Rail Engineer – July 2019

who define its uniqueness

and ability to deliver the

high level of service and

quality demanded by its

growing customer base.

As the business expands

further in Cumbria, Yorkshire,

Birmingham, Manchester and

Scotland, investing in people,

and encouraging them to

achieve their full potential, is a

critical part of the company’s

Fit4Future business strategy to

keep this growth going.

GB Railfreight was highly

commended for its Seat to

Seat training programme. Four

trainee drivers, with no previous

experience in the railway

industry, underwent training

at the company’s recently

renovated Peterborough facility,

which houses three high tech

classrooms and, in 2018 alone,

delivered 60 trainee drivers.

Once trained, they would be

driving in the London area,

based out of GB Railfreight’s

Willesden facility in North

London.

Diversity and Inclusion

Recognising suppliers that can

evidence success in initiatives

which recognise and respect

differences between people

whilst valuing the contribution

everyone can make to the

rail industry, winners in this

category had to demonstrate

inclusion and evidence safe

and welcoming workplaces and

fair cultures that encourage

innovative and fresh ways of

thinking.

Once again, Alison Rumsey

judged this category for

Network Rail, joined this time

by Chloe Chambraud, gender

equality director for Business in

the Community.

Babcock’s ‘Being Babcock’

training programme was

developed to help the company

understand some of the

cultures and behaviours within

its business and the actions that

can be taken, as individuals as

well as a business, to address

diversity bias and discrimination

in the workplace.

Employees were invited to

complete e-learning training

and attend a half day workshop

to address the subject of

Respect, with a particular focus

on a zero-tolerance approach

to inappropriate behaviours

and the end to discrimination

in the workplace. The judges

were impressed by this initiative

and gave it the Diversity and

Inclusion Award.

Capita was highly

commended for its 20by20

campaign, to help Network

Rail employ 20 per cent more

women by 2020. To do this,

Capita’s aim in 2018 was to

change people’s attitudes and

perceptions towards working

within railway and infrastructure

and to communicate the

opportunities and benefits of

working within the sector, and

in particular with Network Rail.

Babcock had a second success

in this category, being highly

commended for its Workplace

Equality project. In a bid to end

mental health discrimination

in the workplace, Babcock

engaged once again with

the Scottish mental health

charity ‘SeeMe’ to pilot a

project designed to create a

more inclusive, stigma-free

working environment focused

on proactively managing the

mental health of all employees.

Safety

Chief engineer Jon Shaw

stepped on stage to present

the Safety award. The judges

for the category had been Allan

Spence head of public and

passenger safety with Network

Rail and Johnny Schute, chief

operating officer of RSSB.

Safety should never be taken

for granted, and this award

highlighted organisations that

The award for

Diversity and Inclusion

went to Babcock.

The Safety award was

won by Colas Rail.

34 RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS