ED&I SWR

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at SWR

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Valuing difference. Supporting our people. Driving change.

We recognise that the people who work for us are our greatest asset and when they feel supported and happy in work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for – our customers. We are committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive organisation and ensuring that we harness the potential of all our staff fully, whilst also attracting the best talent.

Our key areas:

Our Inclusion and Diversity Strategy and Action Plan outline our vision and priorities for SWR.

Our vision: To create an inclusive culture and reputation which attracts the best talent from the most diverse pool of candidates across our regions whilst developing, retaining, and fully engaging the diverse talent within our organisation.

Priorities:

Employee Networks

At SWR, our employee networks give people the opportunity to meet and network with other employees in a confidential space and share their own lived experiences and challenges, with each network supported by an executive sponsor.

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Inclusion and Diversity Events

International Women's Day 2023

Southampton Pride 2022

International Women in Engineering Day 2023

Positive Action Statement

SWR has a strong commitment to inclusion and diversity within the organisation and the services we provide to our communities. We want to reflect the communities we serve and one way we can try to achieve this is through ‘positive action’.

Positive action is lawful and is an activity which helps us identify and remove the barriers and issues to the employment, retention and progression of people from ‘under-represented’ groups (e.g. disability, race, gender etc), whilst still employing or promoting people on merit.

However, positive discrimination generally means employing or promoting someone simply because they come from an under-represented group in spite of whether they have the relevant skills and qualifications. This is unlawful and does not happen in SWR.

Some people may think they do not 'fit in' to an organisation or in particular job roles because they don’t see people like them. Past experiences may have led them to lose confidence and think they wouldn’t be welcome as an employee or for a promotion opportunity. Unconscious bias within organisations could have also led people to unconsciously employ, sponsor or promote people ‘like them’.

Positive action is not about giving these people more favourable treatment; it is about “levelling the playing field” for them.

Employment and promotion must be based on merit. Positive action initiatives help us to encourage people from certain groups who are under-represented in the workplace to apply for jobs and promotions.

Initiatives can include:

placing job adverts to target particular groups, to increase the number of applicants from that group,
offering training or development programmes to help certain groups get opportunities or progress at work,
offering shadowing or mentoring to groups under-represented at certain levels within the organisation,
hosting an open day specifically for under-represented groups to encourage them to get into a particular field.

Our commitments

Disability Confident

South Western Railway is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for disabled people and are a Disability Confident Employer. We aim to:

Ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all,
Provide an environment that is inclusive and accessible for staff, clients and customers,
Support employees to manger their disabilities and health conditions,
Value and listen to feedback from disabled staff,
Guide staff to information and advice on mental health conditions.

Business Disability Forum

Business Disability Forum are the leading business membership organisation in disability inclusion. They work in partnership with business, Government, and disabled people to remove barriers to inclusion.