DB goes on tour to promote women in rail

GERMAN Rail (DB) marked International Women’s Day on March 8 with the launch of a month-long campaign to attract more women into rail, part of DB’s long-term strategy to achieve gender balance with women holding 50% of posts.

The DB on Tour recruiting campaign includes on-site information events and using social media to enable seven women from seven professions and seven regions to share their experiences of working in rail, including a train driver, a civil engineer and a trainee operations controller.

Special recruitment events for school leavers, graduates and women in management will be held throughout the month. DB on Tour ends on April 5 with a live streaming event that will sum up the month’s activities.

DB says that the proportion of women in management roles has now risen to 27%, “an important milestone” in achieving its target of 30% by 2024.

The number of women recruited externally in 2022 increased by over 3% on 2021 to reach 5800. Over 51,400 women now work for DB in Germany, 23.6% of its total workforce.

To help achieve its targets, the gender balance of the workforce and amongst job applicants is systematically recorded and reported to the DB group executive board.

There are also career development programmes for female employees, including coaching and mentoring by DB managers. At least one female candidate must be on the shortlist for senior management positions, with the board able to veto appointments.

DB says that every manager is required to contribute through their performance to meeting the company’ s aim of improving the gender balance of executive roles.

“We can see that this holistic package of measures, both internal programmes and offering attractive employment conditions as well as the women's recruitment strategy, is taking effect," says DB HR director, Mr Martin Seiler.

“This is also a success against the background of a historically tight labour market. DB wants to continue to grow, and for that we need many more female colleagues at all levels. That is and will remain a top issue for me.”