Employee Benefits Live 2025: Eurostar embeds diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in to business strategy and throughout its operations.
In a session titled ‘Holding the line: Sustaining DEI momentum in a shifting world’, Georgie Willis, head of diversity and inclusion at Eurostar, explained that an effective approach is about positioning DEI as a strategic means of value creation, rather than simply a nice thing to do for employees.
She added that one way in which the organisation achieves this is by using the same pillars as its business strategy.
“We use the same values of bold, honest, and caring, and we have the same overarching purpose of becoming the backbone of sustainable travel in Europe,” explained Willis. “What’s also been very important, because we have a tiny team, is to develop a bit of a vision that people can really easily understand and catch on to. So at Eurostar, it’s wherever you’re going and wherever you’ve come from, we will welcome you. So that’s all about belonging, not only for our people, but for our customers as well.”
To achieve its aims, the organisation has challenged leaders from each business unit to embed DEI into everything that they do. “At the moment, we’re just going project by project, but eventually we would love to have a DEI lens on every project so that our DEI team becomes two and a half thousand people,” said Willis.
Going forward, she explained that the organisation is looking to strengthen its DEI approach. “We’ve launched recently a campaign around zero tolerance, so that’s quite a strong message,” she said. “But because we work so closely with our legal team, compliance team, [and] HR team, we’re able to make that really bold statement.
“And we’re putting our money where our mouth is as well, so we have training for our top 60 managers, which is behavioural change, and we’re also running awareness training for about 1,500 to 1,600 frontline colleagues and managers as well. It’s all about how to treat each other better, how to treat customers better and to be proud of the environment and the culture that we work with.”
Data plays a significant role in shaping Eurostar’s approach to DEI, added Willis.
“Evolution means that we’re really hot on our data and our impact evaluation. There’s lots of different data that we can learn from our colleagues. It’s things like our people survey, making sure that we really understand our people’s experience. And there’s a lot around just sitting down with people and listening and having an open door and really trying to understand what is going on in their world.”
Overall, the current challenges facing DEI, such as the shifting political landscape, should be regarded as a blip, said Willis.
“The trend at Eurostar is more DEI, more inclusion, more belonging. We need to be able to show that we’re making change. And if we’re not making change, we need to understand why not and where we can focus,” she explained.
