A Happy New Year and welcome to our Winter edition newsletter. Here you’ll find the latest insights on Housing Employment and Leadership Development, as well as news from our Recruitment, Executive and Leadership Consultancy experts, and the latest housing jobs.
It’s been a tough winter for people across the UK, and no one can blame those not feeling quite ready to embrace 2023. Many are facing continuous struggle as the cost-of-living crisis impacts tenants and employees alike. As we move forward, it will be important to know what to take with us as we navigate the coming year, what to layer up on, and what to leave behind, both personally and professionally, in order to create the space to thrive and grow.
We continue to live through some very challenging times. The way we support our people and ourselves will be key in successfully tackling many of the issues facing our organisations and communities, as we navigate a further year of unpredictability, and identify the best opportunities in the year ahead.
Making Workplace Wellbeing a Top Priority in 2023
Wellbeing in the workplace has been a huge priority over 2022, and this will continue through 2023. Clearly it’s important for people to feel valued and supported, but for those still sceptical, it also makes good business sense to have a happy, thriving workforce. Studies have shown that the bottom line is seriously affected without a proper mental health and wellbeing strategy, and in 2023 it will be vital to have this in place across every successful organisation.
Understanding how the work landscape has changed over the past year, and how individual needs are evolving across work and home life, has been guiding us as an organisation to step into a more supportive role. We want each individual to feel they can develop, grow, participate and collaborate within a healthy environment.
One of our initiatives here at Greenacre has been to set up a Wellbeing Committee, which aims to create a welcoming space for our employees and their families to benefit from advice and support mechanisms in an inclusive environment. Checking in regularly with staff, both in the office (as those returning become re-acclimatised) as well as those still finding it beneficial to work remotely, has also become a regular and important process.
For our wider network, we will shortly be introducing our ‘Sofa Sessions’, a podcast series which shares unique stories from people who have learned valuable wellbeing support techniques along their individual journeys. Our first session will be with Sarah Crone Our Finance Director, who was diagnosed with a rare Cancer back in in 2020, and has been an inspiration to the rest of the Greenacre team through her courage and determination. Sarah will be contributing what she’s learned through her diagnosis, treatment and recovery process, along with the strategies that have kept her going along the way. Look out for this heart-warming podcast in the coming weeks!
Diversity and Inclusion was a big theme in 2022. Keeping the momentum going through 2023 will be key, as we continue to work with others across our network to drive positive change through a changing industry. There is still a great deal more to do, and we’ve been collaborating with our partners at Data Clan, Women in Social Housing, Peabody and Believe Housing, on a pioneering research paper which explores leadership, gender and behaviour traits in the workplace. Up to now there has been limited data on diverse gender identity and leadership, the challenges, dividends and other wider outcomes, stemming from an open approach to gender identity. By collaborating with other industry experts across the sector, we hope to explore and challenge these issues, in a bid to help drive more equity, opportunity and innovation in our future workspaces. If you’d like to take part in the live panel and audience discussion on the paper on 23rd January, you can book here.
Prioritising Our People and Planning Ahead
Another huge theme in 2023 will be Learning and Development. We are excited to be starting our Internal Strengths-based Development Programme, which is taking place across the organisation and led by our Consult division. It’s a hugely valuable tool for both existing employees at every level, and our newer team members, to learn about individual strengths and how we can each play our part and benefit from a collaborative work environment, built on trust and shared values.
Speaking of new team members, we’d like to introduce you to our four newest Greenacre recruits! Sarah Hooper, Kelly Power, Sinead McNicholas and Alex Saffer joined us in the last quarter of 2022, and have already had a hugely positive impact on our existing team. We’re excited to see how they develop along their Greenacre journeys, and build on their individual strengths within the organisation. If you’d like to learn more about Sarah, head over to our YouTube channel for her Meet the Team session – we’ll be introducing Kelly, Sinead, Alex and other members of the team here too, so watch out for upcoming episodes, including obligatory ‘dad’ jokes!
Don’t forget to follow us and join in the conversations on our other channels LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where you can keep updated on what our teams are up to, and engage with us on the topics that matter. On that note, we’d like to wish you all a happy, prosperous and healthy 2023, filled with opportunity and success!