Diversity & Inclusion Partner: Eurostar

Eurostar has diversity in its DNA. As an international train operator, we connect countries and cultures, helping our passengers cross borders and barriers in one easy trip. However, we’re a diverse company internally, too. We recruit from across our host countries, making Eurostar a melting pot of different cultures, languages and expertise.

Diversity & Inclusion Partner: Eurostar

Eurostar has diversity in its DNA. As an international train operator, we connect countries and cultures, helping our passengers cross borders and barriers in one easy trip. However, we’re a diverse company internally, too. We recruit from across our host countries, making Eurostar a melting pot of different cultures, languages and expertise.

Stephen Roby, sales manager - UK Leisure, Eurostar

What does diversity and inclusion mean to you/your brand in 2023?

Eurostar has always been a naturally diverse workspace. In 2023 we will merge with our sister European high speed rail company, Thalys, bringing even more diversity to our newly combined workforce. Our expanded rail network will allow us to connect more customers than ever across our routes, bringing together new and existing cultures and backgrounds and serving a wider range of destinations.

After a couple of years of restricted movement, everybody is more determined to get away again and it’s vital that transport is accessible to all. As the most sustainable mode of transport into mainland Europe, we have a duty to make sure that everyone feels welcome and looked after when they choose to travel with us, whilst also supporting our teams though this exciting transition period.

What D&I initiatives do you currently have in place

Our D&I committee of volunteer members from all around the business, with three pillars: Cement, Communicate, Celebrate.
A dedicated hub on our Intranet for all colleagues to share experiences & ideas, feedback customer insights, notify colleague about internal events, or simply to seek advice.
Joie De Vivre – our colleague wellbeing initiative.
Business partnerships with Women on Boards, Time to Change and Women in Rail.
NEW - Cultural Connectors – a new team from the combined Eurostar and Thalys workforce who ensure that all colleagues are included and supported through change during and after our merger process.

Do you have any new D&I initiatives coming up for 2023?

We’ve initiated our Cultural Awareness project that will allow us to establish confidence and comprehension within the teams while overcoming cultural differences. We’ll combine the best of our two entities, building a new common Eurostar Family culture

To start, we set up a network of ambassadors, our so-called ‘Cultural Connectors’, who will guide our colleagues through this adventure

The mission: The network will bring together 30 people (15 from Thalys and 15 from Eurostar) with different jobs, ages, languages, genders, and cultures. They will come together to construct and follow an action plan to make sure the voice of all our colleagues is heard.

Our existing Diversity and Inclusion team are busy working on ways to bring together our combined resource and initiatives and make sure everyone is included as we build our future together.

Eurostar Group CEO has announced three new initiatives for 2023

Addressing Gender Balance Within Our Business

Half the population are women, therefore half of the talent out there are women, so we must close the gap and make a real difference. To do this, we must assess precisely where we are, prioritise the gap areas, and commit to targets. We are launching an audit, run by an external company, to diagnose the challenges in our business and help us set targets that will drive real change, for gender equity and in all elements of diversity and inclusion.

Eurostar Group Women’s Network

We need to hear from women about what matters most and how they want to change the rules of the game. This network will promote gender equity, raise awareness, and drive actions through events and workshops, and create mentoring opportunities for women. It will also be a forum to share ideas to improve gender equity in our company.

Spend the day with Eurostar Group women leaders

As a CEO, a woman and a mother, Eurostar Group CEO Gwendoline Cazenave is passionate about inspiring the next generation of women. We are launching a new programme, starting with a partnership with a school near St Pancras, inviting female students to come into Eurostar and shadow Gwendoline and other women leaders in our business. We are working on expanding this programme in our other countries too.

Why is it important to you to be a partner of the TTG Diversity and Inclusion in Travel programme?

Like every family, at Eurostar we share some things in common: our behaviours. They’re part of our DNA, rooted in our history. They’re not meaningless mantras. They influence the way we act, how we think, and what we stand for. We are BOLD we are CARING we are HONEST. These behaviours have been created over the past three years with input from colleagues from across our businesses. We are all already living these behaviours and as we continue to bring our businesses together, they’ll help us shape our shared culture and achieve exciting things together.

With TTG proving every day their unwavering commitment to their own family behaviours, Smarter, Better, Fairer, we are delighted to be a part of their initiatives in diversity and inclusion. The partnership allows us to share our successes with our industry colleagues, and learn from them at the same time. The travel industry has come a long way but there is always more to be done and TTG’s programme for diversity and inclusion brings together a wide-reaching pool of knowledge and learnings that can be shared across the industry to inspire real change.

What advice would you give to other travel firms – small or large – starting out on the diversity, equity and inclusion journey?

Commit from the top down - to achieve a truly inclusive and diverse business you need to embed the behaviours into all decision-making processes. Listen to your organisation, they will tell you what the priorities need to be. Don’t try and do everything at once. You can take achievable and measurable steps, remembering that this is a journey and some of your initiatives will take longer than others if you’re going to do them properly.

Visit the Eurostar agent site