Women in Rail: working together to close the skills gap in UK rail Adeline Ginn General Counsel, Angel Trains Founder and Chair of Women in Rail
If you don t have a diverse workforce or product, sooner or later you won t exist Sharmaine Lovegrove
Agenda Gender balance and diversity matters A burning platform for rail Practical challenges The role of Women in Rail The way forward
Gender balance and diversity matters
A must have. Better understanding of customer base Diverse teams perform better Greater innovation and creativity Better staff engagement and talent attraction/retention Positive employer branding
The business case UK Women on Boards = 42% higher return on sales; 66% higher return on invested capital; 53% higher return on equity (Lord Davies/Catalyst) 10% increase in gender diversity = 3.5% rise in EBIT (McK) Worldwide Gender diversity at executive level: 21% increase in financial returns/ebit (McK) Companies with a higher percentage of women in executive positions: 34% higher total return to shareholders (Catalyst) Companies with the most women directors outperform those with the least on return on invested capital by 26% (Catalyst) Companies with at least 1 woman on their board outperform peer group by 26% in six years period (Credit Suisse) Ethnically diverse companies: outperform peers by 33% (McK)
Rail: UK s economic health 39bn *Oxera estimated contribution of the rail industry to UK growth 3.5bn 19.2bn 38bn
Rail: a growth industry 1.7bn passengers journeys per year 25 billion invested in the next 7 years 10,000 new recruits by end 2018 Regeneration - turning cities fortunes around
Forecast of Skills needed
A burning platform for rail
Male/Female ratio: rail 90 80 70 83.6 % 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 16.4 % Female workforce Male workforce
Male/female ratio: groups 100 90 80 13% 20% 12% 31.3% 5% 56% 34% 70 60 50 40 30 87% 80% 88% 68.7% 95% 66% 20 44% 10 0 Network Rail TOC Manufacturers ROSCO Suppliers DfT ORR Men Women
Women by roles Industry-wide, excluding NR 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Women in Role
Women by grade 80 70 60 50 78% 40 30 20 10 0 8.7% 11% 2% 0.3% Non-Managers Junior Managers Mid-level Managers Senior Managers Executives/Directors
Women by Grades Industry wide non NR NETWORK RAIL ONLY 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Number of women/role Number of women/role
<25 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60+ Percentage, % Ageing workforce - engineering 20 15 10 5 0 Age Band
A productivity issue Avg Employee Cost 2008 2014
Summary: a business imperative Talent development/retention/attraction Improved business returns Be representative of our customer base Replace people retiring/deliver on new projects Increase Productivity if we don t: Cost to industry: 316m pa Cost to government: 381m pa Cost to UK plc: 1.1b pa Cost to businesses: Lord Davies
Practical challenges
External Tackling perceptions - the image of rail At schools and at home Clues and nudges Women fall into rail by accident
The special case of engineering. Engineering is misunderstood Switch on Switch off research Girls as young as 7 years old have an unconscious bias against engineering girls aged 7 to 9: dirty and messy girls aged 10 to 12: physically strong and dangerous girls aged 12 and 15: unglamorous and socially isolating.
Internal Unconscious bias Recruitment Working practices Development plans Support network
The role of Women in Rail
The initiatives WR: networking platform WR: support, develop, retain WR: showcase and attract WR: campaign for rail and influence
Women in Rail Charitable status 4,000 + members, including 2.500 followers on Twitter and 2,000 members on LinkedIn Key stakeholders as partners Over 100 volunteers 7 regional groups 1 international group
Networking platform
Support, develop, retain Networking opportunities Empowering workshops Unconscious bias Networking skills Self-confidence Flexible working Dealing with different personality types Creating your own boardroom
Mentoring Programme 2018: c260 pairs Website: www.womeninrail.org
A new phase.. If you want to go faster, go alone. If you want to go further, go together. 2018: professional algorithm and set-up
Showcase role models
Female Apprentice of the Year Award Rising Star of the Year Award Women in Rail Award Inspirational Man of the Year Award Inspirational Woman of the Year Award Diversity & Inclusion Award Top Employer Award Best Graduate or Apprenticeship Programme of the Year Award Highest Gender Balanced and Diverse Workforce Award
Campaign Returning to Work How can we welcome women back? What Makes the Women in Rail Mentoring programme so unique? Brilliance in STEM is not based on gender Cultivating and celebrating the future STEM stars of tomorrow Working towards a 50:50 is the only way forward Time to get on board: Elevating women to senior positions Mind the gap: Why we should all be working towards a diverse workforce Rising to the Diversity Challenge How 'In Partnership for Britain's Prosperity' will help us recruit female talent
Influence Enhance our collaboration with key stakeholders Pro-actively influence the diversity agenda Rail Sector Skills Delivery Plan: Diversity Champion Routes into Rail Diversity Steering Group
Surveys e.g. return to Work
And. having fun demonstrating the business case
The way forward
How? As businesses Identify organisational and individual capability requirements Align strategies, people and processes to optimise effectiveness and achieve organisational goals defining strategy, vision and values Design interventions to drive the appropriate culture, behaviours, leadership, performance and delivery employee engagement; leadership development; promote and share Raise the standards of equality and inclusion embed equality in the culture Build around the characteristics of high performing organisations Create a vision of a productive, inclusive and sustainable workplace that gets the very best of their people and support them in their career Develop, promote and uphold good practices Identify and Develop talent.and showcase/share best practice
How? As a group Join forces and collaborate with each other not reinvent the wheel Support each other: share best practice and tasks Support existing initiatives of other like-minded groups not work in silos Pro-actively educate businesses and share know-how and best practice Campaign within our own fields of expertise Be strong advocates of the issues and each other s work
Women in Rail: working together to close the skills gap in UK rail Adeline Ginn General Counsel, Angel Trains Founder and Chair of Women in Rail