We want everyone to feel welcome and able to thrive at Futures, which is why we're working hard on equity, diversity and inclusion. This year we’ve been focused on understanding our internal picture around EDI – which has meant gathering data, analysing it, and taking action based on what it’s telling us. As of June 2023, 50% of our staff have given us the information we need to start making meaningful change and putting policies and processes in place to support everyone.
At the start of our journey we worked with Compelling Culture, an organisation that helps companies to build inclusion strategies that engage their team members and support their customers, to review and evaluate our progress so far and work out our plans for the future. In March, we undertook another diagnostic to review our progress so far, and we’ve already gone up 6% from our initial scoring – meaning we’re making really good progress to being a more equitable and inclusive place to work.
There are lots of steps we’ve taken on our journey so far, but we’re especially proud of removing a degree from our ‘essential’ criteria for potential Board members, and advertising in more diverse locations to allow us to reach a wider range of candidates for our roles. We’ve also changed processes to give our team members more rights from day one of their employment with us, strengthened our support for parents of all genders, and launched our EDI huddles to engage more team members across the business in this important work.
We've also worked with colleagues across our organisation to celebrate and acknowledge Ramadan, Eid and other festivals, and provided useful information to colleagues as part of neurodiversity week which focuses on how they can support their fellow team members.
We recognise there’s more to do around equity, diversity and inclusion, but we’re proud of the progress we’ve already made and we’ve got our sights set on how we can ensure a brighter, more inclusive future for everyone at Futures Housing Group. We’re working hard on engaging even more colleagues and reaching out to our customers to better understand their needs, and we welcome anyone who wants to join us on this exciting journey.
