Bonus payments for London bus drivers are helping employers tackle severe
recruitment and retention problems.
The Transport for London bonus scheme was introduced in April by the Greater
London Authority giving bus drivers and conductors an additional £4 per shift
flat-rate payment.
Sarah Rennie, HR director for Stagecoach London, says that the TfL Bonus has
been beneficial in attracting people to the industry.
This extra payment has meant many staff benefit by receiving a £20 a week
boost.
But despite the bonus, Stagecoach London is still short of 160 drivers and
Rennie stresses more needs to be done to combat the skills shortage.
"We need to raise the image of bus drivers. We need to be looking at
things like development of staff, training issues, and be more proactive in the
way we appraise staff," she said.
Phil Brown, recruitment and training manager at First Group in London
claimed that the bonus has helped reduce the firm’s driver shortages from 5 per
cent to 1 per cent since March.
But he believes that drivers’ basic pay, currently an average £17,000 a
year, must increase if the problem of driver shortages is to be solved long
term.
The annual average wage for the capital is over £29,000.
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