Southeastern Awarded Investors In People Bronze Award
Southeastern was today recognised for the continued investment in its employees by the awarding of the Investors in People (IiP) Bronze Award. The award comes on the back of the Southeastern’s best result in the National Passenger Survey, conducted independently by Passenger Focus, which showed over eight out of 10 (81%) passengers found the company to be good or satisfactory.
Charles Horton, Southeastern managing director, said, “Our employees are the face of the company and the more we can do to provide them with the training and support they need to do their job, then the better it is for our passengers. It is clear in my mind that the record National Passenger Survey recently announced is in part a reflection of this hard work.”
The IiP Bronze award has built on the work already conducted to achieve the standard IiP accreditation last year and is part of an on-going investment in the employees at Southeastern, with the aim of receiving the Silver and Gold awards over the next two years. There is a franchise commitment to spend £10.3 million on training and development by the end of 2012 which the company is on target to exceed.
Janet Duncan, Investors in People Assessor with Inspiring Business Performance who conducted the Bronze review said, ‘I am delighted that Southeastern has successfully achieved the Investors in People Bronze recognition. This is a prestigious award and a great tribute to everyone in the organisation who has shown a real desire and determination to make Southeastern a great place to work for the benefit of both their employees and their passengers. I look forward to working with the company over the next two years as they continue their journey towards the Silver and Gold Awards.’
Already there is an extensive National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) programme in place within the company which has already seen 43% of employees attaining a qualification and a target of 50% by the end of June 2011.
“As a business we have a responsibility to our employees and our passengers to provide the best possible train service to Kent and East Sussex. To achieve this we must provide our employees with the right skills and self-confidence to do their job and I am proud of the achievements we have made to date. But we know that we have a long way still to go, our National Passenger Survey, for example, can still be improved on and by continuing the programme to achieve the Silver and Gold IiP awards we will be heading in the right direction,” Charles Horton concluded.
