Our Engagement Processes
Much of our stakeholder engagement takes place at local company level. This makes it easier to address specific issues relevant to the employees, customers, local authorities or communities at different locations. At Group level our main dialogue is with our investors and central government with whom we meet on an ongoing basis.
Our stakeholder interactions are varied and continuous. They range from one-to-one meetings and group discussions to stakeholder forums, stakeholder boards, partnerships, focus groups and surveys. Examples of these are given below.
Employees
Employee engagement is largely driven by the local operating companies through, for example, regular staff meetings, consultation with the unions and focus groups. We also conduct employee satisfaction surveys in a growing number of companies to support these processes. With the continued growth of the Group and an increasing number of employees spread over large geographical areas, we recognise the need to improve communication between the Group and our employees in the operating companies. We have therefore recently appointed a Group Internal Communications Manager responsible for delivering a Group-wide internal communication strategy that will include annual employee satisfaction surveys.
Customers
Our customers include the individuals who travel on our trains and buses, customer interest groups and public sector purchasers such as local authorities, schools and public services. Regular meetings are held with our public sector purchasers in both the UK and North America and with customer interest groups. In the UK, feedback from the travelling public is sought through customer surveys, focus groups, comment cards, the use of the company's website and dedicated customer care phone lines. We also seek to provide open forum through which customers or members of the community can approach us to raise local issues. These take the form of stakeholder forums in the UK Bus division and stakeholder meetings or Meet the Manager sessions in UK Rail.
Community
We consult with the community on major route and service changes and our stakeholder forums are open to all members of the public. We work closely with local authorities through 'quality partnerships' to improve the quality and punctuality of services. We also engage with a growing number of businesses and public sector organisations to develop and implement green travel plans that promote the use of public transport. We are also represented on the Board of Transport 2000.Our engagement programme includes a range of community activities including community partnerships and volunteering.
Investors
We maintain dialogue with our investors throughout the year. Investors are kept informed of key business activity via regular news bulletins, press releases and the Group's website. Investor Roadshows are held twice a year following announcement of the full- and half-yearly results. First participates in a number of indices on an annual basis, including BITC, FTSE4Good and Dow Jones, providing information on the Group's corporate social responsibility processes.
Suppliers
We maintain open dialogue with all our key suppliers with a view to securing continuous improvement in the supply-chain relationship. We encourage two-way dialogue and contractual concerns can be raised by either party at contract review meetings. This year we have improved the way we communicate our ethical and environmental requirements within our Group procurement contracts. This is described in more detail in the supply-chain section of this report.
Government
We work closely with the UK Government at both national and local level to promote the benefits of public transport and build partnerships delivering better service and more sustainable transport. In North America many of our customers are government departments and we engage at different levels, including meetings with members of federal, state and local trade associations and the National School Transportation Association. We input and respond to government and parliamentary consultations and our senior directors often participate as speakers at transport-related conferences.