The way our team responding to Covid-19 has been inspiring. Our Estate Rangers were out every day dealing with fly-tipping and other cleanliness needs. Our dedicated short stay accommodation team offered invaluable in person support to those facing homelessness. Our Care team continued to visit people at home to deliver almost 72,000 hours of personal care.
We know that our people have faced their own challenges throughout this pandemic so we wanted to do all we could to support our employees with an increased focus on mental health and wellbeing. In April 2020, we launched two new employee benefits giving colleagues free access to a range of resources and a new health care Cash Back scheme. As well as access to a 24/7 digital GP service, we also invested in nine colleagues to complete mental health first aid training and become ‘wellbeing champions’. They are here to listen to any colleague who needs to talk and signpost them to where they can find support.
As prominent members of the PlaceShapers network, we were keen to lend our support to the charity Harry’s Pals. Since pledging our support we have produced a Carers Policy specifically to better support employees with caring responsibilities in their personal lives. During 2020-21, we also became an accredited living wage employer and signed up to the government’s Kick Start initiative to create 50 employment opportunities for young people. We began advertising positions in Spring 2021 and so far have welcomed 14 kick starters to the CKH team. We had 9 apprentices working with us when we entered the first lockdown and most teams had to start working from home. All of these young people have already, or are on track to, complete their apprenticeships as planned thanks to the support of their line managers and wider teams.
As a local employer in a diverse and vibrant city, it’s our aim that our employee body should represent the communities we support. To help develop our culture of inclusion, we formed a BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) Employee Consultation group to hear more from our valued colleagues about how we can support, promote and celebrate all our employees.
You can find all our current vacancies and job opportunities, including apprenticeships and kick start placements, on our website.
Performance statistics
Average working days lost due to sickness absence
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | Top housing associations (2019/20) | This year | Compared to top housing associations |
| 4.53 | 4.23 | 7.9 | 3.47 | Where we want to be |
