FirstGroup

We’re big on variety - not just in our services but in our people, too

At FirstGroup, we’re big on variety. We’re one of the UK’s largest bus operators, and we look after around a fifth of bus services outside London. We’re also one of the country’s most experienced rail operators too. And the only one to run every sort of railway - long distance, regional, commuter and sleeper operations - through three passenger franchises, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express, and one open access operator, Hull Trains.

It means we carry more than a quarter of a billion passengers on a huge variety of journeys every year. It also means that having an equally wide variety of people on our team has never been more important to us. In fact, we believe that the more diverse we are, the broader our experience will be, and the bigger our opportunities to innovate.

That’s why we’re committed to equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion at every level, both in our Boardroom and in our wider business, and it all begins with our four gender diversity commitments:

• Increase the numbers of female applicants for all roles
• Encourage more women to stay and progress
• Support and develop more women into higher paying roles
• Ensure men are more aware and can play their part in creating an inclusive workplace which is welcoming to women

What’s more, we recently launched two new development programmes in the UK – ‘Step Up’ and the ‘Women’s Career Development Programme’ - both of which encourage women in all areas of our business to stay with us and progress their careers.

Across FirstGroup, you’ll also find a wide range of brilliant initiatives like ASPECT, Great Western Railway’s LGBTQ+ network which promotes equality and inclusion, supports Pride events, and has already taken part in the Stonewall Workplace Index to benchmark performance.

Day to day, beyond our partnership with Work180, we work closely with Inclusive Employers and Rest Less, and we’ve also partnered with the Wise Campaign. Our commitment to diversity is continually being recognised. For example, TransPennine Express was recently ranked 26th in The Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers List – a definitive list of UK based organisations that promote inclusion across all protected characteristics.