Each winner of the HR Excellence Awards has proven their impact on business by backing up their award-winning strategies with rock-solid figures.
In 2023, the British Transport Police won the prize for Best Flexible Working Strategy. Here is how the HR team did it.
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Best Flexible Working Strategy: The British Transport Police
The British Transport Police (BTP) is a 5,000-person operation, spread over around 160 locations around the UK, where some work on their own or in small teams of under five, from Truro to Inverness.
As some officers work in larger groups of 50 to 100, the service is by necessity fragmented, as officers work to keep passengers safe across the 10,300 miles of railway covering the UK.
In 2019, the service had recognised this fragmentation as a threat to its aims of building a cohesive, positive culture across the BTP, and founded its smarter working team to modernise its working practices.
The team, however, initially met scepticism. Personnel of all levels felt that an office environment was crucial for performance and the cultural expectations of a police force. It would take a pandemic to change this view.
Fast-forward three years, and the team had another shot: this time, it would not miss. Devising a system where staff could choose fixed, blended or home-working locations, the team tested it at the BTP Birmingham estate. Enabling the team to move into a smaller building meant the service was saved from a £1m rent increase.
The scheme was soon rolled out across the business, and in January 2023 updated to include statutory flexible working enhancements, in advance of legislation. Now, 15% of staff have a statutory flexible working agreement in place, the majority of whom are women.
The scheme also empowers workers to build informal agreements with their managers. With no minimum office days or changes in contract, office workers are empowered to decide where they can best perform.
Managers and workers were supplied with toolkits, alongside updated working environments and screen safety assessments. The programme also provided a budget of up to £350 per worker, to ensure a suitable working environment.
The BTP team supported staff and managers with guidance throughout the transition, rolling out training and investing in technology that could be used securely from the home.
The majority (58%) of BTP staff now have blended working agreements in place. Operational staff have likewise been given access to flexible working. For them, activity-based rosters and a new approach to shift timetabling have opened up a world of new possibilities.
The flexible mindset has been applied thoroughly, and fairly: new, blended training programmes (formerly only available in London) are being established on a hybrid/remote basis, and experiments with self-rostering are underway.
The results speak for themselves: since flexible working was introduced, the service has seen a reduction of more than 12,000 sickness and special leave days – 47% and 84% reductions respectively – equating to over £3 million in staff time.
Absences for depression, bereavement, and pregnancy-related conditions have dropped particularly sharply, and the new system, supported by tech investments, has helped the service build an agile, trusting culture that no longer relies on physical proximity.
Retention and recruitment has been easier, too, and the shift has opened up the BTP talent pool beyond London for more senior roles. The business has seen a reduction of staff leavers by 30% between 2019 and 2022.
Judges praised the BTP’s robust, measurable approach, and confident investment in appropriate equipment and training.
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