41061 Unite AR22 HI-RES WEB-READY - Flipbook - Page 52
50
THE UNITE GROUP PLC | Annual Report and Financial Statements 2022
SUSTAINABILITY AND NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING continued
PEOPLE continued
Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion, and Belonging
We’re creating a culture where being different is valued.
A culture where our people and students can thrive
and there’s room for everyone, no matter what their
background, identity, or circumstances.
This year has been about creating our foundations, setting
our goals for the next three years, and continuing to listen
to the needs of our employees.
In April we launched our first Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,
Belonging (DEIB) and Wellbeing strategy, We are US, which
details our ambitions for 2022–2025, what we want to
achieve, and how we are going to achieve it. At the heart
of this is a focus on instinctive inclusion, creating a place
where our people and students thrive and are at the heart
of who we are and what we do every day. Key ambitions
include achieving a 40:60 female:male gender split in senior
management by 2025, and building a data-led understanding
of wider diversity metrics so we can work towards a
workforce that is truly representative of the communities
we work in at every level.
CASE STUDY
LIVING BLACK AT
UNIVERSITY
In February 2022, Unite published its “Living Black at
University” Report, based on a research commissioned
by Unite and carried out by Halpin Partnership that
looked into the experience of Black students in UK
student accommodation – the first report of its kind.
In response, Unite called on universities and student
accommodation providers to collaborate across the
Higher Education sector and take meaningful action in
order to address those issues.
Unite launched a national commission, drawing from
key national organisations and professional bodies.
The initiative aims to support the higher education and
private student accommodation sectors’ response to the
report, aligning with Unite’s strong emphasis on social
impact and its value of “creating room for everyone”.
We have continued to focus on two-way communication,
through our employee forum, Culture Matters. Together,
we have undergone a policy review process, which has
highlighted the need for broader scoping policies, that better
reflect the diversity of Unite. We have consulted the forum
on the most meaningful ways to communicate, and ensured
that our representatives are developed in their knowledge
of business, finance, policy, and soft skills. One year on, it is
evident in our agenda items that the business understands
the importance of employee consultation, in order to deliver
impactful and meaningful projects that land in the right way.
We have kept the messaging of DEIB and Wellbeing
consistent, and started to build the knowledge of our
employees. Utilising employee engagement, we used the
responses from our annual DEIB and Wellbeing survey to
influence the construction of our learning programme,
improve our communications, and set out the behaviours
expected of our employees, and senior leaders.
Looking forward to 2023, we will continue to work closely
with our Culture Matters forum to ensure policies and
procedures on important topics, such as family leave to
support our DEIB ambitions.
The commission have shared a number of free,
accessible resources and toolkits with the wider Higher
Education sector whilst Unite continues to bring insights
on the subject to sector conferences. In partnership with
Newcastle University, Unite hosted a cultural services
trial and will host a Living Black at University conference
in 2023.
For more about this project, go online to:
unitegroup.com/living-black-at-university
