Housing Association Midland Heart is focused on "creating safe and comfortable places" that its 70,000 customers are 'proud to call home.'
And this welcoming approach is one that the organisation carries into its workplaces, investing in all its employees from day one.
Midland Heart – one of the largest housing associations in the Midlands with more than 1100 staff – works to reflect the needs and ambitions of its diverse workforce.
This includes working with menopause awareness organisation, Henpicked, to encourage conversations about a condition up to a third of its team may be experiencing, and training managers to better support their staff through it.
Meanwhile, its four Inclusion Networks aim to "create a workplace where everyone feels they belong, no matter what their background".
Its Female Inclusion Network has seen its membership grow by 50 per cent. Its looking at how the organisation can remove barriers to progression and support more women into the top jobs. And there's now a programme in place providing individual tailored learning for high-performing Black colleagues ready for that next step.
Midland Heart's commitment to equality can also be seen in its approach to pay. The annual increase is applied organisation-wide, all staff get at least the voluntary living wage, and there are clear actions and targets to address the gender and ethnicity pay gap.
