Learning and Development
Investing in our employees' learning and development is central to our success. We need to ensure they are equipped with the skills and knowledge to face both current and future challenges. Therefore, all our North American operating companies run training and development programmes for their staff.
Leadership Development
Our leadership development programmes seek to enhance the leadership skills of our management and supervisory staff. Each operating company has their own programme to achieve this.
- The First Transit professional development programme for managers was launched in January 2006. Over 40 managers have now completed this programme with further participants scheduled for the coming year. In addition, First Transit University provides managers with workshops and larger events on topics such as managing labour and employee relations, legal compliance and contract compliance.
- First Student has a three-day leadership training course to develop core management competencies. All managers will eventually be given this training; so far, 25% of newly appointed or promoted contract managers have completed the course. The annual Management Conference provides the forum for senior management training. Two days are allocated for formal training around issues such as financial management, customer relations, safety and employee retention. This year this programme was supplemented for all managers by on-site training focusing on FirstGroup's freedom of association policy and approach to employee relationships.
- First Vehicle Services University runs a continuous training and development programme for employees. A principal part of this is a three-day workshop for new, existing and potential contract managers. The training covers all functional areas such as operations, safety, accounting, finance, people management, leadership and worker compensation. This year we introduced a similar programme for office managers to improve their working knowledge and the consistency of contract administration.
Management training is supplemented by regular briefings and teleconferences to keep them up-to-date with evolving issues. Where managers are spread across extensive geographical areas, these methods have proved particularly effective for sharing information and maintaining regular contact between teams. They also promote consistency of approach. The nature of the communications varies across the businesses but may include briefings on issues such as safety or human resource management.
Where we can, we try to help our employees to develop skills beyond those specifically required for their occupational role. First Student offers a tuition reimbursement programme to assist full-time employees in pursuing degree programmes. First Transit is looking to develop computer access for all employees and provide basic computer training whether or not they require these skills at work.