People

Nobina contributes to goal 3

by working for a healthy, safe and secure work environment in all of our workplaces – from buses to depots and offices. We do this by striving to ensure continuous improvements in leadership, work environment and commitment, and by creating a robust safety culture characterised by responsibility and care. Indirectly, our operations contribute to better health for all through fewer emissions and less noise pollution.

Within goal 5,

we are working purposefully for greater equality by striving to increase the proportion of women in our historically male-dominated industry. Through initiatives, such as inviting women to meetings so they can find out more about the driving profession, we have successfully enrolled a number of women in our driver training courses. We work hard at our workplaces to create a culture where equal opportunities and equal treatment for women and men are self-evident.

We contribute to goal 8

by offering full-time employment with decent working conditions and equal pay.
Fulfilling employee rights is self-evident, as is offering a good work nvironment. For many, Nobina is a first step into the labour market, with a secure job and development opportunities. Every year, we help to attract and train many new drivers through collaborations with job centres and via our own vocational training courses.
All employees are covered by collective agreements and we constantly strive to improve our workplaces and working conditions.

There is significant demand for drivers in the industry and Nobina is working proactively to find new ways to generate interest for the profession and reach new potential employees. Our own driver training and collaboration with municipalities and job centres help to increase interest and fill places on training courses.

Skills supply is an important issue for the future for Nobina, the entire industry and society as a whole. The need for more drivers is not new, and getting more people to discover the profession and train as bus drivers is sometimes a challenge. Nobina has therefore launched several initiatives to attract more people to the profession, which is in the interests of both ourselves and society as a whole.

Job collaboration with the City of Stockholm

One initiative is our collaboration with the City of Stockholm to attract, train and employ more drivers. The agreement is a form of “job pact” whereby the city provides places on training courses at adult and vocational education centres. For its part, Nobina guarantees employment to the people who complete the training.

One important element of the collaboration is matching and marketing of driver training where the city and Nobina are working to reach more groups, with a particular focus on women and individuals who are far from the labour market. Nobina can do a great deal to reach broad target groups and generate interest, which includes advertising in social media where drivers talk about their jobs and what it’s like to work for us. The results were not long coming: previously, driver training programmes had empty spaces, but there were now queues to the latest course.

Our collaboration with the city is not only helping to rectify a problem for our own operations and industry, it is also having positive effects that include increased integration as we strive to reach applicants with a foreign background, and increased employment as people can transition from unemployment and labour market schemes to secure jobs and earning a living. The results of the collaboration show that this initiative is well worth emulating in other parts of the Group and similar collaborations have begun in, for example, Finland.

Certified training partner

Another important element of our skills supply is to build our own training capacity to broaden and strengthen our own ability while we also help society to provide training in a relevant profession. In addition to internal professional training for drivers, Nobina has also started its own driving school that is approved and authorised. To date, we have been procured as a training provider to the Arbetsförmedlingen job centre in Stockholm, an assignment that will begin in 2024. This allows us to enhance the range of courses and provide more opportunities to join the profession.

Both initiatives are examples of Nobina’s ability to take responsibility and solve challenges and problems, where we are happy to cooperate and form partnerships with other stakeholders. If we want more people to travel together, then we need to work more together!

In Denmark, Nobina has achieved great success with its job collaboration, diversity and health initiative with the aim of retaining and attracting new employees. As a result, the Kolding traffic area was the first to receive the SammenomJOB (Eng: Working together for jobs) award. The prize was introduced in 2023 by Kolding Municipality’s labour market council and social and labour authority with the aim of spotlighting activities that contribute to diversity and create jobs for individuals who are far from the labour market.

Through its close collaboration with the municipality and job centres, which included a form of “job dating”, Nobina receives tips about interested and suitable candidates for driver training. Nobina also collaborates with two training companies, Dekra and AMU Syd. Students at the schools are invited to information events at Nobina, where they learn more about the profession and join bus drivers as they carry out their daily routines.

Nobina’s operations in Kolding employ about 85 drivers. The company has not only changed a recruitment need into practically a queue of people interested in employment, it has also worked purposefully to create a distinct “we culture” with zero tolerance for racism, sexism, etc. Employees are also offered health agreements whereby the company pays the full cost of up to ten appointments with a physiotherapist, chiropractor or private caregiver for rehabilitation.