(06 Nov 2022, 3:09 pm)Dan wrote Depends on the reasons why staff are leaving, doesn't it?

If drivers find that there's not a great work/life balance, don't enjoy working shifts, would prefer to have every weekend off... then there's probably not a lot that bus operators can do. The nature of working for a bus company means that someone has to work earlies, lates, weekends, and everything in between. Rotas are so hard to get right - if there's a big desire to work weekdays only, then operators could implement more split shifts - but that leaves more lates and weekends for everyone else... there's a fine balance to be had.

If that's the reason why, then perhaps bus operators are better off concentrating their efforts on recruitment to meet employee turnover rates. It's been mentioned elsewhere on the forum recently that Go North East's lost mileage due to lack of driver resource has vastly improved. At the same time we've seen lots of references on this forum to a big recruitment drive. The two are probably connected.

There are of course other reasons within the company's control - pay, holiday entitlement, management style, etc - and if that's the reason why staff are leaving, then concentrating on improving retention rates is probably the thing to concentrate on.

Looking at some of the employee turnover rates reference on the website below, I actually don't think turnover rates in the bus industry are all that bad. I thought other industries were a lot lower:
https://www.rewardgateway.com/blog/emplo...y-industry

There is shift work and shift work.   I have worked shifts all my working life, the shifts that the bus industry expect you to work are up there with the worst. 

So your answer is rather than improving the working conditions of current employees, it’s just best to constantly recruit new staff?   That’s very short sighted and the sort of view that just reinforces that the management within the bus industry is very poor.