2024 has been another incredible year of Helping Real Life Happen here at Yorkshire Building Society.
From another year of sponsoring Pride to celebrating a summer of inclusive sports, we’ve been busy shaping a workplace that learns together, raises awareness, and Helps Careers Happen for our people.
So, let’s take a look back on some of the things we achieved in 2024.
We spent a week in February learning about race inequality in the workplace. As part of Race Equality Week, we ran a series of 30 minute sessions tackling a different topic around race equality, all aimed at bringing greater awareness and driving real change. So we could reach for better, together.
64% said ethnically diverse employees are playing a key part in tackling race inequality in their organisation.
Also in February, we caught up with one of our Digital Product Owner, Bethany Pitts, in the first of our Careers Showcases. Shining a light on life in our digital teams, Bethany shared her journey with us, from how she got into a digital career to the typical day working in our team.
“I’m surrounded by a really diverse and supportive community of people here – there’s so much to learn from people’s different expertise!”
Bethany Pitts Senior Product Owner, in An Inside Look into Everyday Life in our Digital Teams
March was all about #InspiringInclusion for International Women’s Day. We shared how we uplift and celebrate women in our workplaces here at Yorkshire Building Society. And we learnt how to be active allies with a series of events planned by our Women's Network – so we can break down barriers for women at work.
“I wouldn't be where I am in my career today were it not for my allies who have supported me along the way. They have made me feel heard, seen and valued, which has boosted my confidence and helped me believe in my abilities”
Angelika Christian in Inspiring Inclusion this International Women’s Day
We marked World Autism Awareness Day in April by announcing that we’d joined the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme, helping support our customers and colleagues with non-visible disabilities. It was another great step towards making our branches, and our workplaces, a place everyone feels seen, and understood.
“The Sunflower is all about raising awareness of invisible disabilities and conditions. We want to give everyone the same opportunities and a voice, and by investing in the Sunflower, we’ve strengthened the disability inclusive culture at YBS."
Cheryl Bleasdale Sunflower Scheme Ambassador
Last year, we joined Progress Together, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating a financial services sector where everyone, from all socio-economic backgrounds, has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Creating a workplace where everyone can develop is so important to us. So, this year, we’ve been working with Progress Together to keep track of our progress and improve social mobility across our Society.
In June, we put carers on the map for Carers Week 2024. We worked with our Parents & Carers Network to plan a week of amazing events that shined a light on the incredible work carers do, so we can make sure they get the recognition and support they deserve.
Find out more here.
“My line manager has been extremely understanding and supportive. He said ‘your mum is more important than work’, which was exactly what I needed to hear. With his support I was able to fit my work responsibilities around caring for my mum.”
Richard Whittaker Business Services Support Manager in Looking after our colleagues when they’re looking after someone else
Building real connections and reaching for better, we’ve been working hard at connecting all our colleagues with our Strategy. We’ve launched our Colleague Connect sessions where they can learn about our progress, hear about the positive impact their work has, and have the chance to ask questions.
From dens and game stations to wellbeing spaces and a 90 seat auditorium, our newly revamped Bradford office, Yorkshire Drive, finally opened its doors. We worked with our design partners and our Colleague Networks to create a workplace that responded to our colleagues’ needs. A workplace where our people want to work and spend time, and a space that’s truly inclusive and accessible for all colleagues.
Since our first donation in 1999, we’ve donated more than £9 million to charities and good causes across the country through our Charitable Foundation. And with our members’ and colleagues’ ongoing support, we’ve been making a difference throughout 2024. So we’re proud that our incredible colleagues raised £47,800 this June by completing the Three Peaks Challenge – despite the weather!
“A very wet, muddy, but fun climb up Pen-Y-Ghent and Plover Hill today with Yorkshire Building Society colleagues all in aid of FareShare UK.”
Kelly Shortland Emerging Talent Assistant
We were once again proud sponsors of Leeds Pride! We want all of our colleagues to feel like they have a place to belong here, and Pride is always such an important time to show our allyship. So we celebrated with our colleagues, and their friends and family, before joining the march and raising our voices together, sharing our support across the city.
With this year’s incredible sporting events, we took the opportunity to think about representation in sport. We held some great events such as a Diversity in Sport quiz, and our Accessibility and Ethnicity Networks ran some great pop-up events across our offices, like playing handball sports while blindfolded. We also celebrated the different cultures across the events by sharing cultural dishes, and had stalls set up in our Bradford, Leeds and Peterborough offices for everyone to share the world’s food together.
We’re dedicated to making sure everyone can get the support they need, when they need it. That’s especially important when someone’s going through baby loss. That’s why we planned a week of events dedicated to raising awareness and encouraging meaningful conversations for Baby Loss Awareness Week. Run by Family Foundations, the events provided a safe, supportive space for understanding, where those affected shared their stories, and we learnt more about it and how to support those experiencing baby loss.
“Baby loss, in any circumstances, can bring long-lasting emotional and physical effects. By introducing parental bereavement leave of up to two weeks, for both parents, in the event of early baby loss, we hope to support parents who sadly experience the loss of a pregnancy at any stage.
Amy Thirtle Senior Manager, Resourcing & Inclusion
Since creating the Menopause Working Group, we’ve been working to raise awareness around menopause. After all, it could impact a third of our current workforce. That’s why we made this year’s World Menopause Day, World Menopause Week. We shared some blogs from our colleagues, held an open forum and drop-in sessions, did some Armchair Yoga, opened our Menopause Café, and did some great training sessions. So everyone better understands what Menopause is, and how it affects those going through it.
"I love being part of this amazing group of super supportive people! I deeply believe that YBS tackling this issue in a meaningful and purposeful way – and not just giving lip service to the existence of resources or policy. We are leading the way for what a fully engaged employer in the UK should be doing and raising these issues with all levels of the business. I love our menopause cafes and we continue to shine a light on the many different symptoms that impact women at work. As a group, we are there for each other and I have found a solidarity, love and respect in these good people that I have never found in the workplace before."
The Menopause Group
From the absence of positive male role models to the stigma around speaking up for help, men’s mental health often goes unspoken. That’s why we spent International Men’s Day shining a light on men’s mental health. Throughout November, our Mankind group held sessions on ManKind topics, shared blogs about men’s issues, and held a virtual chat session ‘ManChat’. It was all about offering a safe space to open up about manhood and masculinity – on International Men’s Day and beyond.
Of 1,000 men, 70% said they’ve experienced poor mental health. 40% said they’ve never spoken about it to anyone.
We won an Illumi Award from UserTesting in the Distinguished Luminary category! This award recognises teams that do exceptional work in using research to improve customer experiences. As a team that’s always looking for ways to evolve what we do based on what our members need, receiving this award for our contributions means so much to us. That’s because it not only shows our dedication to customer experiences, but our commitment to helping every colleague’s talent develop, grow, and shine here.
