Recently, grounds maintenance services provider, Glendale Services, took part in National Inclusion Week, which was held from the 26th of September to the 2nd of October. The arboriculture company has made its stance known in the past, supporting a range of social issues to do with equality, mental health, and more within the industry.
This was just another example of Glendale showcasing its many values, they took to social media midweek to announce that their Corporate Development Director had helped create a charter to promote inclusivity in the industry, in honour of National Inclusion Week. The charter, named the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter for the Horticulture, Arboriculture, Landscaping & Garden Media profession, was created and signed by leading industry experts across a range of associations. Adrian was representing both Glendale and BALI (the British Association of Landscape Industries), who Glendale have a close relationship with.
The charter was a great example of the industry coming together to try and push equality, inclusivity and diversity within the workplace and landscaping sector. Whoever signs this charter is committing to trying to break down barriers within the industry.
National Inclusion Week is held annually, 2022 was its 10th anniversary and its theme this year was ‘Time to Act: The Power of Now’. This theme shows the importance of acting rather than just supporting or sitting back, if we want workplaces to become inclusive, we have to do something about it. This was a very fitting theme for the creation of the charter, as this was a big step in doing something about inclusivity within the landscaping.
Not being included is probably one of the worst feelings, especially if it’s in your workplace and it’s as a result of something you can’t change. Everyone should feel included and get a chance regardless of their age, sexual orientation, race, religion, or gender. Many individuals face unconscious bias within their workplace environment – unconscious bias is when people may think less of someone because they’re a different race, religion, gender, or age to them. This can affect the decisions they make, whether that’s in hiring someone, promoting someone, or just generally the way they conduct themselves around someone in the workplace. An example of unconscious bias would be a manager thinking that women aren’t as good at manual labour jobs, so hiring a male applicant over a female applicant even though the female applicant may have had more experience and was overall better for the position. These views usually fall under stereotyping and shouldn’t be present in the hiring process.
National Inclusion Week is a fantastic event to raise awareness of the difficulties that individuals may face when going through the recruitment process and try to prevent these difficulties in the future, with the main goal of everyone having an equal chance.
Glendale is a company with core ethical values, their slogan is ‘leading a greener future’ and they put a massive focus on sustainability, implementing electric vehicles into their fleet and striving for carbon neutrality. They also prioritise their staff’s mental and physical health, having 7 trained mental first aiders in their team that their staff members can go to for support if they need it. With a forward-thinking company like Glendale, it’s no surprise that they’ve expressed their thoughts during National Inclusion Week, when they’re hiring new team members, they always make sure to give everyone a chance and encourage any other companies within their industry to do the same.
Content provided by Piranha Solutions
