As a social value-based organisation, we’re passionate to lead by example across Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). It’s the right thing to do and it makes good business sense, because promoting an inclusive culture can boost our innovation, creativity and performance - making the Growth Company an even greater place to work.
We've continued to make progress towards our EDI agenda and action plan. Through a wide range of initiatives, campaigns and the growth of our EDI networks, we've seen increased levels of engagement from colleagues and strengthened commitment to our agenda by the Senior Management Team - in terms of their investment, leadership and engagement.
Our Senior Management Team members each support one of the eight EDI networks - providing additional support, an understanding of the challenges discussed and support for the groups with progressing actions.
Here are just some of our recent achievements:
Dignity at Work campaign – We've continued to embed our ongoing Dignity at Work campaign (which launched in March 2022), with the key aim to better embed our commitment to a culture which is safe from any form of harassment, bullying or discrimination. We refreshed resources, supported Race Equality Week, and published our 2024/25 Discrimination Tracker. We communicated these outcomes during Inclusion Week in September to demonstrate continued commitment to zero tolerance.
Preventing Sexual Harassment - Following new legislation in 2024, we strengthened our robust approach by enhancing EDI training, improving manager training, introducing a group-wide risk assessment, and clarifying reporting routes to empower colleagues and partners to 'Speak Up'. We continue to monitor future legislative changes to stay ahead.
Disability Inclusion - We committed to the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, reinforcing our status as a Disability Confident Leader, which can help promote non-visible disabilities, promoting understanding and support. All colleagues received training, and a live session complemented the launch. We also introduced a Reasonable Adjustments toolkit for managers and secured Disability Confident Leader re‑accreditation through to 2028, supported by positive external feedback.
Greater Manchester Inclusion Standards - In partnership with the GMCA, we helped shape and accelerate inclusion across Greater Manchester. Our external assessment rated us highly on 7 of 9 standards, with further development planned around creating opportunities and encouraging curiosity. We continue to share best practice across the region.
Cultural Confidence Training – In September 2024, we introduced a mandated training workshop on cultural leadership for people managers. The aim was to help people managers in GC become more inclusive and effective leaders; achieve a common understanding of inclusive leadership and inspire confidence to talk about it in their teams. Around 78% of managers have completed the programme, and we continue to embed learning across the organisation.
Mentoring Programme – The initial phase of the GC mentoring programme was launched last year, successfully pairing 140 mentors and mentees. We have received good participation from women, diverse ethnic communities, and disabled colleagues. We successfully matched colleagues from our EmbRace network with SMT members. In our next phase of mentoring, we will continue to encourage more applicants from diverse backgrounds.
Measuring our impact
In 2020, we committed to sharing the diversity data of the Growth Company annually.
Each year, we measure across all our workforce EDI data, which helps us to continually improve and make sure we’re supporting our colleagues and representing and benefiting the communities we work in, through the services we provide.
Our statistics are based on colleagues who have disclosed information.
In summary, our 2025 report shows:
19% of our colleagues are from diverse ethnic communities – an increase from 12% in 2020
The number of colleagues with a declared disability is 19.8%, an increase from 9.7% in 2020.
61% of our colleagues are female, and 39% of our colleagues are male.
LGBTQ+ representation has increased to 8.7% – that’s an increase from 4.2% in 2020.
The highest proportion of our age sits in the 35-49 category (36.9%) – a decrease from 36.9% in 2020.
The Growth Company is committed to providing equal opportunity for all our colleagues and customers. We value and respect diversity – it's at the heart of everything we do. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) steering group is made up of eight networks, designed to promote and recognise the value that EDI brings to our organisation.
Our eight EDI Networks, which colleagues can join as a member or an ally, are:
Age
EmbRace (race)
Health & Wellbeing
Menopause Support Group
Mental Health Champion Group
Neurodiversity Champion Group
LGBTQ+
Parents and Carers
Women
Religion and Faith
Military Veterans and Reservists
"At the Growth Company (GC) we want everyone to feel that they belong and we are committed to creating an environment where all individuals are valued and treated with respect. The fundamental principles of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are core to our values and ways of working. At GC we have an EDI Steering Committee which comprises of members of our workforce who are passionate about EDI and help drive forward our EDI objectives. The EDI Steering Committee is sponsored by GC Board Member Mandy Parkinson and our Executive Director of Corporate Affairs and Marketing, Carla Nuttall, who support and empower our work to drive change needed to achieve inclusivity.
"I fully endorse the work of the EDI Steering Committee and EDI Network Groups and believe it’s an essential part of what makes GC a great place to work. We are dedicated to ensuring that colleagues have a voice and we want to create a culture of continuous learning through the learning platform."
