Diversity in rail recruitment high on the agenda as Women in Rail London gets set to launch

We look forward to the launch of Women in Rail London as we celebrate another important milestone in the history of our organisation.

Kindly hosted by Dentons with thanks to Matthew Hanslip Ward, we’ve arranged an interactive session that brings together members and committee members to discuss future events, topics and speakers.

We’ll also hear from Adeline Ginn, Founder and Chair of Women in Rail, Paul Plummer, CEO of Rail Delivery Group and Lucy Finney MBE, Learning and Development Consultant in what is sure to be an enjoyable event.

As Chair of this newly formed group and in my role as HR industry partner at Rail Delivery Group, I hope to bring a fragmented rail industry together as one to ensure we are all aligned when tackling diversity head on.

Since the Government made Gender Pay Gap reporting mandatory, businesses have to draw up action plans to address the imbalance of pay between female and male. However, for greater change to happen we need to come together as an industry and articulate the definition of diversity to everyone from the CEO down.  For me when we talk about diversity it’s not just a gender issue.  We also need to break down barriers for the LGBT and BAME communities.

We all have a role to play to ensure the rail sector has access to the widest pool of talent. The newly formed Women in Rail London group is made up of a vibrant group of men and women from across the industry who will join together to discuss their roles and share ideas on how best to celebrate diversity.

The group will provide members with a support network, which helps build confidence through mentoring, networking and personal development.  However, for Women in Rail London to continue to grow and offer continued support we need to find sponsors. This will help us find a larger venue to facilitate our growing membership and provide businesses with a platform to promote themselves to a wide and diverse audience.

About the author:

Leila Rahimzadeh is the Chair of Women in Rail London and Industry HR Partner at the Rail Delivery Group. Women in Rail was created to improve gender balance, diversity and inclusion in the UK rail industry. For more information visit http://womeninrail.org/.

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