Rewards and Recognition
Appropriately rewarding staff for their contribution to the company's success encourages employee retention. Our Group Pensions Director is responsible for the development and implementation of our Total Rewards Programme in the UK.
We seek to provide equivalent pay rates to similar businesses in the geographical areas where we operate and support this with broader benefits packages developed in consultation with our employees.
Share schemes
A key part of our benefits package is our highly successful employee share scheme. This offers savings and investment opportunities for our employees through buying shares in First.
Our Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme enables employees to make regular risk-free savings accumulated in a sharesave account. After three years a guaranteed, tax-free bonus is added and there is the option to use the savings to buy discounted FirstGroup plc shares. In February this year our third SAYE scheme matured, benefiting almost 3,000 (mainly frontline) staff. Staff members who saved £56 per month received in excess of £3,300.
Our Buy As You Earn (BAYE) scheme offers employees the opportunity to buy FirstGroup plc shares from their gross pay, saving income tax and National Insurance, supported by free matching shares from the Company.
Employees are kept abreast of monthly BAYE purchases and of movements in our share price through our intranet and workplace posters.
Financial management
All of our UK Bus employees have access to a credit union (the largest in the UK). The credit unions encourage regular saving and offer loans at reasonable rates. This is a particularly valuable facility for those who may find it difficult to borrow elsewhere.
We also operate a Financial Education programme in partnership with the Financial Services Authority. This helps our employees understand the financial opportunities available through First and externally, as well as advising on how to avoid unscrupulous operations.
Pensions
We are committed to providing good pension options for our employees. The First UK Bus Pension Scheme is a salary-related pension scheme. The Benefits Builder Plan of this Scheme enables employees to target the pension they want with a choice of benefit levels, with First paying 60% of the overall cost of the Scheme.
Recognition
We also operate a Superstars employee recognition scheme that recognises employees who go the extra mile. Employees can be nominated by their colleagues or customers via nomination boxes or the intranet.