Transit Driver Appreciation Day

Target Audience: The primary target of our Transit Driver Appreciation Day campaign was our frontline workers, particularly our Operators (campaign shared via social media and through our internal employee newsletter). To start, we put out a call to riders asking them to submit any feedback in appreciation of our staff. We were not certain if we'd get any response and were happily surprised to see over a hundred submissions in just a few days. The trick then was to pick the best comments, showing that our passengers do indeed appreciate the hard work and dedication of our drivers.

Strategy Objective:The objective of this entry is to show the thought County Connection puts toward recognizing Operators and work they do. We would recognize the contributions of our Operators anyway, but also would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that a simple recognition can often help with worker retention. Operators, in particular, are on the front lines of our agency and this small Transit Driver Appreciation Day campaign was our way of broadening the perspective, showing Operators that they are indeed creating positive change in the community just by doing their job each day. Broadening that scope and brining in passenger perspective seemed to positively resonate with our drivers and other frontline staff.

Situation Challenge: Transit Driver Appreciation Day is in March and each year we put out messages of appreciation from agency leadership. We felt this year (2024), we wanted to do something different and a little less perfunctory. By soliciting feedback from our passengers, we found their messages to be a very honest reflection of the work our team of drivers do every day. Also, our agency has been struggling to fill open driver positions and our current staff of Operators have to do a lot of work to just meet demand, which can affect overall morale (overworked, under appreciated). We felt it was necessary to show the positive impact the drivers and the work they do have on the community.

Results Impact: Internally, we noticed a lot more Operators engaging with the messages. To clarify, we collected accolades/quotes from passengers intended for our Operators, and posted them on our social media channels throughout the day. We also printed up the quotes, formatted into a design, and posted them around the Driver's Room, where Operators and Protection Drivers congregate. As well, online there was a lot of engagement (reactions) to the postings, helping to remind passengers to take moment in their day to see transit operators and the important work they do. As for the public, we saw a jump in online impressions through the campaign postings and believe the positive feedback we gathered and shared, goes a long way in helping to build pride in the work we do.

Why Submit: We are working everyday to build regional pride of our transit agency as well as leverage the legacy County Connection has built since 1980--and we would be no where without our transit operators and frontline workers. We hear plenty of complaints about slow buses or missed connections, but we don't let that define us. Instead, we work to set a tone online as well as among our operators to ensure they understand the praise and accolades coming in from the community. This Transit Driver Appreciation Day campaign went a long way in changing the perception our operators had of our passages, cluing them into the fact that they are indeed essential and valued in the region.