John Smith

Said the following about Human Resources Team:

҉ۢ Testimony 1 - John Smith, Managing Director, GBRf

“The work of GB Railfreight’s HR team has paved the way for company growth and industry success over the last year.

“GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a ‘value’ driven company and the HR team within GBRf are champions of promoting and maintaining the company’s unique culture. This involves actively promoting employee development and support at all levels.

“Personal development and progression is at the bedrock of what we do, and a key purpose and output from the company’s growth agenda is to be able to offer opportunities for all, specifically for our front line staff.

“As the custodians of the employee development programme, this small team of 4.5 persons have to support a GBRf workforce of close to 650 people, from all corners of the UK. This can be incredibly challenging, but equally rewarding for both them and the company.

“From a process perspective, this initially involves overseeing a unique ‘expression of interest’ form sent to all front line staff to encourage them to consider their personal career goals. Following this initial expression of interest, the Line Manager, in conjunction with the HR Team, formulates a bespoke personal career development plan for all those who wish to progress. Once the plan is formulated, then this is managed by the employee with close support from HR with the purpose of enabling the employee to maximise their potential

“Over the last year, the hard work of the HR team can be recognised across two areas, in particular:

(1) Career progression - Over the last year, 10% of our groundstaff (18 persons) were selected and trained up to become train drivers. Furthermore four train drivers have been promoted to management positions, as Operations Managers.

(2) Workforce attendance levels - An indicator of engagement and a key focus for the HR team is workforce attendance levels, which currently exceed 98%. This level of attendance is delivered through highly committed individuals, as well as a first class employee support programme, which the HR team champions at a corporate and personal level. This also includes the sourcing of healthcare programmes for employees and their families, as it is recognised that it is the families of the employees that provide the bedrock to enable them to regularly and reliably attend work in challenging conditions, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

(3) Training Days – This represents the investment by GBRf to increase the knowledge and skill levels of our employees. YTD in 2015 = 454 days.

GBRf understands that employee engagement is its USP, and it is the HR team’s industry leading levels of ‘engagement’ that has paved the way for the company’s success, in terms of both growth and customer satisfaction.”

• Testimony 2

Dan White, East Midlands Train Manager, GBRf

Working for GB Railfeight for the last 2 1/2 years has been fantastic. All of the support and encouragement has been there for me since the beginning.

I would never have thought that I'd be where I am now. GBRf's career development strategy rewards the positive and hard-working, and I'm pleased to be a part of it.“