Gender Pay Gap report 2017 Introduction Our headline figures Our median gender pay gap is -9.1% This means women’s median hourly pay is 9.1% higher than men’s. We are a leading transport operator in the UK and North America. “ FirstGroup is committed Our mean gender Each year, two billion passengers rely on us to get to work, school or to equality of opportunity, college, to visit family and friends and much more. pay gap is diversity and inclusion at -2.2% In our increasingly urban and global world, the transport links we provide are more essential than ever. every level, both in our Boardroom and across The unique scale and the breadth of FirstGroup’s global expertise is Explaining our results our key strength. But to truly capitalise on this, and provide the best our wider business. services for our customers, we recognise that the diversity between The number of UK employees covered by our report at 5 April We have made this and within all the communities we serve must be reflected in our 2017 is 22,236. workforce. commitment because We recognise that women have traditionally been under-represented we believe diverse This comprises 19,407 men and 2,829 women. in the UK transport sector, but as the industry evolves to meet rising experiences and Although only 13% of UK employees are female, more than customer expectations, and environmental challenges like congestion and air pollution, we need a much broader range of skills. This attitudes help us better 61% of these women are in the upper and upper middle pay transformation is creating many more opportunities for women with understand the needs quartiles, whereas 52% of men are in the lower and lower backgrounds outside the transport sector to bring a variety of skills of our customers and middle quartiles. As a result, both the mean average and the and experience from different industries and ways of doing things. I am communities, and deliver delighted that already, women with skills from other sectors such as median (midpoint) hourly pay for women are higher than that retail, energy, telecoms, media and consulting have joined FirstGroup more creative and for men. and are making a real difference. You can read more about their career innovative solutions.” journeys and experiences as part of FirstGroup later in this report. Wolfhart Hauser While we are proud of our overall gender pay gap figure, which reflects Chairman our absolute commitment to ensuring fairness in pay and progression 85% of our regardless of gender, there is still much more to do; in order to close gender pay gaps where they do exist in some of our individual companies had a businesses, we are determined to accelerate our progress, increasing the number of women at all levels, and supporting them to take gender pay gap below advantage of the wide range of career opportunities and interesting roles we can offer. the UK national average Tim O’Toole Chief Executive 2 Gender Pay Gap report 2017 Gender Pay Gap report 2017 3 Understanding our gender pay gap What actions are we taking? At 5 April 2017 our overall median gender pay gap Although our overall UK figure shows that women’s We recognise some of the issues we face are Attracting more women applicants was -9.1%. Of our 20 operating companies in the UK median hourly pay is higher than men’s, we recognise societal, and change will take time to achieve. We have refreshed our recruitment advertising with more than 250 employees, 17 of them (85%) had that this is not the case for all of our operating Across our operating companies, we are taking photography and video content to ensure women a median gender pay gap below the national average companies. Analysis shows this is typically due action to: are strongly represented and we now use the of 18.4%; five either had a gender pay gap of zero or to women being under-represented in our higher- software tool ‘Textio’ to check the language of all our women’s average pay was higher than that for men. paid leadership and professional roles such as • Increase the number of female applicants recruitment advertising material to ensure it is not engineering and operational management. These for all roles, given that in many of our operating The gender pay gap shows the difference between unconsciously biased towards male candidates. roles are also more likely to be eligible for a bonus. companies, women make up less than 20% of the average hourly rate of pay of all men and all The number of women in these roles has been driven the workforce We are piloting new approaches to the way we women in the organisation as a percentage of the by a number of historical factors, including the low describe roles which have traditionally attracted average hourly rate of pay of men. This is different • Encouraging women to stay and progress, proportion of females studying STEM subjects many more male than female candidates; in from ‘equal pay’ which considers whether men and through employment policies which encourage (science, technology, engineering and maths) at TransPennine Express, this has already resulted in women receive the same pay for work of equal value. them to return from maternity leave and make it school and university, which are required in many of easier to combine a career with family life 38% of new hires to conductor roles being female, our higher-paid jobs. compared with 18% of the existing conductor • Support and develop more women to move into workforce. The UK transport industry has traditionally attracted higher paying roles more men than women, with 85% of transport We are also thinking more broadly about where to • Ensure men are more aware and equipped to workers being male. The majority of our front- promote our job opportunities to female students play their part in creating an inclusive workplace line employees are men, and because historically on relevant higher education courses who may not which is welcoming to women many of our managers have been promoted from previously have considered a career in transport. front line operational and technical roles, this also contributes to the under-representation of women in management positions. You can access the gender pay information for each of our businesses on pages 12-13. 4 Gender Pay Gap report 2017 Gender Pay Gap report 2017 5 What actions are we taking? Women making a difference Our graduate and apprentice programmes are Encouraging women to stay Jenny Saunders important routes into higher paid technical and and progress Head of Stations, South Western Railway management roles, and we are looking at ways to ensure we promote these opportunities to more Across our operating businesses we have a variety “ You certainly don’t need to be an of maternity pay and parental leave arrangements, women. For example, in 2017 we ran a specific engineer to work in rail as there is so initiative to highlight our graduate vacancies to backed by family-friendly and flexible working 15,000 female undergraduates studying STEM policies. Following a recent review, we made changes much variety – you can be anything subjects across the UK, using a targeted email to some of our policies to ensure they continue to you want to be.” campaign. compare well with the external market and encourage existing female talent to return from maternity leave. As Head of Stations, Jenny is responsible for the In the coming year, our Group Engineering and IT delivery of safety, performance and customer leaders will be launching an ambitious programme Many of our companies provide 24/7 service to experience at 188 stations. She began her career to attract more female candidates into engineering, customers; in response to feedback from employees, at retailer Gap before joining SWR in 2008. Jenny’s maintenance and IT jobs; these are some of our we are reviewing some of our shift designs in First strong customer service ethos brought her success best paid roles and offer good career progression Bus to explore how we can provide working patterns as Area Manager in several locations before being opportunities which will help close the gender which enable both male and female employees to promoted to her current role in early 2014. During this pay gap. better combine their job at FirstGroup with family time she had two children and believes that a good life. We anticipate this will help us attract and retain Our external recruitment partners and agencies are maternity policy, coupled with a supportive team more women, and because many of our managers now required to demonstrate what they have done and line manager, has made the transition to full time are promoted from frontline roles, it should also, over to deliver a diverse shortlist of candidates when working mother much easier. time, increase the number of women available for making external hires. promotion to management roles. We’re launching programmes designed to help more Libby Scourse women prepare for and attain their first management Divisional Financial Controller, Greyhound and senior management roles, and to equip men to play their part in creating an inclusive workplace which is welcoming to women. “ It was great to have the opportunity to move with my family and further my career in the US with Greyhound. I’m proud to be part of really first-rate teams at FirstGroup.” Libby is currently on international assignment to our Greyhound business based in Dallas, where she is the Financial Controller. Following training at Ernst & Young LLP, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant, Libby worked for several companies before joining First Bus in 2013.