Championing EDI in a rail SME
Barry Michael Aldridge BA (Hons) FCIM CMktr
Head of Marketing
“On this day Thursday 12th October 2023, the?Railway Industry Association?(RIA) and?Women in Rail?have published their second EDI Annual Report.
This is an exceptional publication demonstrating the great efforts being made throughout the railway community to work together to build a more balanced, higher performing sector.
it is great to be supporting the Railway Industry Association and signatory stakeholders with their EDI endeavours for the railway community.
?However, it is important that EDI is understood to be much, much more than a rail only subject, topic and issue.
EDI is essential to businesses of all sizes, industries, and larger sectors for the benefit of individuals, communities, and societies in their entirety.
So, what exactly is EDI? My personal interpretation is that equality, diversity, and inclusion is all about giving people a level, balanced and fair opportunity to grow, develop and flourish whilst being treated with dignity and respect.
In the workplace, it has been proven that diverse and inclusive teams deliver greater performance, more engaged teams and employees, foster innovation, improve staff retention and generate higher profitability.
?I believe that toxic and antiquated work cultures that either don’t embrace or understand EDI open themselves up to greater risks such as low employee morale, lack of productivity and profitability, stifled innovation, high staff-churn, absence, and sickness.
A greater likelihood of litigation and legal actions also come into play.
The rail industry is a shining example of EDI best-practices and other industries could do well with learning from rail and adopting similar principles and initiatives.
I feel incredibly proud to be involved with the RIA WR initiative and look forward to seeing signatories to the EDI Charter growing in numbers.”
Follow the link to read the full EDI Charter Annual Reporter: