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RailStaff Awards: People are our future

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CP5 has been a challenging control period for the whole rail industry; however, through collaboration, developing relationships with new customers, and investing in technology and people, telent has been involved in a number of exciting projects delivering and maintaining railway communications systems nationally.

Working on high-profile projects, such as Crossrail, Wessex SISS renewals, BASRE, National Power SCADA, RETB in Scotland and TfL’s ‘Hello London’, telent has utilised these opportunities to develop its workforce, creating delivery teams made up of a blend of our experienced employees, graduates and apprentices to encourage knowledge sharing and to bridge the skills gap needed for the start of CP6 and beyond.

Record number of graduates

Understanding the importance of talent and the skills needed to deliver the expected work bank for CP6, we have invested heavily in our workforce over the last two years, taking on record numbers of graduates and apprentices, and we are the first in the industry to offer a rail-specific cyber security apprenticeship scheme.

“We have a diverse workforce at telent, and we are committed to developing each and every person, whether it be via formal training or through working alongside colleagues to gain knowledge and experience, said Steve Dalton, telent’s managing director for transport.

“We are a people business and understand that we are only as good as our workforce which is why it is important to not only provide training but to recognise and share the contribution each person makes to encourage continual development.”

Recognising the company’s fantastic talent, and as part of its engagement and retention drive, telent has an internal ‘Thanks Awards’ scheme, where employees can nominate colleagues they feel have gone above and beyond, whether within R&D, design, project management or out in the field – be it project performance or safety based.

The nomination is reviewed by senior management and is then communicated throughout the organisation via regular newsletters, intranet and exec roadshows, recognising the individual and/or team whilst sharing knowledge.

Steve added: “The levels of dedication and commitment of those working not only within telent but the whole rail industry is incredible. When you speak to people about what they do, they genuinely do not realise the extraordinary efforts they put in for telent, the railway and our customers.

“At what could be regarded as a challenging time for the rail industry in terms of criticism of its performance, this year’s RailStaff Awards is really a great opportunity to recognise those individuals and teams who have gone above and beyond to keep our railway running safely, which is why telent is particularly proud to be one of this year’s sponsors.”

Perfect sense

With so many people at telent starting their careers in the railway and working their way up through the ranks as did their CEO Mark Plato, combined with telent’s commitment to mentoring and training the next generation, meant that for Steve sponsoring the RailStaff Awards’ ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ “made perfect sense”.

“It is so important to celebrate and recognise those who have dedicated their working life to a career in rail,” said Steve.

Looking ahead to CP6, telent is very positive about Network Rail’s plans and the government’s financial support for the UK rail industry, in particular the aspirations and commitment for the Digital Railway programme roll-out and for the ‘Connected Corridor’ (5G & Wi-Fi) now becoming a reality.

By deploying its proven technical capability, consistently developing our talent to meet the evolving industry requirements and through collaborative relationships with innovative partners, telent is already well-positioned for CP6, and ready to support these exciting, high-profile and game-changing plans.


Read more: Guardians of the railway


 

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