Coronavirus Update

We continue to focus on the priorities of customer safety, protecting employees and business resilience. Please read here for our latest position. For customer information, please visit our dedicated coronavirus webpage.

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Creating an inclusive culture

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) means we work with all our employees, partners and customers to ensure that we provide all our employees with equal opportunity to fulfil their potential and achieve their career ambitions.

Our Employee Ambassadors, Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Champions and Healthy Mind First Aiders represent all parts of the business and play a key role in shaping our culture and we have a Group-wide EDI action plan, which is monitored through a governance structure that involves employees from customer facing roles to the main Board, to ensure that we are being held to the highest standards in everything we do.

We are committed to increase the proportions of underrepresented groups across our entire employee population and have implemented a number of initiatives to support this, from offering improved maternity and paternity provision and being a Voluntary Real Living Wage employer, to taking major steps to improve our employer brand to attract a breadth of high quality, diverse talent.

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Our commitment in action

As a provider of affordable housing it is equally important that the principals and benefits underpinning our EDI action plan also extend beyond the organisation to our customers and our communities. In February 2021 we signed the Houseproud Pledge as a demonstration of the commitment of housing associations to delivering high-quality services and support to LGBTQ+ people, and provide a safe working environment for LGBTQ+ colleagues.

We have also committed to the Business in The Community Race Charter, retained our Disability Confidence accreditation, re-joined the Time to Change mental health pledge and made a commitment to the Stonewall’s No Bystanders pledge – committing to never being a bystander to hateful language and abuse.

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Agile working

We introduced agile and flexible working in 2018, but the pandemic caused us to accelerate our journey with the launch of WorkSmart, our agile working programme. 

This is a firm commitment from the organisation to enable any eligible employee to work from home for up to three days a week - more if their role allows - with colleagues coming into the office for meetings or to collaborate amongst teams. With some exceptions, which are role dependent, employees are also able to work flexibly, meaning that they do not have to work a standard 9 to 5 workday, which is particularly important for colleagues with caring responsibilities.

The scheme is flexible and works around what individuals and teams need, and we hope it will increase accessibility and employment choice across the organisation.

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#ThisIsMe

Complementing our Agile Working programme, WorkSmart, we have an award-winning wellness programme, #This is Me, which recognises that everyone is different and requires different wellbeing support.

Developed to support colleagues through the pandemic and beyond, #ThisIsMe provides employees access to Healthy Mind First Aiders, our Employee Assistance Programme, and a range of support tools, videos, podcasts, factsheets, talks and resources to support mental and physical health.

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Nurturing talent

We believe that a well-trained workforce is essential to the success of any organisation and we continue to provide all our employees with the opportunity to improve and develop their careers with us.

  • Our Future Talent team ensure the next generation of talent is nurtured and supported through our Graduate and Apprenticeship programmes.
  • Our Training and Development team group wide training programmes to support and promote professional development for all our employees.
  • Our Leadership Cornerstones programme supports the next generation of leaders develop their skills
  • We support external development opportunities such as professional qualifications and memberships.
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