Stagecoach hoping recruitment changes will boost Highland bus services
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An essential bus operator is pinning its hopes on changes to recruitment procedures to address staff shortages impacting on service levels.
Stagecoach Highlands is planning a new flexible rota scheme it says will allow drivers to better build their working life round other commitments.
It is hoped the initiative, which the firm says has been successfully trialled in Ayrshire, will make the job more attractive to new recruits and existing staff. The firm has been criticised previously for the unreliability of its services, with staff shortages often blamed.
Stagecoach Highlands managing director David Beaton said: “One of our biggest challenges is that, after lockdown, nobody expected there to be a shortage of staff. With businesses closing down, everyone thought that there would be plenty of applicants to go around, but the opposite happened.
“We didn’t pay anybody off during lockdown, we furloughed every person that we could.
“Unfortunately, that was to our detriment because the bulk of people who were over-55 decided that being at home and spending more time with their families was OK for 80 per cent of their salary.
“So they have taken other jobs where they do less hours for less money – and they are absolutely entitled to do that.”
Mr Beaton said delays in getting provisional licences back from the DVLA – caused by the agency’s own staffing issues – have also affected recruitment, though he said short-notice absences were a major factor affecting city routes in particular. He said: “One thing we can’t control is daily sickness, which is a massive issue and has been since furlough ended.
“Roughly half of that is mental health, the other half is general day-to-day sickness.
“We have seen a lot of instances of drivers who have had cancer and who have been unaware they had it because they haven’t had their hospital appointments – again due to Covid, it’s nobody’s fault – as well as diabetes and other long-term illnesses for which people haven’t had the care that they would normally receive.”
He said the company has trained mental health first aiders – including three at the Inverness depot – to help support staff, as well as 24/7 support over the phone.
In a further bid to make the driver’s role more attractive, hourly rates were increased from £11.44 to £12.60 from January 1 with overtime paid at £16.
A further increase, to £13 per hour, is planned from May 1.
In the last six months of 2022 Stagecoach Highlands hired and trained 29 new drivers and is looking to recruit a further 23.
Two new recruits resulted from a campaign run in partnership with hotels in Inverness and Aviemore currently hosting Ukrainian refugees.
Mr Beaton said: “Before, we would say that we wanted someone to work five days out of seven, minimum 40 hours a week, whereas now when we interview them, we ask them which hours they can work.
“It’s a step-change in recruitment.”
The firm recently lost some local routes following the introduction of Highland Council’s own bus service, which Mr Beaton said he regarded as a positive.
“We know we’ve fallen really short, but that is purely down to driver numbers,” he said. “Now we can use the drivers from the contracts the council have taken in-house.”
However he admitted it would take a couple of months for those benefits to filter through and there was much to do to win back public approval.
“It will take time to build confidence back up,” he said. “We need to work hard both on our reliability and our marketing to get the customers back.”
