Joining Diversity Mark was a way for Translink to demonstrate their commitment to embed equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organization in order to drive progress
Words by Cara Woods – Equality and Diversity Advisor at Translink
Driven to create the right culture
As a people business we understand the importance of creating a diverse workforce that can enhance our business environment. By creating the right culture we inspire the best ideas, attract the best ideas and help the organisation thrive. The Charter Mark application and reporting feedback enables us to develop meaningful plans and assess progress.
Building on a solid foundation
Translink had established structures in place to address Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as well as experience of managing innovative initiatives to increase diversity such as the successful ‘Female Have-A-Go-Days’ aimed at recruiting more females to bus driving jobs. Joining Diversity Mark has further developed our focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
“Joining Diversity Mark has further developed our focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.”
Translink run Have a go days to give women the chance to get behind the wheel of a bus and find out more about a career as a bus driver.
The challenge of organisational change
One of Translink’s successes is the length of employee service, showing the organisation’s strength in retaining talent and expertise. From a diversity perspective this limits the speed within which the demographic makeup of the organisation can change.
The majority of Translink’s workforce are considered to be ‘operational’ e.g. Bus Drivers. While this is traditionally seen as a male dominated role, Translink has been innovative and successful in their approach to attracting more females and are committed to improving female representation. We have developed partnerships with other organisations / bodies who face similar challenges to collectively address female representation
The impact of D&I to our business
The membership of Diversity Mark has been incredibly helpful at focusing the organisation on a key strand of their Diversity and Inclusion journey. The annual reporting mechanism has helped understand progress and re-assess plans if needed to refine and continue to enhance internal processes.
Being a member of Diversity Mark has also helped build connections and shared learnings with other organisations through their events and roundtable discussions.
We’ve learnt that ongoing communication, at all levels, in a range of forms, is key to keeping employees engaged, informed and inspired to be the best they can be.
“Translink were proud to obtain the Diversity Accreditation just 3 months after joining.“
What the future holds
At Tranlsink, we now have plans in place. These include:
- Developing the Female Network and LGBT+ Network and considering the creation of other Networks
- Refreshing a communication and engagement strategy to further embed the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion approach
- Further developing our attraction plans to encourage a diverse range of applications to our roles.
“The Diversity Mark Accreditation programme has been invaluable to Translink in helping us make connections and develop plans that will continue to make a real difference to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the benefit of all employees within Translink. Cara Woods, Translink
Cara Woods, Translink
Start the ball rolling. Small changes today can mean big results tomorrow
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Book a call with Emma from our team
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Discuss where your business is at today and what you’d like to improve
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Start your Diversity journey with confidence and build a better business
