Cheney School
Photo credit: Cheney School
Retaining staff by helping them try e-bikes
Jodie McMinn is School Manager at Cheney School, a River Learning Trust secondary school, in north-east Oxford. They employ 280 staff, including their own cleaners and caterers, so it’s important to ensure staff initiatives will work for many different needs and salary brackets. Like all schools in the South East, they are facing serious recruitment and retention issues, and rising recruitment costs.
Our support staff tend to live locally, but our teaching staff tend to live outside of Oxford, and often quite a long way out. We were hearing a huge amount of anxiety and horror stories about their commute times and how difficult it was for them to keep working here. We also want to reduce our carbon footprint, and we’re aware that at some point there will be a workplace parking levy.
We knew that the problem was mainly the traffic between the school and the ring road, and could see that e-bikes would be transformative to get people to Park & Rides quickly and easily. We have a regular Cycle to Work scheme, but it doesn’t allow people to actually try something. We wanted to buy an electric bike for staff trials but faced insurance hurdles. Then I found Dash, the workplace e-bike scheme, and it’s been brilliant! Of the ten people who have tried it so far, seven have immediately gone on to buy their own e-bikes.
We initially hired a folding e-bike for staff to use between the school and Thornhill Park & Ride, and then they could just pop it in the car boot. We weren't sure how much traction it would get – we thought we'll just sign it up for three months with Dash and see what happens! 15 people signed up straight away.
The staff member borrows it for two weeks for their commute, but they can use it as much as they want outside of work too. We always do the swap over on a Monday. Dash provides a lock and a helmet, so people don’t have to pay anything at all to try it out. There is no capital outlay for us, apart from two panniers, and Dash do the maintenance, insurance and replacement if it is stolen. It starts at £25 a month.
I directly approached quite a few people who I knew were struggling and, importantly, we started in spring! Once people saw other people trying it, more signed up. The queue was getting long, so we've hired a second bike. This one is non-folding, because there were quite a lot of people who wanted to be able to attach a trailer and tow their kids, or the folding bike was just slightly more complex, and we didn’t want any barriers.
We've now extended both bikes for a full year, as a huge flurry of people signed up after we got the non-folding bike - cleaners and caterers, and TAs. People who were kind of hesitant about it have now started to sign up – that positive snowballing is happening!
We bought a new lockable bike shed, and we’ve already got cycle parking that's covered by CCTV. We advise people to take the battery out if leaving it parked outside. We haven't been doing bike training but tell them where they can get it – big shout out to JoyRiders! – and I link them to the Oxford safer cycling map.
There are some lovely stories of people who you would not expect to get on a bike trying it and loving it! Two of our more senior staff tried it straight away. They both work incredibly long hours, and their commute time was really stressing them out.
One was our designated Safeguarding Lead, and he was very skeptical. He did not feel like a cyclist at all and was worried that he wasn’t fit enough to try. At the same time, his journey was so bad that it was worth trying anything! It’s changed the way that he feels about starting the day – he says he feels fresh when he gets in, and that the ride gives him time to process and destress on the way home. Even on the days when it's raining, he’s really positive and he's feeling fitter and healthier. However, it was key that it was an e-bike – it made it doable for him.
Another is one of our deputy heads; she has a young family, she works all the hours, and she is super glam. On her high heels - you would not expect to see her getting on a bike! She signed up straight away and soon as she'd finished the trial, she bought herself an e-bike. Her heels go in a backpack and she’s off!
They both save about 15 minutes on the journey in, and a massive 45 minutes homeward. Not only is that transformative, but they have reliability of journey time. They know exactly how long it will take to get to the Park & Ride, and from there they don’t have anywhere near as much unpredictability.
One thing we are still working on is to subsidise staff Park & Ride costs. It’s only £370 for unlimited parking at all the Park & Rides for a year, and for some that is more than worth it for an extra hour in their working day. However, we want it to be open to all, and from a recruitment and retention perspective, it’s a very sensible, economical option. But it’s considered to be a benefit, which has tax implications, and we also need to make sure we are aligned with other schools in the Trust. We’re trying to see if we can implement something called a green payment, then we could pay for staff Park & Rides, and it wouldn't count as a benefit. Watch this space!
If a staff member leaves because their journey is too stressful, we’ll spend thousands recruiting a replacement. Hiring some bikes through Dash and potentially paying for people’s Park & Rides makes simple economic sense. You can't really put a price on holding onto good people, and expecting our busy staff to try a new way of getting around without support - and without seeing others doing it - is just unrealistic. This ‘try’ scheme is a total no brainer from a business perspective.
Top tips for other employers:
E-bikes and Park & Ride are a powerful combo
E-bikes open up cycling to people who wouldn’t normally try it for fear of lack of fitness or getting sweaty, and if they’re using Park & Ride, staff who come in from far away don’t have to cycle the whole way. So the Park & Rides are key and so is Dash. Subscriptions start at £25 a month and include a helmet and lock, maintenance and insurance/replacement. It’s very easy to set up, and you don’t have to tie any cash up.
Sweeten the deal when recruiting
Include efforts like this one in recruitment discussions and conversations with new starters – it’s a real perk to say that you've got this option when persuading people to Oxford!
Make participation visible - especially early on
Approach some staff directly when you’re starting out, in addition to having a sign-up form, and get a few more senior or visible people signed up. There is simply nothing more compelling than seeing others trying it out – even the most unlikely candidates have come round when happy colleagues are right in front of them every day!
Staff retention is worth the investment!
Compare the costs of hiring e-bikes to the costs of losing staff to traffic woes, and the full costs of having to re-recruit, and you’ll see it is one of the cheapest interventions you can do.
