A strong and responsible organisation
As a strong organisation, we deliver growth, innovation, value for money and continuous improvement alongside high standards of corporate governance to ensure we operate in a safe and socially responsible manner.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy
Involving and working with people from diverse backgrounds, we gain valuable insight, improving how we deliver our services.
Mental Health First Aiders
During the year, we updated our EDI Strategy. It includes a three-year action plan developed by employees, tenants, partners and two non-executive board directors who are EDI champions. Some of the key actions include:
- Enhanced employee training, including having mental health first aiders
- Monitoring our ability to communicate with tenants in the appropriate languages and formats and addressing any gaps
- Getting regular feedback from tenants to check they have equal and fair access to services
- Continuing to ensure that EDI is embedded in our approach to procurement and that contractors have the correct information on our tenants
- Giving additional support to people with dyslexia, hearing difficulties, learning difficulties and mental health challenges
- Promoting networking groups to encourage conversations, learning and support for our diverse communities
- Ensuring workspaces are accessible, welcoming and safe for everyone
- Continuing to support the Stop Stigma in Social Housing as well as working with other misrepresented groups.
Promoting networking groups to encourage conversations, learning and support for our diverse communities
Diversity in the workplace
We aim to create a working environment that attracts a diverse workforce where everyone is encouraged to be themselves.
We comply with the Equality Act 2010, Codes of Practice, and relevant best practice guidance. We are also a Disability Confident employer, offering interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum requirements for a role.
We regularly review and monitor our recruitment and selection policy to ensure that no job applicant is treated less favourably than another. The results of this monitoring are reported to our board each quarter.
Our employees have access to various training programmes, which promote awareness around mental health, autism, dementia, menopause, learning disabilities, physical disabilities and more.
We actively encourage diversity at board level through our award-winning Achieving and Harnessing Board Diversity scheme. We continued our successful trainee NED programme and three new trainees, one a tenant in a shared ownership property, have joined the two-year part-time board training programme.
Hamza Ahmed - NED Trainee
Jennifer McGuinness - NED Trainee
Zarina Chowdrey - NED Trainee
Gender pay gap
As an employer of more than 250 people, only Progress Housing Association Limited, is required to report on its gender pay gap. This year, it has a mean gender pay gap of 8.5% (down from 11.2% in 2020) and a median pay gap of 10.9% (down from 12% in 2020 and 13.5% in 2019).
For the Group, our mean pay gap was 7.5% (down from 9% in 2020), with a median pay gap of 13.5% (unchanged since 2019).
The gender pay gap report helps to inform our EDI agenda and highlights where we could be more inclusive and diverse. With more females than males employed in lower salary positions, we are looking at how we can attract and recruit employees of both genders to these roles.
A one-team approach
We are Investor in People accredited and firmly believe that our employees are our greatest resource. We want them to feel valued, happy and confident in their ability to do their job. We provide opportunities for all employees to learn, develop their skills and improve their future career prospects.
Our Learning Management System (MYLO) offers access to a variety of online courses as well as mandatory training programmes. We also support people who want to study for formal qualifications or take secondments. Over the last 18 months, we have also invested in a new leadership development programme for senior employees.
By working together as one team, we achieve more and can deliver what our tenants and customers really want and need. The last couple of years has been challenging. The pandemic created a shift in working arrangements, affecting how we connect and support one another. We have also grown as a company, having gone through a merger and seen the formation of clear business streams while promoting a one-team approach.
Our engagement surveys help us to understand how employees feel about working for us and highlight any areas for improvement. Our most recent survey had a response rate of 67%, with an Engagement Index Score of 74% and an Employee Net Promoter Score (how likely it is for employees to recommend the organisation) of +22.
The survey showed that people feel part of a good team, enjoy the company of their colleagues, find their work rewarding and take pride in what they can deliver. Our focus going forward is on employee wellbeing and a healthy work environment. We are reviewing the areas of improvements suggested within all of our teams.
Our environmental impact
The evidence for climate change is undeniable and we, like others in the housing sector, need to work hard to reduce our impact on the planet. For us, this is both driven by a moral commitment to our tenants and the targets set by the government for low-carbon new builds by 2025 and net zero carbon homes by 2050. Achieving net-zero carbon emissions means the economy must remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it emits.
To meet this challenge, we developed and launched an ambitious Environmental Sustainability Strategy this year. It includes how we will build and maintain homes and how we can make offices and our wider environmental impact more sustainable.
Measures will include retrofitting existing homes with renewable energy, making the most of our green spaces, investing in new construction methods, developing green skills within the business and tackling fuel poverty.
To deliver our plans, we will look to maximise investment through funding streams such as the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
We understand that we are unable to achieve zero carbon targets on our own. We are involved in a number of zero-carbon partnerships. We will continue working with the government, other housing providers, our tenants and supply chain partners to share best practices.
Social value
We deliver social value through the services we provide to our tenants and the wider community. These services include money advice, help to get into work, homelessness support, refuge accommodation, support for older people, technology-enabled care, and specialist supported living accommodation.
Our social value activities reflect our vision:
‘To have a positive impact on people and communities by providing high-quality homes, supporting independence and creating opportunities’.
During the year, we introduced a social value matrix, which enables our contractors and other suppliers to make a difference in our communities. As a result, we have seen the following benefits for tenants and residents:
- Garden makeovers helped by C&W Berry providing shed and masonry paint, water butts, compost bins and solar lights
- A community seating area organised by Lindum Group, who provided a picnic bench
- Community clean-up days supported by Recycling Lives, Mahoney Contracts Ltd and Bell Group
- Garden tidy projects supported by Glendale
- A new fire door at St Mary’s foodbank in Leyland provided by Jackson and Jackson
- A DIY SOS-style project at a community centre in Freckleton supported by C&W Berry, who provided materials, front doors and kitchen units
- Support to a local foodbank from Ezee, H&J and Roofcare
- Donations of Christmas presents and selection boxes provided by Consortia.
- Sponsorship of the Typhoon's inclusive rugby club
Bluebell Meadows, Fulwood
Accrington clean up day
Supporting the local foodbank
Investing in digital
We have continued to invest in digital solutions to help us to deliver more efficient and effective services. Improvements include enhancing online self-serve functionality for tenants, creating a new e-learning system, developing digital forms to make our processes more efficient and updating our telephone and contact centre services.
We are looking to introduce new systems to improve and grow our business, including data protection, compliance, supplier relationship management, treasury management, health and safety, and a new sales solution and CRM system for Progress Lifeline. We have also invested in security to protect us against cyber-attacks.
We now have video conferencing facilities in all our new offices, which link to people joining meetings from home. In addition, using Microsoft Power Platform, we can now develop mobile and desktop applications and integrate them with our core business applications.
All of this work fits our goal to create a digital-first, agile working environment that supports collaborative and hybrid working.