Good Employment Week

What have we been doing this Good Employment Week?

Kat Sowden

Managing Director

I attended the Women and Girls panel event and the Disabled panel event in the afternoon. I did this because I am keen to hear different experiences and perspectives so that I can understand how work can be experienced by different people and what we can do at Persona to improve our culture and environment to support a wider range of people. The Womens and Girls event was very different as it involved acting out scenarios in order to understand them better, appreciate underpinning factors and potential interventions that could improve working life for women. I found both sessions really helpful in providing insights to help us think more inclusively about our practice at Persona.

I also went to a session with credit unions which was also really good; a roundtable and an opportunity to discuss directly with credit unions how we can work better in partnership to support the financial wellbeing of employees. I'll be picking up a conversation with our credit union on the back of this to look at how we can develop a more proactive partnership approach. 

Laura Wolstenholme

Head of People and Communications

As part of Good Employment Week, Persona was asked to be involved in delivering a workshop around inclusion, along with a couple of other organisations who are members of the Good Employment Charter.  The purpose of the session was to share the journeys we have been on to build on and improve our employment practices, specifically around inclusion.  As part of this we shared our journey around inclusive recruitment and the challenges and steps we have taken to overcome these as an organisation.  It was also great to hear about other sectors, their challenges and the approaches they have taken.  

Carmen Gillon-Weerasinghe

Manager, Learning Disabilities Day Service

I attended the LGBTQ+ Experiences in Employment panel event. I wanted to learn more about people's experiences of being queer in the workplace, the challenges the communities face and what employers can do to facilitate better workplace relationships for LGBTQ+ employees as members of GMGEC. There were a lot of great discussions and amazing contributions from the Greater Manchester LGBTQ+ Equality Panel. I took away a couple of ideas from the event that I will discuss with senior management, to see how we can implement them at Persona to make it a safer and a welcoming place for everyone to work.

Good Employment Week is organised by Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter.

In 2023 we became a member of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter and we also won the Most Improved Award. In 2024 We won Best for Inclusion - Large. We are also a Living Wage Employer and we pay above the living wage. 

Read more about why we joined the charter here.