Alison Bell

Said the following about Kelly Forest:

“Since joining MTR Crossrail Diversity and Inclusion Partner, Kelly Forest has been committed to creating a diverse working environment. Ensuring there are equal opportunities for all and being proactive in ensuring this inclusive environment exists. Kelly doesn’t want the topic of diversity to be discussed in isolation, but strives for a diverse and inclusive workforce to be part of MTR culture. She aspires to an ethos that empowers people to have inclusive conversations and have a diversity dialogue which is progressive; and not one that pigeon holes or take steps to segment the diversity conversation.

In the beginning, the HR department had quite a task to undertake, in terms of the number of people they had to recruit and the size of the organisation they needed to build. However it gave them the exciting opportunity to develop a recruitment strategy that was not only comprehensive, but one that also enabled them to engage with a whole range of audiences to help us more accurately reflect the communities in which we operated. Kelly was key in driving this type recruitment. Few organisations are able to build such a large workforce, and define the diversity of this workforce, in such short timescales – but Kelly’s initiatives ensured this. In fact, this was the largest recruitment campaign seen by the rail industry in modern times.

It was important to Kelly to ensure the MTR workforce was recognised by local stakeholders as an extension of MTR’s local community, supporting any station’s integration into an area and securing MTR’s position as a diverse and equal opportunity employer. She strives to reflect our communities in our recruitment strategy, and continuously seeks partnerships with third party organisations to achieve these goals.

Kelly’s diversity programme has:

• Created opportunities and removed barriers to bring under-represented people into the workplace

• Implemented engagement, attraction, retention and development strategies for candidates from under-represented groups

• Undertaken direct interventions to improve diversity of applicants, such as offering work placements and supporting pre-employment training

• Created an environment where differences are valued and utilised

• Demonstrably improved the diversity of the workforce

Thanks to the work of Kelly and her team MTR has seen an exceptional improvement in the diversity of its workforce, and is spearheading diversity in the rail sector, with all areas of diversity being consistently higher than national averages. For example, at MTR:

• 12% of MTR train drivers are now women – double the industry average and a fourfold increase in two years ago

• MTR has employees that are homeless and it has added in extra support mechanisms to help support this group with their everyday challenges

• In the ten new Elizabeth line stations, 67% of Customer Experience Assistants are from black and Asian communities; 40% of them are female

• 47% of train drivers are under 35

In November 2018 an MTR Employee Survey revealed excellent results:

1. 92% believe MTR is a diverse place to work

2. 89% believe MTR offers employees opportunities regardless of difference

3. 88% believe MTR respects all employees regardless of difference

4. MTR Crossrail also has a consistent 97% employee attendance rate.

At MTR Crossrail we are proud to have become industry leaders in diversity, spearheading change in the sector. Kelly has played a crucial part in this through her hard work in developing innovative approaches in an industry that needs reinvigorating, playing a key role in delivering incredible results across MTR Crossrail.“