Think, Act, Report: Genesis Housing Association
Reporting on a wide range of gender metrics from staff survey results to equal pay audits: Transparency of intent and momentum to achieve.
Gender equality is central to Genesis Housing Association’s corporate strategy, and is underpinned by business need as around 60% of its customer base and 60% of employees are female. As a social landlord, Genesis recognises that understanding the needs of the communities it serves is essential. It also recognises that ensuring women are represented at all levels of the organisation is key to enabling them to perform at their best.
Genesis seeks to position itself as an employer of choice for talented women, and believes that publishing information about its gender profile sends a powerful message about the importance of diversity and inclusion to its brand identity. Genesis also wanted to make information easily accessible to managers when planning workforce recruitment and putting in place development plans for staff.
Issue to be resolved
Gender equality has been a priority area because like many housing organisations 60% of Genesis workforce is female but this figure has not been reflected at senior management level. 60% of customers are also female and visible leadership by women as key decision makers is important to the business. Great progress has been made over recent years and there is now almost parity at Executive Management level and Board representation.
Publishing workforce metrics enables transparency of the organisation’s intent and continued momentum to achieve gender balance.
Action taken
Genesis reports on a wide range of metrics from staff survey results to equal pay audits and workforce composition. This includes a report on pay levels across different areas of the organisation for women and its maternity return rate.
Result
Making information available in this way enables Genesis to be very open about what it is doing to achieve gender equality and how successful it is, and also highlights where further action is needed. It allows for comparison with others and for the sharing of good practice.
Making information on gender equality public has also encouraged Genesis to make information available on other strands of diversity. Detailed information on staff and customer profiles is published in its diversity and inclusion strategy online.
Next Steps
Genesis has gone through a significant reorganisation recently and the focus on building an inclusive environment remains a strategic objective and is integral to the values of the association.
The corporate strategy for the forthcoming period recognises the enormous changes that have occurred in terms of the numbers and types of people who need to be housed, how our society is ageing, how Genesis can play a part in helping people gain skills and jobs and how customers and residents interact and receive services.
“Genesis needs to not only be fit for purpose for this different age, but able to deliver innovation and value for money in everything we do to secure our future and build on the work of the last five years. The new Corporate Strategy will underline this challenge and set out our route map to achieve this. I am very much looking forward to personally leading this important process over the next few years as we continue in our mission of Building Better Futures and supporting the creation of thriving communities,” says Neil Haddon, CEO.
A key focus is on delivering a sustainable association that is financially strong with a high performing workforce focused on the customer.
Public reporting will be improved by including this information in the Openness and Transparency section on our website and linked to it from other relevant sections (Equality and diversity). This will be presented in a simple, easy to understand way.