National Express Wins Grand Prix Employee Benefits Award

11 June 2007

National Express, the UK's number one coach company, has won two prestigious awards at the national Employee Benefits Awards 2007 receiving the Grand Prix prize for the best overall award entry, as well as the most effective benefits strategy for organisations with more than 1,000 employees.

The awards, now in their fifth year, celebrate employee benefits schemes that are being taken seriously by senior management, have met their objectives and are appropriate for the workforce. It attracts a wide variety of high profile organisations including BSkyB, McDonald's, RBS Group and Siemens. National Express was up against ASDA, Bank of America, Cattles PLC and Shell International to win the 'Most effective benefits strategy for organisations with more than 1,000 employees'. The judges were impressed with HR strategy that "offered something for everyone in a diverse workforce". This includes:

Free nationwide coach travel
Employee assistance programme offering counselling and advice
Interest free loans for those in need of financial support
Gifts for new parents and increased maternity provision
Child care vouchers
Buying and selling holiday
Discounted 'bikes for work' scheme
Long service awards

Paul Bunting, National Express Chief Executive said, "The strategy devised and implemented by a team led by Karen O'Reilly concentrates on engaging with our employees and creating a programme that appeals to staff in a large call centre, travel shops and coach stations across the UK together with 2000 drivers that are not all employed directly by the business. As well as having a brilliant programme that we hope our staff enjoy, the icing on the cake was to be awarded the overall main award that really does put National Express and the transport sector on a pedestal and is great recognition for a lot of hard work over the past three years."

The strategy adopted by National Express is designed to offer benefits that help reposition the business, historically dominated by men, as one that can also attract women. Encouraging staff to say with the company reducing staff turnover is also a priority.

Amanda Wilkinson, editor of Employee Benefits magazine says: "National Express was voted the Grand Prix winner of Employee Benefits Awards 2007 because the judges were impressed with the sea change that has taken place at the coach travel company over the last three years. Back in 2004 it only offered employees coach travel passes. Now, the coach travel company provides a whole range of perks designed to boost employee engagement and reduce staff turnover. The Employee Benefits Awards celebrate the best in benefits thinking among employers."

Employee Benefits, a magazine written specifically for people whose role it is to advise on, communicate, implement and resource staff benefits, organises The Employee Benefits Awards to celebrate the best in benefits thinking among employers.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

National Express Group serves more than one billion passengers a year worldwide on its bus, train, light rail and express coach and airport operations. It has leading positions in each of its markets - the United Kingdom, North America and Spain. Over 25% of our operations are now in international markets.
National Express Coaches is Britain's only scheduled national coach network and serves more than 1,000 destinations, providing approximately 19 million customer journeys each year. The airport service provides premier, high frequency scheduled coach services to all the UK's major airports. The division employs nearly 1,700 people.
www.employeebenefitsawards.co.uk