Diversity
We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to ensuring equal treatment and equal opportunities for all employees and customers. A copy of our diversity policy can be found here.
As an industry we are heavily male-dominated. In those companies for which we have data, men account for between 81% and 84% of our current workforce, although two out of six of our train company managing directors are women. The average age of our workforce is around 42 years.
To maintain diversity we seek to promote ourselves as an employer to broad sections of the community. We work closely with organisations such as Jobcentre Plus and Outreach to help us achieve this.
Each train operating company has its own mechanisms in place for promoting equal opportunity and diversity. A targeted press campaign and recruitment advert by First ScotRail actively encourages women and ethnic minority groups to apply for positions as train drivers. As a result eight new female drivers joined the company during the last year. First ScotRail will continue to work on this campaign in conjunction with their trade unions. First Capital Connect has worked with the Royal London Society to support the rehabilitation of Category D Prisoners.
Supporting prisoners back to work
First Capital Connect has recently been working with the Royal London Society to support employment of Category D prisoners (those being rehabilitated in open prisons). One person has been employed. By visiting a number of prisons we have established that prisoners are trained to the same cleaning standards as those applied in First Capital Connect, presenting further employment opportunities that we will encourage.
At present we do not have division-wide data on the ethnic diversity of our workforce. Only First Capital Connect and First Great Western collate ethnicity data. Being London-based these operating companies have a fairly diverse workforce.
