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THEY’RE the people who keep Reading moving, and usually they’re our unsung heroes too.
But that all changed thanks to a special awards ceremony aimed at celebrating the best of Reading Buses.
The firm holds a Stars of the Month award, designed to recognise staff who have gone above and beyond during their duties.
And once a year, they celebrate them all with a Stars of the Year ceremony.
For the first time since covid pandemic started, they were able to return to an inperson ceremony, celebrating some of the most challenging times the company has faced.
The glittering ceremony was held at The Hilton Hotel on Kennet Island, and saw long-serving staff member Sharmila Perera named Star of the Year for playing a pivotal role in the company’s financial survival since the start of the pandemic.
She had been named Support Star of the Year earlier in the evening, making the overall win a surprise.
Honours also went to driving star Anthony Farmer, 50 who lives in Tilehurst, described as a role model and ambassador for Reading Buses, and engineering star Jordan McKie, 23 and who lives in Reading, a great team member with a brilliant can-do attitude towards everything.
The company’s chief executive officer Robert Williams explained: “While our whole team has been amazing during the pandemic, these three individuals have truly epitomised everything that is outstanding within the company.”
And group management accountant Sharmila, who has worked at Reading Buses for 16 years, was thrilled with her win, given for creating and managing a sustainable way of handling the company’s Covid-19 Bus Service Support Grant reconciliation submissions.
The company said her handling of the submissions meant Reading Buses could receive much-needed funding at the height of the pandemic to keep services running for essential workers.
Caroline Anscombe, Reading Buses HR director, said: “Sharmila created a system that took a lot of manual work out of the process of submitting information for the funding, saving a huge amount of resource.
“Where questions were posed, Sharmila was able to answer them quickly and follow up with supporting evidence and documentation leading to all queries being fully closed out and resolved allowing us to receive the funding in a timely manner.
“She demonstrated Reading Buses’ values of doing the right thing, being constantly creative and innovative as well as caring.”
Anthony, who unfortunately was unable to attend the event, was praised in his nomination for demonstrating kindness, patience and helpfulness towards a disabled person when he was driving the 17 bus from town to Wokingham Road.
The man was unsuccessfully trying to manoeuvre a mobility scooter when Anthony helped him to steer. It took a long time to help the customer, but Anthony was said to have been patient, cheerful and encouraging the whole time.
When another customer on the bus said he wanted to tell Reading Buses how marvellous he was, modest Anthony said it was just part of his job and was reluctant to give his name. The customer, who insisted, said he just wanted Anthony’s employers to know how well he did.
Caroline said: “Anthony has been working for the company for a number of years now so to see him still full of enthusiasm and patience is great. Whenever our drivers encounter unusual situations, we are always delighted to see them remain calm, friendly and helpful.
“Anthony was definitely this and was recognised not just for the individual nomination, but his consistently excellent performance throughout his time with the company.”
Engineer Jordan was said to have stepped into the fold without hesitation to fuel and clean vehicles to have them ready as soon as possible after another team member become ill. As part of the engineering crew, he has been praised for always showing attention to detail and being proactive in his communication with other departments
He was praised as a great team member with an unrelenting positive can-do attitude, outstandingly helpful to the control room team and drivers, demonstrating Reading Buses’ values of doing the right thing, staying safe and healthy, having fun and customer focus.
Caroline said of Jordan: “Like both Sharmila and Anthony, Jordan was recognised for his ongoing performance and development as much as for the nomination itself. He is highly praised for his positive attitude and helpful demeanour.”
Mr Williams added: “Celebrating employees is especially important this year as we’re celebrating two years’ worth of employee achievements across the pandemic.
“We held special ‘GEM Awards’ last year, but couldn’t have a proper ceremony due to Covid. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate with our team in person this year.
“This is even more special than ever before as it covers the challenging time where employees were key workers, but still helping people get around Reading with a smile.
“I can’t emphasise enough how hard it was to select Sharmila, Anthony and Jordan as I believe all our employees are stars.”
