We’ve continued to make progress towards our EDI agenda and action plan. Through a wide range of initiatives, campaigns and the growth of our EDI networks, we’ve seen increased levels of engagement from colleagues and strengthened commitment to our agenda by the Senior Management Team - in terms of their investment, leadership and engagement. Our Senior Management Team members each support one of the eight EDI networks - providing additional support, an understanding of the challenges discussed and support for the groups with progressing actions.
Here are just some of our recent achievements:
- Dignity at work campaign – We’ve continued to embed our ongoing Dignity at Work campaign (which launched in March 2022), with the key aim to better embed our commitment to a culture which is safe from any form of harassment, bullying or discrimination. Following a live launch event, it’s been supported by the introduction of the Dignity at Work Policy and Charter, training and follow-up events throughout the year.
- EDI e-learning module - developed in-house for all colleagues to enhance knowledge of EDI - and the impact they have on driving organisational performance. This includes our commitment to achieving inclusivity from ‘day one’ of employment, as well as raising awareness of our dignity at work policies and how to join our networks.
- Live keynote speaker events - since September 2021, thought-provoking speaker events have taken place including John Amaechi, Cheddar Gorgeous, Kelechi Okafor, Andy Reid MBE and Dr. Christopher Owen. They’ve been well attended and aimed at developing knowledge across different EDI subjects and encouraging open discussions on the topics that matter.
- We signed up to the Wellbeing of Women Menopause Workplace Pledge, and launched a new Menopause Policy, guidance and training to support our colleagues, increase awareness and to help normalise the conversation within the workplace.
- We signed up to the Mental Health at Work Standard to publicly demonstrate our commitment to improve how we support our people.
- We’ve launched new recruitment and selection training module, policy and guidance and introduced CV anonymisation to remove any potential bias through our shortlisting process.
- EDI related accreditations – we’ve achieved a number of accreditations including:
- All equals charter - ‘Good Practice’ level within 6 months of having achieved ‘foundation’ level.
- Armed Forces covenant - Defence Employer Recognition Scheme awarded ‘Bronze status’ – enabling us to recognise, understand and support those who serve (or have served), as well as family members of the armed forces, to ensure fairness and accessibility to our services.
- RLW accredited employer - in August 2022, we were accredited as a Real Living Wage employer and over the next year we are working towards the upcoming milestones in our action plan.
- Disability Confident Scheme - in August 2022, we were re-accredited as a ‘Disability Confident Leader’. It’s valid until August 2025 and we’ll use this time to continue taking an active role helping other employers on their journey to becoming Disability Confident.
- Family friendly policies review - in autumn 2021 we became a member of Working Families - the UK’s work-life balance charity. They conducted an assessment of our family friendly policies and benchmarked them against a range of organisations.
Measuring our impact
Each year we measure across all our workforce EDI data, which helps us to continually improve and make sure we’re supporting our colleagues and representing and benefitting the communities we work in, through the services we provide. Our statistics are based on colleagues who have disclosed information.
In summary, our 2023 report shows:
- 16.5% of our colleagues are from diverse ethnic community backgrounds (since November 2023 to date) – an increase from 12% over the past three years.
- The number of colleagues with a declared disability has increased by 1.4% points from 12.3% to 13.7%.
- 60% of our colleagues are female, and 58% of our managers are female.
- LGBTQ+ representation has increased to 9% (since November 2023 to date) – that’s an increase from 6% in 2020.
- 431 colleagues are in the 25-34 age range, this is an increase of 1.2% since 2022.
- We look at our ethnicity pay gap, which we are committed to reporting (this is not a requirement) and this stands at 1%.
The Growth Company is committed to providing equal opportunity for all our colleagues and customers. We value and respect diversity – it's at the heart of everything we do. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) steering group is made up of eight networks, designed to promote and recognise the value that EDI brings to our organisation.
Our eight EDI Networks, which colleagues can join as a member or an ally, are:
- Age
- EmbRace (race)
- Health & Wellbeing
- Menopause Support Group
- Mental Health Champion Group
- Neurodiversity Champion Group
- LGBTQ+
- Parents and Carers
- Women
- Religion and Faith
- Military Veterans and Reservists
“At the Growth Company (GC) we want everyone to feel that they belong and we are committed to creating an environment where all individuals are valued and treated with respect. The fundamental principles of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are core to our values and ways of working. At GC we have an EDI Steering Committee which comprises of members of our workforce who are passionate about EDI and help drive forward our EDI objectives. The EDI Steering Committee is sponsored by GC's Board Member, Vanda Murray OBE and our Executive Director of Corporate Affairs and Marketing, Carla Nuttall who support and empower our work to drive change needed to achieve inclusivity. I fully endorse the work of the EDI Steering Committee and EDI Network Groups and believe it’s an essential part of what makes GC a great place to work. We are dedicated to ensuring that colleagues have a voice and we want to create a culture of continuous learning through the learning platform.”