At YHA, building an inclusive culture isn’t just a goal, it’s part of who we are. As a charity with little funds available towards EDI , our small specialist team has found creative, meaningful ways to drive change, break down barriers, and build a more inclusive workplace for all.

Our vision is to embed equity, access, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do, ensuring “all means all.” It shapes how we recruit, train, and support our people. Even with limited resources, we’ve achieved real progress. 93% of employees have shared their EDI data, helping us make smarter, more focused decisions.

We’ve grown applications from ethnically diverse candidates from just 6% in 2021 to 46% in 2024, well beyond our 35% target. Applications from disabled candidates have reached 6%, aligning with national benchmarks. Today, 21.66% of our workforce are from ethnic backgrounds, and 6.48% identify as having a disability. Of those, 76% and 73% respectively say they’re proud to work at YHA, powerful signs of an inclusive culture taking root.

With no formal EDI funding, we’ve developed our own resources: bitesize EDI training for all staff, an EDI Intranet page, and a Recognition & Awareness Calendar to mark key cultural dates. All managers have completed Inclusive Leadership training, and cascade learning through team talks.

We earned an Autism Friendly Award at a flagship hostel and are sharing these learnings across our network. We take part in RACE reporting and continue to build transparency through employee surveys, onboarding, and exit interviews.

We’re now setting up EDI staff networks to bring lived experience into decision-making, and we’re embedding equality impact assessments to ensure inclusion is built into every step we take.
We’re a small team with a big mission, and despite the barriers, we’re proud of the culture we’re creating, and the impact we’re having.