Staff recruitment and training

Prioritise staff communications and effective operational team management, as this is vital for staff retention, staff morale, and delivery of customer-focussed service. Provide regular staff training courses for all employees.

Explanation:

As Public transport is being increasingly developed as a service rather than a product, the human element tends to come to the fore; after all, the wellbeing of employees affects the wellbeing of customers. Staff communications and effective operational team management is especially important for bus operations.

Recruitment defines the selection process for new skilled workers (mostly drivers), and temporary employees. As there is a lack of specialist staff (especially drivers) in some countries the recruitment of capable candidates in the public transport sector is a challenge. A fundamental and essential phase for the success of a public transport provider is to recruit the right person, and the recruitment should ensure equal treatment of all applicants and take unbiased decisions. Nowadays the capability of a candidate is no longer assessed only by technical skills such as driving but principally by behavioural skills (being service-oriented, flexible, etc.)

Training policies are often expressed in financial terms but the level of investment does not always fully reflect the level of quality. All good professionals today can expect to dedicate at least part of their career to training (managers, maintenance workers, drivers, consultants, etc.). Also, the cost of training is relatively low in comparison with the total personnel costs.

Most companies have regular internal training programmes and traineeships for different kind of staff and management jobs (drivers, service staff, etc.). Training programmes have to be organised and conducted professionally and take place in appropriate facilities. The training can be done by

• The operator (internal),
• Specialist education and training companies
• Suppliers.

Customers form their perceptions from the interactions with the front-line people in the organisation (UITP 2005). In this context, the training of bus drivers becomes important. Besides basic training of bus drivers required by law several operators provide extra training for bus drivers:

• Customer treatment and information,
• Conflict management (behaviour and influencing behaviour, mental and physical resistance, diversity of passengers and respect),
• Accessibility service for persons with disabilities.

An effective and economical method is ’train the trainer’ principle, where company specialists undergo intensive training with the system supplier and then pass on their own knowledge in training courses to the company’s other employees.

It is essential that employees can contribute to developing and sustaining, constantly, a shift from an ordinary public transport provider to a mobility service provider offering high-quality transport services. Active bidirectional communication instead of bare information transmission leads to a transfer of the company’s values and objectives. Good communication structures are therefore vital in achieving improvements and raising the standard of the quality of services. Listening to the staff and considering their needs, e.g. by regular meetings with drivers, helps to discover information about problems that might need to be resolved soon.

Closely related to the field of training, the certification of staff can support the achievement of high-quality public transport standards.

Managers and drivers should be positive about the delivered service (having a ‘pro public transport attitude’). One example which serves to improve identification with their own service is a high regular usage of the service by personnel themselves, and particularly by managers. Another way to improve identification of all staff with the delivered service is to involve managers in daily operation for a couple of working days a year (e.g. driving buses 1-2 days a year themselves, selling tickets at sales office, etc.). In 72% of the cities analysed by PROCEED the bus drivers receive special training or instructions regarding customer contacts.

Common certifications of employees in public transport are described in ► Background information: Certification of personnel.

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