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Royal Mail: Colleagues Who Thrive from Diverse Backgrounds

Category: Returnships (Returning to work)

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Royal Mail’s Thrive campaign promotes awareness regarding the diverse mix of individuals that the organisation have and also commemorates the success of their colleagues coming from varied backgrounds.  

Over a period of twelve months, Royal Mail will be highlighting individuals from each of their diversity work streams, including BAME, gender, LGBT, disability and youth, parents and carers. They will be drawing especially on how individuals from different backgrounds are flourishing at their organisation 

Julie Neil, Engineering Team Coach at Tyneside Mail Centre 

At the age of 17, Julie joined the Royal Air Force and left her role as an aircraft technician to start a family after 7 years. When her son was 6 and daughter 3, she joined Royal Mail and spent the first fourteen years working as part of a small team at Darlington mail centre. She gained experience of the automated sorting equipment. She applied for the position of an engineering team coach at Tyneside when the mail centre was closing.  

Julie was still working with the automated equipment when she was assigned the shift lead for 3 other engineers. She had the responsibility of looking after the performance and maintenance of the machines on late shift. Since the machines were very different from the ones at Darlington, she had to quickly gain the experience and knowledge.  

Julie was seconded to a project team after 3 years at Tyneside where she had to assist with the testing and deployment of updated systems on the flat sorting machine. She said that this has been a challenging part of her career. She travels to different mail centres throughout the country with the project, coordinates with managers, makes sure that there is minimum disruption during testing and also works with contractors to make sure that the job is carried out to the highest standards. She also has the responsibility of coaching operators and managers during the test phase to make sure that the results are accurate.  

Julie said that Royal Mail has always supported her and if she ever had any issues, required a shift change or needed time off, the company has always been supportive. She said that she enjoys working here because her work gives her new challenges to overcome every day.  

Eric Ashiagbor, Plant Manager at Romford Mail Centre 

Eric has been a part of Royal Mail’s North London, Doncaster, Mount Pleasant and East London mail centres since he joined in December 1995. He moved to the role of plant manager at Romford mail centre after working in Operations strategy for ten years.  

Outside of his profession, he takes an active part in mentoring young people from ethnic minority backgrounds and helping them overcome challenges to reach their full potential. He unofficially took up counseling from an early age and enjoyed seeing people who are from deprived backgrounds thrive. He believes that it is important to make the youth from diverse backgrounds aware that they have what it takes to become high achievers wherever they may find themselves, as long as they remain committed and disciplined.  

To date, he has helped over sixty young individuals better their lives. Currently, he is reaching out to over thirty youths and looks forward to continuing his community work. 

Eric says that he has made an attempt to serve as a role model to provide kids belonging to ethnic minority the hope and motivation required to work hard in becoming the best versions of themselves. He said that working as a plant manager has specifically helped him in reinforcing his message. 

Are you interested in a career with Royal Mail? Please click here. 

Vercida works with over one hundred clients who are committed to creating an inclusive work environment. If you are an employer and interested in working with Vercida to promote your diversity and inclusion initiatives and attract the best candidates, please call 02037405973 or email [email protected] for more information. 

We are also officially recommended by Disability Confident as a step on achieving Employer status, please click here for more information. 

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VERCIDA works with over one hundred clients who are committed to creating an inclusive work environment. If you are an employer and interested in working with VERCIDA to promote your diversity and inclusion initiatives and attract the best candidates, please email [email protected] for more information.

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