WELCOME TO THE INSTITUTION IN 2024

Best wishes to all members and friends of the Institution for 2024: and from my perspective it certainly promises to be an exciting year. All at the PWI trust you had a good Christmas and New Year, whether putting your feet up and enjoying the break or working within what seem to now be routine Christmas route closures. It’s interesting to reflect that up to the mid-1990s there was much less engineering work over the Christmas-New Year break, and fewer long blockades generally: much has changed in 30 years and it’s great to see the UK railway network continuing to develop! 

STRATEGY UPDATE

In the July ’23 Journal, I promised to update members on the progress in developing the Institution’s next five-year strategy in this first Journal of 2024. 

In the first quarter of 2023 PWI members and stakeholders responded to consultation on how the PWI should develop over the five years 2024-2028. At its July ’23 meeting the Institution’s Board reviewed and endorsed a draft five-year-plus strategy based on feedback from that consultation and the Board’s own deliberations. That draft strategy set out seven strategic goals, together with some associated intended outcomes, priorities for strategic development and change, and an overview of consequent tasks and timescales. 

2024 TO 2028 OUTCOMES

Over the latter part of Summer and through the Autumn the executive team has worked through the outcomes in greater detail, presenting a more comprehensive set of outcomes and a draft workplan to the November Board meeting. Endorsing that submission, the Board agreed that success in achieving each goal will be illustrated by the associated sets of outcomes shown beside. 

OUR 7 STRATEGIC GOALS

Goal 1
Reflect a clear organisation purpose in vision, mission, values, culture, branding, and name
Intended outcomes:
• clear vision, mission, and values established
• name reviewed and decided, new strapline and name launched and re-branding completed
• brand identity and ‘tone of voice’ used consistently throughout the organisation
• friendly, approachable, and inclusive culture ‘lived’ throughout the organisation
• immediate recognition and positive affiliation by membership and industry stakeholders.

Goal 2
Develop resilient income streams, and grow turnover significantly 
Intended outcomes: 
• delivery of an expanded range of highly regarded technical railway education programmes covering multiple technical disciplines 
• substantial corporate and individual membership representation from all railway technical disciplines and sectors 
• a larger proportion of individual members either professionally registered or on a pathway to registration 
• a comprehensive programme of accessible events that meets the development needs of all disciplines and sectors 
• a suite of technical publications that complements and supports our expanded educational programmes 
• understanding of future market opportunities.

Goal 3
Evolve the business capacity, systems, and structure to facilitate future Institution growth 
Intended outcomes: 
• a comprehensive set of organisational policies in place 
• a full set of robust and effective management processes and support systems in place covering customer relationship management, finance, human resources, safety, and security 
• standard operating procedures written for each area of the business 
• a flexible executive team with the capacity to adapt for growth, and resilience to withstand personnel change 
• a regional structure that is meeting the needs of members and has the necessary connections with industry stakeholders to anticipate future requirements 
• appropriate governance committees established (e.g. ethics and internal standards, technical, and policy) to deliver the organisational objectives. 

Goal 4
Improve member retention and attract new members from across the railway industry 
Intended outcomes: 
• a comprehensive understanding of why members join and why they leave acquired 
• regular recruitment campaigns addressing potential members from across all railway technical disciplines and sectors 
• the attrition rate for new members halved 
• a structured approach to onboarding new members and new contacts 
• corporate members advocating professional registration and Institution membership for their employees. 

Goal 5
Grow the Institution’s influence and reputation of within the industry and engineering profession 
Intended outcomes: 
• an expanded network of regular two-way communication channels with contacts from a wide range of rail industry bodies 
• stakeholders regularly approaching the Institution for technical input 
• recognised as the professional home for railway engineering 
• recognised as having highly accessible and inclusive routes to professional registration 
• an excellent reputation for successful collaboration and thought leadership. 

Goal 6
Facilitate increased membership engagement with the Institution and industry
Intended outcomes:
• a good understanding of what motivates our members to volunteer
• members enthusiastic to volunteer to join our committees
• foundations of a STEM strategy in place
• increased engagement and contribution from our Fellows.

Goal 7
Develop and enhance the Institution’s knowledge custodianship so that it is more widely recognised
Intended outcomes:
• widely recognised throughout the industry as a source of trusted information
• a more user-friendly online platform with optimised search engine
• expanded, high quality global content across technical disciplines
• regular contributions from membership and industry, both in the UK and internationally
• become a home for industry ‘lessons learnt’. 

2024 TO 2028 WORK PLAN 

The executive’s attention has, so far, focussed on planning for the achievement of goal 1, reviewing our vision, mission, values, culture, branding, and name. Our President, Steven Bell, says more about the Institution’s name on the opposite page, so, whilst acknowledging its importance, I won’t write more on that here. But we’re also planning to engage with members and stakeholders to better reflect their priorities and ambitions in updated versions of the Institution’s vision and mission, and to establish a clear set of values to support those. 

This work will take place in the first half of 2024, and we’ll obviously consult the Institution’s established committees. We also want to understand the views of the widest spectrum of our individual members (and potential members), so please look out for news of opportunities to tell us what you think and feed your ideas into the work. Subject to endorsement at our Annual General Meeting in July, the second half of 2024 will see the conclusions communicated to members and the roll out of the Institution’s revised identity and updated ethos. 

The first quarter of 2024 should also see the commissioning of the Institution’s new customer relationship management system: the final element of the 2019-2023 strategy, unfortunately delayed by software supplier issues back in 2022. Once this has been completed, for the remainder of 2024 efforts will switch to goal 2 and developing a strategic understanding of options for growing the Institution, particularly in the interlinked areas of membership, professional registration, and education and training. As we better understand the opportunities and options, further work programmes will be created to realise the associated growth in 2025 and beyond. 

Detailed work programmes for the other five goals have not yet been fully worked up. However, it is clear that putting in place management processes, systems, and standard operating procedures covering a much wider scope of the Institution’s activities (in support of goal 3) will be a significant task and will occupy the executive team for much of the 2024 to 2028 period. Similarly, enhancing the Institution’s knowledge custodianship (in support of goal 7) is likely to keep the technical management team more than busy over the same time frame. 

Again, in support of goal 3 and towards the middle of the strategic plan’s life, we will be seeking the views of Section committees, members (individual and corporate), and Institution officers on how our regional activities might best be developed and supported. 

I hope this brief update gives you a clearer idea of how the Institution intends to grow, improve, and better serve its members and the railway industry. It also outlines how we intend to consult and be guided by our members as we make that journey. And I’m very much looking forward to working with you over the next five years or so to those ends. 

Best wishes again for 2024 – and beyond!