Diversity means valuing all our staff and the contribution they can make. We welcome the differences among them and believe that those differences give added depth to our work. We aspire to make the greatest possible use of their talent and capabilities and to provide real opportunities for their professional development.
Our Corporate Responsibility Group have established six priority areas of focus for the coming year in terms of sustainability. One of these is diversity, where we intend to develop a strategy to help us achieve a workforce and supply chain which reflects the diversity of the communities in which we work.
We will be developing long term strategies for each of the six priority areas over the coming 12 months and will report fully on our progress in our next report
- Carbon
- Climate change adaptation
- Waste
- Diversity
- Accessibility
- Biodiversity, ecology and land use
Policy and strategy
Although we do not currently have a diversity and inclusion policy or strategy in place, we are working to develop and implement a strategy to progress from the ad hoc activities that have taken place to date.
Our employee profile
The profile of our workforce is largely unchanged since last year. At 31 March 2011:
- 86.8 per cent of employees were male (31 March 2010: 87.3 per cent)
- 69.4 per cent of employees were white, 4.7 per cent were Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), and 25.9 per cent undeclared (31 March 2010: 69.3 per cent white, 4.4 per cent BME, and 26.3 per cent undeclared)
- Two people out of 14 on our Board were women (31 March 2010: two people out of 16)
- No people on our Board were BME (31 March 2010: 0)
- 16.3 per cent of our 92 Executive Leaders, the most senior managers in the Company, were women (31 March 2010: 17 per cent of 47 Executive Leaders were women)
- 65.2 per cent of our Executive Leaders were white, none were BME, and 34.8 per cent were undeclared (31 March 2010: 66.0 per cent white, 0 BME and 34.0 per cent undeclared)
Diversity and inclusion in recruitment
Currently the profile of external applicants to Network Rail roles is predominantly male (74.1 per cent) and white (71.8 per cent). During the past year we began to take steps to attract a more diverse external applicant profile, both in terms of gender and ethnicity.
In 2010/11, we updated the recruitment pages on our website, and clearly stated our commitment to diversity and inclusion so that potential candidates can see our aspirations in this area. For example, we included profiles of current employees who reflect the diversity of the communities in which we work.
In 2010/11, we retendered for suppliers of recruitment services, and as part of the process all suppliers were required to provide evidence of their diversity and inclusion policy and were asked to provide examples of inclusive work.
We also reviewed the way we short-list candidates who apply for roles in our business with the aim of increasing the independence and transparency of the process. We have introduced a standardised sifting process against job-related criteria for around 50 per cent of all of our vacancies and intend to expand this to over 70 per cent of vacancies within the next 12 months.
Our new National Centre
In 2010/11, we started recruiting for our new National Centre workspace in Milton Keynes, opening in 2012. The new building will bring together a number of our national teams with the aim of helping us deliver a better service to our customers.
Through targeted recruitment interventions, such as careers fairs, leafleting at specific locations, and advertisements in local newspapers, the profile of the external applicants for the 186 available roles at the National Centre was more ethnically diverse (26 per cent BME) than our typical applicant profile (15.2 per cent BME).
To fill the roles we used a standardised sifting and interview template, which gives consistency across all assessments and interviews. This approach is designed to eliminate any unintentional individual bias in the recruitment process. The profile of the people appointed to the 186 roles was 17 per cent BME.
Training
Four diversity training modules aimed at people managers were launched in March 2011 within our new online learning and development portal. We will promote this training throughout the coming year.