Network Rail is helping to bridge the disability employment gap by announcing it will advertise all UK job vacancies on Evenbreak, a job board run by and for disabled people.
In the second quarter of this year, the UK employment gap for disabled people was 28.4%. Network Rail is helping to close this via its ongoing five-year strategy, which began in 2019, to attract, recruit, retain and progress disabled talent within its organisation.
The partnership with Evenbreak is the latest move in Network Rail’s disability inclusion mission and builds on its ‘Everyone Matters’ diversity and inclusion strategy, which aims to improve disabled employee representation at all levels of its workforce.
They have set targets for each area of its strategy and hope to increase diversity across its leadership teams, proving that they want disabled job candidates to see a career progression path and feel they can impact the organisation, as opposed to only being represented at certain levels.
Network Rail also has a disabled employees’ network, CanDo, which has 1140 members and provides a way to reflect on how it can better support its disabled workforce.
In a recent statement on the partnership, Network Rail outlined its understanding of diversity as “recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make” while inclusion is “creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.”
The statement also read: “Network Rail aspires to make the best use of their people’s talent and capabilities and provide real opportunities for their professional development.”
Commenting on the partnership, Natalie Greenwell, Human Resources Director at Network Rail, said: “As a disability confident employer, we want to attract and recruit a diverse range of talent. Along with briefing all our hiring managers on inclusive recruitment, we want to proactively reach out to disabled people to let them know Network Rail is an employer of choice for them.”
Evenbreak’s founder and CEO, Jane Hatton, said: “We are delighted to be working with Network Rail and helping them on their journey to becoming an inclusive employer of choice. There is a clear intention to become even more inclusive and accessible so that diverse talent will thrive there and help Network Rail on its transformation.”
Disabled candidates interested in a career with Network Rail can click here to find available roles.
In this article, you learned that:
- In the second quarter of this year, the UK employment gap for disabled people was 28.4%.
- Network Rail will now advertise all UK job vacancies on Evenbreak, a job board run by and for disabled people.
- Network Rail’s ‘Everyone Matters’ diversity and inclusion strategy aims to improve disabled employee representation at all levels of the organisation.
