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Rail operator First Great Western has improved its performance after introducing a company-wide balanced scorecard which involves staff carrying around their individual key targets.
The train operator introduced the scheme in October last year because the company was under performing and suffering from poor morale after the Hatfield Rail disaster in October 2000.
Clare Hannah, head of HR at First Great Western, said the company introduced the corporate scorecard - split in to five areas, safety, performance, customer, financial and people - to focus efforts to improve performance.
To ensure employees know how their roles sit with these objectives, the firm's 2,500 staff carry around three targets that link into their team's and the company's scorecard.
For example, a team dispatcher's targets would include making sure all trains leave on time. Hannah said: "Morale fell because the company lost its strategic focus after the Hatfield rail disaster. It started to focus on getting each day and hoping the next would not be as bad."
Following the introduction of the balanced scorecard, the company is now the second most punctual train operator in the country, with more than eight out of 10 trains arriving within 10 minutes of the scheduled time - up from around 60 per cent last summer.
In May, it achieved its highest customer satisfaction score of 90 per cent in two years.
First Great Western is set to meet its people objective of increasing employee commitment by 10 per cent to 70 per cent.
Hannah believes the balanced scorecard approach has increased the importance of HR to the organisation.
"Employees need to know where the company is going and what their role is. It has managed to get HR into boardroom thinking and has made the department more prominent," she said.
By Paul Nelson
