Following the creation of the job role, Avanti West Coast has announced that Lizzie Power has been chosen as the first Employee Director.
The position first originated at one of Avanti West Coast's shareholder firms, First Group. The role of Employee Director is to liaise with the staff across Avanti West Coast, ensuring they are considered at boardroom level decisions.
As the opinions and ideas of staff are important in all changes and decisions made by senior management, it was felt creating a dedicated role to ensure staff are represented was the best course of action. The Employee Director will have talks and discussions with all staff, from across their routes and job roles.
Just as important as forming the position was finding the ideal candidate to take on the duties, leading to Lizzie's application being successful. Starting her railway career in 2012 as an onboard Customer Service Assistant, she soon progressed to become a Train Manager. When learning of the new Employee Director role, Lizzie was very pleased and felt she had the skills and personality to succeed in the role.
Following being selected, Lizzie said: “I love working with people – I get so much from seeing and talking to individuals, so what job could be better than to engage with our wonderful people and represent them in our boardroom. We work best when we work together and as Employee Director I will strive to strengthen relationships amongst colleagues to create a better understanding of what matters to them in their role, which will help us to deliver the best for our people and our customers.”
Avanti West Coast Executive HR Director Pauline Whitehead said: “People build brands and the success of our brand is dependent on keeping our people engaged and involved, which is why the new role of Employee Director is vital in ensuring our people are represented in the boardroom. It was great that so many colleagues from different areas of the business expressed an interest in this opportunity making the shortlisting decision very difficult. Lizzie's energy and passion to make a difference shone throughout this process and I'm looking forward to working with her in her new role as Employee Director.”
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Best of luck to her. A new recruit for the train operator as first Employee Director. And with Avanti West Coast still continuing on refurbishing the Class 390 Pendolinos with the new livery. And the new Hitachi Class 805 & Class 807 IET AT300s to be built and coming into service from next year.