Here at Merseyrail, we are hugely passionate about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) and recognise the importance of not only being representative of the communities that we serve but also ensuring that our staff feel they are able to bring their #bestselftowork. We take a holistic approach to championing ED&I to ensure that we are able to identify and connect with as many customers, stakeholders and employees as possible.
We believe that all staff: have the right to equality of opportunity; should be treated with respect; recognise the value of and embrace difference; should be supported to achieve their full potential as well as foster an inclusive and collaborative working environment. Interestingly, Merseyrail currently have the lowest gender pay gap among all train operating companies as well as also having a predominantly female board of directors, which is a first for the industry.
We recently reinvigorated Merseyrail’s Diversity Forum with representatives from across the business and launched Merseyrail’s commitment to ED&I – ‘Inclusive ME’, which many of our employees supported by showcasing the diversity of our staff from across the business. In short, ‘Inclusive ME’ is about recognising our differences, valuing those differences, and most importantly respecting those differences. As part of this Inclusion Commitment we have key areas of focus:
- Support - Working within our communities
- Attract - Promote Merseyrail as a diverse employer
- Recruit - Ensuring we have a diverse recruitment strategy in place
- Develop - Train our people appropriately
- Retain - Support and encourage our people to be their best self
We have held various events across our network, often running initiatives as well as launching our ‘Inclusive Me’ document alongside national ED&I campaigns such as ‘National Inclusion Week’, to ensure that support and awareness around diversity and inclusion is current, interesting and most of all relevant to our employees.
#BestSelfToWork
In addition to this, we have also improved our uniform wearers guidelines to ensure we are less restrictive, more representative of the communities that we serve and most importantly, ensuring that our people feel empowered to bring their best self to work #bestselftowork.
Just a few examples of some of the great work we are completing amongst our staff networking groups:
‘Diversity Forum’ – Quarterly meetings are held throughout the year with staff who are passionate about all areas of Diversity including race, religion, disability, age, gender, and sexuality with thoughts and ideas shared on how the business can best offer support.
Women in Merseyrail
Several events held in various locations across Liverpool allowing for a supportive networking opportunity for our employees. Sessions included ‘Confidence Building’ and ‘Domestic Abuse’ awareness sessions, all of which inspired lively and stimulating discussions in a safe environment. Merseyrail were also headline sponsors for a Women’s Conference in Liverpool at the beginning of 2020 which again was the first of its kind. The conference was about leading with courage & confidence in a male dominated environment and looking to build mental toughness in male dominated industries to change the gender landscape for men and women and was hosted by a fantastic company we work with called ‘A Matter of Choice’.
LGBTQ+
Merseyrail marched with pride in our first official attendance at Liverpool Pride in 2019, and marched in 2022. As headline sponsors for the inaugural Liverpool Pride Awards 2019, we have formed a great working relationship and partnership with the Liverpool City Region Pride Foundation. We launched our official Merseyrail LGBTQ+ & Allies Network as well as also partnering with ‘MyGwork’ which is a Global Networking Hub for LGBTQ+ professionals and graduates.
We are very proud of what we have achieved so far here at Merseyrail and we continue to work hard to ensure ED&I remains a business priority by working together to ensure all of our employees feel truly valued.
Gender Pay Gap
Merseyrail are committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity amongst our workforce, and we strive to be truly representative of all sections of the society which we serve.