struggled to attract female talent, with just 5% of Britain’s 19,000 train
drivers being women. Following an internal review with the Head of Talent, Diversity, and Inclusion, understanding the importance of diversity and being a competitive employer of choice, GTR committed to changing for the better.
A campaign strategy was developed, and the campaign aimed to:
• Encourage more women to apply for trainee driver roles, working towards 40% female trainee train drivers by 2021.
• Encouraging females and more diverse candidates to apply
• To challenge the stereotypes that are associated with careers in the railway and overcome the sector's being traditionally male dominated.
• Review and improve workplace practises with a gender lens.
In order to attract more women to the role, GTR attended careers fairs across the UK to discuss the opportunities available with younger people as they embark on career choices. They posted job adverts on forums such as Mumsnet, and a number of GTR employees work as mentors with The Girls’ Network to help young women understand the different career opportunities open to them.
GTR implemented a new recruitment talent suite and careers site, to help streamline the hiring process, enable them to create diverse job adverts with inclusive language and help successful applicants into roles faster, as part of the ongoing work toward a more diverse workforce.
Launching with a number of roles across the operator’s four brands, the new careers site highlights the breadth of positions available across the business, as well as case studies and role profiles of women and younger people working in the roles, offering a direct insight into them.
GTR’s campaign and commitment to improving a diverse workforce saw the creation of its Women’s Network Group to ensure that more women join and, crucially, stay within the rail industry.
This resulted in double the number of applications, an increase of 35% for female drivers, a 50/50 gender split across the whole business, and 50% more engagement on their careers site.
