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Mentor Forum
Mentor Forum

IMechE March Mentor Forum explores two topics, ScotRail’s successful anti bullying campaign & Providing support for an applicant after an unsuccessful PRI.

Running for a year now, the monthly Mentor Forum allows Mentors and Scheme Administrators to share best practice and keep up to date. With the introduction of UK SPEC 4, it is now a requirement that all applicants for the three grades of professional registration are able to demonstrate that they have ‘an awareness of diversity and inclusion issues’. Sandra Mulligan, part of the Business Development Team runs the Mentor Forum. She said ‘ E, D & I is a new topic for me to speak about so, I’ve been educating myself on it over the past few months. I’ve also introduced a D&I moment at the start of each Forum’.

In January, Ruth Margetts a CEng member working at EDF explained why her email signature includes that she’s a Mental Health First Aider, why she uses pronouns & also includes a dyslexic disclaimer. At the February Forum, Roy Allen explained the 4 stages of psychological safety and how they map against the Institutions four values of Inclusion, Integrity, Impact and Innovation. Sandra went on to say: ‘I find case histories very helpful as learning tools and was aware of the successful initiatives at ScotRail which I thought attendees of the Forum would be keen to hear about’. At the March Forum, we were delighted to be joined by Karen Wallace who joined ScotRail in March 2020 as the first Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Manager and is a solicitor by profession, has a degree in law, a Diploma in Legal Practice and is a qualified Internal Assessor and Internal Verifier with the Scottish Qualification Authority.

Karen leads on the design, delivery, and development of ScotRail’s diversity, inclusion, and engagement streams and has gained many accolades along the way. She launched the Inclusion for All Strategy and led ScotRail to achieve Investors in Diversity Accreditation, Disability Confident Employer status and to be re-certified as a UK Top Employer in 2022. Under her leadership, ScotRail was awarded Best Large Employer for Inclusion and Diversity at the Proud Scotland Awards. She is passionate about driving positive change and building respectful, inclusive, and psychologically safe cultures where everyone can thrive and have a real sense of belonging.  Karen’s vision is one in which all are welcome in ScotRail and beyond and a world that harnesses the power of intersectionality and difference in moving the dial.

At the Forum, Karen explained how important the 3 C’s are at ScotRail, how people should feel Comfortable at work – by being treated fairly and with respect by their colleagues, able to challenge, make mistakes and also speak out & innovate. They also need to fee Connected to the people they work with and the teams they are part of. In addition, they also need to feel that they are Contributing to meaningful work outcomes – feeling aligned to ScotRail’s purpose, mission and values and valued for their individual contributions and how these help to achieve common goals.

Karen went on to talk about their Anti bullying and harassment campaign last year which called ‘Stop it in its tracks - it’s the end of the line for bullying and harassment’ This was a campaign designed to promote thinking around the use of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviours or comments. Supported by newsletters, leaders’ briefings and posters for staff, it provided examples of when behaviours and comments cross the line into bullying and harassment and provided practical tips to use in situations ‘in the moment’. The campaign was successful and resulted in a 13% increase in the employee engagement score and increased ownership and accountability. ScotRail have also introduced tailored workshops for individual teams on microaggressions and interactive drama-based sessions on psychological safety. It was great to have this excellent case history to share and explore with Mentor Forum attendees, based at a huge variety of employers throughout the UK.

Another topic that was covered at the March Forum was how a Mentor can support an applicant that is not awarded the minimum scores at Professional Review Interview. While the success rate at PRI is very high, not being successful can have a very negative impact on the confidence of an applicant. The most common reasons why applicants are not successful are lack of preparation for the PRI and not having enough work experience. Using two case histories, Sandra provided guidance and advice on how to support an applicant that finds themselves in this position. Attendees agreed that it was a useful and insightful session. If you missed it and would like a copy of the slides that we shared or if you’d like to attend the April Mentor Forum where we’ll be looking at upgrading to Fellow, please get in touch with Sandra: Sandra.Mulligan@imeche.org

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