Stagecoach London were acutely aware of the gulf between the numbers of female bus drivers in their employ compared to the number of male drivers, and it was something they were understandably keen to address.

The business operates in some very diverse parts of a very diverse city, and while they accurately represent the communities they serve through ethnicity, women are hugely under-represented. Through focus groups with their drivers – and through more anecdotal means – they had built up a thorough understanding of the kind of barriers which were preventing women from applying:

As the centrepiece of the strategy, Ferne McCann, of TOWIE and This Morning fame, was invited to join them in at West Ham bus garage to train for her PCV licence. This was shown on national TV on This Morning, and received widespread coverage across national and local media throughout the initial 4 weeks of the campaign.

Regular posts over the following weeks tied in Ferne’s experiences behind the wheel with broader recruitment activity continuing to present bus driving as a viable career option for women.

We then developed a separate section on the client’s careers site where we could share the stories. We also produced two videos in which three female bus drivers shared their experiences; explaining how they got into bus driving, overcoming negativity and their own doubts, and talking about what the job is really like and what it means to them. Visit: Women Behind the Wheel

After just the first month of the campaign, Stagecoach had seen an increase in applications from women by approximately 30%, growing from 9.6% in February up to 13.5% of all applications (2,189) in March.

As well as being highly successful in terms of the campaign, we were also delighted to win the  Best Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at the prestigious RAD awards and to be Highly Commended in the RMA/CIPD awards as well.