Member Article

Equality training just the ticket for trade staff

Joiners, plumbers and electricians from a North Yorkshire housing provider have been given a down to earth and surprising insight into the relevance of Equality and Diversity in the workplace.

Over 60 members of frontline staff from Yorkshire Coast Homes, in Scarborough attended the two-hour training workshops, which were held in their depot.

Several workshops were delivered to raise awareness of the different areas of Equality and Diversity. Interactive, inspirational and personal examples were delivered by a blind tutor from HearFirst Training and Consultancy, which helped delegates to realise and understand that Equality and Diversity is part of everyday life when delivering services.

Julie Ryder, Director and Founder of HearFirst, said: “Yorkshire Cost Homes, which owns and manages 4,500 homes across the Scarborough area, recognise the importance of Equality & Diversity in the workplace and invited us to deliver bespoke training that would be tailored specifically for their trades people who work remotely in the community and in people’s homes.

“It’s important that all our course delegates connect to the topic and the tutor. Our tutor is fully blind but there is a lot more to him than that. He can relate easily to tradespeople and I think they were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. His down-to-earth style and the fact that the workshops took place in the depot brought a very real feel to the training and encouraged people to understand the importance of Equality and Diversity in the workplace, what the Equality Act is and the understand what the nine protected characteristics are.

“Feedback from delegates has been superb and staff who attended the sessions showed positive attitudes and a renewed interest towards Equality and Diversity. Our role is to harness and grow that enthusiasm to give them the confidence to promote good practice within the workplace.”

Helen Stubbins, Human Resources Manager at Yorkshire Coast Homes, said: “The Training provided from HearFirst has really raised awareness for our Trades department with regards to real life examples of what difficulties people face on a day-to-day basis and how they can adapt the way they work to ensure Customers receive the service required for their needs.

“Feedback from the training has been very positive and we are now looking to roll this training out to our Board Directors and the wider workforce.” Following the training, delegates were asked to feedback what they had learnt with most commenting that they understand the importance of treating people fairly regardless of race and gender, to understand people’s needs and not to judge people.

HearFirst provides a full range of equality and diversity training courses to organisations across the UK. For more information on deaf, disability awareness and BSL training, please contact Julie at HearFirst on 01706 872 816 or visit www.hearfirst.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by HearFirst .