Vital contributions of the 110,000 FirstGroup employees who help get over 2.5 billion passengers around the world where they need to be recognised at awards ceremonies.
The inaugural Be First Awards, held during the last two weeks in Manchester, UK and Philadelphia, USA, celebrate and recognise people and teams who have made significant contributions to FirstGroup’s businesses and customers in the last 12 months.
The winners of the Awards are people who have made an exceptional effort to deliver the company’s vision, strategy and values in their behaviour and actions.
Hundreds of nominations were received from across FirstGroup’s businesses. A select group of winners were lauded at the ceremonies for their contributions, in areas such as safety, customer service, community relations and service delivery and innovation.
For example, Adrian Worsfold of First Bus Greater Manchester has driven performance, developed his team and maintained and improved First Bus’s service at a time of massive external disruption to Manchester City Centre. He was a worthy winner of an “Accountable for Performance” award.
Adrian commented:
“It was a huge honour to be recognised in the inaugural Be First awards - with so many great individuals and teams across FirstGroup, I was slightly overwhelmed to have been a finalist. To have your hard work recognised in this way has inspired me to want to do even more.”
Tim O’Toole, Chief Executive of FirstGroup, said:
“The winners of the Be First Awards represent the true strength of our company - the 110,000 people who work for us, sharing their knowledge and expertise across our businesses in the UK and North America, keeping our customers at the heart of everything we do. We’ve recognised them not only for individual achievements, but for their consistent efforts to deliver great service and improve performance every day.”
For every completed nomination, FirstGroup also donated £5 to the company’s UK Charity of Choice partner, Prostate Cancer UK, resulting in a donation of £1700. In addition, FirstGroup donated over £8000 to charities chosen by the winning individuals and teams.
James Beeby, Director of Fundraising at Prostate Cancer UK, said:
“It’s fantastic to see that so many of our FirstGroup friends are getting rewarded for their top class service. This dedication and passion is also something the staff has shown towards raising awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer UK throughout the last couple of years. With their support, the charity’s Men United army continues to fight prostate cancer and help more men survive prostate cancer and enjoy a better quality of life. Well done to everyone that entered and the winners.”
Full list of awards and winners:
Delivering Our Vision Awards:
- Keeping People Moving – Individual – (joint winners) Ian Rowlands and Geraint Llewellyn, Great Western Railway – Ian and Geraint have been giving up their own time for the past four years to educate local children on the dangers of playing on or near railway tracks.
- Keeping People Moving – Individual – Roberto Gutierrez, Greyhound - Over two years Roberto visited more than 50 bus terminals throughout the US with a simple goal: learn what the customer really wants. Talking first hand with customers and becoming one himself, he travelled in every type of service available, learning what was needed and what was good for business. His work helped design new Greyhound services for Mexico.
- Keeping People Moving – Team – The Cross Connect Team, First Bus Greater Manchester – This team successfully identified and plugged a gap in Greater Manchester’s bus provision by joining together north and south Manchester’s services, making journeys easier for thousands of people every day.
- Keeping People Moving – Team – CTTransit, First Transit – The CTTransit team launched CT fastrak, a $560m bus rapid transit line. Thanks to their management, service and operations planning prowess, the launch was an outstanding success.
- Keeping Communities Prospering – Individual – Jon Mitchell, Driver, First Bus York – Jon made a valuable contribution as the public face of First buses in York, building up contacts in the community and helping at public events – helping the company to build better relationships with local people.
- Keeping Communities Prospering – Individual – Linda Bowar, First Student – When Linda learned of a student on her bus who could not afford a coat in the harsh Minnesota winters, she organised a community coat drive, and distributed coats to families in need.
- Keeping Communities Prospering – Team – Scunthorpe Station Team, First Transpennine Express – This small, dedicated team works closely together to provide a friendly, welcoming station for customers, raise money for local charities and make their station a hub of local community activity – while maintaining very high customer satisfaction scores.
- Keeping Communities Prospering – Team – Cornwall location – Ontario, Canada, First Student – The team collected more than £5600 for Children’s Miracle Network as part of an ongoing company-wide commitment to the charity, which raises funds for children’s hospitals throughout North America.
Delivering Our Strategy Awards:
- Combining Expertise – Team – Weymouth Depot Team, First Bus Wessex - The team at Weymouth Depot and its sub stations as Bridport and Yeovil have turned their business into a highlight motivated, effective operation by harnessing existing talent to improve both performance and image.
- Combining Expertise – Team – Clean Up Team, First Transit – This conscientious, hard-working team can always be relied upon to pitch in to help keep services running smoothly, displaying an excellent attitude to customers.
- Spreading Best Practice – Team – SAP Business Intelligence Team, First Rail – This small, dynamic team has created innovative technology and solutions to solve all manner of data analysis and reporting problems across the Group.
- Spreading Best Practice – Team – North America Applicant Tracking System Pilot Team, FirstGroup – The team identified a recruitment tracking system that was in use in the UK, and introduced it to FirstGroup’s US operations, reducing recruitment costs and improving staffing levels.
Committed to Our Customers Awards:
- Individual – Daniel Graham, Driver, First Bus South Yorkshire – Daniel, a recent recruit at First Bus, has earned an impressive reputation with customers and colleagues. ‘Mr Smiley’ as he’s known, regularly receives glowing commendations from customers, and reflect his overwhelmingly positive attitude and enthusiasm for his job.
- Individual – Shonna Hawes, Greyhound – Shonna works in the Greyhound customer service office in New York, assisting customers with a huge variety of needs. She goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure customers never walk away dissatisfied – handling and solving tough issues every day.
- Team – The Management and Support Team, First Bus Kernow – Over just one weekend in March 2015, this dynamic team worked with Cornwall Council to plan and deliver a whole new bus network ready for local people to use on Monday morning, following the financial collapse of one of the local competitors.
- Team – Business Development Team – Technical Editors and Proposal Managers, First Transit – This team is completely focused on the customer opportunity, having a direct impact on First Transit’s customers. The team innately understands what the customer expects – delivering technical proposals that win business.
Dedicated to Safety Awards:
- Individual – Gary McGinley, First Bus Glasgow – Team player Gary’s relentless approach to safety has helped change the safety culture in the workshops at Caledonia Bus Depot for the better.
- Individual – Daniel P. Kelly, First Transit – Responsible for four First Transit locations, Dan’s expertise is widely known and respected – he takes safety to heart and has a role in the wider community as a FEMA planning manager and emergency response instructor.
- Team – Safety Team, First Hull Trains – The team introduced ‘Detective Handswell’ to First Hull Trains’ passengers. The intrepid animated detective is on posters and signs aboard all First Hull Trains services, informing customers about potential hazards, such as sliding doors between carriages, flip top bins or boarding and alighting trains.
- Team – The Safety Team at Louisville, Kentucky, First Transit – This proactive team has started many safety initiatives of their own – setting high standards for safety, creating accountability for safe pick-ups, and demonstrating our commitments to safety and customers
Supportive of Each Other Awards:
- Individual - Jazz Terry, First Bus West Yorkshire – Jazz has delivered far more than is expected of her role as a Trainee Network Officer. Thanks to her extremely positive, can-do attitude she has arranged successful detailed talks with drivers and supervisors and union meetings to introduce route, duty and rota changes that have improved customers’ experiences, and made the jobs of drivers easier at the same time.
- Individual - Val Hartwell, First Student – Val has taken a leadership role in improving safety in First Student’s Canadian operations, with a steadfast dedication and a supportive and constructive working style.
- Team - First Shared Services Team, FirstGroup – First Shared Services has put its people first, and as a result made the team a great place to work. Using Investors in People as a framework to deliver high performance and job satisfaction amongst its employees.
- Team - Wichita Driving Management Online Team, First Transit – The team worked hard to make sure all of their drivers were qualified for the new school year, ensuring the continuation of a smooth service for Wichita students.
Accountable for Performance Awards:
- Individual – Adrian Worsfold, First Greater Manchester – Adrian leads from the front with a calm collaborative approach. He has driven performance, developed his team and maintained and improved the service at a time of massive external disruption to Manchester City Centre.
- Individual – Reggie Garrett, First Student - From his first days at First Student, Senior Location Manager Reggie has always sought to hold himself and his team accountable for performance. He strives to be the best leader, the best service provider to his customers, the cheerleader for his team and one of the most committed and loyal location managers in First Student.
- Team – Scotstoun Traffic and Engineering Team, First Bus Glasgow – The team has improved service performance by a staggering amount, by taking “lost mileage” or buses not out on the roads personally. A fierce determination to keep performance as high as possible has led to issues being pre-empted and solved in advance, maintaining reliable services for customers.
Setting the Highest Standards Awards:
- Individual – William Wood, First Bus Glasgow – As Glasgow depot operations manager, he maintains effective relationships with 600 drivers and 17 staff. Ex-driver William goes above and beyond, constantly demonstrating the best way of doing things and operating an open door policy meaning colleagues are not afraid to raise issues.
- Individual – Sherri Cole, First Student – Sherri’s 27 years of experience are matched only by her energy and enthusiasm – her school transportation knowledge and professionalism are beyond reproach, and she commands the attention and respect not only of employees, but the California Highway Patrol and California Department of Education.
- Team – Laira Maintenance Depot, Great Western Railway – Following the Dawlish sea wall collapse in February 2014, the team from Laira maintenance depot, together with over 300 volunteers, carried out vital examinations and repairs within four days.
- Team – Maintenance Leadership Team, First Transit – This team introduced eLearning to improve their training programme, resulting in Maintenance managers who are increasingly engaged in professional development and share that learning with colleagues.
About FirstGroup plc:
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America and our services help to create strong, vibrant and sustainable local economies. During the last year around 2.4 billion people relied on us to get to work, to education, to visit family and friends and much more and, each day, every one of our 110,000 employees works hard to deliver vitally important services for our passengers.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.