Network Rail's green signal to hire

Whatever you might think of the state of the UK’s railways (an infrastructure with its roots in Victorian England; its tracks now serving more than 2,500 individual stations), without Network Rail, things really would come to a grinding halt.

Formerly Railtrack (until 2002), Network Rail is the organisation that manages the nation’s rail infrastructure, including tracks signals, overhead lines, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and most stations.

Its work includes undertaking all crucial infrastructure maintenance (some 20,000 miles of track and 30,000 bridges), and although the next few years will likely see it absorbed into the Labour Government’s proposed new state-owned railway company, Great British Railways, for the time being, its activities remain unchanged.

But perhaps the most crucial aspect of Network Rail’s work is the recruitment and retention of its army of signallers (currently, some 5,500-strong) – people who literally ensure trains keep moving, move safely and are not causing any bottlenecks or danger to life. Their work involves operating a sophisticated traffic light system and other specialist equipment.

But more-so than most other organisations, would-be signallers simply don’t leave school or university knowing how to work the railways’ sometimes 150-year old systems – everything from the Victorian-era hand-pulled levers in at-station signal boxes, to state-of-the-art digital systems in larger rail operating centres. Not only that, many will not actually know if it’s a job they are capable of, or whether it suits them long-term. But with a constant need to attract new talent, the importance of selecting the right people, and ensuring they stay (because people are happy their skills are being used in the best way), has never been greater.

So how has Network Rail been managing this?

The key, according to Network Rail, is being able to attract and select those people judged to have demonstrated the right potential and aptitude to become effective signallers.

To do this, Network Rail has partnered with global professional services firm, Aon, to design and implement a new form of assessment that offers applicants a much realistic job preview and evaluates their suitability to the signaller role.

“We’re an organisation that most people will have heard of, but at the same time many people won’t often know exactly what we do,” says Tina Conacher, Assessment lead at Network Rail. “Signaling – from a skills perspective – is very similar to what air traffic controllers are to the airline industry. There’s lots of complexity; the work requires high levels of concentration; and people need to be calm under pressure, follow safety protocols whilst also being able to think on their feet if need-be.”