First ScotRail Delivering Excellence Quality Scotland case study ScotRail is part of First Group – the leading transport provider in the UK and North America. First ScotRail is responsible for 95% of passengers train services in Scotland, linking the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Inverness as well as the Caledonian Sleeper overnight service to and from London. First ScotRail is one of Scotland’s “We seriously reviewed the EFQM before largest organisations with more than fully committing to it”, Elaine concedes. 4,900 staff members employed across “But as a high performing organisation, with Scotland and in London. They operate accreditations including IIP Silver, BITC (Silver), 347 stations, 139 of which are staffed. Healthy Working Lives Silver, and several ISO Elaine Bell, head of corporate and social accreditations, it was a major decision to responsibility, discusses how the EFQM change the organisation’s culture to one of Excellence Model is helping the company Continuous Improvement, as required by the to move forward. EFQM framework. The decision to invest in the EFQM framework was taken at Chief Executive and Director Level, and it was really beneficial having the support upfront. RAIL OPERATOR OF NATIONAL RATED HIGHER THAN ACHIEVED INVestOrs THE YEAR 2014 PAssENGER SURVEY OTHER UK TRAIN in PEOple GOLD AWARDED For THE % CUSTOMER OPERATORS IN THE LARGEST UK THIRD TIME IN SIX YEArs 88 SATISFACTION 36/37 CATEGORIES COMPANY TO DO so “First ScotRail operate multiple sites across Scotland, Staff buy in and having worked closely with Quality Scotland and “The dedication to this process from our staff, senior after receiving the appropriate training, a core group was management team and executive, meant we achieved formed to run the project. The core group developed the committed to Excellence accreditation, and 5 star a ‘journey of excellence’ that supported the strategic Recognised for Excellence award within a three year objectives – providing one structure to link our common timescale.” Elaine says. threads.” explains Elaine. “We are keen to ensure the process remains as “The core group then developed a bespoke self- efficient as possible, and that staff are allocated assessment questionnaire – with both an online and the appropriate time and resources to balance self- paper version – based on ‘determining excellence’. assessment with their daily responsibilities. We have The next step involved identifying a number of self- to ensure that this sizable commitment from staff is assessment sample groups- resulting in 19 workshops rewarded by effective communications on the results being held across Scotland, from Inverness to Dumfries.” of the self-assessment process.” “The key outputs and areas for improvement form Building on success the basis for our targets, and feed into our strategy • Ensure value for money planning. The outcomes also help us to measure • Secure industry alignment to increase effectiveness what we need to achieve and our progress towards and reduce costs achieving our aims. This self-assessment programme • Exploit utility and capacity of the network is central to our business plan, and contributes to our • Improve journey times and connectivity long term planning model.” • Manage change efficiently • Improve passenger satisfaction Communications strategy / assessment and refine • Improve environmental performance The core team developed a top down communications • Improve accessibility to services and stations strategy, from the executive to senior managers and staff to reinforce the culture change. In line with this Working with the EFQM Excellence Model and achieving an ‘assessment and review’ and ’check – plan – do’ integration of the fundamental concepts of excellence, initiative was launched, highlighting the Individual has supported us in achieving our best ever results in an and team objectives, executive team KPIs and the independent rail passenger survey, with staff performing board’s KSOs. This enabled the executive and senior well across a range of categories. management team to identify good practice and put in place a number of improved business drives across the organisations. The model is now accepted as part of Getting results the organisation’s culture. Our ratings in the National Rail Passenger Survey, conducted by Passenger Focus, were above other UK Delivering excellence against the model – train operators in 36 out of 37 categories. Our year-on- processes, products and services year scores improved in 26 areas, including the headline • Customer data used to systematically improve category of overall satisfaction – up one point to 88%. timetable and products • Within capacity constraint – more services, faster The National Rail Passenger Survey was conducted journeys, better connections between 2 September and 11 November 2014. • Value for money and customer focused product development We achieved Investors in People Gold status, the largest • Marketing and website investment focused on UK Company to do so, and we launched a Modern our markets Apprenticeship in Customer Service – the first of its kind in the rail industry. Delivering excellence against the model Key results have been established for all business On 2 October 2014, we were awarded Rail Operator of the objectives, with a combination of lead and perception Year at the National Transport Awards for the third time in indicators agreed, and targets have been set to deliver six years and on 27 February 2014 we were named Rail continuous improvement. We have also established a Business of the year at the Rail Business Awards. programme of benchmarking, incorporating a ‘review and learn’ regime. We are very proud of our success, particularly our achievement of the Scottish Award for Business Excellence. Making excellence a national characteristic of Scotland Quality Scotland, West End House, 28 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh EH3 7RN Tel: 0131 225 5765 Email: [email protected] www.qualityscotland.co.uk @qualityscotland Quality Scotland ©Quality Scotland Registered Scottish Charity, No SC040316 Company limited by guarantee No 132366 .