Disability, Mental Health & Wellbeing Report 2024
The following is our 2024 Disability, Mental Health & Wellbeing report, following the Voluntary Reporting Framework from the UK Government. As a Disability Confident Leader, we pledge to report on disability, mental health and wellbeing in our organisation every year.
Data Collection
In January 2025, we released an anonymous online form to all our staff to collect data on disability, mental health and wellbeing. We gave staff one week to complete the form and we asked staff the same questions as the recommended ones in the Voluntary Reporting Framework.
At the point of survey, we had nine members of staff and received seven submissions (77% response rate). The form was optional, open for seven days and staff were reminded to complete it.
Due to the size of the organisation, we will only provide top-level statistics, the minimum required by the Voluntary Reporting Framework, to avoid compromising the anonymity of individuals who completed the survey. We have not reviewed individual submissions, only the aggregate statistics.
Disability
How we recruit and retain disabled staff members
Disabled people are a very underrepresented demographic in the technology industry. Despite 19% of the UK workforce having a disability, only 9% of IT specialists are disabled (BCS Insights Report, 2019).
We understand that applicants may research us prior to applying for a role with us, and we hope they would find our frequent social media posts regarding disability inclusion in the workplace, showcasing our inclusive practices and celebrating our EDI-related accreditations.
To support our recruitment efforts, our equality statement explicitly encourages applications from underrepresented demographics in the technology industry, such as women and disabled people. Harker has also implemented a Guaranteed Interview scheme across all job positions, meaning that disabled applicants will be offered an interview provided they meet the essential job criteria. In addition, we explicitly state that applicants do not have to disclose their disability to register for the scheme. In our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment process (October 2024), 17.9% of applicants opted-in for our Guaranteed Interview scheme, close to the national percentage of disabled working age people, and several of these applicants were invited for an interview who otherwise wouldn’t have been. 17.6% of applicants for our Social Media Placement role (March 2025) also opted-in for the scheme, showing consistent use.
Throughout our interview stages, we score applicants against several pre-defined themes, for example, technical ability and situational awareness might be two themes. Scoring is carried out by a panel of at least three staff members, and the average score is taken for each theme, to remove as much bias as possible. Points in these themes can be gained from any of the four components; namely, CV and/or supporting statement, interview, optional portfolio, and references. For example, if an applicant struggled with a question about programming, they could gain any lost points from a good example of that same programming aspect in a portfolio piece. Every theme has a maximum number of points which is attainable without submitting the optional component.
We believe this novel interview system has supported our recruitment efforts by allowing disabled applicants to engage in a more equitable recruitment process. For example, if an applicant had severe anxiety and struggled articulating their skillset in an interview, their portfolio of past projects could speak for itself. We proactively reach out to all interviewees via email to enquire about any reasonable adjustments they may need/want for their interview, with a link to a page on our website which explains reasonable adjustments and gives examples. Some applicants may have anxiety around reaching out to enquire about reasonable adjustments, so we have tackled this potential barrier. During our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment, staff noted that they felt the interview system gave them greater insight into candidate’s skills and a stronger holistic view of the entire process, which supports our goal of always hiring the best fit for the role, regardless of personal characteristics.
In addition, we are proud that all staff members are paid at least the Real Living Wage, and we are committed to preventing any wage gaps between different demographics as the company grows. Harker is also an accredited Living Hours Employer, following best practice on offering secure working hours for our part-time staff. Further, we are a Liverpool City Region Fair Employment Charter Accredited level organisation, and an RNIB Visibly Better Employer, which both validate our employment practices as inclusive and fair.
To help us retain disabled staff, we have put several practices into place. For example, we have a disability disclosure system with two different levels of disclosure. Our on-boarding process allow staff to make disclosures to Team People (our HR department) and then a meeting will be arranged to discuss adjustments we can put into place to support them. Regular follow-up meetings are scheduled in the future to discuss and evaluate the adjustments and make any desired changes. The member of staff decides whether their Line Manager is informed of their disability. These disclosures are explicitly welcomed at any stage of employment; because we understand that firstly, people’s disability status can change and, secondly, new staff may be afraid of being disadvantaged or treated differently. If that is the case, our hope is that they would disclose at a later stage, once they feel comfortable, thanks to our open and friendly working environment.
In addition, we have created bespoke EDI training materials that all staff complete as part of on-boarding. Topics include seen vs unseen disabilities, our disclosure process, and reasonable adjustments. We also developed specific materials for Line Manager training, detailing how to approach managing a disabled member of staff in terms of understanding, language, and behaviour. Our hope is that this training will contribute towards fostering a supporting and welcoming environment to all staff.
Finally, during our regular policy reviews, we have explicitly embedded extra flexibility and consideration for our disabled staff. For example, we have added in extra consideration for disabled staff in terms of punctuality in our Adverse Weather & Travel Disruption Policy, as disability might disproportionally affect a person’s ability to travel. Embedding inclusivity into company policy is enabled by our neuroinclusive Core Team (75% identify as neurodiverse) and is a key piece of best practice we have shared to our network via social media.
Reporting on Disability
According to our reporting form, 42.9% of respondents consider themselves to have a disability or long-term health condition, which is higher than the national percentage of disabled working age people (around 20%). We are proud to have several disabled members of our team despite the small size of our organisation. We hope that the practices we have put into place over the past few months will continue to encourage disabled people to apply for our roles going forward. Harker is committed to creating an equitable working environment that welcomes and embraces a diverse team.
You can find our EDI pledge here.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
How we support staff with their mental health and wellbeing
Harker, since it was founded, has always adopted a flexible, hybrid, and asynchronous working model. This allows all staff to work where they want, when they want, however they work best. We are very flexible with giving staff breaks to recharge. Providing they can meet any pre-agreed deadlines, staff are allowed to choose their working hours and environment.
There is no requirement or expectation for staff to request remote working or an early/late finish, so there is no mechanism for this. This working practice is particularly inclusive for disabled staff, as it allows them to attend medical appointments without requiring formal permission, manage their condition according to their needs, and adjust their work schedule without having to go through bureaucratic processes. Staff can structure their work in a way that best accommodates their health requirements while maintaining productivity.
All staff can book 1-to-1 meetings with their Line Manager to check-in and discuss their work. We have found that regularly touching base not only helps staff keep on track but also builds more open communication between Line Managers and their staff. We also build staff relationships through our regular programme of social events, helping to foster our casual and open company structure.
Our internal staff resource hub has a page that signposts staff to different mental health support services like Samaritans and Mind. In the future, we hope to offer staff a medical benefit pack which includes access to a 24/7 virtual GP, a dental plan, counselling sessions, and a fitness app which encourages staff to stay active with weekly company leaderboard of steps.
Reporting on mental health and wellbeing
For the most part, all seven of our respondents answered the questions surrounding mental health and wellbeing. Generally, the mental health of our staff is at a good standard. The average rating for the question ‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’ was 7.71/10. When asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’ the average rating was 8.14/10.
We saw a high degree of variance, but ultimately low scores, regarding staff happiness (average response 5.67/10 when asked ‘How happy did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 5.9 to 1 d.p. from 6 responses) and staff anxiety (average response 6.71/10 when asked ‘How anxious did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 4.5 to 1 d.p. from 7 responses). However, our staff’s overall view on their lives was positive, responding with an average rating of 8.14/10 when asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’. While employment is only one factor for a person’s mental health, we would like to think that Harker’s strong social mission to tackle homelessness helps staff feel like their work is valuable, as opposed to working at a typical corporation.
Staff are very satisfied with their job at Harker, responding with an average of 8/10 when asked ‘All in all, how satisfied are you with your job?’. 85.71% of respondents claimed they would recommend Harker as a great place to work, with the final respondent answering ‘Somewhat’.
Physical health among respondents seems to be good, as the question ‘How would you rate your overall physical health now?’ had an average rating of 7.43/10. Similarly, overall mental health is also good with an average rating of 7.14/10. These responses imply that while our staff’s mental health naturally varies a lot day-to-day, their overall mental and physical health is good, and working at Harker does not have a negative impact on their wellbeing.
100% of respondents indicated that they felt safe from threats and physical hazards at work, and are satisfied with their physical working environment. We are proud of this result as we work hard to ensure our office space is an accessible, clean, and comfortable place to work.
In terms of support, 100% of respondents believed that their Line Manager and colleagues supported them adequately at work. Again, we are very proud of this result as we put a significant effort into building and fostering a supportive working environment.
Notably, when looking at just the subset of respondents who identified as disabled and/or as having a long-term health condition, the responses are generally in line with, or slightly higher than the overall respondent average. This indicates that our disabled staff are not disproportionally affected by our workplace practices.
The results of our reporting form paint a diverse team with a good standard of mental and physical wellbeing. Overall, we are very proud of these results, and it highlights that our workplace adjustments and flexible management style leads to a happy, healthy team. We pledge to continuously review, evaluate, and update our practice whilst putting the wellbeing of our staff first, as we believe people work their best when they feel safe and happy.
The following is our 2024 Disability, Mental Health & Wellbeing report, following the Voluntary Reporting Framework from the UK Government. As a Disability Confident Leader, we pledge to report on disability, mental health and wellbeing in our organisation every year.
Data Collection
In January 2025, we released an anonymous online form to all our staff to collect data on disability, mental health and wellbeing. We gave staff one week to complete the form and we asked staff the same questions as the recommended ones in the Voluntary Reporting Framework.
At the point of survey, we had nine members of staff and received seven submissions (77% response rate). The form was optional, open for seven days and staff were reminded to complete it.
Due to the size of the organisation, we will only provide top-level statistics, the minimum required by the Voluntary Reporting Framework, to avoid compromising the anonymity of individuals who completed the survey. We have not reviewed individual submissions, only the aggregate statistics.
Disability
How we recruit and retain disabled staff members
Disabled people are a very underrepresented demographic in the technology industry. Despite 19% of the UK workforce having a disability, only 9% of IT specialists are disabled (BCS Insights Report, 2019).
We understand that applicants may research us prior to applying for a role with us, and we hope they would find our frequent social media posts regarding disability inclusion in the workplace, showcasing our inclusive practices and celebrating our EDI-related accreditations.
To support our recruitment efforts, our equality statement explicitly encourages applications from underrepresented demographics in the technology industry, such as women and disabled people. Harker has also implemented a Guaranteed Interview scheme across all job positions, meaning that disabled applicants will be offered an interview provided they meet the essential job criteria. In addition, we explicitly state that applicants do not have to disclose their disability to register for the scheme. In our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment process (October 2024), 17.9% of applicants opted-in for our Guaranteed Interview scheme, close to the national percentage of disabled working age people, and several of these applicants were invited for an interview who otherwise wouldn’t have been. 17.6% of applicants for our Social Media Placement role (March 2025) also opted-in for the scheme, showing consistent use.
Throughout our interview stages, we score applicants against several pre-defined themes, for example, technical ability and situational awareness might be two themes. Scoring is carried out by a panel of at least three staff members, and the average score is taken for each theme, to remove as much bias as possible. Points in these themes can be gained from any of the four components; namely, CV and/or supporting statement, interview, optional portfolio, and references. For example, if an applicant struggled with a question about programming, they could gain any lost points from a good example of that same programming aspect in a portfolio piece. Every theme has a maximum number of points which is attainable without submitting the optional component.
We believe this novel interview system has supported our recruitment efforts by allowing disabled applicants to engage in a more equitable recruitment process. For example, if an applicant had severe anxiety and struggled articulating their skillset in an interview, their portfolio of past projects could speak for itself. We proactively reach out to all interviewees via email to enquire about any reasonable adjustments they may need/want for their interview, with a link to a page on our website which explains reasonable adjustments and gives examples. Some applicants may have anxiety around reaching out to enquire about reasonable adjustments, so we have tackled this potential barrier. During our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment, staff noted that they felt the interview system gave them greater insight into candidate’s skills and a stronger holistic view of the entire process, which supports our goal of always hiring the best fit for the role, regardless of personal characteristics.
In addition, we are proud that all staff members are paid at least the Real Living Wage, and we are committed to preventing any wage gaps between different demographics as the company grows. Harker is also an accredited Living Hours Employer, following best practice on offering secure working hours for our part-time staff. Further, we are a Liverpool City Region Fair Employment Charter Accredited level organisation, and an RNIB Visibly Better Employer, which both validate our employment practices as inclusive and fair.
To help us retain disabled staff, we have put several practices into place. For example, we have a disability disclosure system with two different levels of disclosure. Our on-boarding process allow staff to make disclosures to Team People (our HR department) and then a meeting will be arranged to discuss adjustments we can put into place to support them. Regular follow-up meetings are scheduled in the future to discuss and evaluate the adjustments and make any desired changes. The member of staff decides whether their Line Manager is informed of their disability. These disclosures are explicitly welcomed at any stage of employment; because we understand that firstly, people’s disability status can change and, secondly, new staff may be afraid of being disadvantaged or treated differently. If that is the case, our hope is that they would disclose at a later stage, once they feel comfortable, thanks to our open and friendly working environment.
In addition, we have created bespoke EDI training materials that all staff complete as part of on-boarding. Topics include seen vs unseen disabilities, our disclosure process, and reasonable adjustments. We also developed specific materials for Line Manager training, detailing how to approach managing a disabled member of staff in terms of understanding, language, and behaviour. Our hope is that this training will contribute towards fostering a supporting and welcoming environment to all staff.
Finally, during our regular policy reviews, we have explicitly embedded extra flexibility and consideration for our disabled staff. For example, we have added in extra consideration for disabled staff in terms of punctuality in our Adverse Weather & Travel Disruption Policy, as disability might disproportionally affect a person’s ability to travel. Embedding inclusivity into company policy is enabled by our neuroinclusive Core Team (75% identify as neurodiverse) and is a key piece of best practice we have shared to our network via social media.
Reporting on Disability
According to our reporting form, 42.9% of respondents consider themselves to have a disability or long-term health condition, which is higher than the national percentage of disabled working age people (around 20%). We are proud to have several disabled members of our team despite the small size of our organisation. We hope that the practices we have put into place over the past few months will continue to encourage disabled people to apply for our roles going forward. Harker is committed to creating an equitable working environment that welcomes and embraces a diverse team.
You can find our EDI pledge here.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
How we support staff with their mental health and wellbeing
Harker, since it was founded, has always adopted a flexible, hybrid, and asynchronous working model. This allows all staff to work where they want, when they want, however they work best. We are very flexible with giving staff breaks to recharge. Providing they can meet any pre-agreed deadlines, staff are allowed to choose their working hours and environment.
There is no requirement or expectation for staff to request remote working or an early/late finish, so there is no mechanism for this. This working practice is particularly inclusive for disabled staff, as it allows them to attend medical appointments without requiring formal permission, manage their condition according to their needs, and adjust their work schedule without having to go through bureaucratic processes. Staff can structure their work in a way that best accommodates their health requirements while maintaining productivity.
All staff can book 1-to-1 meetings with their Line Manager to check-in and discuss their work. We have found that regularly touching base not only helps staff keep on track but also builds more open communication between Line Managers and their staff. We also build staff relationships through our regular programme of social events, helping to foster our casual and open company structure.
Our internal staff resource hub has a page that signposts staff to different mental health support services like Samaritans and Mind. In the future, we hope to offer staff a medical benefit pack which includes access to a 24/7 virtual GP, a dental plan, counselling sessions, and a fitness app which encourages staff to stay active with weekly company leaderboard of steps.
Reporting on mental health and wellbeing
For the most part, all seven of our respondents answered the questions surrounding mental health and wellbeing. Generally, the mental health of our staff is at a good standard. The average rating for the question ‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’ was 7.71/10. When asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’ the average rating was 8.14/10.
We saw a high degree of variance, but ultimately low scores, regarding staff happiness (average response 5.67/10 when asked ‘How happy did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 5.9 to 1 d.p. from 6 responses) and staff anxiety (average response 6.71/10 when asked ‘How anxious did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 4.5 to 1 d.p. from 7 responses). However, our staff’s overall view on their lives was positive, responding with an average rating of 8.14/10 when asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’. While employment is only one factor for a person’s mental health, we would like to think that Harker’s strong social mission to tackle homelessness helps staff feel like their work is valuable, as opposed to working at a typical corporation.
Staff are very satisfied with their job at Harker, responding with an average of 8/10 when asked ‘All in all, how satisfied are you with your job?’. 85.71% of respondents claimed they would recommend Harker as a great place to work, with the final respondent answering ‘Somewhat’.
Physical health among respondents seems to be good, as the question ‘How would you rate your overall physical health now?’ had an average rating of 7.43/10. Similarly, overall mental health is also good with an average rating of 7.14/10. These responses imply that while our staff’s mental health naturally varies a lot day-to-day, their overall mental and physical health is good, and working at Harker does not have a negative impact on their wellbeing.
100% of respondents indicated that they felt safe from threats and physical hazards at work, and are satisfied with their physical working environment. We are proud of this result as we work hard to ensure our office space is an accessible, clean, and comfortable place to work.
In terms of support, 100% of respondents believed that their Line Manager and colleagues supported them adequately at work. Again, we are very proud of this result as we put a significant effort into building and fostering a supportive working environment.
Notably, when looking at just the subset of respondents who identified as disabled and/or as having a long-term health condition, the responses are generally in line with, or slightly higher than the overall respondent average. This indicates that our disabled staff are not disproportionally affected by our workplace practices.
The results of our reporting form paint a diverse team with a good standard of mental and physical wellbeing. Overall, we are very proud of these results, and it highlights that our workplace adjustments and flexible management style leads to a happy, healthy team. We pledge to continuously review, evaluate, and update our practice whilst putting the wellbeing of our staff first, as we believe people work their best when they feel safe and happy.
The following is our 2024 Disability, Mental Health & Wellbeing report, following the Voluntary Reporting Framework from the UK Government. As a Disability Confident Leader, we pledge to report on disability, mental health and wellbeing in our organisation every year.
Data Collection
In January 2025, we released an anonymous online form to all our staff to collect data on disability, mental health and wellbeing. We gave staff one week to complete the form and we asked staff the same questions as the recommended ones in the Voluntary Reporting Framework.
At the point of survey, we had nine members of staff and received seven submissions (77% response rate). The form was optional, open for seven days and staff were reminded to complete it.
Due to the size of the organisation, we will only provide top-level statistics, the minimum required by the Voluntary Reporting Framework, to avoid compromising the anonymity of individuals who completed the survey. We have not reviewed individual submissions, only the aggregate statistics.
Disability
How we recruit and retain disabled staff members
Disabled people are a very underrepresented demographic in the technology industry. Despite 19% of the UK workforce having a disability, only 9% of IT specialists are disabled (BCS Insights Report, 2019).
We understand that applicants may research us prior to applying for a role with us, and we hope they would find our frequent social media posts regarding disability inclusion in the workplace, showcasing our inclusive practices and celebrating our EDI-related accreditations.
To support our recruitment efforts, our equality statement explicitly encourages applications from underrepresented demographics in the technology industry, such as women and disabled people. Harker has also implemented a Guaranteed Interview scheme across all job positions, meaning that disabled applicants will be offered an interview provided they meet the essential job criteria. In addition, we explicitly state that applicants do not have to disclose their disability to register for the scheme. In our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment process (October 2024), 17.9% of applicants opted-in for our Guaranteed Interview scheme, close to the national percentage of disabled working age people, and several of these applicants were invited for an interview who otherwise wouldn’t have been. 17.6% of applicants for our Social Media Placement role (March 2025) also opted-in for the scheme, showing consistent use.
Throughout our interview stages, we score applicants against several pre-defined themes, for example, technical ability and situational awareness might be two themes. Scoring is carried out by a panel of at least three staff members, and the average score is taken for each theme, to remove as much bias as possible. Points in these themes can be gained from any of the four components; namely, CV and/or supporting statement, interview, optional portfolio, and references. For example, if an applicant struggled with a question about programming, they could gain any lost points from a good example of that same programming aspect in a portfolio piece. Every theme has a maximum number of points which is attainable without submitting the optional component.
We believe this novel interview system has supported our recruitment efforts by allowing disabled applicants to engage in a more equitable recruitment process. For example, if an applicant had severe anxiety and struggled articulating their skillset in an interview, their portfolio of past projects could speak for itself. We proactively reach out to all interviewees via email to enquire about any reasonable adjustments they may need/want for their interview, with a link to a page on our website which explains reasonable adjustments and gives examples. Some applicants may have anxiety around reaching out to enquire about reasonable adjustments, so we have tackled this potential barrier. During our 2025 Year in Industry recruitment, staff noted that they felt the interview system gave them greater insight into candidate’s skills and a stronger holistic view of the entire process, which supports our goal of always hiring the best fit for the role, regardless of personal characteristics.
In addition, we are proud that all staff members are paid at least the Real Living Wage, and we are committed to preventing any wage gaps between different demographics as the company grows. Harker is also an accredited Living Hours Employer, following best practice on offering secure working hours for our part-time staff. Further, we are a Liverpool City Region Fair Employment Charter Accredited level organisation, and an RNIB Visibly Better Employer, which both validate our employment practices as inclusive and fair.
To help us retain disabled staff, we have put several practices into place. For example, we have a disability disclosure system with two different levels of disclosure. Our on-boarding process allow staff to make disclosures to Team People (our HR department) and then a meeting will be arranged to discuss adjustments we can put into place to support them. Regular follow-up meetings are scheduled in the future to discuss and evaluate the adjustments and make any desired changes. The member of staff decides whether their Line Manager is informed of their disability. These disclosures are explicitly welcomed at any stage of employment; because we understand that firstly, people’s disability status can change and, secondly, new staff may be afraid of being disadvantaged or treated differently. If that is the case, our hope is that they would disclose at a later stage, once they feel comfortable, thanks to our open and friendly working environment.
In addition, we have created bespoke EDI training materials that all staff complete as part of on-boarding. Topics include seen vs unseen disabilities, our disclosure process, and reasonable adjustments. We also developed specific materials for Line Manager training, detailing how to approach managing a disabled member of staff in terms of understanding, language, and behaviour. Our hope is that this training will contribute towards fostering a supporting and welcoming environment to all staff.
Finally, during our regular policy reviews, we have explicitly embedded extra flexibility and consideration for our disabled staff. For example, we have added in extra consideration for disabled staff in terms of punctuality in our Adverse Weather & Travel Disruption Policy, as disability might disproportionally affect a person’s ability to travel. Embedding inclusivity into company policy is enabled by our neuroinclusive Core Team (75% identify as neurodiverse) and is a key piece of best practice we have shared to our network via social media.
Reporting on Disability
According to our reporting form, 42.9% of respondents consider themselves to have a disability or long-term health condition, which is higher than the national percentage of disabled working age people (around 20%). We are proud to have several disabled members of our team despite the small size of our organisation. We hope that the practices we have put into place over the past few months will continue to encourage disabled people to apply for our roles going forward. Harker is committed to creating an equitable working environment that welcomes and embraces a diverse team.
You can find our EDI pledge here.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
How we support staff with their mental health and wellbeing
Harker, since it was founded, has always adopted a flexible, hybrid, and asynchronous working model. This allows all staff to work where they want, when they want, however they work best. We are very flexible with giving staff breaks to recharge. Providing they can meet any pre-agreed deadlines, staff are allowed to choose their working hours and environment.
There is no requirement or expectation for staff to request remote working or an early/late finish, so there is no mechanism for this. This working practice is particularly inclusive for disabled staff, as it allows them to attend medical appointments without requiring formal permission, manage their condition according to their needs, and adjust their work schedule without having to go through bureaucratic processes. Staff can structure their work in a way that best accommodates their health requirements while maintaining productivity.
All staff can book 1-to-1 meetings with their Line Manager to check-in and discuss their work. We have found that regularly touching base not only helps staff keep on track but also builds more open communication between Line Managers and their staff. We also build staff relationships through our regular programme of social events, helping to foster our casual and open company structure.
Our internal staff resource hub has a page that signposts staff to different mental health support services like Samaritans and Mind. In the future, we hope to offer staff a medical benefit pack which includes access to a 24/7 virtual GP, a dental plan, counselling sessions, and a fitness app which encourages staff to stay active with weekly company leaderboard of steps.
Reporting on mental health and wellbeing
For the most part, all seven of our respondents answered the questions surrounding mental health and wellbeing. Generally, the mental health of our staff is at a good standard. The average rating for the question ‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’ was 7.71/10. When asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’ the average rating was 8.14/10.
We saw a high degree of variance, but ultimately low scores, regarding staff happiness (average response 5.67/10 when asked ‘How happy did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 5.9 to 1 d.p. from 6 responses) and staff anxiety (average response 6.71/10 when asked ‘How anxious did you feel yesterday?’, variance of 4.5 to 1 d.p. from 7 responses). However, our staff’s overall view on their lives was positive, responding with an average rating of 8.14/10 when asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?’. While employment is only one factor for a person’s mental health, we would like to think that Harker’s strong social mission to tackle homelessness helps staff feel like their work is valuable, as opposed to working at a typical corporation.
Staff are very satisfied with their job at Harker, responding with an average of 8/10 when asked ‘All in all, how satisfied are you with your job?’. 85.71% of respondents claimed they would recommend Harker as a great place to work, with the final respondent answering ‘Somewhat’.
Physical health among respondents seems to be good, as the question ‘How would you rate your overall physical health now?’ had an average rating of 7.43/10. Similarly, overall mental health is also good with an average rating of 7.14/10. These responses imply that while our staff’s mental health naturally varies a lot day-to-day, their overall mental and physical health is good, and working at Harker does not have a negative impact on their wellbeing.
100% of respondents indicated that they felt safe from threats and physical hazards at work, and are satisfied with their physical working environment. We are proud of this result as we work hard to ensure our office space is an accessible, clean, and comfortable place to work.
In terms of support, 100% of respondents believed that their Line Manager and colleagues supported them adequately at work. Again, we are very proud of this result as we put a significant effort into building and fostering a supportive working environment.
Notably, when looking at just the subset of respondents who identified as disabled and/or as having a long-term health condition, the responses are generally in line with, or slightly higher than the overall respondent average. This indicates that our disabled staff are not disproportionally affected by our workplace practices.
The results of our reporting form paint a diverse team with a good standard of mental and physical wellbeing. Overall, we are very proud of these results, and it highlights that our workplace adjustments and flexible management style leads to a happy, healthy team. We pledge to continuously review, evaluate, and update our practice whilst putting the wellbeing of our staff first, as we believe people work their best when they feel safe and happy.