As part of its five-year strategy that began in 2019 to attract, recruit, retain and progress disabled talent, Network Rail has partnered with Evenbreak, the UK’s most accessible job board, helping talented disabled candidates and inclusive employers to find each other.
Network Rail says ‘Diversity' means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make, and ‘Inclusion’ means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.
It believes differences between us are what add depth, strength and creativity to employees’ work, allowing individuals and teams to harness their talent and capabilities and help improve the railway.
Network Rail aspires to make the best use of their people’s talent and capabilities and provide real opportunities for their professional development.
It wants to demonstrate that it is an open and inclusive place to work by encouraging more employees to share their own diversity data – especially disabled colleagues, employees who are carers, people of different faiths and beliefs, and colleagues from the LBGT+ community.
Network Rail has seven employee networks which collectively have over 4,700 members.
Its partnership with Evenbreak further builds on its Everyone Matters diversity and inclusion strategy, and its aim to improve disabled employee representation at all levels of the organisation.
Network Rail has set targets for each area of its strategy and it wants to increase diversity across its leadership.
Its disabled employees’ network, CanDo, has 1140 members and provides an important lens through which the company can understand what it is doing well and where there are areas for improvement.
While there is more to do, this is an exciting time to join the rail industry, and Network Rail’s focus on diversity and inclusion is starting to make the company an employer of choice.
Commenting on the partnership, Natalie Greenwell, Human Resources Director at Network Rail said: “As a disability confident employer we want to attract and recruit a diverse range of talent. Along with briefing all our hiring managers on inclusive recruitment, we want to proactively reach out to disabled people to let them know Network Rail is an employer of choice for them.”
Evenbreak’s founder and CEO Jane Hatton said: “We are delighted to be working with Network Rail and helping them on their journey to becoming an inclusive employer of choice. There is a clear intention to become even more inclusive and accessible so that diverse talent will thrive there and help Network Rail on its transformation.”
Disabled candidates interested in a career with Network Rail can find suitable roles here: https://www.evenbreak.co.uk/en/employer/networkrail
