as important to our people
• Create Wellbeing Champions
• Tackle sickness absence
1. Fast track physiotherapy
2. Make EAP work for us as a psychological support and not
just a helpline.
8. Business recognised the impact positive
wellbeing has as:
•Engagement scores improved
•Musculosketal absence decreased by 20%
•Absence following trauma decreased by an average of 30 days
•Wellbeing weeks gained momentum and attendance at them
improved
•Staff suggestions around wellbeing became the highest level of
staff suggestions received
9. UK Rail Engagement in 2012
9
For the second year in a row, all categories measured in the survey have improved,
indicating good momentum.
− We have come a long way over the last few years. Engagement in Rail overall
is now 10 points higher than in 2009.
− Some of the areas that have improved the most are some of the most
important to our vision and values and impact directly on well being. Examples
are ‘the way we work together’ and ‘improved leadership’.
− We are seeing improved perceptions around respect, employee involvement
and line of sight.
10. 10
UK Rail 2012 vs. 2011
Ranked By Difference From Benchmark Favourable Scores
THE WAY WE WORK
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
OUR MANAGEMENT
ENGAGEMENT
COMPANY DIRECTION, GOALS AND VALUES
CUSTOMER SERVICE
SAFETY
COMPANY IMAGE & REPUTATION
MY MANAGER
2 Categories cannot be compared to this Benchmark Red / Green Difference Bars are statistically significant
Differences From Benchmark
UK RAIL OVERALL 2012 (N=9,725)
vs. UK RAIL OVERALL 2011 (N=8,881)
Summary Category Scores vs. Benchmark
66
65
47
73
68
68
77
68
67
5
5
5
4
4
3
2
2
2
-10 -5 0 5 100 25 50 75 100
• Significant improvement in all categories.
• This is the second year in a row where all categories have improved,
indicating good momentum.
11. 11
Engagement trends
62%
54%
63%
68%
74% 75% 75%
77%
40%
2009 2010 2011 2012
UK Norm
FCC
First Capital Connect:
63%
68%
73%
75%
74% 75% 75%
77%
40%
2009 2010 2011 2012
UK Norm
FSR
Scotrail:
62%
68%
70%
74%
74% 75% 75%
77%
40%
2009 2010 2011 2012
UK Norm
FGW
First Great Western
62%
67% 68%
70%
74% 75% 75%
77%
40%
2009 2010 2011 2012
UK Norm
FTPE
First TransPennine
Express
63%
66%
70%
73%
74% 75% 75%
77%
40%
2009 2010 2011 2012
UK Norm
Rail
overall
First UK Rail Division
12. How do we develop wellbeing?
•We need to create an engagement forum that puts wellbeing
high on the agenda via our newly appointed engagement
managers who report to their business boards.
•We need to develop wellbeing that stretches across the whole
company by developing a year long programme that applies to
all our people.
•We need to evaluate behaviour change so we develop an easy
to use evaluation tool.
•We need to communicate to managers effectively by
creating a best practice sharing tool on our intranet.
13. •We create an environment via our Employee Portal that allows
the discussion of wellbeing to be encouraged.
•We create a brand that is tangible and meaningful.
•We encourage the business to recognise areas that have
considered employee wellbeing such as health and safety, HR
policies and Learning and Development.
•We create a First Group wide wellbeing policy.
15. Please contact us for any further info or
to discuss our wellbeing events.
Nicola Howat
Group Occupational Health Manager
Nicola.howat@firstgroup.com
07702670791
