Supporting our people

To better understand and meet the needs of the diverse customers and communities we serve, we are committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce. We recognise that attracting and retaining people with different backgrounds and experience requires an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued and respected. While we are proud of the progress being made in many areas, we acknowledge there is still more to do to in order to create an inclusive workplace for everyone.

Governance

We have established two separate bodies to help us drive our equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) agenda. Internally we have an ED&I working group where we share learnings across the business and develop strategy. Within this group we are also setting ED&I targets, for all of our operating companies, and are using strategic workforce planning to help us achieve them. Our aspiration is to have half of all the roles we recruit for, to be filled by women. We also aspire to be representative of the communities we serve from an ethnicity perspective, including within our senior management populations. We are also reviewing additional internal targets around specific roles to help us make positive progress against our respective pay gaps. 

Transparency in our approach is important to us. We are already signatories to Change the Race Ratio, First Bus are now signatories to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter and this is the second year that we have voluntarily published our ethnicity pay gap.

We recognise the importance data brings in driving progress on our ED&I programmes and we are working hard to encourage our employees to share their personal information with us. First Bus have been conducting a census that is enabling them to get a more accurate view of their workforce. Across the whole of FirstGroup, at the end of FY 2023 we now have over 70% of our employees who have shared their ethnicity with us, compared to 51% two years ago. We have also started to ask for more detailed disability information from our colleagues to better understand their requirements and to be able to better accommodate their needs.

Development programmes 

We have launched a Senior Women’s Leadership programme, which is designed to accelerate the readiness of women for senior leadership roles across FirstGroup by building advanced leadership capabilities and personal confidence. Our ‘Step Up’/’Step Forward’ and ‘Reach Up’/ ‘Reach Forward’ programmes continue to make a significant contribution in our drive to promote better gender and ethnic minority representation across our senior and middle management populations. Of the current population that have gone through these programmes, 31.3% have either been promoted or given a development move at the end of FY 2023.

Attraction and recruitment

We have been making steady progress on attracting and hiring more women and employees from ethnically diverse backgrounds into the business. For the roles advertised over FY 2023, we have again increased the proportion of applications from women and ethnic diverse backgrounds and from those hired, 21.6% were women and 20.6% were from an ethnically diverse background.

For more information on our approach and progress around diversity and inclusion, please see pages 47-49 of our Annual Report and Accounts 2023.

Each of our divisions provides training to enable our employees to deliver great service for our customers, and invests in the skills we need for the future. The changing nature of transport and mobility, particularly new vehicle technologies and energy transition, requires us to adapt the way we develop, operate and maintain our services. To deliver that change, we need a healthy, engaged, agile and diverse workforce with the skills and expertise for a zero carbon economy, equipped to innovate and deliver mobility for the future.

Our apprenticeship programmes are an important way of growing the engineering and operational skills which are vital to our business. We are running industry leading programmes that are fully integrated into the fabric of our organisation, working in key areas of the business such as Engineering, Human Resources, Customer Service and Business Administration. We increased the number of apprentices in training across First Bus and First Rail to a total of more than 850 as at the end of March 2023, with 32.4% of apprentices recruited over the last year being female, an increase of 0.9% from FY 2022.

In First Bus, our partnership with Reaseheath College, Cheshire entered its second year in FY 2023. There were 82 apprentices learning at the UK’s first engineering academy for the next generation of zero emission coaches and buses, specialising in mechanical and electrical engineering, coachbuilding and stores.

To attract and retain the skills we need, we offer a competitive wage reflecting local market demands and conditions. Avanti, TPE and Tram Operations Ltd. are accredited Living Wage Employers and pay the Real Living Wage (RLW) to employees and to third‑party contractors working directly for the company in accordance with the Living Wage Foundation rates of pay. GWR and SWR also pay the RLW to directly employed colleagues. Almost 98% of employees in First Bus, are paid at or over the RLW.

"The wellbeing of our employees remains a key priority for FirstGroup. Our employees have various wellbeing resources available to them through the Wellbeing Hub, accessed through our intranet. We have introduced webinars on neurodiversity and stress awareness, and marked Stress Awareness Month. We continue to offer training for colleagues who may wish to take up a future role as a Mental Health First Aider around the organisation." Graham Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer, FirstGroup plc

GWR along with the DfT, have commissioned the charity Samaritans to lead a new research study on mental health and wellbeing support for the rail industry, in partnership with Mental Health at Work. The study will provide good practice recommendations for mental health provision, so that the industry can raise awareness for their staff and support those experiencing mental illness. It will aim to highlight existing barriers, as well as encourage a culture shift to destigmatise conversations around mental health.

In the wake of the ongoing cost of living situation across the UK, First Bus have launched a comprehensive wellbeing guide that has been sent to each colleague within the division helping them be more aware of how to support their own wellbeing. They have also been working with an organisation called Better with Money, offering all First Bus colleagues the opportunity to attend webinars that offer financial support.

Health and safety policy

All our businesses carry out regular ‘Your Voice’ surveys giving employees the opportunity to share their views on the way they are managed, and how likely they are to recommend FirstGroup as an employer. These surveys are anonymous, and managed by an external specialist company to encourage candid feedback.

Surveys from across our businesses conducted in FY 2023 have shown an improvement both in response rates in engagement levels. In February, First Bus conducted their latest survey, this showed a year‑on‑year increase of 16% in the response rate and an 8% increase in engagement. From the surveys conducted in March 2023, within the open access train operators, Hull Trains and Lumo both have engagement levels above 80% and within the corporate functions, engagement was at 90%. The other Train operating companies, will be conducting their surveys later in 2023.

FirstGroup has had an Employee Director on its Board since 1996 and on the majority of its UK operating companies’ boards since the founding of the Company. The Group Employee Director (GED) is also a member of the Responsible Business Committee and regularly attends the meetings of the Remuneration Committee and the Audit Committee.

The role and responsibilities of the Group Employee Director are described on page 87 on our Annual Report and Accounts 2023. The GED chairs the Employee Directors’ forum which currently comprises 14 Employee Directors, all of whom have been nominated through employee elections in their respective operating companies.