Community
As a public transport operator we provide an essential service to communities. We connect people with each other, with their workplaces and key services. Our operations touch all members of the community whether as customers, neighbours, employees, businesses or residents and can impact significantly on their quality of life.
Our relationship with the local communities we serve is therefore very important to us and an essential factor in growing our business.
Serving the Community
Through our day-to-day operations we serve the community in a number of ways.
- In developing our services we seek to engage with communities and promote socially inclusive policies.
- Working in partnership with local authorities and local businesses we seek to promote sustainable travel that reduces congestion and improves quality of life.
- As a major employer we offer employment opportunities to all sectors of the community through non-discriminatory policies. We promote opportunities for vulnerable groups through Jobcentre Plus.
However, our community involvement extends beyond these routine activities to encompass a wide range of partnerships, engagement activities, charitable donations and sponsorships. To date, these community activities have been driven largely through the local operating companies. This year we have strengthened our management of community activities through the development of a Community Strategy and the appointment of a Community Relations Manager to oversee its delivery.
Our Community Strategy
Our Community Strategy covers our three main areas of community activity:
- community partnerships;
- charitable giving; and
- employee volunteering.
Our Community Strategy will help us to engage our employees. In 2005, our relationship with Business in the Community facilitated a continuous programme of community challenges as part of the NVQ in supervisory training. This programme has been highly successful and clearly demonstrates the positive benefits that our employees gain from volunteering.
Our Community Strategy builds on the positive work undertaken so far and reflects the important role played in this process by the local operating companies. It sets out a number of objectives to build on work in each of the three strategy areas. We intend this to improve coordination of community activity, promote best practice, extend successful local initiatives nationally and provide a central point of contact to coordinate activity.
We have recently established a relationship with Save the Children, with whom we are working at both operating company and Group level across the UK. Our joint activities will bring our employees together in a common cause and provide a greater focus to our charitable activities. At local level, we will act to support a range of other organisations. The Community Strategy will enable more systematic monitoring and coordination of these activities.
Further information about our community engagement activities can be found by following the links below.