This month, Golden Lane Housing (GLH) is marking 25 years since it began providing housing for people with learning disabilities and autistic people. To celebrate this landmark anniversary, members of the GLH Executive Team will be sharing blogs highlighting GLH’s achievements.

Adele Currie, Director of People and Culture, reflects on her GLH career and looks forward to the future.

Spending the last (almost) 9 years with GLH has been a pleasure and an amazing learning experience. I remember travelling across from Sunderland to Manchester for my interview and having the most wonderful welcome from our colleague, Gauri Dhawan on reception. She put my nerves at ease and chatted to me until I was called for my interview. I made a point of thanking Alastair, the Managing Director of GLH at the time, for the opportunity to meet him and to apply for the role. I told him that no matter the outcome, my experience in coming along for an interview had been wonderful because of the lovely welcome I received and how I was treated. I have tried to continue that focus on colleague experience which is so important even before a job offer. I knew by the atmosphere in our former office at Westpoint that this was a place I could be myself, and I was right.

My induction involved meeting lots of teams and managers, and the excitement and pride shown for the commitment to our tenants was full of passion and genuine care for the tenant experience. As my career and opportunities have progressed, that passion and commitment to our tenants and the excitement and pride for our tenants has never reduced. The creativity and commitment to giving the best for tenants has grown as we have.

Creating the People and Culture team, and giving all colleagues at GLH the dedicated support for all areas of their experience with us, from recruitment to learning and development, from payroll to coaching – it has been a joy to be part of a transformation into an independent housing association with the dedication to people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

We have an exciting future ahead. The investment into our people through the MGI training, and our focus on creating efficiencies with tasks with lean processes and utilising IT solutions is transforming how we work. This gives us the time we want to spend on quality work either with our tenants or with the directorate specific tasks, knowing we are offering an excellent service both internally and externally. Our vision is to be the housing employer of choice, and we are well on our way with the offer and experience we give to our colleagues.