The phrase ‘turning a crisis into an opportunity’ became well used during the pandemic as we all did our level best to manage our sector and our people through the clear challenges that remain pertinent.
Many reading this will not need me to remind them that recruitment and retention remain critical topics during many conversations with our people at local depots and in the boardroom.
However, their impacts have forced us to explore how we bring newcomers into our businesses – and our urgency to keep them – in a vastly different way as those people look to rebalance their lifestyles.
No longer could we be an industry that took people working long days and long weeks for granted. A wakeup call was perhaps well overdue. Other service sectors and their approaches were beginning to leave us behind. Not least retail, for example, where more positive company culture was evident.
Here at McGill’s Bus Group, to say that we have stepped up our game would be an understatement. Inside the business, within the past two years as the company trebled in size, our team incredibly built an in-house Training Academy from scratch after relying on outside support to create qualified drivers.
This work was a necessary part of our accelerated growth but, as you can imagine, it is now critical to our very existence.
Over 350 new colleagues have passed through the Academy during one year alone, and our structure and our professionalism has since been strengthened by us attracting Matt Darroch, the respected former Training and Development Manager of Stagecoach, to develop it further.
Our recruitment methods now showcase how proud our team are to work for us. ‘McGill’s Made it for Me’ is our lead campaign, and it goes beyond the driving and people nature of the job.
They highlight the impact the career has on their lives – whether it is the ability to pay off their mortgage; building shift patterns around their needs; promotional opportunities; or simply an environment in which they feel welcomed. We needed to change our messaging to make it clear that we are a company where anyone can succeed.
Our Women at the Wheel programme, including women and family-themed recruitment events, also captures a monthly roadshow inside our company. There is an open invite to all colleagues at these sessions, where – by talking and listening to each other – we learn to improve our status as an employer.
The ideas generated so far are helping us to create an environment where everyone can belong, and where all colleagues, but particularly women, can now feel more comfortable, welcome and happy.
Many lessons have been learned since the first three sessions, and I am proud to say that our first recruit via the programme – Cynthia Darren – has just passed her PCV test, guided throughout by Amanda, our first female instructor. Culture change has to start with this kind of small, albeit very real and important, step.
While we have recently had to address shortages via enhanced pay, looking beyond the rate is key if you are to attract and keep people.
Addressing flexibility in shift patterns; enhancing the working and rest area environments; improving our key people management skills; advancing our internal communications in a variety of forms; and showcasing our talent in how we reward, recognise and develop people are all things being firmly ingrained into our company culture via, not least, our Fastlane internal development programme, our PerkAlerts range of exclusive money off deals for colleagues, and our Hall of Fame awards.
It has long been said that we are a people industry. Now we must truly believe that to thrive.
Looking to recruit drivers? Receive a 10% discount off recruitment services with C9 Recruitment by using the code ‘routeone10’.
