We talk a lot more now about diversity of gender, of sexual orientation, of people born of one gender subsequently identifying as another. We talk more about how that is dealt with, or how it isn’t, in the workplace. We talk about where the boundaries of acceptability should be. Fit your ethnicity concerns into that wider context on the railway.
I think we can put less emphasis on disability, because we already do a lot to accommodate that. We are quite good at it, both for passengers and employees.
I don’t have a sense that ethnicity is a lost characteristic. Wind back five years. We reached a view that if we concentrate hard on one characteristic, what we learn will bleed across into all characteristics. We concentrated a lot on gender diversity. We made good inroads. But now I think that was flawed. It appeared we cared less about ethnicity than we care about gender or disability. That probably wasn’t true, but it was the impression.
And it creates another issue. Do white, middle-class, middle-aged men now feel like a group being left behind as a consequence? Because so much effort is being put into everyone else but them? That’s a risk.
I think, where I sit, we are pretty balanced now. The industry at large: I am less sure about that.
How far do we have to go? With gender, we have gone to a point where we are comfortable. Sexuality? In terms of homosexuality, I think we are OK. Transgender? I think we are still struggling to accommodate it in an appropriate way. And on ethnicity I think we still have a way to go as well.
The gap between where we are and where we need to be is wider on ethnicity than it is on gender.
When I have written about gender imbalance on the railway before, people in London have told me there is none. Even the unions have said that.
The further from London or the other big metropolitan centres I went, the more that story changed. The imbalance was far greater in the South West or North East, where the railway remains much more male-led and male-dominated, and the caricature of the old white bald man in charge held much more true.
I don’t have statistics to back up this assertion, but I suggest that is also true for ethnicity.
Good shout. Absolutely. No question. Our aspiration is to reflect the communities we work within. And it is tempting to think that as you go away from the metropolitan areas, the ethnicity issues fall away - especially outside London, Birmingham and Manchester.
But Glasgow is ethnically very diverse, yet our railway population there is nowhere close to reflecting that. The team up there have begun to recognise the issue. And you’re absolutely right, this applies to gender and other characteristics, too.
To what extent do you think that matters? You are executive sponsor of Network Rail’s cultural fusion network. I read that, but I don’t understand what that actually means or what it achieves.
That’s our employee network. We told our employees that we needed a more powerful voice for people from diverse backgrounds. It has grown from being not just a discussion, but a place where minority groups have a safe space for difficult conversations, and from where we can develop a consistent voice.
Now we are asking for that to be part of the mechanism by which our employees hold us to account. Keeping the promises that we are making. The staff network is voluntary, but it has a chair and what feels like a trustee group, and they bring issues to a head.
During COVID, that network has acted as a way of bringing ethnic minorities together, creating allies. They created something called a D-break. At 1100 every day, they created a virtual tea or coffee break to chat about what’s going on. It’s a place where we can bridge what may be quite a chasm between our executive and people in the real life of Network Rail. Because it can feel quite scary to be a voice out on your own. This is a way to put voices together.
We are about to go through a period of administrative upheaval, with the creation of GBR. It is both a challenge and an opportunity. How will you ensure that the issues we’ve been talking about for nearly an hour are taken into account as the new structure is established?
I am chief of staff to Andrew Haines. I have a formal role in the GBR transition team, which is a tiny group of four or five of us who are beginning the process.
You’ll know from the Williams-Shapps report that diversity is something they highlight. Diversity is a headline objective for us as we set out what GBR should be, both in diversity of background and diversity of industry recruitment. We are quite insular as an industry.
My personal objective is to drive this. And turn a corner in how we recruit people. How we develop a definitive culture that is different from the one we are inheriting from the industry as it is today.
