Bristol Pride is a registered charity that works all year round to challenge homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia and promote equality and diversity, for all, through various events, school visits, consultation services and lobbying.
The COVID-19 pandemic was difficult for the organisation and its staff, with sources of income, such as the main two-week pride event in July, unable to take place in person and having to pivot their normal activities to continue their work. Alongside this, the charity recognised that its workforce was under-resourced and still finding their feet at working together efficiently and becoming sustainable and resilient long term.
Eve Russell, Festival Director, explained, “We’d grown so much as an organisation, but our workforce still needed more resources and, whilst we are putting on this amazing community event for everyone, it was important to us that our workforce, the people behind the scenes, enjoyed their jobs, felt supported and invested in. We wanted to try and build a resilient workforce through the pandemic and beyond. We were lucky enough to receive funding from the Arts Council during COVID-19 and this enabled us to keep our current workforce as well as bring a couple more team members on board. Around the same time, we got involved with the Workforce for the Future Programme which has really helped us with staff training, business advice and HR support.”
Working with Julia Gurr, a Business Skills Advisor at Business West, the organisation was given lots of information about free and low-cost courses that could help with their staff’s development, including leadership and management training, mental health first aid courses and project management workshops.
Eve continued, “A lot of our staff have taken part in training courses. For example, our Marketing Manager attended some marketing-related workshops and others have completed project management training – every time we’ve had options sent through from Julia, we’ve shared with our team and encouraged them to take part and take time to build on their own skills. It has built their confidence and I think it helps them to feel valued by knowing that we’re investing in them by allowing them to build their skills during work time.”
With new recruits added to the team, the charity had a variety of HR tasks to be completed, as well as being faced with staff challenges, they had not had to deal with previously.
“We were put in touch with one of the HR Advisors, Eithne, who has been brilliant and given us 1-2-1 support.” recalls Eve. “She has provided help with our handbooks and contracts, as well as advice on how to deal with certain situations and setting up processes and policies from the beginning of people joining the team, which has been great to have. My co-director and I have also attended a lot of the free HR training workshops which have been really useful – it’s good to get that support, but also to know that you are on the right path with things you are doing. I feel a lot more confident dealing with HR issues now.”
Eve continues, “It’s been great to have been put in touch with the right people for the right support that our organisation needed. I don’t know if we would have had the financial resources to cover some of the support we’ve had otherwise, but receiving it as part of the programme has helped us make some significant changes to how we do things and feel confident in what we are doing as a charity. I’d definitely recommend the Workforce for the Future programme to other businesses and organisations.”
Find out more about Bristol Pride.
Business West is delivering Workforce for the Future on behalf of the West of England Combined Authority in collaboration with other regional partners.
Workforce for the Future provides fully funded tailored, in-depth support for SMEs across the West of England to help ensure they have the access to the training and support that they need to thrive. Businesses will receive support from our expert partners to ensure they can identify ongoing skills needs, attract and retain talented people, access the right training and development, and invest in their current and future workforce.
For more information on Workforce for the Future, please visit the West of England Growth Hub. The Growth Hub is the West of England Combined Authority’s dedicated business support service which offers free, one-to-one advice and guidance for SMEs.
Workforce for the Future is an £8m programme – co-funded by the West of England Combined Authority and the European Social Fund (ESF). The programme has received £4m of funding from the ESF as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.
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