The Importance of a Diverse Workplace: Black History Month

Here at Linc, our purpose is to create the right environment for people to flourish, and we ensure this through our core values of passion, ambition and respect. With this in mind, we always want to promote equal opportunity for current and prospective Linc colleagues and make sure they’re able to make best use of their skills, free from discrimination.

As we reflect back on Black History Month and this year’s theme of ‘Time for Change: Action not Words,’ we couldn’t agree more that now more than ever it’s time to prove that actions speak louder than words; but how do we do this in the housing sector? Well, Linc is a proud supporter of the Get into Housing project run by the Cardiff Community Housing Association (CCHA), and as part of this initiative, we guarantee to show equal opportunity and diversify our workplace with talented and passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Here's more on why this is so important to us.

Black History Month 2022

Black History Month is a time to learn and raise awareness and understanding of Black lives from past to present. It’s also a time to celebrate, spread positivity and show appreciation to all our Black family members, friends, colleagues and neighbours alike. It’s all about starting those all-important conversations about race and identity and Black History Month provides a dedicated time for learning and reflection to encourage and support dialogues. As a result of these open conversations, we can build strong and meaningful relationships with those around us as we begin to understand Black history, culture, and experience in today’s society.

As Black History Month expertly puts it, “To get to a better tomorrow, we can’t just focus on the past.” Although learning about the past can be a great help to understanding race and culture, it’s also important to look at how we can improve the present and the future. This year’s theme of ‘Time for Change: Action not Words’ will help to ensure that we take the right actions for a better future where the achievements and contributions of Black and other minority backgrounds are celebrated equally and celebrated all year round.

Diversity in the Workplace: Why it’s Needed

So, what does this mean for us here at Linc? We want to make sure that we’re also using our actions and not just words to help raise awareness and improve the opportunities for people from Black and minority backgrounds.

At Linc we’re all about people, so creating an inclusive and safe workplace environment is one of our key goals. We want our Linc colleagues to be able to reach their full potential and as a result, help us to reach our full potential; after all, it’s only by working in a team with different experiences, backgrounds and outlooks that we can see the full picture. Feeling valued, understood and appreciated is an important part of any job, and this can have a fantastic impact on everyone in the team, helping to boost morale, creativity and innovation.

Diverse workplaces are especially important as this helps us to better understand our communities and customers. Our society is diverse and colourful, and our workplaces should reflect that. We want our customers to be able to see themselves in our Linc colleagues and feel as though we understand them and their needs, feelings, and experiences. It’s been the Senior Management Teams’ long term aim that the composition of Linc’s workforce should reflect that of the local community and that all workers should be offered equal opportunities to achieve their full potential. We’re very committed to this standpoint and a way that we help to ensure this is by partnering with the CCHA on the Get into Housing project.

The Get into Housing project, which is run as a consortium of seven Registered Social Landlords and funded by the WCVA, offers opportunities for participants aged over 25 that identify from a diverse background and are long term unemployed and live in Cardiff. The project aims to provide participants with:

• Valuable skills to boost your CV
• An opportunity to understand and develop your talents
• A chance to explore a career in housing
• Bespoke mentoring to help you achieve your potential and plan for long-term success

Each placement is for 21 hours per week and lasts for 16 weeks. Not only will this offer participants on-the-job experience, they’ll also be paid the national Living Wage (£9.50 per hour) and receive bespoke mentoring and support during their placement and the next steps in your career.

Our very own in-house success story from the Get into Housing project involves Nidhi, our Service Desk Assistant. Here’s more on Nidhi and how she got on with the project.

Nidhi’s Story

Nidhi first joined our technology team back in April as a participant on the Get into Housing project. When Nidhi began her journey on the project, she was interviewed by Technology Manager, Pete, and Service Desk Team Leader, Wendi. They were so impressed with Nidhi’s skills and experience that Wendi recalls enthusiastically saying, ‘We have to have her!’ to Pete.

Pete further explained Nidhi’s time during the project, “Nidhi has provided the highest level of customer service to our colleagues and has been incredibly proactive and resilient throughout. He continued, “The role requires the ability to research, to give accurate and timely solutions, and communicate effectively – all of which Nidhi has excelled in.”

In her previous role, Nidhi was a Research Assistant working within lab environments on wireless technology and working with tech teams to streamline processes around a marine life project. This provided a great basis for working within a multi-disciplined hybrid tech service team as we have here at Linc. The role in the Service Desk team was the perfect fit for Nidhi and it’s great to see how the Get Into Housing project was a steppingstone into employment.

Since completing the project, she has become an integral part of the team, and has secured a permanent role as Service Desk Assistant. Pete announced, “I’m delighted that she has now become a permanent member of our team. This is a great role that gives an opportunity to take the first steps into managing technology systems and services, and I’m excited to see how Nidhi will learn and grow within the team.”

Nidhi also commented on here time during the project, stating, “I’ve really enjoyed my time at Linc so far and am looking forward to learning more about the business and getting to work with lots more Linc colleagues.”

Get into Housing participants have joined a variety of Linc teams in recent months, including Customer Services and Independent Living. It’s important that these opportunities are available to our customers and local communities, and seeing how successful Nidhi’s placement has been, is a reminder of why projects like this are so important.

Congratulations again on your new role Nidhi, we’re thrilled to have you on board!

For more information on Linc and our values and opportunities, get in touch today for a chat.