Stagecoach recognises star employees at annual awards

Stagecoach has named the winners of this year’s Stars Awards, an annual awards event designed to recognise its shining stars and the employees who have delivered above and beyond.

Nominations were received from staff and customers, with 32 individuals and six teams shortlisted in the awards.  The employee awards, now in their 11^th year, recognise excellence over key areas including service to customers, safety, health and wellbeing, environment, community and innovation.

Stagecoach, which is Britain's biggest bus and coach operator and also runs tram services in Sheffield, is one of the country's largest private sector employers. It provides direct employment for 24,000 people and supports a further 10,000 jobs. In total, Stagecoach supports one in every 1,000 jobs in the UK.

This year’s winners included a bus driver in Stroud who saved a woman’s life after jumping into a canal to save a woman he had seen jumping off a bridge, and depot teams from Ecclesfield in Sheffield and Worksop in Nottinghamshire who worked together during the major floods of November 2019 to get services up and running again as quickly as possible for customers.

Employees were also recognised for looking after the health and wellbeing of colleagues, taking steps to make Stagecoach a greener company and creating new, innovative business ideas.

Winners at the event received a trophy and a cash prize and an overnight stay in Edinburgh with their guests.

Martin Griffiths, Chief Executive of Stagecoach said: “As we celebrate our 40^th anniversary, it’s important that we take time to recognise the huge contribution that our people make to keeping communities connected right across the UK.

“The standard of nominations this year was very high and it’s great to see the real enthusiasm and pride that our people have, and to hear true examples of people living our values day in day out.  I would like to pass on my personal thanks and congratulations to everybody nominated, and of course our well deserving winners.

“We are very proud to recognise so many Stagecoach heroes and champions at this year’s Stars Awards, however we know the crucial role that all of our people right across our business play in delivering a great service for our customers.”

Moment of Truth Award – sponsored by FCL Organisation

The winner is Bob Uzzell, Driver, Stagecoach West.  Bob has been a bus driver in the Stroud area and more recently drives on the local bus routes around the Cirencester area where he meets lots of regular passengers who he welcomes aboard with a smile and chat. When driving his bus through Stroud, Bob saw a woman jump off a bridge. He immediately made sure his customers were ok and jumped in to the canal to save her. Bob is a real hero and well deserving of this award.

Customer Experience Champion Award – sponsored by Grayson Thermal Systems

The winner is Jed Telfer, Stance Controller, Stagecoach West Scotland. John, also known as Jed to his customers, started his career with Stagecoach in 2003 as a Driver and was promoted to Street Controller in mid-2004. Jed is a real champion for the customer experience. He received countless nominations from both colleagues and customers, being described as lovely, sympathetic, professional and customer focussed. He truly is a great ambassador for Stagecoach.

Community Champion Award – sponsored by Voith

The winner is London’s Macmillan Initiative, Stagecoach London.  This initiative started in 2017, when one of the managers at Stagecoach London, Martyn Henderson, lost his battle with cancer. It affected many of the team and was the inspiration behind London’s decision to set a target to raise £50,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. The team have held a variety of fundraising events, from fun days to football matches, race nights and raffles.

Health and Wellbeing Hero Award – sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills

Winner – Jenny Powell, Health & Wellbeing Manager, Stagecoach West

Jenny started with Stagecoach West in 1999 and has been a driver in Stroud, an NVQ assessor and Assistant Operations Manager in Stroud and Gloucester.  Jenny was named as winner of this award for the excellent work she has been doing to implement and embed a health and wellbeing strategy into Stagecoach West. She has run support groups, trained Wellbeing Champions and has supported many employees through personal struggles. Jenny’s work on the health and wellbeing agenda is inspirational.

Highly Commended - Sonia Mellish, Operations Assistant, Stagecoach South West

Sonia joined Stagecoach in 2015 as a part-time Admin Clerk. She has been a Health & Wellbeing champion for more than a year now, and is a popular and well-respected colleague. Sonia has done an amazing amount of work promoting health and wellbeing in the South West. She has led and developed regular campaigns on both healthy lifestyle and the mental health agenda. Her passion for helping others is inspiring.

Innovative Idea Award – sponsored by Optare

The winner is Team Liverpool, who look after Gillmoss Depot, Stagecoach Merseyside & South. Lancashire. Stagecoach has been running the depot since 2006 and the whole team, from drivers to engineers, pull together to take on challenging situations. Team Liverpool came up with a plan to deal with ‘mischief night’ in Liverpool, where in previous years vehicles have been badly damaged and colleagues and customers injured. Through securing extra police resource, proactive driver reporting, and supervisor and inspector reactions, fewer vehicles were damaged and, most importantly, no colleagues or customers were injured.

Inspirational Leader Award – sponsored by PSV Transport Systems

Winner – Jimmy Croft, Relief Depot Inspector, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire

Jimmy joined Stagecoach in 1989 and has been a Driver, Allocator, CPC trainer and is currently a Relief Depot Inspector. Jimmy is an inspiration to his colleagues in leading by example and is always looking to help others, be that new or old colleagues or the charities he supports outside of work. Jimmy does everything with a smile on his face and a skip in his step.

Highly Commended – Kayley Bowes, Customer Service Supervisor, Stagecoach Manchester

Kayley started with Stagecoach in 2015, and has worked in business support, personnel and customer service. Kayley has worked incredibly hard to bring together the Customer Service Team in Manchester, improving communication between the team and all the depots. She played a crucial role in the successful implementation of a new customer contact system and has been an inspirational leader for her team.

Rising Star Award – sponsored by Volvo

The winner is Jon Luxon, Acting Assistant Operations Manager, Stagecoach Yorkshire. Jon joined Stagecoach in 2015 and has held a number of positions including Greenroad Champion, Lead Driver, Traffic Controller and is currently Acting Assistant Operations Manager at Ecclesfield. Jon has worked extremely hard to progress his career. He has inspired his team to perform and deliver, and is now progressing his career through the Next Stage Development Programme.

Top Team Award – sponsored by Scania

Winner – Grimsby Charity Team, Stagecoach East Midlands

The Grimsby Charity Team has been fundraising for the British Heart Foundation following the sad loss of one of their colleagues to heart disease. They’ve also had several colleagues suffer serious heart-related illness, so the fundraising is their way of saying thank you. The team has worked incredibly hard to raise nearly £15,000 for the special baby care unit at Grimsby Hospital and the British Heart Foundation. This has been achieved through the fantastic fundraising efforts and dedication of the team in Grimsby.

Highly Commended – London’s Safety Strategy Group, Stagecoach London

London’s Safety Strategy Group was formed in 2017 so they could approach safety in a new way. They’re a group of senior leaders and Health & Safety representatives where every member has an equal voice at their forums. The team put safety at the heart of everything they do and put in huge amounts of effort to ensure that our colleagues and customers get home safely every day

Going for Green Award – sponsored by Bridgestone

The winner is William Allan, Greenroad Champion, Stagecoach West Scotland. William started his career with Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire in 2014 moving to West Scotland in 2017. William has done a brilliant job of transforming Ayr depot to be one that is performing very successfully every period, through his ability to speak with his colleagues and always being on hand to offer advice and help.

Safety Hero Award – sponsored by Greenroad

The winner is Rob McEwen, Fleet Engineer, Stagecoach South Wales. He started his career in 1992 with Red & White Services as an apprentice and has since been a Chargehand, Acting Foreman, Depot Foreman and is currently Fleet Engineer.  Rob has designed a system that helps people monitor their exposure to hand-arm vibration from power tools. This is a fantastic system that will really help to protect employees.

Outstanding Performance Award – sponsored by Alexander Dennis

Winner – Ecclesfield and Worksop depots, Stagecoach Yorkshire and Stagecoach East Midlands

The winners of this award cover two of Stagecoach bus companies, working together to achieve a great service for customers. During the severe flooding that occurred in South Yorkshire in November 2019, where a month’s rainfall fell in one day, the teams at Ecclesfield in Stagecoach Yorkshire and Worksop in Stagecoach East Midlands, worked together to protect premises, equipment and vehicles. Colleagues of all areas worked tirelessly, whilst wading through knee-deep water, to keep services running as best they could.

Highly Commended – Julie Armitage, Cleaner, Stagecoach East Midlands

Julie started work at Stagecoach as a cleaner in 2019, totally transforming the working facilities for Skegness employees. She’s a loyal, thoughtful, caring person who will do anything she can to help and advise others. Julie has transformed the state of the facilities at Skegness and now has the bus station looking clean and tidy. Her colleagues greatly appreciate all her hard work.

Overall winner – Stagecoach Star of the Year

Winner - Jed Telfer, Stance Controller, West Scotland

Highly Commended - Bob Uzzell, Driver, Stagecoach West

Stagecoach was proud to involve its partners and suppliers in this year’s awards.  The awards sponsors for the Stagecoach Stars Awards 2020 were Blink, FCL Organisation, Herbert Smith Freehills, Bridgestone, Volvo, Scania, Grayson Thermal Systems, Voith, Optare, PSV Transport Systems, and Greenroad.  The awards event was supported by Make Events.

For more information about Stagecoach or to download a copy of the Winner’s brochure, visit stagecoachgroup.com.

ENDS