The industry must work on its image and internal culture if it wants to attract minority and marginalised staff, says Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain.
The need for diversity in rail has been a topic at every rail conference for at least a decade, but unfortunately there are often dissenting voices in the room when the topic is raised.
The idea that diversity is a ‘nice to have’ or ‘virtue signalling’ does persist in the very traditional sector that is rail but these voices are increasingly fading when faced with the fact that rail fundamentally needs more people of all types. The age limit for a train driver, for example, was recently lowered to 18 in the face of rail’s looming retirement crisis – 25-30% of around 27,000 drivers in Britain are due to reach the retirement age of 65 in the next five years – not to speak of the wider ‘retirement time bomb’ looming across a wide range of rail roles.
Image problem
Rail needs more workers from all backgrounds, and it should be an attractive career option, but is it?
We have an unfortunate public image problem, where often only the most negative news linked to rail reaches the mainstream media (such as accidents, infrastructure failures, or significant cancellations), and where everything from industrial action to wrapping a train to celebrate diversity often ends up being interpreted negatively by the public.
Many people would hesitate to join a sector which is presented in this light, especially when accounting for the increasing attacks on rail staff. British Transport Police (BTP) figures show there were 3,330 recorded assaults on rail staff in 2023 – a rise of almost 25% in the past year. The number of assaults recorded by police in 2023 was nearly 10% higher than pre-pandemic in 2019.
So, how do we make the sector more attractive for all, both internally and when presenting an external face?
At a basic level, we must focus on constant development of our internal culture. As with any industry, there can be clashes between different levels of the business, including between management and frontline staff. Ensuring an open culture of sharing, listening, and information exchange in all directions is critical to building a meaningfully inclusive organisation. Staff must feel empowered to speak up, contribute to policy and strategy at the highest level, trial innovation, and ultimately feel that the direction of the organisation is as much led by them as by the C-suite. Providing opportunities to input in a range of formats is central to building this culture, and that includes physical meetings, digital sharing systems, staff celebration events, and beyond.
Another essential internal focus must be safety for staff (alongside safety for passengers and all stakeholders). Staff are facing increasing numbers of attacks when at work, which is unacceptable. Rail focuses on keeping staff safe in infrastructure and operational terms, but we must ensure we keep a constant focus on safety of all types.
First, we must build a culture which accepts that safety is never ‘finished’, is always evolving, and that new dangers and an awareness of evolving risks must be at the forefront.
Second, we should learn from international rail operators. For example, in Japan and other Asian nations, ‘pointing and calling’ (shisa kanko in Japan) is a common occupational safety method used for avoiding mistakes by verbally calling out the status of important objects or indicators whilst pointing at them. By tackling automation bias, according to the Railway Technical Research Institute, pointing and calling was responsible for an up to 85% reduction in mistakes while performing repetitive tasks.
Third, we should embrace (where appropriate) digital interventions, such as use of body worn cameras, smart video technology, hotspot identification for smart policing, and beyond.
Doing enough?
Diversity and inclusion are vital to boosting rail worker numbers and creating a safe network for all, as well as enriching rail’s internal culture. There are a huge range of diversity and inclusion-boosting initiatives from name-blank recruitment, to offering flexible hybrid working as standard, and reverse mentoring programmes, but are we being radical enough? We’ve had the first all-female crewed passenger train from Southeastern, and the first all-female crewed, planned, and signalled freight train from Freightliner and co., so is it time for the first all-female depot or are we still decades away? Should we be looking at guaranteed hiring schemes, and even hiring quotas focused on underrepresented groups?
There is no perfect single approach, but by presenting a radical front to the public and being clear that the industry has a strong, funded focus on genuine inclusion both internally and in hiring, we may be able to push the needle of diversity in hiring more rapidly than we currently are. We must also ensure we are as honest about our successes as our failures and remain open to learning from each other as well as from other sectors.
Challenging our perception
A fascinating example of unconscious hiring bias comes from the classical orchestral world. In 1970, the top five orchestras in the United States of America employed fewer than 5% female musicians, but by 1997 the majority of the same orchestras had achieved 25% female musicians or even above.
This is largely attributed to ‘unseen’ auditions, where candidates play behind a screen for the hiring panel – research has determined that using the screen even if only for the preliminary assessment stage makes it 50% more likely that a woman will reach the final assessment stages. However, even this is not a perfect system. Some hiring panels ask musicians to remove their footwear before stepping onto the stage, as the bias of hearing high heels click on the wooden stage was still unconsciously affecting the hiring panels’ choices. Unconscious bias still affects us all, even if we find the equivalent of a screen to use in our rail hiring processes.
Tackling this bias by continually challenging ourselves (and others) is the responsibility of everyone, particularly if we want to build a genuinely inclusive rail sector, which not only retains our current staff, but is attractive as a career option to those from all backgrounds. By attracting colleagues of all ages, genders, backgrounds, races and beyond, we can ensure we future-proof rail in terms of succession, staff retention, and innovative evolution for decades to come.
About the author: Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain is specification manager at Transport for the North. She focusses on improving transport systems, accessibility, safety, and beyond. She is also the chairperson of the Oxfordshire Community Rail Partnership. Daisy can be reached via LinkedIn.
Image credit: iStockphoto.com/Lidia Shapoval
