First Group 9th may

Wellbeing.The First Challenge

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. 157,000 yellow school buses Greyhound intercity coach

services Transit management & contracting

Vehicle maintenance & support services

Carrying approximately 6 million students daily89,000 employees

UK No. 123% market share

8,000 busesBus, coach, yellow

school bus and rail replacement

2.5 million passengers a day23,000 employees

UK No. 1Operating one quarter of the UK passenger rail network5 passenger rail operations

(4 franchises, 1 open access)

Over 290 million passengers a year

13,000 employees

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

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

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.

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 absence1. Fast track physiotherapy2. Make EAP work for us as a psychological support and not

just a helpline.

What happened?

PEOPLE LIKED IT

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

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

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)

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

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

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.

•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.

First Wellbeing

Please contact us for any further info or to discuss our wellbeing events.

Nicola HowatGroup Occupational Health Manager

[email protected]