Dublin Bus Flies the Flag for Diversity
14th October 2020
Each October Global Diversity Awareness Month is celebrated around the world. Recently Dublin Bus acknowledged its diverse workforce and the extra effort employees have put in to keep the city moving and ensure other frontline workers get to and from work by unveiling a newly wrapped bus featuring the flags of 72 countries, the number of countries Dublin Bus employees come from.
Dublin Bus is one of the country’s leading employers with over 3,500 employees. It reflects contemporary Dublin and society with a diverse and inclusive workforce made up of multiple ethnicities, religions, ages and abilities. Its ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ Strategy reflects the company’s continuing commitment to equality, diversity and non-discrimination for employees, customers and the wider community. Its achievements have been recognised internationally as best practice by the European Commission.
Speaking about the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce, Vivienne Kavanagh, Dublin Bus Employee Development & Equality Executive said: “As a company we are committed to promoting equality, accommodating diversity, and ensuring non-discrimination for both our employees and our customers. Our people are our greatest asset. We’ve especially seen this during the COVID-19 pandemic when they really rallied to support all Dubliners. We always seek to have a work culture that fosters teamwork and inclusiveness and celebrates diversity. It makes business sense, but we do it because it is the right thing to do.”
Dublin Bus is one of the founding Irish signatories of the Irish Diversity Charter and has a track record that it is proud of. It is a public service provider in every sense of the word, and an employer which supports and celebrates a diverse workforce which reflects the communities that it serves. Employees are aged from 16 to 66 and last year saw the launch of the Give It A Spin recruitment campaign which encouraged more women to give driving a bus a go with the aim of doubling the number of female drivers at the company.
Dublin Bus has provided support to Dublin’s Annual LGBTQ+ Pride Parade for the last ten years and the last two years has seen a rainbow flag wrapped bus take to the city streets during Pride month. The 2018 ‘Proud Dad’s’ video celebrating Pride Festival, shot on-board a specially wrapped rainbow bus was viewed 7.5 million times around the world. While in 2017 it devised Workplace Gender Transition Policy and Guidelines, in consultation with Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), which includes recommendations for employees, managers and the HR Dept on how to provide a welcoming and supportive environment for employees transitioning. It won the Diversity & Inclusion Award at the 2018 CIPD Ireland Awards as a result.
