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Joe Eversole, senior location manager for First Student’s Cincinnati operation, reviews with driver Vicky Harris the key elements of the company’s “Drive SMART” campaign for reducing idling, saving fuel and improving their environment.
align key performance indicators, or KPIs, across the business. Best-practice teams determined what KPIs to measure the company’s performance, which Burtwistle said created a company standard, a “common language.” All employee incentives are also tied to KPIs, such as the safety benchmark that all locations are challenged to improve upon annually. Tis improves accountability, teamwork, communication and performance. First Student was already safe, as evi- denced by winning the 2009 Green Cross for Safety medal, the highest such award bestowed by the National Safety Council. But last year, Burtwistle said the company celebrated its safest year on record. One of the main goals this year, she added, is to use KPIs to further improve safety. At the heart of all of these improvements
is the “four-to-one ratio,” a theory devel- oped in the late 1960s by researchers at Florida State University and the University of Illinois. Behavior analysis concluded that elementary school teachers could better determine classroom behavior and adher- ence to rules by using positive reinforce- ment, or praise, four times more often than harsher, corrective statements. Many other companies have also begun practicing this founding principle of Positive Behaviorial Interventions and Supports that are used widely in schools. “It’s scientifically proven that if you
...while buses IDLE away time – and money!
can achieve four-to-one in your business, you will optimize the performance of your people. Discretionary effort will be maximized,” Burtwistle explained. “We committed as a team that we were going to achieve a four-to-one ratio to deal with all issues and each other in a positive way. If we want all of our people truly engaged and focused on goals, then we absolutely have to change the way we work.” Te transformation is not complete, and
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Burtwistle said it never will be, especially for an organization of that size. Instead, the company needs to continue challenging itself and to remain dynamic as it pursues continuous improvement. But the new way has been paved. “Te difference in our employees really has been night and day. Tey know where they fit, what they’re accountable for,” Burtwistle concluded. “Our people no longer speak about the good old days when they were at Laidlaw or at Ryder. Tey are now all First Student people. Tey know what that means, and they know where they fit in this organization.”
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