A diverse workforce

HARTbeat Aspire Programme for women

Our HARTbeat Aspire programme supports women in non-management roles to develop their careers. This came out of our gender pay gap report which detailed that we don't have enough women working at senior levels in the business.

Dawn Butler, MP for Brent Central and Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary gave a talk at the Aspire programme. View our short video about it below.

Leadership 2025

We've committed to adopt the Mayor Of London's Five Point commitment to recruit BAME people:

1. Report annually on key diversity statistics
2. Set aspirational diversity targets
3. Interview more diverse pools of candidates
4. Develop the leadership pipeline
5. Lead by example.

We're working with other G15 organisations to build a talent pipeline in order to grow our leadership streams.

Rooney Rule

We've signed up to the Rooney Rule, which means that any BME candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a senior role or any other management roles where we consider there to be an imbalance in genders, will automatically get shortlisted for interview. We've also extended this to include female candidates for senior roles.

HouseProud - Pledge Pioneer

We were one of the first adopters of the Houseproud Pledge, a scheme designed to ensure Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) residents are able to enjoy their homes without fear of discrimination.

We've since gained HousePround Pledge Pioneer accreditation which means we have achieved substantial progress in delivering three core commitments:

• We have formal arrangements in place to consult with LGBTQ+ residents.
• We have visibly promoted our commitment to LGBTQ+ resident inclusivity.
• We have initiated a programme of staff training to improve understanding of LGBTQ+ resident lives.

A Disability Confident Employer

Network Homes has signed up to the Government's Diability Confident scheme which supports employers to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace.

The scheme allows Network to tap into a huge pool of talent amongst disabled people with being able to recruit and retain and develop people with the skills we need.

Other benefits include:

• Increasing our own understanding of disability and how to make the most of opportunities provided by employing disabled people.
• Removing barriers that might be preventing disabled people and those with long term health conditions from accessing employment with us.
• Being able to play our part in ensuring disabled people have opportunities to fulfil their own potential and realise their own aspirations.

More on Disability Confident

Network Homes recognise and celebrate our colleagues’ identities. We are a community built on an ethos of equality and respect where hair texture and style have no bearing on an employee's ability to succeed.

Halo Hair Code

We've adopted The Halo Code, the UK's first Black hair code. No black or mixed heritage employee with afro-textured hair should have to change their natural or protective hairstyle in order to thrive at work. 

Network champions the right of our colleagues to embrace all Afro-hairstyles. We acknowledge that Afro-textured hair is an important part of our Black employees’ racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious identities, and requires specific styling for hair health and maintenance. We celebrate Afro-textured hair worn in all styles including, but not limited to, afros, locs, twists, braids, cornrows, fades, hair straightened through the application of heat or chemicals, weaves, wigs, headscarves, and wraps.