The RailStaff Awards 2024

Lisa McKellar

Said the following about QTS Step into Spring team:

“Following the second COVID 19 lockdown in Spring 2021, staff morale was low within the QTS team. The Mental Health Steering Committee had worked together to create outlets for people within the business to get involved with, but as the first-year anniversary of lockdown came around, it was clear we needed to do something to inspire and bring together our team. Many of our staff had been working from home, isolated from each other, for a year and our site teams were working under strict COVID 19 conditions. Across the business, our team needed something to pull them together but to also make them feel like they were doing good, not just for themselves, but for others too.

In March 2021, we launched a month long ‘Step into Spring’ charity challenge. Supporting the five QTS nominated charities, it was designed to encourage our people to get outside, into the fresh air and help QTS move 5,000 miles around the globe. These charities were KIND Liverpool, Andy’s Man Club, Samuel’s Smile, The Kris Boyd Charity & Whiteleys Retreat.

We added a competitive element to it by investing in an app called Move Spring, which allowed us to track each other’s progress on a leader board. The chat function also helped us to spur each other on and enjoy some friendly competition along the way. It also allowed us to track ‘where in the world’ we were during our challenge, which we used on our social media to help generate donations and encouragement.

Our team engaged in the process to a fantastic level and within two weeks, we hit our target of 5,000 miles. Instead of finishing the challenge, we decided to up the total to 10,000 miles! With our team so invested, we continued our virtual journey around the world, with over 100 of our staff involved, vying to make the top 10 on the leaderboard.

What initially started as a 5,000 mile challenge, encouraging our people to get moving, improve mental wellbeing and stay connected with each other, turned into 10,000 miles and an incredible £7,000 raised for our nominated charities. We used our social media channels, internal email communication and the chat function on the Move Spring app to keep encouraging each other and to stay positive.

Our team were so proud to have raised much needed funds for our charities, creating a sense of achievement across all who took part. Well done to our outstanding QTS team!“