Keith Wood, Resources Manager at Go-Ahead London’s Camberwell Recruitment and Training Centre, outlines to Jade Smith the work required to ensure the operator has enough capable people to drive its buses, an operation that currently involves 6,500 drivers
Keith Wood, Resources Manager at Go-Ahead London’s Camberwell Recruitment and Training School, has been in the bus industry for 31 years, always within South London. His first role was with then London Buses in August 1987 after seeing an advert in the paper for a job in the schedules department in Wandle District. Keith took up the story: “London Buses was still a centralised organisation, but the garages were arranged into districts with Wandle covering South London. I didn’t get the job I applied for but was offered one that involved dealing with the engineers’ pay, in the Wandle district head office. I was initially allocated Norwood Garage before taking on additional garages once I had learned the ropes.
“I was employed on the basis that within about six months my job at head office would be devolved to the garage.
“I didn’t get moved to the garage and ended up staying in head office. I then moved up the ranks on the engineering side, becoming an admin supervisor, and then the districts were split in readiness for privatisation. Wandle district was split into the unit 3 and unit 4 business units – unit 3 became South London, which is now part of Arriva, and unit 4 became London General Transport Services, which is where we are today. I then became the industrial relations assistant, which broadened my knowledge and experience in both the engineering and operating parts of the business.
“In 1993, I was appointed as assistant personnel manager and then in 1996, when London General was bought out by Go-Ahead Group, I was given this job – Resources Manager – and took on the whole of the recruitment and training requirement for what was then London General and London Central.
“My job has been entirely focused on recruitment and training of bus drivers for what has become an ever-expanding business. Having started out looking after 2,000 drivers, that number has since grown to 6,500.”
Recruitment
“My primary objective is to ensure the garages have sufficient drivers to run the services they operate,” Keith explained. “Part of my job is keeping up to speed with the various service changes, route gains and losses, what the impact is on each garage, and then plan the numbers according to where drivers are needed.
“I also need to know what other operators are doing. Stagecoach may lose work to Arriva, for example, and that can have an impact on the volume of people coming through to us if they increase their recruitment activity. How do I ensure those applicants still consider Go-Ahead when, say, Arriva is recruiting 100 drivers for work it has gained?” [wlm_nonmember][…]
By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
Keith said that Go-Ahead London has a solid reputation in the London bus market as a good employer. Part of his role is to ensure the operator gets its name out there, so it is considered when an individual is interested in becoming a bus driver.
“Back in the day it would have been done through local press advertising or job centres – we’ve moved on as technology has,” he said. “Today, online job boards have become more important as the way people search for jobs changes, favouring technology. Recruiting in London is a very competitive market, so we need to keep abreast of such developments and react accordingly.”
Interview process
Keith stressed that the driver interview process is vital not only for Go-Ahead to find out if they’re right for the job, but for the applicants to find out if the job is right for them as well. “A lot don’t understand that, they think they just need to tell us what we want to hear so we can give them a job,” Keith said. “They need to be aware of what they are walking into: we take no prisoners.
“Some realise after a while that they aren’t cut out for it, which feeds turnover. It’s difficult to weed those people out at the interview stage because they convince themselves that they can do it, but many have never experienced that environment. I can’t trial a bus driver like a supermarket may be able to trial a shop floor member of staff. I’d love to be able to have them drive a bus in service before they commit to the job to see how they like it, but we obviously can’t.”
In recent years Go-Ahead London’s driver turnover has been around the 10-12% mark, which Keith said is pretty good for London. He said that when there is a downturn in traditional trades, people will come to the buses as it’s guaranteed pay and offers job security: “When the economy picks up again, with construction especially, we tend to lose drivers. If I have an experienced bricklayer who is driving a bus because there’s not been any work for the past few years, they’re going to be interested in being paid £150 a day to build a wall. Some will stay because they get into the mindset of a driver and it’s the attraction of a guaranteed wage that being self-employed can’t always offer. A lot of people want the job security over the extra money a week.”
Keith said that for recruiting drivers, referrals are quite effective: “A lot of people say they found out about the job because they know someone in the industry already. We have an ‘introduce a friend’ scheme that rewards staff financially who refer somebody they know to the business, which is a very effective way of generating applications.
“You’d like to think those applicants would be better prepared than others, as they have had the opportunity to speak with someone already doing the job where they can highlight the numerous aspects of the role. They are in a better position to weigh up the pros and cons of becoming a bus driver before committing.
“I had a particularly creative driver once who was keen to get the referral bonus and took a number of application forms, saying he had some friends interested. We then had lots of applications from one particular job centre which all had his name on them!”
Training
After the recruitment process, those who are accepted go into the training programme and once they have successfully completed their training, are sent as newly-qualified bus drivers to the required garage. Before they’re allowed to drive a bus on their own in service, they will go out with a mentor to ease them into the job.
“In the past I would spend four to six weeks training a driver, send them to the garage Friday lunchtime and by Friday evening they would be allocated a job,” Keith said. “It’s an overwhelming experience for someone who has only recently been trained and has never driven a bus in service – imagine your very first job as a driver dealing with the final whistle at Chelsea and you are driving a 14 or 22 on diversion with thousands of people trying to get on your bus. A lot of drivers couldn’t handle it, so turnover went up.
“Over the years a comprehensive mentoring programme has been put in place. The new drivers now carry out route learning, garage familiarisation and type training on various vehicles, all before they go out in service. Typically, a new driver will spend at least a week with the mentor to ensure they have the confidence to work unaided on what can be some of the busiest routes in London.
“We had around 8,000 people apply and employed around 1,200 last year. Our success rate for getting people through the school is high. 86% of trainees last year successfully passed. If I take all the licence holders into account as well it’s 93%, so our recruitment and training process appears to be working well.”
A challenging job
Keith said that bus driving is not the easiest job in the world, due to having to interact with the public, driving on the busiest roads in the UK, dealing with drama from other road users, and the shift work.
He said: “For many the shift work is a huge challenge, with a lot of applicants not understanding the full implications. The bus industry truly is all hours.
“Shift work also brings an impact on family life. Many people come to us who have young families or provide care to other family members, but they need to have a support network of their own in place otherwise it can be very difficult to hold this job down.
“Lots of people are attracted to the job because they enjoy driving, but it’s really an add-on to being a customer service representative. You could be the best driver in the world, but if you can’t deal with people you won’t last five minutes as a bus driver. It’s difficult to explain to people in a short interview time what the job fully entails.
“Whilst some people may think driving buses is a low-paying job, compared to other jobs, such as working in the retail or hospitality sectors, it’s relatively well paid. However, the pay is higher for a reason. Before anyone considers becoming a bus driver, they should use the bus themselves to see what the driver has to deal with on a regular basis. It always amazes me how many people want to become a bus driver but never actually use the bus themselves and have little idea of what they are signing up to.”
Training buses
Traditionally, training buses are older vehicles that are coming to the end of their operational life. However, the training bus fleet has recently been partially upgraded with refurbished Mercedes-Benz Citaros, acquired after they were replaced with the electric ADL BYD buses at the Waterloo depot. It was suggested they came into the training school and were shared with the commercial department. Monday to Friday they would be used as training buses, and at the weekends they would be available for rail replacement work, if required.
Keith continued: “John Trayner, Managing Director of Go-Ahead London, gave us the opportunity to be a bit creative and to improve the image of our buses. First, we needed to identify the base colour which I really didn’t want to be red – they needed to stand out in the crowd. The commercial department have some coaches which are painted off-white with a purple stripe and that layout suited the Citaros.
“I decided on having an image of a driving instructor on each vehicle – a group of staff that are the unsung heroes of the industry. John agreed on having one bus painted up to see what it looked like to gauge reaction. I needed a volunteer to be photographed to go on the side of the bus and there was a view that no-one would want to do it, but when I asked we had a fair few people who were keen to take part, and once the others saw the finished article more of them wanted to be involved. I had 15 buses and 38 driving instructors, so I wanted 15 different people to take part with slightly different messages on each vehicle. It gives them ownership of the vehicles as well, which is very important to us and to the instructors.
“The first bus was done, and it was agreed it looked the part, so we decided to do the other 14. Since last July we’ve been busy getting the buses refurbished. They’re only seven years old and in terms of a London bus they’ve led a relatively charmed life at Waterloo with the Monday to Friday work and low mileage. Nonetheless there was some battle damage, so they needed a bit of tidying up. The accident centre at New Cross garage repairs accident damaged vehicles, so the buses were sent there one at a time to have any repair work done and prep work for painting. ADL at Harlow then applied the off-white base colour and the vinyls (supplied by Vinyl Plus Graphics) were applied on their return.
“The 15th vehicle was completed in January. The workforce is happier as the vehicles are much better than what they’re used to, they look smart and give us a very positive image on the streets. We know the ownership of the vehicle is important as a few years ago we had a fleet of Olympians which were given a distinctive training livery, and the instructors really looked after them.
“When drivers get a different bus every day there’s no real ownership, but that personal connection ensures the vehicles are kept in tip top condition. As each bus was completed and a new ‘face’ appeared, it generated some positive vibes and real buy in to what we were trying to achieve.
“Previously we used a fleet of double-deckers and there was some scepticism in moving from a 10m double-decker to a 12m single decker, however this has had no effect on the throughput and, in fact, the instructors and trainees prefer them as they are very nice buses to drive.”
Keith explained that the additional driver training seat next to the driver’s seat is a clever set-up: “It is one unit that can be lifted out, so they can be converted from a training bus into a service bus in 45 minutes.
“On a Friday night the engineers can remove the training gear such as the seat, the mountings and L-plates etc. for the bus to go out in service at the weekend, and then on Sunday night they put everything back again. It gives us some good flexibility in the use of those vehicles and justifies the cost of keeping them.”
Following the removal of the buses from Waterloo and the introduction of the electrics, there were still three that were unallocated, which are now joining the training fleet as well. “There will be 18 in total, so over 60% of my training fleet will be refurbished and projecting a positive image when they’re out on the road,” Keith enthused. “You never know for certain how much affect that has had on the number of driver applicants we receive, but we’ve seen the public’s positive reactions.
“The blinds have been replaced with electronic ones, which give us more options with what we can display as we drive around, promoting opportunities around the business.
“According to the application forms, the adverts for drivers on our buses generate around 60-75% of the volume of applications we receive. Hopefully these new buses will add to that effect. It’s a far stronger message when it’s coming from a well-presented, modern smart-looking vehicle.”
Technology
“In the last few years we have introduced truly automated systems across the business,” said Keith. “We’re a lot more sophisticated in the way we work now as technology has moved on in leaps and bounds.
“With recruitment we moved from a paper-based system to entirely online in the Summer of 2015. It proved to be relatively painless – we still get the odd person who struggles with it, but the vast majority of people complete the application process with no issues. We generate around 8,000 applications a year. When the system was paper-based, my team had to transfer the information from paper applications onto a database. The system is designed entirely around electronic communication, saving huge amounts of paper and postage!
“The new system enabled us to process considerably more applications more efficiently without any additional staff costs – brilliant in times of high demand. The time we have saved using the online system has enabled us to put twice as many people through the training programme with no additional staff costs. Obviously, we still need people to deal with people. A computer can’t interview someone for you or train a driver.
“In 2015 we had a target to deliver 900 drivers to the garages, which we beat with 909. The following year we delivered 1,068, last year 944. In the last three years we’ve put nearly 3,000 new people into the business, which I’m very proud of.
“Some processes are automated, but it’s a people business and you can’t automate everything. We can process peripheral parts such as autogenerating paperwork and emails. Within the garages we’ve automated a number of systems and introduced a portal that enables drivers to request rest day exchanges, holiday requests and communicate to people at all levels of the business – a very powerful tool for staff engagement.
“We’ve considerably reduced the volume of paperwork by having online applications. We only use paper once someone is here for interview and we’re going through their application form.
“It’s an increasing part of the business and every so often we can update our way of working to be more efficient. The paperless office, as wonderful as it sounds, is still a way off, but we are continually pushing the use of technology and innovation to achieve that goal.”
Visions and Values
Go-Ahead’s Visions and Values are focused on respect and ensuring both passengers and colleagues alike feel they’ve been taken care of appropriately. Keith described it as common courtesy: passengers are greeted, made to feel welcome and the driver can have a positive interaction with them. He said that even when a driver is presenting bad news to passengers, they can do it in a way where the passenger will thank them afterwards.
“We educate people to ensure they are acting in the most appropriate way,” he said. “A lot of our colleagues, like me, have been in the industry a long time where values and attitudes have changed. The generations coming through now won’t tolerate the banter that has been a familiar part of the industry and we must adapt to that. There is an expected way to behave, to present yourself and talk to people.
“Effective communication is key to getting people to listen and better understand the message you are getting across to them. We want everyone to be in the loop and understand what we’re trying to achieve, as those who feel more engaged are more empowered and tend to stay with the company.
“This business is driven by rules and regulations and occasionally drivers get told to do things they don’t want to do, such as finishing late. It’s important to communicate that message effectively so everyone understands why it is needed. It isn’t something people are happy about but, unfortunately, it’s a feature of the job. “Transport for London has its own messages it wants to get across to drivers and Hello London is a way of doing that. Hello London is an initiative from TfL to improve drivers’ customer focus, with a two-day course which included drama-based scenarios to depict how drivers should act in various situations. This complements what we are trying to achieve through our Visions and Values programme”
This year
Keith said in terms of this year, the first challenge is getting over the period of losing some work, which clearly affects recruitment and training: “Go-Ahead’s new Dublin company is one opportunity where we can keep instructors occupied, by offering the opportunity to go to Ireland to assist in the training of drivers for the operation that is due to start in the autumn.
“The next challenge will be to start winning work again, which will then involve bringing in large numbers of applicants to be trained – it’s what we are good at doing.
“Part of this year we have the expiry of the next five-year cycle of Driver CPC. That’s a job for me to ensure that all affected staff have the correct number of CPC hours and provide training where necessary. We have other initiatives going on in garages on accident prevention where the knowledge and experience of the instructors will prove invaluable in our efforts to continually reduce accidents. We are looking closely at bus driver apprenticeships to see if they can fit the business. If we do decide to proceed, that will inevitably lead to an increase in the volume of training we provide.”
On the topic of Brexit, Keith said: “It has the potential to impact on Go-Ahead London, but the level will depend on what deal the Government chooses to negotiate.
“EU nationals’ rights to stay are becoming clearer, which hopefully gives the people already here more certainty.
“I’ve recruited in the EU and I have found them to be hardworking people who have a skill we need. Unfortunately, a lot of local people don’t see bus driving as a worthwhile career so we have to look elsewhere. It would be a big loss to public transport in London and London as a whole if these people chose to leave because they didn’t feel welcome anymore, or it was made difficult for them to stay.
“Hopefully we’ve assured our colleagues that, from our point of view, it has no material effect on their ability to work for this company. We don’t want to lose good people.”[/wlm_ismember]
