Wellbeing- Encompasses the overall physical, mental, and emotional health of individuals.

Equity- Equity recognises that people have different needs and circumstances and may require different levels of support to achieve the same outcome. It's about fairness and ensuring everyone has the resources they need to succeed.

Diversity- The presence of differences among people in a group. It recognises and celebrates the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences that individuals bring to a community or an organisation.

Inclusion- An environment where all individuals can be themselves
and know that their contributions and ideas matter, are heard and also respected.

Our purpose

The Harpenden Building Society WEDI Group has evolved significantly over recent years, however our key purpose has always remained the same:

To promote and deliver WEDI in the workplace to create a working environment and culture where every colleague can feel safe, experience a sense of belonging, and is empowered to achieve their full potential.

This purpose doesn’t stop at our colleagues however, WEDI is also just as important when it comes to our present and future members, brokers and potential applicants. Ensuring these values are delivered allows us to cater to our members needs and preferences. This, in turn, can lead to a more positive customer experience, as our members feel seen and valued.

Background

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 provides legal protection for nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. In addition to these, our working group focusses and explores other topics and issues that we feel are just as important.

These include but are not limited to, caring responsibilities, culture, invisible disability, gender identity and expression, mental health, physical health and wellbeing, neurodiversity, paternity, physical appearance, political opinion and socioeconomic circumstances.

Our aims as a group:

1. To understand the make-up of our workforce and become more diverse, in every sense of the word.
2. To ensure people feel they belong and can be the best version of themselves, without judgement or conformity.
3. To ensure people feel safe to speak up if they see or experience poor behaviour.
4. To create a more resilient workforce and improve well-being in the workplace.

2025 Activity

January saw the first 2025 meeting for the WEDI group. The main agenda of the meeting was to look at replies to our “interests survey” which was sent out to all colleagues in December 2024 and in turn, develop key strategies moving forward to help get the best out of the group for the benefit of all our colleagues and members.

So far this year, our WEDI group have delivered articles, presentations and ‘Let’s Learn’ sessions to colleagues for various awareness topics including:

• National Heart Month (February)
• Neurodiversity Week (17th – 23rd March 2025)
• Deaf Awareness Week (5th – 11th May 2025)
• Mental Health Awareness Week (12th – 18th May 2025)
• Pride Month (June)
• Samaritans Awareness Day (24th July 2025)
• World Humanitarian Day (19th August 2025)

As a group we also celebrate and provide colleagues with information about the significance of religious events. So far, we have recognised:

• Holi (14th March 2025)
• Passover (12th – 19th April 2025)
• Easter (18th and 20th April 2025)
• Vesak (12th May 2025)
• Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (28th February – 29th March 2025)

We are now looking forward to the rest of 2025 and to delivering even more to promote WEDI to our colleagues and our members.